The Germanic north,was a region of dense, impenetrable woodlands, swamps, thick soil, filled with huge, pale wild men and women who very much alarmed the Romans. We know that the Celts made themselves known around 300 BCE or before, but our Germanic tribes are relatively late comers in history. In that I mean written history. It is believed that the German tribes were first centered around Denmark, southern Scandinavia, north German river valleys then moved out along the Baltic. This was basically outside of the orbit of Roman contact for some time. This was Tolkien land. This is where the Lord of the Rings comes from.
People who become interested in Tolkien's writings for the first time are amazed to find that the figures in Lord of the Rings did not come from his just imagination but both his imagination and a reconfiguring of Germanic traditional creation lore. The Lord of the Rings reads as a prehistory of the world as the world would have it's prehistory if Pleistocene, Cenozoic, Paleozoic extinctions weren't the facts. But if prehistory were in fact base on Germanic prehistory
Both Tolkien and C.S. Lewis are masters at these traditions. So it is elves, trolls, giants, dragons, orcs etc. that had already inhabited the world before Lord of the Rings. Now the Hobbit is an entirely different story, not sure where Tolkien thought them up maybe nice rural English folk...we may never know.
The Germanic tribes were a loosely based confederacy, not unlike the North American plains Indians of the 19th century. A leader was suppose to provide gold for his retainers. The Germans worked very fine gold for this purpose, pieces found in archaeological sites are very finely worked. Of particular finery are the rings.
When one speaks of rings immediately one thinks of finger rings and while they had those these are not the rings that were so much valued. Even Tolkien was indeed probably referring to an arm ring. A torc made of gold and worn on the bicep. This was meant the wearer bore undying loyalty to his/her chief or king. It meant that if your leader died on the battle field you belonged dead along side him. Honor and loyalty. Of course societies based on loose tribal, honor, loyalty and retainer type society were very unstable, a notion that did not escape the Romans.
Let's get back to the ring thing because this is where the National Football League enters into Germanic lore. If you notice that particularly the linebackers have a torc like tattoo around their biceps in the exact same spot as our Germanic warriors, isn't that rather amazing? Anthony Bourdain that sexy New York chef who does the "No Reservations" show on the Travel Channel also has the same tattoo. Is it a coincidence or are our NFL warriors( and NY chefs,(I mean warriors have to eat too)know they are following ancient Germanic traditions straight out of Yggdrasil and LOTR? Ah probably not.... but isn' that an awesome thought?
