Tolkien Reading Day

Tolkien Reading Day is celebrated on March 25th by Tolkien fans all around the world, in honour of the Downfall of Sauron. 

I had hoped to have finished LOTR (for the millionth time) by today, but alas, that was not to be. I'm just finishing up Two Towers. But that doesn't mean I can't go quoting from ROTK all I want. 

"On he toiled, up and up, turning this way and that to lessen the slope, often stumbling forward, and at last crawling like a snail with a heavy burden on its back. When his will could drive him no further, and his limbs gave way, he stopped and laid his master gently down."

"But deep in [Sam's] heart there was something that restrained him: he could not strike this thing lying in the dust, forlorn, ruinous, utterly wretched. He himself, though only for a little while, had borne the Ring, and now dimple he guessed the agony of Gollum's shrivelled mind and body, enslaved to that Ring, unable to find peace of relief ever in life again."

"And far away, as Frodo put on the Ring and claimed it for his own, even in Sammath Naur the very heart of his realm, the Power in Barad-dûr was shaken, and the Tower trembled from its foundations to its proud and bitter crown."

"'Precious, precious, precious!' Gollum cried. 'My Precious! O my Precious!' And with that, even as his eyes were lifted up to gloat on his prize, he stepped too far, toppled, wavered for a moment on the brink, and then with a shriek he fell. Out of the depths came his last wail Precious, and he was gone."

"A brief vision he had of swirling cloud, and in the midst of it towers and battlements, tall as hills, founded upon a mighty mountain-throne above immeasurable pits; great courts and dungeons, eyeless prisons sheer as cliffs, and gaping gates of steel and adamant: and then all passed."

"And then at last over the miles between there came a rumble, rising to a deafening crash and roar; the earth shook, the plain heaved and cracked, and Orodruin reeled. Fire belched from its riven summit."

"And into the heart of a storm with a cry that pierced all other sounds, tearing the clouds asunder, the Nazgûl came, shooting like flaming bolts, as caught in the fiery ruin of hill and sky they crackled, withered, and went out."

"'Master!' cried Sam, and fell upon his knees. In all that ruin of the world for the moment he felt only joy, great joy. The burden was gone. His master had been saved; he was himself again, he was free."

Tolkien, I can never thank you enough. You have given this world so much more than just a long book. 

 

(Lest there should be any confusion or matter of rights and whatnot, all quotes in this post are from the works of JRR Tolkien, unless otherwise mentioned. There may be slight errors, misspellings, or alternate punctuation in the quotes, and if you notice such, please inform me so that I can speedily remedy them.

The Filth of Saruman is Washing Away

I love to learn about Tolkien's life, and all of his works, as well as all the history and whatnot behind the things he wrote. I have liked what nonfiction of his that I have read. But, though I have been doing better at branching out, I always end up breaking to return to the Lord of the Rings. It is very difficult to read about how Frodo wasn't always named Frodo, when you are busy theorizing about what became of the Entwives. Anyhow, I was reading Return of the King, and I realized I had sort of forgotten that the battle (if you can call it a battle) between the Ents and Isengard, is told in flashback. 

This can hardly be considered 'risky' for Tolkien, considering that he ditched Frodo and Sam for half the book, but it is an odd choice. Tolkien's method of following one character for half a book, and then going back to the beginning and following another, makes sense to me. But I can't think of any particular reason why the destruction of Isengard should be told in flashback. It would certainly not have been out of character for Tolkien to have followed Merry and Pip through the entire thing before returning to Rohan and Helm's Deep. 

The only difference it seems to make, is that the language is rather more simplistic, as the story is told by the hobbits, and not by some more gifted speaker, or Tolkien as narrator. 

The only explanation (and probably a fairly accurate one) I have come up with to explain this flashback, is that Tolkien had no particular reason. 

But I am curious as to other people's theories on the matter, so please do leave a comment. 

