Hell and Middle-earth

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Medieval Christian cosmology: heaven above, earth in the middle, hell below. Vank Cathedral, Isfahan Vank Cathedral, Isfahan - Heaven, Earth, Hell.jpg
Medieval Christian cosmology: heaven above, earth in the middle, hell below. Vank Cathedral, Isfahan

Scholars have seen multiple resemblances between the medieval Christian conception of hell and evil places in J. R. R. Tolkien's fictional world of Middle-earth. These include the industrial hells of Saruman's Isengard with its underground furnaces and labouring Orcs; the dark tunnels of Moria; Sauron's evil land of Mordor; and Morgoth's subterranean fortress of Angband. The gates to some of these realms, like the guarded West Door of Moria, and the Black Gate to Mordor, too, carry echoes of the gates of hell.

Contents

Some of the journeys down into the dark places of Middle-earth, too, have been likened to the katabasis of Ancient Greece, a descent into the underworld, as when Lúthien and Beren descend into Angband, or when Lúthien goes to the Halls of Mandos to plead with him to allow Beren to return to life, paralleling the classical Greek legend of Orpheus and Eurydice. These journeys into hellish places may also recall the medieval theme of the Harrowing of Hell, a story in which Christ descends into hell after his crucifixion, and sets the Devil's captives free with the power of his divine light. The Devil is paralleled by both of Middle-earth's dark lords, Morgoth and Sauron; Sauron is in turn supported by a range of demonic figures, including the Nazgûl who appear like the Devil as black riders on black horses, the fiery-eyed Balrogs, and the Orcs with their devilish habits and appearance.

Context

In medieval Christian cosmology, middle-earth was the realm of men. It was at the centre of three worlds, with heaven above, hell below. [1]

J. R. R. Tolkien was a devout Roman Catholic. He described The Lord of the Rings as rich in Christian symbolism. [T 1] Many theological themes underlie the narrative, including the battle of good versus evil, the triumph of humility over pride, and the activity of grace. [T 2] The Bible and traditional Christian narrative also influenced The Silmarillion ; in particular, the fall of man influenced the Ainulindalë, the fighting amongst the Elves, and the fall of Númenor. [T 3]

Hellish places

Several places in Tolkien's Middle-earth have been described as being or resembling various kinds of hell. In The Silmarillion , the dark lord Morgoth's underground fastness of Angband in the First Age is an instance. In The Lord of the Rings , the land of Morgoth's successor Sauron, the realm of Mordor with its volcano, Mount Doom, and Sauron's Dark Tower of Barad-Dûr, is another. The dark and dangerous tunnels of Moria form another, as does the enclosed circle of Isengard, centred on the tower of Orthanc, with its underground fires and furnaces, home to Orcs under the control of the traitorous Wizard Saruman. [2]

Industrial hells

The scholar of English literature Charles A. Huttar describes Isengard as an "industrial hell". [2] He quotes Tolkien's description of Isengard, supplying his own emphasis on Tolkien's words: "tunneled .. circle .. dark .. deep .. graveyard of unquiet dead .. the ground trembled .. treasuries .. furnaces .. iron wheels .. endlessly .. lit from beneath .. venomous." [T 4] [2] Huttar comments: "The imagery is familiar, its connotations plain. This is yet another hell [after Moria and Mordor]." [2] All the same, he writes, the tower of Orthanc cannot but be admired, with its "marvellous shape" and wonderful, ancient strength; he supposes that for Tolkien, technology could neither be "wholeheartedly embraced nor utterly rejected". [2]

Shippey, discussing Saruman's character, notes several facts about him: Treebeard's comment that "He has a mind of metal and wheels"; that Isengard means "Irontown" in Old English; that the Ents, tree-giants, are attacked in Isengard with "a kind of napalm [or] perhaps ... [given] Tolkien's own experience, a Flammenwerfer". [3] Shippey concludes that Saruman had been led into "wanton pollution ... by something corrupting in the love of machines", [3] which he connects to "Tolkien's own childhood image of industrial ugliness ... Sarehole Mill, with its literally bone-grinding owner". [3]

