“What’s the matter with him this morning? He’s quite above himself!” C. S. Lewis’s comment upon Tolkien’s high spirits on the morning of January 30, 1945.
J. R. R. Tolkien was cheerfully enduring miserable ice and slush from passing cars, anticipating letters from his son that awaited him at home.
Christians have more than enough awaiting us at home to make this life secondary and joyful.
Romans 8:18-25
I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.
We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.
Showing posts with label J. R. R. Tolkien. Show all posts
Showing posts with label J. R. R. Tolkien. Show all posts
Sunday, January 29, 2012
Sunday, January 22, 2012
The Ultimate Quest
“Mr. Tolkien has succeeded more completely than any previous writer . . . in using the traditional properties of the Quest, the heroic journey, the Numinous Object, the conflict between Good and Evil . . .
[ Numinous: Of or relating to a numen; supernatural. Filled with or characterized by a sense of a supernatural presence: a numinous place. Spiritually elevated; sublime.
Read more: http://www.answers.com/topic/numinous#ixzz1kBsurjjC ]
“At the same time most of us believe that the essence of the Good is love and freedom so that Good cannot impose itself by force without ceasing to be good.”
From W. H. Auden’s review of the Return of the King ; New York Times, January 22, 1956. [ http://www.nytimes.com/1956/01/22/books/tolkien-king.html ]
Isaiah 42: 1-4 The Servant of the LORD
“Here is my servant, whom I uphold,
my chosen one in whom I delight;
I will put my Spirit on him,
and he will bring justice to the nations.
He will not shout or cry out,
or raise his voice in the streets.
A bruised reed he will not break,
and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out.
In faithfulness he will bring forth justice;
he will not falter or be discouraged
till he establishes justice on earth.”
[ Numinous: Of or relating to a numen; supernatural. Filled with or characterized by a sense of a supernatural presence: a numinous place. Spiritually elevated; sublime.
Read more: http://www.answers.com/topic/numinous#ixzz1kBsurjjC ]
“At the same time most of us believe that the essence of the Good is love and freedom so that Good cannot impose itself by force without ceasing to be good.”
From W. H. Auden’s review of the Return of the King ; New York Times, January 22, 1956. [ http://www.nytimes.com/1956/01/22/books/tolkien-king.html ]
Isaiah 42: 1-4 The Servant of the LORD
“Here is my servant, whom I uphold,
my chosen one in whom I delight;
I will put my Spirit on him,
and he will bring justice to the nations.
He will not shout or cry out,
or raise his voice in the streets.
A bruised reed he will not break,
and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out.
In faithfulness he will bring forth justice;
he will not falter or be discouraged
till he establishes justice on earth.”
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
Transformation
J. R. R. Tolkien spent the night of January 17, 1944 in an air-raid post with Cecil Roth, a renowned Jewish scholar and historian. The next morning, Roth roused Tolkien from sleep so he would not miss Communion. Tolkien remarked of Roth’s gesture, “It seemed like a fleeting glimpse of an unfallen world.”
It is almost a cliché to mention the impact that the two world wars, especially the second, had on British literature. In the case of fantasies written by the Inklings, (Tolkien, Lewis, Williams) one should recognize the transformaion of earthly warfare and helplessness into Christian victory and glory.
1 Corinthians 15:44-49 NIV
If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. So it is written: “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit. The spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and after that the spiritual. The first man was of the dust of the earth; the second man is of heaven. As was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth; and as is the heavenly man, so also are those who are of heaven. And just as we have borne the image of the earthly man, so shall we bear the image of the heavenly man.
1 Corinthians 15: 54-56 NIV
When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.”
“Where, O death, is your victory?
Where, O death, is your sting?”
The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
It is almost a cliché to mention the impact that the two world wars, especially the second, had on British literature. In the case of fantasies written by the Inklings, (Tolkien, Lewis, Williams) one should recognize the transformaion of earthly warfare and helplessness into Christian victory and glory.
1 Corinthians 15:44-49 NIV
If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. So it is written: “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit. The spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and after that the spiritual. The first man was of the dust of the earth; the second man is of heaven. As was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth; and as is the heavenly man, so also are those who are of heaven. And just as we have borne the image of the earthly man, so shall we bear the image of the heavenly man.
