Archive for the 'books' Category

Not precisely Oxford but still Tolkien relevant

Monday, March 8th, 2010

Early student social activity in London tended to be quite serious and worthy in its expression, characterised by programmes of lectures, debates and sporting fixtures. However, this was beginning to change by the 1890s, which witnessed boisterous 'Town and Gown' antics by students that continued into Edwardian times. The first real rag at King's College [...]

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Tolkien’s candle in the dark: from one person’s experience

Monday, March 8th, 2010

In the sixties, as Tolkien’s hobbit and elves set sail across the wide Atlantic, I was a child growing up in an American working class family. My stepfather was a truck driver, often unemployed, [...]

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Understanding what Oxford was like for Tolkien as a student

Monday, March 8th, 2010

The returning soldiers did not feel tempted to rag about, break windows, get drunk, or have tussles with the police and races with the proctors’ “bulldogs”, as in the old days.
via Oxford Oxfordshire – All Souls College, Balliol College, Bodleian Library, Brasenose College, Christ Church, Clarendon Building., Corpus Christi College.
Tolkien was a student “in the [...]

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And if Howard shows how Christian Tolkien was, then Moorcock makes Howard look Sanctified

Thursday, March 4th, 2010

Continuing this thought.
On one famed island in hereabouts looms the fortress of Michael Moorcock, who made his name by reversing every trope coined by Robert E. Howard. Howard’s Conan was a barbarian; Moorcock’s Elric was an over-refined aesthete from a corrupt civilization. Conan was bronzed brawny; Elric was pale and sickly; and so on.
There is [...]

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If you doubt Tolkien’s fiction is Christian, find something to compare it to

Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010

I’ve been reading Robert E. Howard.  Just finished a short-story about a crusader.  Howard is better known for his fictional characters such as Conan, Kull, and Solomon Kane.
If you wonder how Tolkien’s fiction qualifies as “Christian,” reading a few stories by Robert E. Howard will snap the issues into focus for you.  Howard, like Tolkien, [...]

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Tolkien on the virtue of aristocracy

Thursday, February 18th, 2010

“Touching your cap to the Squire may be damn bad for the Squire but it’s damn good for you”
–J.R.R. Tolkien: A Biography (p. 133)

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Not the New Zealand Wilderness: a great photo essay on Tolkien’s early influence

Wednesday, February 17th, 2010

Those who have rediscovered The Lord of the Rings through the wonderful (if not always accurate) Peter Jackson movies probably have an image of wild New Zealand locations whenever they think of Middle Earth.
Yet J.R.R. Tolkien’s inspiration for many of his literary locations came not from the exotic wilderness of a foreign land, however beautiful, [...]

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How Tolkien found “applicability” in his own story

Monday, February 8th, 2010

… Very much love to you, and all my thoughts and prayers.  How much I wish to know! “When you return to the lands of the living, and we re-tell our tales, sitting by a wall in the sun, laughing at old grief, you shall tell me then” (Faramir to Frodo).
So wrote J. R. R. [...]

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Buffy & Bella

Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010

Joss Whedon’s only lasting contribution to the myth of the good vampire seems to be hair gel.
But thus far Bella doesn’t seem to be falling for a good vampire who hates his appetites.  She seems like a mouse falling in love with the cat’s paw as it plays with her.  I’m only a few chapters [...]

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If you don’t think the term “cult figure” applies to Tolkien, now is the opportunity to correct yourself

Monday, February 1st, 2010

YouTube – Leonard Nimoy’s Ballad of Bilbo Baggins.

When I typed “Nimoy” in Youtube’s search blank, the top suggestion was “bilbo baggins.”  As far as I know Nimoy is more famous for this among the young than for Star Trek.

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Better Xian Story than Sound of Music? No doubt.

Wednesday, January 27th, 2010

I’m not Anglican Catholic, but I thought this post was a pretty good (and humorous) use of Tolkien.
It may not seem fair at first since Julie Andrews’ character goes into a crisis after her first song among the live hills (and that is something of a Tolkienish emphasis).
But Tolkien’s epic is a much better [...]

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So is there prayer in LOTR or not?

Thursday, January 14th, 2010

YouTube – J.R.R. Tolkien reads …. ‘Elbereth Gilthoniel’.

It has always surprised me how “secular” Middle-earth is, but I think I said in my book (which I’m in the middle of revising) that there is no prayer in the story.  I’m not the only one to make that observation, but this song keeps bothering me.  Does [...]

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Don’t drink the water

Monday, January 11th, 2010

However, the problems with this volume are many. First, Waters misrepresents the views of of those he describes, mainly Wright’s view of forensic justification. In addition, Waters echoes Piper’s contention that 1st century Judaism is not necessary as the context for the study of the NT. Water’s approach to disagreement is often [...]

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Tolkien: better than Klingon!

Tuesday, December 29th, 2009

YouTube – J.R.R. Tolkien reciting “Namárië”.

Ai! laurië lantar lassi súrinen,
yéni únótimë ve rámar aldaron!
Yéni ve lintë yuldar avánier
mi oromardi lisse-miruvóreva
Andúnë pella , Vardo tellumar
nu luini yassen tintilar i eleni
ómaryo airetári -lírinen.
Sí man i yulma nin enquantuva?
An sí Tintallë Varda Oiolossëo
ve fanyar máryat Elentári ortanë,
ar ilyë tier undulávë lumbulë;
ar sindanóriello caita mornië
i falmalinnar imbë met, ar [...]

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Tolkien on Oxford: A Factory for Fees

Tuesday, December 29th, 2009

Years before I had rejected as disgusting cynicism by an old vulgarian the words of warning given me by old Joseph Wright.
“What do you take Oxford for, lad?”
“A university, a place of learning.”
“Nay, lad, it’s a factory! And what’s it making? I’ll tell you.  It’s making fees. Get that in your head, and you’ll begin [...]

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J. R. R. Tolkien on the Air Force

Monday, December 28th, 2009

But I fear that an Air Force is fundamentally irrational thing, per se.  I could wish dearly that you could have nothing to do with anything so monstrous.  It is in fact a sore trial to me that any son of mine should serve this modern Moloch…  In any case, it is only a kind [...]

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Christianizing the heroic epic

Monday, December 21st, 2009

Tolkien objected to defining fairies as “diminutive” and re-invented (recovered?) elves as heroes of great stature.  He then authored heroic men who were much the same.
But then he invented out of thin air a diminutive creature and had them save the world.
And they did it with some help from the giant heroes because they treated [...]

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Dealing with Nazi publishers

Friday, December 18th, 2009

“Do I suffer this impertinence because of the possession of a German name, or do their lunatic laws require a certification of ‘arisch’ origin from all persons of all countries?” –Tolkien to his publishers writing about a letter from a German publisher inquiring if he was of aryan origins.
“I cannot, however, forbear to comment that [...]

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You never know where your impulse to scribble might lead you

Thursday, December 17th, 2009

YouTube – John Tolkien on “The Hobbit”.

Transcript:
The actual beginning, though it was not really the beginning, but the actual flash point was – I remember very clearly I ?? I took umm I still see the corner in my house in 22 Northmoor Road ??. I got an enormous pile of exam papers there, and [...]

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Tolkien as “my” Christian champion

Thursday, December 17th, 2009

A couple of articles I haven’t had time to fully digest yet as I speed ahead on my biography of Tolkien:

The Children of Hurin
J. R. R. Tolkien’s Sacramental World

Both of these articles are quite worthwhile.  They are both, I think, hurt by a desire to “defend the Faith.”  Both have their particular virtues on that [...]

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