 

(Lest there should be any confusion or matter of rights and whatnot, all quotes in this post are from The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien, unless otherwise mentioned. There may be slight errors, misspellings, or alternate punctuation in the quotes, and if you notice such, please inform me so that I can speedily remedy them. But I think the fact that I made this blog proves that I would never intentionally change something of Tolkien's in the transcribing of it.)

Some of my Favourite Tolkien Illustrations

JRR Tolkien

While Tolkien (in my not-so-humble-opinion) is the greatest author, he is not the greatest artist (in the drawing sense. Writing is an art). Though I am a devoted Tolkienite, I am not afraid to say that I don't particularly care for all of his drawings (though I couldn't do nearly so well myself). But there are many that I love, and here are a few of them.

All of these images were taken from the Tolkien Estate Website, and are the works of JRR Tolkien. Disclaimer blah blah they aren't mine (obviously) blah blah trying not to get sued blah blah blah I own no rights to these blah blah THEY BELONG TO THE MAGIC TOLKIEN PEOPLE IN THE SKY (estate....website...thing) blah blah due credit blah not stealing ladida okay I'm done.

 I particularly like this one. The stained glass feel.

I like this because people often forget that many hobbits lived in normal houses

Old Man Willow

Nargothrond: I love being able to see it the way Tolkien imagined it

It's so pretty

The cuteness is too much.

  

My First Post: A trip down memory lane

There is a thing that the young folk do, called Throwback Thursday (TT? TBT?). I would like to make clear that I am not making this throwback-ish post because it is a Thursday, but because I am writing it on Wednesday night and it occurred to me that I could put it up on a Thursday as one of those modern 'the good ol' days' sort of thing.

If I have not mentioned it already, I am an old lady at heart.

It is time to take a little jaunt back down memory lane, and speak of how this blog came about. As you know, the whole point is just to provide an outlet for my love of Tolkien, and hopefully an enjoyable experience for some other Tolkienites, but that is not the true origin story.

My very first post was published on September 12th, 2014. It was very stiff, and short, and trying far too hard to sound professional. To be precise, it was actually neat and informative and I should probably write all of them like that, but I don't. The reason I describe it as stiff and unpleasant, is because it in no way reflects anything of me, except perhaps that I like Tolkien.

As I have grown more comfortable with this blog, I have relapsed into writing in a way that displays my actual personality. I rant, and I get sidetracked, and I scream at you very passionately about how much I like things and how you should too.  It is probably far less pleasant to read, but there is no point in pretending to be something that I'm not. I am not, and shall never be an abrupt and professional person, as long as Tolkien is concerned. Believe me, if you had to talk to me in person about Tolkien, it would be far worse.

Sometimes I curl up into a little ball and hum like a mad thing because I have no words for how much I love something.

Conversations often go something like this:

other person: "wow, I love Sam."

me: "yes, he's so amazing it's just....it's.....he's......grrrrbrrbrle....I love him so much...he's so amazing....gaaahhh, Tolkien is so gooooood.....brrrbrle."

My dear friend, known to the mystical world that is the internet as Lady Awdur, can attest to the accuracy of the example provided above.

 When talking Tolkien, my true self is bound to emerge. I can't contain myself. When my hero is challenged or insulted, politeness goes out the window. He must be defended. I often don't trust myself to speak and have to leave quickly before I harm someone or explode.

My first post, cleverly titled "2948 TA", is also a tad pretentious, speaking in an affected 'old fashioned' sort of way. I was trying terribly hard to impress - whom, I could not say.

"There also it is told how Eowyn and Meriadoc killed the Witch King and how Minas Tirith was saved."

I started this blog with high ideals. A strange and foolish part of me said something along the lines of: "It's going to be this huge website and have forums and members and they're going to ask questions and I am magically going to have time to post every day and everyone will love it and I'm going to be the queen of England."

Somewhere along the way, I realized how ridiculous that was, and also that time is rather a difficult thing to come by, and also is it really a good idea to become so wrapped up in a Tolkien themed blog that you don't have time to read Tolkien? Is that really what he would have liked? No, he specifically disliked those people.