1 Corinthians 15: 54-56 NIV
When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.”
“Where, O death, is your victory?
Where, O death, is your sting?”
The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Sunday, January 15, 2012
Not Keen on Tolkien
“J. R. R. Tolkien’s writing became so popular that on this day in 1966 the New York Tolkien Society’s December meeting was described in the New Yorker. Among those present at the meeting was the poet W.H. Auden.” Around the Year with C. S. Lewis and Friends compiled by Kathryn Lindskoog.
The Hobbit, the prequel to Tolkien’s Ring Trilogy, was recommended to me at the height of its popularity by my very first beau. I did not read it. I’m not sure why, but I have some ideas. Since I categorized The Hobbit as fantasy, I associated it with fairy tales and childish things. And it was popular. That always made a book unappealing to me.
I lost the beau.
But The Hobbit is one of my husband’s favorite books. He read it and C. S. Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia to our daughter every night for years. I still have not read it. Maybe I should.
1 Corinthians 13:8-13
Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a woman, I put the ways of childhood behind me. For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
The Hobbit, the prequel to Tolkien’s Ring Trilogy, was recommended to me at the height of its popularity by my very first beau. I did not read it. I’m not sure why, but I have some ideas. Since I categorized The Hobbit as fantasy, I associated it with fairy tales and childish things. And it was popular. That always made a book unappealing to me.
I lost the beau.
But The Hobbit is one of my husband’s favorite books. He read it and C. S. Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia to our daughter every night for years. I still have not read it. Maybe I should.
1 Corinthians 13:8-13
Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a woman, I put the ways of childhood behind me. For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
Saturday, January 14, 2012
Slithy Toves
On this day in 1938, J. R. R. Tolkien spoke on BBC Radio about Anglo-Saxon Verse.
An excerpt from Jabberwocky, Lewis Carroll’s 1855 parody of Anglo-Saxon verse. (It is far better known than any real Anglo-Saxon verse.)
’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsey were the borogroves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
The popularity of Carroll’s parody speaks volumes concerning the difference between poetry and prose. Prose can be melodious, but it must carry meaning to be valid. Poetry, by contrast, can simply feel good on the tongue.
The Bible is full of magnificent poetry inspired by the Holy Spirit, but in the book of Acts the apostle Paul quotes from an unnamed Greek poet: ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’ Acts 17:28
An excerpt from Jabberwocky, Lewis Carroll’s 1855 parody of Anglo-Saxon verse. (It is far better known than any real Anglo-Saxon verse.)
’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsey were the borogroves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
The popularity of Carroll’s parody speaks volumes concerning the difference between poetry and prose. Prose can be melodious, but it must carry meaning to be valid. Poetry, by contrast, can simply feel good on the tongue.
The Bible is full of magnificent poetry inspired by the Holy Spirit, but in the book of Acts the apostle Paul quotes from an unnamed Greek poet: ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’ Acts 17:28
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
2012 - The Year of the Dragon
Sunday January 1, 2012
Daily quotes are taken from a “Book of Days” entitled “Around the Year with C.S. Lewis and His Friends” compiled by Kathryn Lindskoog and published by the C.R. Gibson Co.
"It does not do to leave a live dragon out of your calculations if you live near him." J. R. R. Tolkien, "The Hobbitt.
Never discount the reality of the supernatural.
Job 41:1-34 New International Version (NIV)
1 “Can you pull in Leviathan with a fishhook or tie down its tongue with a rope?
2 Can you put a cord through its nose or pierce its jaw with a hook?
3 Will it keep begging you for mercy? Will it speak to you with gentle words?
4 Will it make an agreement with you for you to take it as your slave for life?
5 Can you make a pet of it like a bird or put it on a leash for the young women in your house?
6 Will traders barter for it? Will they divide it up among the merchants?
7 Can you fill its hide with harpoons or its head with fishing spears?
8 If you lay a hand on it, you will remember the struggle and never do it again!
9 Any hope of subduing it is false; the mere sight of it is overpowering.
10 No one is fierce enough to rouse it. Who then is able to stand against me?
11 Who has a claim against me that I must pay? Everything under heaven belongs to me.
12 “I will not fail to speak of Leviathan’s limbs, its strength and its graceful form.
