Noel was written by JRR Tolkien and mainly known by its publication off the Annual of Our Lady’s School in Abingdon for 1936, a year before the Hobbit was released. It was lost for over 80 years. As of 2024, it recently republished and made an appearance in The Collected Poems by JRR Tolkien, as entry 148.
Mood
This poem’s mood was likened to an English Writer. It would be likened to “A Christmas Carol” and cold on an English winter – referring to the weather on Christmas in England, his home country. This correlation occurs when he celebrates the birth of Christ in the final stanza of “Noel”.
It would start this way, with the first two stanzas setting the mood of the world’s coldness and darkness – leading up to the exact moment of Christmas, where the Child or Christ was born. This would be likened to a preparation of Christmas, or Advent.
Meanwhile, the Gloria hymn would not be sung in the mass during this Advent period and this practice would be restored on Christmas.
[The Gloria or “Glory to God in the highest”] is sung or said on Sundays outside Advent and Lent, and also on Solemnities and Feasts, and at particular celebrations of a more solemn character [GIRM 53].
Likewise, this Gloria would be mentioned in the last two lines, where Christ would be born into the world, marking a new beginning and Advent being the preparation for this new beginning.
Meaning of Christmas (December 25) to Tolkien
Thus, is a purely and directly Christian poem, celebrating the birth of Christ which occurred on December 25 (Christmas). This day was also significant in Tolkien’s life as a devout Catholic, so much that he designated the Fellowship leaving Rivendell (for example) on this same day.
“When writing The Lord of the Rings, to arrange the schedule of events in his fictional world so that they corresponded…with key dates in the life of Christ: the Fellowship set out from Rivendell on December 25 (the date of Christ’s nativity), and the Ring is destroyed on March 25 (the date of the Annunciation)…[which] he deliberately chose to heighten the effect.” (Holly Ordway, Tolkien’s Faith: “Formation”)
However, it was not designated as a holiday in Middle-earth. It is said that it’s similar to December 14 in our world, but it is still a week before the New Year when Christmas is. While it may have had more in common with December 14th, as they would start leaving in the dusk (before dawn), it remains true that Tolkien aligned important events in Middle-earth with Christian events and holidays.
Noel is a purely Christian poem and may not have anything to do with Middle-earth, though it is a huge part of the significance to the meaning of this holiday in Tolkien’s life and works.
Poem
Grim was the world and grey last night:
The moon and stars were fled,
The hall was dark without song or light,
The fires were fallen dead.
The wind in the trees was like to the sea,
And over the mountains’ teeth
It whistled bitter-cold and free,
As a sword leapt from its sheath.
The lord of snows upreared his head;
His mantle long and pale
Upon the bitter blast was spread
And hung o’er hill and dale.
The world was blind,
the boughs were bent,
All ways and paths were wild:
Then the veil of cloud apart was rent,
And here was born a Child.
The ancient dome of heaven sheer
Was pricked with distant light;
A star came shining white and clear
Alone above the night.
In the dale of dark in that hour of birth
One voice on a sudden sang:
Then all the bells in Heaven and Earth
Together at midnight rang.
Mary sang in this world below:
They heard her song arise
O’er mist and over mountain snow
To the walls of Paradise,
And the tongue of many bells was stirred
in Heaven’s towers to ring
When the voice of mortal maid was heard,
That was mother of Heaven’s King.
Glad is the world and fair this night
With stars about its head,
And the hall is filled with laughter and light,
And fires are burning red.
The bells of Paradise now ring
With bells of Christendom,
And Gloria, Gloria we will sing
That God on earth is come.
Source: Tolkien Gateway