It's rather difficult to pinpoint an exact post that marks my transition to a more book oriented blog. The part where I started enjoying it. The part where I actually gave up the silly plans and started having decent ideas. The part where I thought to myself "I'm going to do the entire Lord of the Rings and post on the days when things actually happened". I'm going to say it was around the time of: A Very Long and Uncoordinated Rant when I came into my own. This post was followed by a piece of very annoying chatter, and then another 'actual post' about Faramir's birth.

At that point, the formatting was still horrid, punctuation seemed a lost cause, and apparently it had never occurred to me that hitting return every now and then could be beneficial.

Two posts later, and I figured out how to break things up into sections, and add pertinent images (I have since turned away from pictures to a certain extent).

Next came my "I'm so informative" phase, comprised of labelling things like so:

Appendix A>>Annals of the Kings and Rulers>> II. The House of Eorl>>The Kings of the Mark>>Third Line>>Eomer Eadig

Because Appendix A wasn't enough? And from the beginning to the post "Caras Galadhon" I was in what I like to call my apologetic phase where for some reason I always felt bad for not being perfectly on time with posts that went up on a blog that no one actually read. I still hadn't figured out how to enjoy it for myself.

Then came Caras Galadhon I figured out formatting, I figured out how to integrate my rambling nature with conveying the information I needed to convey. I figured out that I could have the more concise parts, and save my rants for posts of their own. Everything did not always need to be said the moment I thought it.

This blog is two years old, but it only properly started on February 14th of this year. Thus began the Red Book that I hope you have come to know and love. At any rate, I have come to love it for what it is. To love writing it not because I hope someone else will read and the view count will go up, but because I enjoy it. A place where I put myself, not a place where myself puts things.

Incidentally, that may have been the first post that got a comment. (Thank you Fawnabelle!)

I have really, really enjoyed writing this blog, and because of it I have spent more, rather than less, time reading Tolkien. I also think my family is happy that I have somewhere else to vent, because it means I won't burble at them. At least, not quite as much.

And that is the origin story of this little collection of zeros and ones.

Until next time!

Some of my favorite posts (and favorite parts of the book):

The King of the Golden Hall

Minas Tirith

Shelob's Lair

The Battle of Pelennor Fields....excuse me while I go weep internally about Theoden.

Faramir and Eowyn 

Why I Read Tolkien: A guest post by Mary Grace Urbanczyk

When I was nine years old, my dad brought home a series of books. My inquisitive nature (and love of reading) prompted me to to inquire what books they were.

He answered, “This is The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien. Would you like to read them?” I replied that I would, and thus began my discovery of the writings of Tolkien. Over the years I have been drawn to Tolkien’s works, time and time again, for many different reasons, but here I produce my top three:

#1 Tolkien clearly makes a distinction between good and evil characteristics and deeds,
#2 Tolkien describes his characters in depth and does not skim over detail,
#3 Tolkien has a realistic style of storytelling.

I particularly dislike certain novels that glorify people who commit questionable deeds to achieve a good end (i.e., Harry Potter).

In Tolkien’s writings this murky grey area does not exist; evil deeds are condemned whereas good ones are praised (by all who are wise enough to realize the goodness of the acts). Sacrifice and loyalty to attain a good end or change is a prominent theme throughout The Lord of the Rings. Frodo and Sam must embark on a long, dangerous journey to the Cracks of Doom, in the very heart of Mordor, where the Ring will be unmade.

Frodo Baggins, a hobbit of the comfortable Shire, sacrifices that comfort so that the Shire - and the whole of Middle Earth - might be spared from a perilous evil. His gardener, Samwise Gamgee, out of the utmost loyalty to Master Frodo, travels alongside Frodo as his constant companion and counselor, never once complaining of his own needs and hardships.

Both Hobbits display consistent examples of the good, true, and beautiful qualities that a true hero should possess. At times they must hide or flee, but never do they lie, cheat, steal, or commit some other evil deed to complete their mission.