David D. Oberhelman, writing in the J.R.R. Tolkien Encyclopedia , states, following Anne C. Petty, that there are multiple "industrial 'hells' in Tolkien's work, such as Saruman's blighted, machine-ridden Isengard". [4] [5] He notes that its prototype was the fallen Vala Morgoth's subterranean fortress, Angband, whose name meant "Iron Prison" or "Hell of Iron". [4]

Gates of hell

Gateway to Hell: the Fellowship's passage through the West-gate of Moria has been compared to Odysseus's passage between the devouring Scylla and the whirlpool Charybdis. Painting by Ary Renan, 1894 Charybde et Scylla.jpg
Gateway to Hell: the Fellowship's passage through the West-gate of Moria has been compared to Odysseus's passage between the devouring Scylla and the whirlpool Charybdis. Painting by Ary Renan, 1894

Charles A. Huttar compares the travellers' approach to the dark tunnels of Moria under the Misty Mountains to Odysseus's passage between the devouring Scylla and the whirlpool Charybdis. Huttar likens the "clashing gate" that crashes shut behind the travellers as they enter Moria to the Wandering Rocks that in Greek mythology lie near the opening of the Greek underworld. That realm, also called Hades, the name of its ruler, is where the Greeks thought people went after death, never to return. The gigantic tentacled Watcher in the Water, a monster who guards the gate to the underground realm, parallels the mythical Scylla who attacked Greek mariners. [6]

The gate to Mordor at the Morannon is named the "Black Gate". Tom Shippey writes that the Catholic Tolkien comes very close to allegory and writing about Christian revelation in moments of what Tolkien called "eucatastrophe". When the One Ring is destroyed and Sauron is overthrown for ever, a great eagle comes as messenger to report the glad news. The eagle sings a song that, Shippey notes, sounds very much like Psalms 24 and 33 in the Bible, complete with Authorised Version words like "ye" and "hath". When the eagle sings "and the Black Gate is broken", Shippey writes, the surface meaning is the Gate of the Morannon, but it could "very easily apply to Death and Hell", as in Matthew 16:18. In his view, this degree of double meaning was "deliberate", as the date was 25 March, for the Anglo-Saxons the date of Christ's Crucifixion, and the Annunciation, and the last day of Creation. [7]

From the Eagle's psalm-like [7] song

Sing and rejoice, ye people of the Tower of Guard,
for your watch hath not been in vain,
and the Black Gate is broken,
and your King hath passed through,
and he is victorious.

"The Steward and the King" [T 5]

The other entrance to Mordor, the dangerous pass of Cirith Ungol, is guarded by the giant spider Shelob. Jane Chance likens Shelob to the guardian of the gateway to Hell in John Milton's Paradise Lost . [8] George H. Thomson similarly compares Shelob to Milton's Sin and Death, noting that they "serve neither God nor Satan but look solely to their own interests", as Shelob does; she is "the Death and Chaos that would overcome all". [9]

Hellish journeys

Katabasis

Scholars have likened some of the journeys down into dark places to the katabasis of Ancient Greece, a descent into the underworld, followed by a return to the light. Peter Astrup Sundt draws parallels between Beren and Orpheus, or rather between both Beren and Lúthien and the classical character, as it is Lúthien not Beren who has magical powers, and far from playing a passive Eurydice to be rescued, or not, from the underworld, she is the one who goes to sing for Mandos, the Vala who watches over the souls of the dead. [10] Tolkien indeed called the story "a kind of Orpheus-legend in reverse", [T 6] following the Middle English poem Sir Orfeo . [11] Ben Eldon Stevens adds that Tolkien's retelling contrasts sharply with the myth. Where Orpheus nearly manages to retrieve Eurydice from Hades, the Hell or underworld of classical mythology, Lúthien rescues Beren three times – from Sauron's fortress-prison of Tol-in-Gaurhoth, involving singing; from Morgoth's Angband, with the Silmaril; and by getting Mandos to restore both of them to life. In the original myth, Eurydice meets "a second death", soon followed by the griefstruck Orpheus, whereas Tolkien has Lúthien and Beren enjoy "a second life" after their "resurrection". [12] [T 6]

