The Tumtum Tree

Origin

The Eldar say that they first received this food from the Valar in the beginning of their days in the Great Journey.

For it was made of a kind of corn which Yavanna brought forth in the fields of Aman.

And some she sent to them by the hand of Orome for their succour upon the long march.

'Lembas' is the Sindarin name, and comes from the older form 'lenn-mbass', 'journey-bread'. In Quenya it was most often named 'coimas' which is 'life-bread'.

Ingredients

The Corn of Yavanna

For it was made of a kind of corn which Yavanna brought forth in the fields of Aman

Now this corn had in it the strong life of Aman, which it could impart to those who had the need and right to use the bread.

Great golden ears

If it was sown at any season, save in frost, it soon sprouted and grew swiftly

Though it did not thrive in the shadow of plants of Middle-earth.

And would not endure winds that came out of the North while Morgoth dwelt there.

Else it needed only a little sunlight to ripen.

For it took swiftly and multiplied all the vigour of any light that fell on it.

The Eldar grew it in guarded lands and sunlit glades.

And they gathered its great golden ears, each one, by hand, and set no blade of metal to it.

Other

Lembas, 'waybread', is called a 'food concentrate'. As I have shown I dislike strongly any pulling of my tale towards the style and feature of 'contes des fées', or French fairy-stories. I dislike equally any pull towards 'scientification', of which this expression is an example. Both modes are alien to my story.

No analysis in any laboratory would discover chemical properties of lembas that made it superior to other cakes of wheat-meal.

Definition- Whole Wheat Meal: A meal is the edible portion of a grain ground to a course powder. Whole Wheat Meal is the whole wheat berry ground to a meal stage. It is finer than bulgur wheat. Whole wheat berry and cracked wheat can be purchased in health food and bulk food stores. Cracked wheat can be processed in a food processor to a "meal" consistency.

The Making and Giving of Lembas

The Eldar did not give it to Men , save only to a few whom they loved, if they were in great need.

This was not done out of greed or jealousy, although at no time in Middle-earth was there great store of this food; but because the Eldar had been commanded to keep this gift in their own power, and notto make it common to the dwellers in mortal lands. For it is said that, if mortals eat often of this bread, they become weary of their mortality, desiring to abide among the Elves, and longing for the fields of Aman, to which they cannot come.

In nothing did Melian show greater favor to Túrin than in this gift; for the Eldar had never before allowed Men to use this waybread, and seldom did so again.

"The greatest gift that one who loves you still has to give," answered Beleg. "Here is lembas, the waybread of the Eldar, that no Man yet has tasted."

According to the customs of the Eldalië the keeping and giving of lembas belonged to the Queen alone.

Since it came from Yavanna, the queen, or the highest among the elven-women of any people, great or small, had the keeping and gift of the lembas, for which reason she was called 'massanie' or 'besain': the Lady, or breadgiver.

From the ear to the wafer none were permitted to handle this grain, save those elven-women who were called 'Yavannildi' (or by the Sindar 'Ivonwim'), the maidens of Yavanna; and the art of the making of the lembas, which they learned of the Valar, was a secret among them, and so ever has remained.'

'This food the Eldar alone knew how to make.

The white haulm was drawn from the earth in like manner, and woven into corn-leeps for the storing of the grain: no worm or gnawing beast would touch that gleaming straw, and rot and mould and other evils of Middle-earth did not assail it.

Physical Description

Lembas

The food was mostly in the form of very thin cakes.

Made of meal that was baked a light brown on the outside, and inside was the colour of cream.

Gimli took up one of the cakes and looked at it with a doubtful eye. 'Cram,' he said under his breath

He broke off a crisp corner and nibbled at it.

His expression quickly changed, and he ate all the rest of the cake with relish. 'I thought it was only a kind of cram, such as the Dalemen made for journeys into the wild,' said the Dwarf. 'So it is,' they answered, 'But we call it lembas or way bread, and it is more pleasant than cram, by all accounts.'

The cakes will keep sweet for many many days, if they are unbroken and left in their leaf wrappings, as we have brought them.

He munched a wafer of lembas.

The cakes were broken, but good, still in their leaf-wrappings.

Dropping the leaf, he took a corner of the lembas and nibbled it.

Leaf-wrapping

He lifted up a broken leaf for them to see, a large pale leaf of golden hue, now fading and turning brown. Here is a Mallorn-leaf of Lórien

Frodo broke off a portion of a wafer and handed it to him on its leaf wrapping. 'Sméagol smells it!' he said 'Leaves out of the elf-country, gah! They stinks. He climbed in those trees, and he couldn't wash the smell off his hands, my nice hands.'