Tolkien invests in every single one of his characters, whether they are major or minor to the plot of the story. The ultimate (and my personal favorite) example of this is Tom Bombadil. Tom Bombadil is neither Elf, Man, Dwarf, or Hobbit; in fact, no one is exactly sure where he came from. He simply is. The little band of Hobbits traveling through the old forest (Frodo, Sam, Merry, and Pippin) are rescued by Tom and are led to his house, where they spend the night. The next morning they take leave of him, but are caught by a Barrow-wight from which he rescues them, and then he merrily returns to his house and is never seen again. While it appears Tom contributed very little to the overall plot, Tolkien still brings out his personality in such a way that one would think he is the most significant character. Tolkien designated a purpose for every character, place, and object; he dismisses nothing and no one, which is why I am particularly drawn to his writings.

The realistic quality of Tolkien’s storytelling is often taken for granted, especially by first-time readers. For example, in Book I of The Lord of the Rings, in the chapter “Three is Company”, Frodo, Sam, and Pippin set off to Buckland, where Frodo will move into a house (on pretense of staying there permanently), and leave shortly thereafter for Rivendell. The three hobbits walk many miles and run into some Elves, who journey alongside them. Not much else occurs in the chapter, which would prompt people to wonder why Tolkien spent so much time writing about walking. Tolkien is precise in the narrating of his story: the Hobbits walk all day, spend the night with the Elves, and two whole chapters later reach Buckland. I recall reading The Fellowship of the Ring for the first and wondering, “Why didn’t Tolkien simply cut to the action? Why spend two or three chapters writing about walking?” He did it that way because that is how it is in reality. If Tolkien had simply “cut to the action,” the whole journey would feel rushed and the lack of detail would be incredibly unsatisfying. Although some out there would declare that realistic writing is boring and unexciting, I find that attractive - it is yet another reason why I enjoy reading Tolkien so much.

I could continue on and on about the many reasons I read Tolkien (but I would get sidetracked and my faithful audience would become weary of reading this), so I will say this: If anyone has ever been doubtful about reading (or re-reading) The Lord of the Rings or The Hobbit, I hope that my reasons will motivate you to try. Distinguishing between good and evil characteristics, in-depth description of characters, and realistic narrating style are all qualities that I enjoy about the works of Tolkien. You will rarely find an author as excellent as Tolkien who can pull off these traits with fluency, so I encourage all of you to read his books. If you have any reasons as to why you read Tolkien, please comment below!

​A note about the author: 
I have been reading and studying Tolkien for 6 years now, and my love for it has grown with time. Besides Tolkien, I enjoy playing piano, studying languages (right now French, Latin, and Quenya ;)), and writing short stories and poems. I hope to travel to Italy someday, as well as Poland and New Zealand (because, you know, that's where Hobbiton and the rest of Middle Earth is!) That's a little about me :) Thanks for reading!

I'd like to thank Mary Grace for this excellent recommendation of Tolkien and his works. I imagine this will be helpful should any of you readers encounter someone who has reservations about reading LOTR, or if you haven't read it yourself. Also if you know someone who hasn't read it, you should make it your mission in life to get them to do so. After all, it's for their own good.

~Goldenrod

I have been lied to

When quoting the Lord of the Rings, Silmarillion, or any other of Tolkien's writings that I own, I never trust the internet, I always look it up in the book, and then type it up myself.

But when it comes to things that aren't in books I own, or that were said by Tolkien and not written, or were in letters that no one can get their hands on, I have to rely on the internet.

Recently I posted the quote "a single dream is more powerful than a thousand realities" having made sure that it was attributed to him by many different Tolkien websites and blogs, as well as general quotes sites.

It did not occur to me that something that widely believed could still be false. http://www.thetolkienist.com/2013/04/24/not-a-tolkien-quote-a-single-dream-is-more-powerful-than-a-thousand-realities-tthnsdwohatdw-part-3/

I am exceedingly miffed to say the least. The worst of it is that I am naturally mistrustful of everything on the internet, and I try to be so careful, and yet I have still been taken in.