Harrowing of Hell

The Harrowing of Hell, Petites Heures
, 14th-century illuminated manuscript for John, Duke of Berry Harrowhell.jpg
The Harrowing of Hell , Petites Heures , 14th-century illuminated manuscript for John, Duke of Berry

In multiple places in The Silmarillion and The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien echoes and in Robert Steed's words "creatively adapts" the medieval theme of the Harrowing of Hell. [13] [11] The medieval tale holds that Christ spent the time between his crucifixion and resurrection down in Hell, setting the Devil's captives free with the irresistible power of his divine light. The motif, Steed suggests, involves multiple elements: 1) someone imprisoned in darkness 2) a powerful and evil jailor 3) a still more powerful liberator 4) who brings light, and 5) sets the captives free. Steed describes the tale "Of Beren and Lúthien" as an instance, where Lúthien sets Beren free from Sauron's imprisonment. Beren is freed from darkness, Lúthien from despair, so, Steed remarks, both of them take on aspects of Christ: [13]

But Beren coming back to light out of the pit of despair lifted her up, and they looked again upon one another; and the day rising over dark hills shone upon them." [T 7]

Steed suggests that Tom Bombadil's rescuing of the Hobbits from the dark spells of the undead Barrow-wight in The Lord of the Rings [T 8] is another "less immediately obvious" instance of the Harrowing of Hell motif. As Bombadil breaks the spell, he sings "Get out, you old Wight! Vanish in the sunlight!", making him the light-bringing Christ-figure in this case. [13] [T 8]

Steed offers two further examples of the medieval motif, commenting that they are rather more thoroughly camouflaged. The first is the Wizard Gandalf's freeing of King Théoden of Rohan from the dark insinuations of the traitorous Wormtongue, who has become a servant of the evil Wizard Saruman. In Steed's words "After rebuking Wormtongue, Gandalf raises his staff, at which point thunder rolls and the hall falls into darkness, except for the shining figure of Gandalf himself." [T 9] [13] Steed observes that Théoden was not actually dead, nor actually imprisoned; he was still King, but shut away in the darkness of despair, "reinforced by Wormtongue's crafty counsel". [13]

The final instance is Sam Gamgee's complex liberation of Frodo, involving the devious imprisonment brought about by the monster Gollum, who, pretending to be helpful, leads them to Shelob's dark lair. Shelob stings Frodo, and ties him with her spider-silk. Sam fights off Shelob, and cuts down Frodo's body, thinking him dead, only for a party of Orcs to carry Frodo's body off to the tower of Cirith Ungol, joking darkly amongst themselves that he is still alive. Sam breaks into the tower and rescues Frodo. [T 10] Steed comments that he uses light, in the form of the Phial of Galadriel, in the liberation, both when fighting Shelob and when breaking through the guard of the silent Watchers of the tower's gate. Frodo had not actually been dead, but he looked it, and death was undoubtedly close. Steed comments that Sam was an "odd" fit for the pattern of the Christ-like irresistible force, but in the narrative he indeed plays the part of the "light-bearing liberator at the center of the Harrowing of Hell motif". [13]

Robert Steed's analysis of Middle-earth parallels of the Harrowing of Hell [13]
Agent of lightSubjects freedJailorsMethodAs narrated in
Christ Human captives in Hell The Devil Power of Divine light Medieval Christianity
Lúthien Beren Sauron Elvish power The Silmarillion
Tom Bombadil Frodo's party of Hobbits Barrow-wight Power of singing The Lord of the Rings
Gandalf King Théoden of Rohan Wormtongue's insidious control Wizard's power The Lord of the Rings
Sam Gamgee Frodo Shelob, Orcs of Cirith Ungol Elvish light of Phial of Galadriel The Lord of the Rings

The Devil

One of Tolkien's names for Sauron is the "lidless eye", denoting the "destructive power of the Devil". Flag of Mordor SVG.svg
One of Tolkien's names for Sauron is the "lidless eye", denoting the "destructive power of the Devil".