The Lembas was wrapped in leaves of silver.

The silver leaves were red in the firelight; and when Túrin saw the seal his eyes darkened. "What have you there?" he said.

And the threads that bound it were sealed at the knots with the seal of the Queen, a wafer of white wax shaped as a single flower of Telperion.

Then he showed beneath his cloak a sealed wallet clasped upon his belt. "No water nor weather will harm it while it is sealed."

Though it was a long journey, each of the Dúnedain carried in a sealed wallet on his belt a small phial of cordial and wafers of a waybread that would sustain life in him for many days—not indeed the miruvor or the lembas of the Eldar, but like them, for the medicine and other arts of N%uacute;menor were potent and not yet forgotten.

Taste

His expression quickly changed, and he ate all the rest of the cake with relish.

'Why, it is better than the honey-cakes of the Beornings, and that is great praise, for the Beornings are the best bakers that I know of.'

I never thought, though, when I first set tooth in them, that I should ever come to wish for a change. But I do now: a bit of plain bread, and a mug—aye, half a mug—of beer would go down proper.

Sam thought it tasted far better, somehow, than it had for a good while: Gollum's behaviour had made him attend to its flavor again.

Sméagol spat, and a fit of coughing shook him. 'Ach! No!" he spluttered. 'You try to choke poor Sméagol. Dust and Ashes, he can't eat that.

"Special Powers" or Side Effects

Healing, Strengthening, Filling

In the book lembas has two functions. It is a 'machine' or device for making credible the long marches with little provision, in a world in which as I have said 'miles are miles'. But that is relatively unimportant.

Gimli ate all the rest of the cake with relish. 'No more, no more!' cried the Elves laughing. 'You have eaten enough already for a long day's march.'

It is more strengthening than any food made by Men.

For these things are given to serve you when all else fails.

One will keep a traveller on his feet for a day of long labour, even if it be one of the tall Men of Minas Tirith.

Yet how think you that we could labour countless days in the salt wastes of the sea? Or have you not heard of the way-bread of the Elves?

Often in their hearts they thanked the Lady of Lórien for the gift of lembas, for they could eat of it and find new strength even as they ran.

It gave strength to endure, and to master sinew and limb beyond the measure of mortal kind.

'Another gift I will give to you, that shall be your help in the wild, and the help also of them you choose.'

Those that were hurt or sick he tended, and gave to them the lembas of Melian; and they were quickly healed, for though the Grey-elves were less in skill and knowledge than the Exiles from Valinor, in the ways of life of Middle-earth they had a wisdom beyond the reach of Men

It was made for the comfort of those who had need to go upon a long journey in the wild, or of the hurt whose life was in peril.

Peace of Mind

It also has a much larger significance, of what one might hesitatingly call a 'religious' kind. This becomes later apparent, especially in the chapter 'Mount Doom' (III 213 and subsequently).

The hobbits each ate two or three pieces. The taste brought back to them the memory of fair faces, and laughter, and wholesome food in quiet days now far away.

For a while they ate thoughtfully, sitting in the dark, heedless of the cries and sounds of battle nearby. Pippin was the first to come back to the present.

'Ach! No!" he spluttered. 'You try to choke poor Sméagol. Dust and Ashes, he can't eat that. He must starve. Poor thin Sméagol!' ... 'I think this food would do you good, if you would try.

The lembas had a virtue without which they would long ago have lain down to die. It did not satisfy desire, and at times Sam's mind was filled with the memories of food, and the longing for simple bread and meats. And yet, this waybread of the Elves had potency that increased as travelers relied upon it alone and did not mingle it with other foods. It fed the will, and it gave strength to endure, and to master sinew and limb beyond the measure of mortal kind.

For it is said that, if mortals eat often of this bread, they become weary of their mortality, desiring to abide among the Elves, and longing for the fields of Aman, to which they cannot come.

Distaste

'Ach! No!' he spluttered. 'You try to choke poor Sméagol. Dust and Ashes, he can't eat that. He must starve. Poor thin Sméagol!'

'I think this food would do you good, if you would try. But perhaps you can't even try, not yet anyway.'

But I guess they [the orcs] disliked the very look and smell of the lembas, worse than Gollum did. It's scattered about and some of it is trampled and broken, but I've gathered it together.