Medieval Medical Theory and Middle Earth Part 1: The Four Humors and Frodo’s Wound

            In the midst of what should have been another Roaring 20’s which has instead become a pandemic (seriously, can big band music at least come back to offset these terrible times?), what better way to tie it into class but to explore the parallels between medieval medical theory and the moments of healing shown in Tolkien’s works?

            Perhaps one of the most central and well-known concepts from medieval medicine is the idea of the four humors, which actually was borrowed from the Greek and Romans. Composing of blood, phlegm, bile, and black bile, each had properties of either hot or cold, wet or dry. Blood (sanguine) is hot and wet, phlegm is wet and cold, black bile is dry and cold, and bile is hot and dry. Illness is caused by imbalance among these four humors, with the remedy oftentimes being giving the patient the exact opposite humor. For an explanation from an anime (yes, you read that right), watch the following clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBdXpnM-M38

The explanation starts at 3:40 until 5:00 by the way; apologies for the quality in advance.

            Now, what does this have to do with The Lord of the Rings? Well, Frodo is stabbed by the Morgul blade, which causes him to become cold. In addition, the illness is similar to the Black Breath of the Ringwraiths, which from the name alone suggests a dry nature. Given this, what is Aragorn’s temporary treatment of the wound? Bathing it with boiled water with Athelas leaves, a mixture of hot and wet. Stay tuned, as a future post will dive into the Doctrine of Signatures and the King’s Touch in relation to Aragorn!