Scholars have likened both Melkor and Sauron to the Devil; [14] [15] [16] Jaume Poveda notes that both the dark lords torture their victims, as the Devil is said to do to those in hell. He adds that Tolkien represents the Devil in The Lord of the Rings both as the "lidless eye", and as an embodied character. In Poveda's view, the lidless eye "corresponds to a learned formulation, [which] emphasizes the destructive power of the Devil", [14] whereas the embodied figure corresponds to a popular understanding, someone "less frightening, more stupid and easily deceived." [14] He notes, too, that Sauron has armies formed of Black Riders, fiery-eyed Balrogs, and Orcs, just as the Devil of the Bible leads "legions" of demons, and that one of the Devil's "traditional embodiments" is as a rider dressed in black on a black horse. [14] In keeping with having Sauron as the Devil, Saruman fits the pattern, Poveda writes, of "the man who sells his soul to the Devil in exchange for earthly power and wealth". [14] He notes, too. that the Old English word orc carried the meaning "devil", [14] [17] and that Tolkien depicts the Orcs as "creatures that are possessed by the devil. They worship him. Their bodies have been deformed from torture and suffering. Like traditional representations of the Devil, the orc's complexion is dark and his eyes are as live coal." [14]

Related Research Articles

Shelob is a fictional monster in the form of a giant spider from J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. Her lair lies in Cirith Ungol leading into Mordor. The creature Gollum deliberately leads the Hobbit protagonist Frodo there in hopes of recovering the One Ring by letting Shelob attack Frodo. The plan is foiled when Samwise Gamgee temporarily blinds Shelob with the Phial of Galadriel, and then severely wounds her with Frodo's Elvish sword, Sting.

<i>The Two Towers</i> 1954 part of novel by J. R. R. Tolkien

The Two Towers is the second volume of J. R. R. Tolkien's high fantasy novel The Lord of the Rings. It is preceded by The Fellowship of the Ring and followed by The Return of the King. The volume's title is ambiguous, as five towers are named in the narrative, and Tolkien himself gave conflicting identifications of the two towers. The narrative is interlaced, allowing Tolkien to build in suspense and surprise. The volume was largely welcomed by critics, who found it exciting and compelling, combining epic narrative with heroic romance.

Lúthien and Beren are characters in J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy world Middle-earth. Lúthien is an elf, daughter of the elf-king Thingol and goddess-like Melian. Beren is a mortal man. The complex tale of their love for each other and the quest they are forced to embark upon is a story of triumph against overwhelming odds but ending in tragedy. It appears in The Silmarillion, the epic poem The Lay of Leithian, the Grey Annals section of The War of the Jewels, and in the texts collected in the 2017 book Beren and Lúthien. Their story is told to Frodo by Aragorn in The Lord of the Rings.

In J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy writings, Isengard is a large fortress in Nan Curunír, the Wizard's Vale, in the western part of Middle-earth. In the fantasy world, the name of the fortress is described as a translation of Angrenost, a word in Tolkien's elvish language, Sindarin, a compound of two Old English words: īsen and ġeard, meaning "enclosure of iron".

In J. R. R. Tolkien's epic fantasy novel The Lord of the Rings, the Battle of the Morannon or the Battle of the Black Gate is the final confrontation in the War of the Ring. Gondor and its allies send a small army ostensibly to challenge Sauron at the entrance to his land of Mordor; he supposes that they have with them the One Ring and mean to use it to defeat him. In fact, the Ring is being carried by the hobbits Frodo Baggins and Sam Gamgee into Mordor to destroy it in Mount Doom, and the army is moving to distract Sauron from them. Before the battle, a nameless leader, the "Mouth of Sauron", taunts the leaders of the army with the personal effects of Frodo and Sam. Battle is joined, but just as it seems the army of Gondor will be overwhelmed, the Ring is destroyed, and the forces of Sauron lose heart. Mount Doom erupts, and Sauron's tower, Barad-dûr, collapses, along with the Black Gate. The army of Gondor returns home victorious, the War of the Ring won.

The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to the real-world history and notable fictional elements of J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy universe. It covers materials created by Tolkien; the works on his unpublished manuscripts, by his son Christopher Tolkien; and films, games and other media created by other people.

