Goldberry

[Jon S.]

HOLEY MOLEY!!! I am not the first to make this connection between Goldberry and the Grateful Dead. In fact, The Annotated Grateful Dead includes this email:

Date: Mon, 28 May 2001
EBrown1027@aol.com wrote:
Dear Mr. Dodd,

Your site is wonderful, and greatly appreciated by the new generation of Deadheads.

I was listening to Sugar Magnolia one day while reading J.R.R Tolkien's Fellowship of the Ring, and it occurred to me how much the girl being sung about is like the character Goldberry in the novel. She is described in the following verses.

I had an errand there: gathering water lilies
green leaves and lilies white to please my pretty lady
the last ere the year's end to keep them from the winter
to flower by her pretty feet til the snows are melted
Each year at summer's end I go to find them for her
in a wide pool, deep and clear, far down Withywindle
there they open first in spring and there they linger latest
By that pool long ago I found the River-daughter
fair young Goldberry, sitting in the rushes
Sweet was her singing then, and her heart was beating.

It seemed especially similar to the line "Saw my baby down by the river" as well as "Rolling in the rushes; Down by the riverside". Hope this helps you, and keep up the great work!

Sincerely
Emily Brown

This is truly a case of parallel interpretation as I absolutely did not know of this email when posting my first post directly above!