While the internet can be very useful and helpful, it also spreads falsehoods faster than the blink of an eye (although I don't think Sauron's eye blinks).

Other quotes misattributed to Tolkien include but are not limited to:

'little by little one travels far'

'It is not the strength of the body that counts, but the strength of the spirit'

'Living by faith includes the call to something greater than cowardly self-preservation'

'fantasy is escapist, and that is its glory'

 

QUOTES: JRR Tolkien

"Some who have read [The Lord of the Rings], or at any rate have reviewed it, have found it boring, absurd, or contemptible, and I have no cause to complain, since i have similar opinions of their works, or of the kinds of writing that they evidently prefer."
~JRR Tolkien





 

Hidden Meanings Everywhere, even in death

IS THAT NOT THE GREATEST THING EVER???

 

Let us join to welcome Boromir of Gondor into the world.

In the year 2978 TA, Minas Tirith, Gondor; Boromir, son of Denethor son of Ecthelion, of the the House of Stewards, was born. My unofficial Boromir Day is the 26th of February, the day of his death. February is a long time away, but there will be a special post on that day in remembrance of dear Boromir. It will probably be quite long too, as all and sundry Tolkienites, will be invited to contribute a little bit of their thoughts on Boromir. Unfortunatly, Boromir made himself rather unpleasant before he died, so most everything about Boromir is about his death, or makes you dislike him.

“Is it not a strange fate that we should suffer so much fear and doubt for so small a thing? So small a thing! And I have seen it only for an instant in the house of Elrond! Could I not have a sight of it again?"

Poor Boromir, he DID suffer a lot of fear and doubt for the Ring, and in the end, it drew him to try and kill Frodo. But he died with honor, nonetheless. His character is a strange one, and I must confess, I have looked into it very little, if at all. He perishes so quickly, and plays so little part in the great war, or so it would seem. I realized when I chose this event for this post, that I had neglected Boromir. And I fear that many Tolkienites have neglected him too. I encourage my fellow Tolkienites to read the Fellowship of the Ring (and the other two) yet again, but this time, pay attention to Boromir. Watch his every move, and hear his every word. Think what part he has to play. What did his short time in the story mean to Frodo Baggins; how did it effect his future decisions?
Let us not forget Boromir so soon, just because he was gone so fast. Needless are none of the characters of JRR Tolkien in life, nor in death.

Why is Mordor in the East?

I am pretty sure that most Christians agree that Jesus came out of the East. Hence the name Easter.

So why did Tolkien, a very devout Christian, put the most terrible and evil place in the books, in the East? In The Lord of the Rings, everything bad, unpleasant and horrible comes from the East. However, the only hope for Middle Earth lies in the East also (the destruction of the Ring). The greatest threat and the only hope are in the same place. You could arguably say that Jesus and the Devil come from the same place in a way, they both came from Heaven originally. And I can bet that the whole time Jesus was on Earth, Satan was following Him around, trying to find a way to stop Him, or something to that effect. He failed, obviously, but the point remains. So you could, in some strange fashion tie these ramblings together, and make a decent enough reason for putting Mordor in the East. But wait! Tolkien disliked allegory. And (I could be wrong, but its a good idea) it is much more likely that Tolkien (from what I know of him) would have put Mordor in the East simply because there wasn't a real reason. He probably put Mordor in the East to avoid the allegory that a lot of people try to attach to his works, especially the behind the book nonsense that there would of been had Mordor been in the West. Of course it could have been some completely different reason. Or a combination of the two. But there was a reason. Morder didn't just happen to wind up in the East by accident, if you read closely and pay attention, it is wuite easy to see that Tolkien really did put a lot of thought into the matter. Mordor's direction was a carefully made a deliberate decision. And he must have had some reason, whatever it may be.

