| Oliphaunt | |
|---|---|
 Tolkien related the Oliphaunt to Pyrrhus of Epirus's war elephants in his invasion of Ancient Rome. 1896 illustration by Helene Guerber. | |
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Real Name |
Oliphaunt |
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First Appearance |
Iumbo, or ye Kinde of ye Oliphaunt (1927) |
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Original Publisher |
Stapeldon Magazine |
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Created by |
J. R. R. Tolkien |
Origin[]
Oliphaunt in a medieval bestiary. Harley 3244, folio 39, after c. 1236
The Oliphant was originally featured in originally in humorous poem by J.R.R. Tolkien in the medieval bestiary tradition mocking the excessive use of allegory in Middle English verse. He borrowed the term oliphaunt from Middle English, which in turn was a borrowing of Old French olifaunt. These terms meant an ordinary elephant.
Tolkien originally wrote and published the poem in The Stapeldon Magazine in June of 1927 under the name Iumbo, or ye Kinde of ye Oliphaunt, along with nine extra lines. The early version of the poem was apart of a series of four poems referred to as Adventures in Unnatural History and Medieval Metres, Being the Freaks of Fisiologus or Physiologus ("Naturalist") for short.
Excerpt of the added lines of the original Iumbo, or ye Kinde of ye Oliphaunt[]
- The Indic oliphaunt's a burly lump,
- A moving mountain, a majestic mammal
- (But those that fancy he wears a hump
- Confuse him incorrectly with the camel)
- His pendulous ears they flap about like flannel;
- He trails a supple enlongated nose
- That twixt his tusks of pearly-white enamel
- Preforms the functions of a rubber hose
- Or vacuum cleaner as his needs impose
(End of excerpt)
Tolkien stated that when he read a medieval work, he wanted to write a modern one in the same tradition. In the case of "Iumbo" the oliphaunt and "Fastitocalon", an island-sized whale, that was the medieval bestiary tradition. Tolkien adopts the pseudonym 'Fisiologus', imitating the medieval name 'Physiologus', "the naturalist", author of just such a bestiary. "Iumbo" is written in medieval style in two sections, the natura describing the oliphaunt's habits (addiction to mandrakes), and the significacio drawing a "highly facetious, and egregiously inappropriate" moral from the story, "mocking the incessant allegorizing" of its Middle English model.
Public Domain Appearances[]
All published appearances of Oliphaunts from before January 1, 1931 are public domain in the US.
Public Domain Literary Appearances[]
- Iumbo, or ye Kinde of ye Oliphaunt (1927)
Notes[]
- In Tolkien's epic fantasy The Lord of the Rings, an oliphaunt (known in Harad and Gondor as a mûmak, plural: mûmakil) is a giant war elephant, used by the army of the Haradrim. It was inspired by Pyrrhus of Epirus's use of war elephants against Ancient Rome in 280–275 BC.
- In the films, Peter Jackson modifies the beast, making it more like a Gomphotherium, which was an extinct genus of proboscideans related to modern elephants from the Neogene of Eurasia, Africa and North America.