The fictional races and peoples that appear in J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy world of Middle-earth include the seven listed in Appendix F of The Lord of the Rings: Elves, Men, Dwarves, Hobbits, Ents, Orcs and Trolls, as well as spirits such as the Valar and Maiar. Other beings of Middle-earth are of unclear nature such as Tom Bombadil and his wife Goldberry.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Saruman</span> Fictional character created by J. R. R. Tolkien

Saruman, also called Saruman the White, later Saruman of Many Colours, is a fictional character in J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy novel The Lord of the Rings. He is the leader of the Istari, wizards sent to Middle-earth in human form by the godlike Valar to challenge Sauron, the main antagonist of the novel. He comes to desire Sauron's power for himself, so he betrays the Istari and tries to take over Middle-earth by force from his base at Isengard. His schemes feature prominently in the second volume, The Two Towers; he appears briefly at the end of the third volume, The Return of the King. His earlier history is summarised in the posthumously published The Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales.

Gimli is a fictional character in J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth, appearing in The Lord of the Rings. A dwarf warrior, he is the son of Glóin, a member of Thorin's company in Tolkien's earlier book The Hobbit. He represents the race of Dwarves as a member of the Fellowship of the Ring. As such, he is one of the primary characters in the story. In the course of the adventure, Gimli aids the Ring-bearer Frodo Baggins, participates in the War of the Ring, and becomes close friends with Legolas, overcoming an ancient enmity of Dwarves and Elves.

Isildur is a fictional character in J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth, the elder son of Elendil, descended from Elros, the founder of the island Kingdom of Númenor. He fled with his father when the island was drowned, becoming in his turn King of Arnor and Gondor. He cut the Ring from Sauron's hand, but instead of destroying it, was corrupted by its power and claimed it for his own. He was killed by orcs, and the Ring was lost in the River Anduin. This set the stage for the Ring to pass to Gollum and then to Bilbo, as told in The Hobbit; that in turn provided the central theme, the quest to destroy the Ring, for The Lord of the Rings.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mordor</span> Evil land in J. R. R. Tolkiens Middle-earth legendarium

In J. R. R. Tolkien's fictional world of Middle-earth, Mordor is the realm and base of the evil Sauron. It lay to the east of Gondor and the great river Anduin, and to the south of Mirkwood. Mount Doom, a volcano in Mordor, was the goal of the Fellowship of the Ring in the quest to destroy the One Ring. Mordor was surrounded by three mountain ranges, to the north, the west, and the south. These both protected the land from invasion and kept those living in Mordor from escaping.

Morgoth Bauglir is a character, one of the godlike Valar and the primary antagonist of Tolkien's legendarium, the mythic epic published in parts as The Silmarillion, The Children of Húrin, Beren and Lúthien, and The Fall of Gondolin.

In the fictional world of J. R. R. Tolkien, Moria, also named Khazad-dûm, is an ancient subterranean complex in Middle-earth, comprising a vast labyrinthine network of tunnels, chambers, mines and halls under the Misty Mountains, with doors on both the western and the eastern sides of the mountain range. Moria is introduced in Tolkien's novel The Hobbit, and is a major scene of action in The Lord of the Rings.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sauron</span> Primary antagonist in Tolkiens The Lord of the Rings

Sauron is the title character and the primary antagonist, through the forging of the One Ring, of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, where he rules the land of Mordor and has the ambition of ruling the whole of Middle-earth. In the same work, he is identified as the "Necromancer" of Tolkien's earlier novel The Hobbit. The Silmarillion describes him as the chief lieutenant of the first Dark Lord, Morgoth. Tolkien noted that the Ainur, the "angelic" powers of his constructed myth, "were capable of many degrees of error and failing", but by far the worst was "the absolute Satanic rebellion and evil of Morgoth and his satellite Sauron". Sauron appears most often as "the Eye", as if disembodied.

Environmentalism in <i>The Lord of the Rings</i> Theme of environmentalism in The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien

The theme of environmentalism in The Lord of the Rings has been remarked upon by critics since the 1970s. The Hobbits' visions of Saruman's industrial hell of Isengard and Sauron's desolate polluted land of Mordor have been interpreted as comments on modern society, while the destruction of Isengard by the tree-giant Ents, and "The Scouring of the Shire" by the Hobbits, have a strong theme of restoration of the natural environment after such industrial pollution and degradation. However, Tolkien's love of trees and unspoilt nature is apparent throughout the novel.

