Q: What American Foods did J.R.R. Tolkien Use in Middle-earth?
ANSWER: Expert readers generally agree that J.R.R. Tolkien only used two American foods in Middle-earth: tomatoes and potatoes. However, there is mixed agreement (and/or disagreement) over his use of the word “corn”, especially in referring to the special “white corn” that the Elves used to make lembas.
Lembas is the journey bread of the Elves, and they only use a very special corn that was given to them by Yavanna. The corn grows swiftly and with little light. When the Elves harvest this corn, they use the haulms (stalks) to weave baskets.
The controversy over the nature of this corn is that the word “corn” is an Old English word used for “grain”. Linguists suggest its Proto Germanic root-word may have been *kurnam, meaning “small seed”.
The Old English and their contemporaries in Europe never heard of American maize, the hybrid crop that was developed by Native American peoples. We commonly refer to maize as corn, transferring the traditional English word for grains to it. Hence, many readers in the United States have asked if Tolkien wasn’t referring to something like the ears of maize, whose haulms can be used to weave baskets.
There is, in fact, an ancient European tradition for wheat weaving but if you may have realized by now that the arguments over the nature of Tolkien’s “white corn” are misguided (and I admit to having been confused about this once myself).
The plant Tolkien described simply doesn’t exist. It’s a fantasy food plant that Tolkien simply placed amidst the “grain family”. The “white lembas corn”, if you will, is simply a convenient MacGuffin that helps to move the plot forward in a sub-story. What should characters do when they need a virtually endless supply of magical food? They turn to Elvish waybread.
Tolkien had to solve a problem — feeding the members of the Fellowship of the Ring in a practical way. He had planned for relatively few towns and friendly stopovers. Most of the journey of the Fellowship, especially for the Ringbearer and his companions, was to take place in wilderness or as far removed from roads as possible. Hence, they needed to carry supplies that would last a long while and nourish them so that the story did not become derailed by constant quests for food.
Hence, all the debates over the nature of the white corn were really in vain. No one was correct, at least as far as those who argued for an American-style or traditional Old World grain.
As for any other possible American foods in Tolkien’s Middle-earth, none have been identified. He only mentioned very general foods that may be found everywhere: breads, fruits, meats, and vegetables.
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