13 Who can strip off its outer coat? Who can penetrate its double coat of armor[b]?
14 Who dares open the doors of its mouth, ringed about with fearsome teeth?
15 Its back has rows of shields tightly sealed together;
16 each is so close to the next that no air can pass between.
17 They are joined fast to one another; they cling together and cannot be parted.
18 Its snorting throws out flashes of light; its eyes are like the rays of dawn.
19 Flames stream from its mouth; sparks of fire shoot out.
20 Smoke pours from its nostrils as from a boiling pot over burning reeds.
21 Its breath sets coals ablaze, and flames dart from its mouth.
22 Strength resides in its neck; dismay goes before it.
23 The folds of its flesh are tightly joined; they are firm and immovable.
24 Its chest is hard as rock, hard as a lower millstone.
25 When it rises up, the mighty are terrified; they retreat before its thrashing.
26 The sword that reaches it has no effect, nor does the spear or the dart or the javelin.
27 Iron it treats like straw and bronze like rotten wood.
28 Arrows do not make it flee; slingstones are like chaff to it.
29 A club seems to it but a piece of straw; it laughs at the rattling of the lance.
30 Its undersides are jagged potsherds, leaving a trail in the mud like a threshing sledge.
31 It makes the depths churn like a boiling caldron and stirs up the sea like a pot of ointment.
32 It leaves a glistening wake behind it; one would think the deep had white hair.
33 Nothing on earth is its equal— a creature without fear.
34 It looks down on all that are haughty; it is king over all that are proud.”
Daily quotes are taken from a “Book of Days” entitled “Around the Year with C.S. Lewis and His Friends” compiled by Kathryn Lindskoog and published by the C.R. Gibson Co.
"It does not do to leave a live dragon out of your calculations if you live near him." J. R. R. Tolkien, "The Hobbitt.
Never discount the reality of the supernatural.
Job 41:1-34 New International Version (NIV)
1 “Can you pull in Leviathan with a fishhook or tie down its tongue with a rope?
2 Can you put a cord through its nose or pierce its jaw with a hook?
3 Will it keep begging you for mercy? Will it speak to you with gentle words?
4 Will it make an agreement with you for you to take it as your slave for life?
5 Can you make a pet of it like a bird or put it on a leash for the young women in your house?
6 Will traders barter for it? Will they divide it up among the merchants?
7 Can you fill its hide with harpoons or its head with fishing spears?
8 If you lay a hand on it, you will remember the struggle and never do it again!
9 Any hope of subduing it is false; the mere sight of it is overpowering.
10 No one is fierce enough to rouse it. Who then is able to stand against me?
11 Who has a claim against me that I must pay? Everything under heaven belongs to me.
12 “I will not fail to speak of Leviathan’s limbs, its strength and its graceful form.
13 Who can strip off its outer coat? Who can penetrate its double coat of armor[b]?
14 Who dares open the doors of its mouth, ringed about with fearsome teeth?
15 Its back has rows of shields tightly sealed together;
16 each is so close to the next that no air can pass between.
17 They are joined fast to one another; they cling together and cannot be parted.
18 Its snorting throws out flashes of light; its eyes are like the rays of dawn.
19 Flames stream from its mouth; sparks of fire shoot out.
20 Smoke pours from its nostrils as from a boiling pot over burning reeds.
21 Its breath sets coals ablaze, and flames dart from its mouth.
22 Strength resides in its neck; dismay goes before it.
23 The folds of its flesh are tightly joined; they are firm and immovable.
24 Its chest is hard as rock, hard as a lower millstone.
25 When it rises up, the mighty are terrified; they retreat before its thrashing.
26 The sword that reaches it has no effect, nor does the spear or the dart or the javelin.
27 Iron it treats like straw and bronze like rotten wood.
28 Arrows do not make it flee; slingstones are like chaff to it.
29 A club seems to it but a piece of straw; it laughs at the rattling of the lance.
30 Its undersides are jagged potsherds, leaving a trail in the mud like a threshing sledge.
31 It makes the depths churn like a boiling caldron and stirs up the sea like a pot of ointment.
32 It leaves a glistening wake behind it; one would think the deep had white hair.
33 Nothing on earth is its equal— a creature without fear.
34 It looks down on all that are haughty; it is king over all that are proud.”
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