Tolkien's monsters are the evil beings, such as Orcs, Trolls, and giant spiders, who oppose and sometimes fight the protagonists in J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth legendarium. Tolkien was an expert on Old English, especially Beowulf, and several of his monsters share aspects of the Beowulf monsters; his Trolls have been likened to Grendel, the Orcs' name harks back to the poem's orcneas, and the dragon Smaug has multiple attributes of the Beowulf dragon. The European medieval tradition of monsters makes them either humanoid but distorted, or like wild beasts, but very large and malevolent; Tolkien follows both traditions, with monsters like Orcs of the first kind and Wargs of the second. Some scholars add Tolkien's immensely powerful Dark Lords Morgoth and Sauron to the list, as monstrous enemies in spirit as well as in body. Scholars have noted that the monsters' evil nature reflects Tolkien's Roman Catholicism, a religion which has a clear conception of good and evil.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Evil in Middle-earth</span> Theme in Tolkiens fiction

Evil is ever-present in J. R. R. Tolkien's fictional realm of Middle-earth. Tolkien is ambiguous on the philosophical question of whether evil is the absence of good, the Boethian position, or whether it is a force seemingly as powerful as good, and forever opposed to it, the Manichaean view. The major evil characters have varied origins. The first is Melkor, the most powerful of the immortal and angelic Valar; he chooses discord over harmony, and becomes the first dark lord Morgoth. His lieutenant, Sauron, is an immortal Maia; he becomes Middle-earth's dark lord after Morgoth is banished from the world. Melkor has been compared to Satan in the Book of Genesis, and to John Milton's fallen angel in Paradise Lost. Others, such as Gollum, Denethor, and Saruman – respectively, a Hobbit, a Man, and a Wizard – are corrupted or deceived into evil, and die fiery deaths like those of evil beings in Norse sagas.

J. R. R. Tolkien, a devout Roman Catholic, embodied Christianity in his legendarium, including The Lord of the Rings. Light is a prominent motif in Christianity: it is the first thing created by God in the Book of Genesis, it symbolizes God's grace and blessings elsewhere in the Old Testament, and it is closely associated with both Jesus and humanity itself in the Gospel of John in the New Testament.

References

Primary

  1. Carpenter 2023 , Letters #142 to Robert Murray, S.J., 2 December 1953
  2. Carpenter 2023 , Letters #181 to Michael Straight, drafts, early 1956
  3. Carpenter 2023 , Letters #131 to Milton Waldman, late 1951
  4. 1 2 Tolkien 1954 , book 3, ch. 8 "The Road to Isengard"
  5. Tolkien 1955, book 6, ch. 5 "The Steward and the King"
  6. 1 2 Carpenter 2023 , Letters #153 to Peter Hastings, September 1954
  7. Tolkien 1977, ch. 19 "Of Beren and Lúthien"
  8. 1 2 Tolkien 1954a , book 1, ch. 8 "Fog on the Barrow-downs"
  9. Tolkien 1954 , book 3, ch. 6 "The King of the Golden Hall"
  10. Tolkien 1955 , book 6, ch. 1 "The Tower of Cirith Ungol"
  11. Tolkien 1954 , book 5, ch. 6 "The Battle of the Pelennor Fields"

Secondary

  1. 1 2 Christopher 2012, p. 206.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Huttar 1975, pp. 135–137.
  3. 1 2 3 Shippey 2005, p. 194.
  4. 1 2 Oberhelman 2013, p. 18.
  5. Petty 2003, p. 63.
  6. 1 2 Huttar 1975, pp. 121–122.
  7. 1 2 Shippey 2005, pp. 226–227.
  8. Chance 1980, pp. 111–113.
  9. Thomson 1967, pp. 43–59.
  10. 1 2 Sundt 2021, pp. 165–189.
  11. 1 2 Costabile 2024.
  12. Stevens 2021, pp. 113–114.
  13. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Steed 2017, pp. 6–9.
  14. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Poveda 2005, pp. 155–174.
  15. Freeman 2020, pp. 139–171.
  16. Ekman 2010.
  17. Wright 1873, p. 63.

Sources