Tolkien in General

[MICHKA]

Peut-être devrais-je assister à des conférences au sujet de l'écrivain pour mieux comprendre et interpréter, mais je ne m'arrêterai pas à un seule bio, j'ai l'intention de trouver celle du docteur Shyppey par n'importe quel moyen;je veux surtout saisir la pensée profonde de cet homme en ce qui concerne sa façon de voir , d'imaginer, de traduire et je crois que ce forum m'aide beaucoup, merci de m'encourager, pour une française c'est un peu difficile parfois...

[Merry]

Oh, Michka, I can only guess how difficult it must be to do all this translation! I just put your last two messages through an on-line translator to make sure I understood what you were saying correctly, but these translators aren't necessarily accurate, either! But I have enjoyed the challenge of understanding your posts and learning your perspective on our favorite books! I agree totally that LOTR has a spiritual nature, although I sometimes have a hard time saying what that is. What does it mean to you?

When I attended the conference on Tolkien at Oxford a few years ago, there was a group of young scholars there from the Sorbonne. Two of them read papers, if I recall correctly. I can't remember their names, but there might be French-speaking Tolkien scholars to be found on the internet!

[MICHKA]

Hello; j'ai pu voir les dessins originaux de Tolkien, créés pour illustrer ''Le hobbit'', édités par 'the Guardian'; il était doué, un auteur et un artiste complet, un homme assez extraordinaire quand même! le nombre de ses oeuvres est très important, je ne les aurai jamais toutes, ce que j'aimerais ce sont les poèmes, les chants inventés pour magnifier ses écrits, bon...un peu à la fois....

[Merry]

I saw those pictures, too, at the Guardian website. His style is unmistakable, isn't it? I really like it: in fact, I have one of his Hobbit paintings (or at least a poster of it!) in my living room and enjoy looking at it every day.

[Merry]

Remember, friends, that January 3rd is our beloved Professor's birthday! To join in the worldwide toast, raise a glass at 9:00 PM your local time and say, simply, 'The Professor'!

As always, we can report here about the contents of the glass and other expressions of regard for our author!

[MICHKA]

Alors nous lèverons nos verres à la santé de l'oeuvre du ''Professeur''!et que tous ses admirateurs , fans, lecteurs, historiens fassent grand honneur et partie de la célébration!!

[Lindariel]

My toast for this year:

Therefore I say: Eä! Let these things Be! And I will send forth into the Void the Flame Imperishable, and it shall be at the heart of the World, and the World shall Be. – The words of creation spoken by Eru Ilúvatar, in The Silmarillion/The Ainulindalé by J.R.R. Tolkien

To The Professor!

(afterwards, sipping a lovely cup of Earl Grey)

[Riv Res]

Tolkien Rejected For Nobel Prize Because Of 'Poor Storytelling'

I found this interesting ... but no surprise.

J. R. R. Tolkien may have won over millions of devoted fans across the globe with The Lord of the Rings, but to a small committee in Sweden known as the Nobel prize jury, his epic tale of Middle Earth just wasn't up to scratch.

Newly declassified documents showing the inner workings of the world's most prestigious literary prize have revealed that, 50 years ago, Tolkien was rejected because The Lord Of The Rings had 'not in any way measured up to storytelling of the highest quality'.

Nominated by his friend C S Lewis - author of The Chronicles Of Narnia - in 1961, Tolkien was swiftly dismissed by the committee along with other lauded figures such as Graham Greene and EM Forster as they awarded that year's prize to Yugoslavian writer Ivo Andrić instead.

Andreas Ekström, the Swedish reporter who made the discovery for newspaper Sydsvenska Dagbladet, said according to the Guardian:

"I have been doing this as a bit of a personal and journalistical tradition the past five years or so, and this was the first time I have seen Tolkien's name among the suggested candidates,

"The academy keeps a strict secrecy around the archives for 50 years, but doesn't reveal everything. The final decision is made without any notes ever becoming public. But the list of suggestions is indeed public, with some commentary to it.

"Tolkien was nominated by CS Lewis, that was the first thing I saw ... Lewis was a professor of literature, and hence qualified to nominate. However, the short commentary from Anders Österling, the dominant literature critic in the academy, was fairly sour. He basically just said about the [Lord of the Rings] trilogy: 'the result has not in any way measured up to storytelling of the highest quality'".

Tolkien, who would have turned 120 this year, won surprisingly few awards for his fiction, despite his work regularly topping reader's polls and being the subject of enduring fascination around the world.

His modest collection of gongs began in 1938 when The Hobbit won a prize awarded by the New York Herald Tribune for best children's story of the year. Later in 1957, The Lord Of The Rings won the International Fantasy Award at the 15th World Science Fiction Convention. Tolkien labeled the rock statuette he was given 'absurd', but kept it nevertheless and claimed to have enjoyed the convention.

Posthumously, The Silmarillion won the Locus Award in 1997 and The Hobbit was awarded the Keith Barker Millennium Book Award Winner in 2000 for being 'the most significant children's book published between 1920 and 1939'.

But perhaps the biggest personal recognition Tolkien ever received came the year before his death when, in 1972, he was honoured as a C.B.E. for his contribution to literature.

© The Huffington Post

[Merry]

Snobs.

[MICHKA]

Heureusement nous n'en sommes plus là; et son oeuvre entière a été reconnue et hautement appréciée! les millions de fans en sont témoins et le public a toujours raison, contre le snobisme (soi-disant ''intellect'')le cinéma est vraiment un art qui peut valoriser , ou dénaturer, selon le talent du réalisateur et ses interprètes, un récit qui a enchanté des lecteurs par milliers et qui perdure depuis des années.

[Merry]

Some of you might enjoy an essay posted at TOR.n this week about some of the mothers in the Tolkien world, along with some nice artwork of each one!

[Merry]

It's another nice little day at TOR.n. There is a cute video of a Lego Lothlorien to view, as well as a nice video tribute to Tolkien on the anniversary of his death, which was yesterday. Rest in peace, dear Professor!

[MICHKA]

mes pensées pour ce grand homme, une date à ne pas oublier, merci Merry

[Merry]

Just a reminder that tomorrow, January 3, is the Professor's birthday and the occasion for a toast in his honor around the world. To the Professor!

[MICHKA]

Je ne manquerai pas de fêter cet anniversaire en trinquant à la santé littéraire de cet auteur et la pérennité de ses livres!Vive Tolkien!