AN AMAZING TOLKIENITE BOOK

...For every Tolkien reader it is a must~Yorkshire Pose (U.K)

I have just acquired the The Complete Tolkien Companion by J. E. A. Tyler. 
For all those who journey to J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle Earth, here is the complete guide to its lands, legends, histories, languages, and people. The Tolkien Companion explains, translates, and links every single reference - names, dates, places, facts, famous weapons, even food and drink - to be found in Tolkien's world...
I have found this book to be incredibly useful, and I don't believe the library will get it back for a good long while. It contains, not every word in Tolkiens books, but every reference and name. It has pointers to where you can find information in the books themselves, and references to other books with more information. In itself, it provides plenty of information regarding things even as obvious as the word "Mordor". It is indeed, the Dictionary of all Tolkienite terms. For anyone who loves the Lord of the Rings and wishes to know more about those references that they took for granted while reading, this is THE book to get. It is not to pricy if purchased on Amazon (ranging from ten to twenty dollars, but well worth the value) and most public Libraries should have a copy. Goodreads provides useful information on the book, author, and places to get it. 
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1120372.The_Complete_Tolkien_Companion

ALSO
Today is Bilbo's and Frodo's birthday!
Happy Birthday Bilbo and Frodo!

Tolkien the Catholic

CS Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia is very allegorical. You can read it once and easily put Aslan in the role of Jesus, Lucy in the part of The Holy Virgin. Edmund is symbolic of the betrayal of Man, so Aslan (as Jesus) had to die for his sins, that he might be saved. He eat the forbidden Turkish Delight. Jadis is given the part of the Devil. And if you look deeper, Peter is given the part of Peter, and Susan the part of heresy. Its alright in the beginning, but then it goes farther and farther away from the Truth.

So there you have it. Easy to see, not that it is all that simple...but this is not about CS Lewis, it is about his best friend JRR Tolkien. 

Tolkien rejected the thought that the Lord of the Rings was at all allegorical. He disliked Allegory. And, in fact, there is no reference to God, or the Church, anywhere in his stories, nor did he intend there to be. 

Some people, trying to make it fit an allegorical mindset, might say that Gandalf was cast as Jesus, and he died that other's might live. You could say that Galadriel was Mary, and Sauron the Devil. But you could just as well say that Frodo was given the part of Jesus, so he must Perish that all might live. Eowyn could be cast as Mary, and the Witch King as the devil. The truth of the matter is, you could cast any number of different characters in different roles. And it still wouldn't quite work. 

No one in this story has any reference to a god, or to any kind of religion or cult or anything at all like that. Gandalf once mentions what could be shown as Heaven, the white shores and the swift sunrise, but there is no mention of some king that dwells there that could be a god. Greater powers at work in the world are often mentioned, but not in a way that suggests that someone is responsible for them. 

And yet, somehow, the Lord of the Rings still has a very Christian message. How?

Some of the answer is found in The Silmarillion which (despite his dislike of allegory) contains a splendid allegorical retelling of the Creation and The Fall.
Here Tolkien does name the creator-God of Middle-earth, Eru ("the One,") as well as the mighty spirit Melkor, who rebelled against Eru and went into darkness. We also learn that Sauron, maker of the One Ring, is himself an agent of this Melkor. Tolkien thus establishes a direct relationship between the theistic, even Judeo-Christian cosmology of The Silmarillion and the war for the One Ring recounted in The Lord of the Rings.
And yet, The Lord of the Rings all on its own is still very Christian.
In the Lord of the Rings itself there is no mention of Eru, nor is there any explicitly religious component to the characters’ behavior. And yest, Tolkien’s Catholic worldview not only stands behind the saga of the Ring in its prehistory, but surrounds and suffuses it in its overarching themes and imaginative structures.

Ian Holm and JRR Tolkien

There is a surprising similarity between Ian Holm (BILBO) and JRR Tolkien

 The noses are almost identical. The dimples are very close. The lines coming from the nose to the mouth are strikingly similar and the ears have the same, strange shape. In the pictures aboce, the hairlines are almost the same. Tolkien's smile, however, is very different from Holm's 

 Ian Holm has a straight even smile and Tolkien's smile turns up at the corners.

But despite that, they really are very similar, something which I find interesting.