Tolkien in General

Lindariel · Post by **Lindariel** » Wed Sep 22, 2010 4:38 pm

Happy Birthday dear Bilbo and Frodo! May you have a party of "special magnificence"!

Merry · Post by **Merry** » Sat Jan 01, 2011 5:48 pm

Happy New Year to all!

It's also the time of year to get ready for the Annual Birthday Toast! Since our Beloved Author's birthday is January 3, plan to lift your favorite beverage at 9:00 PM, whatever your local time is, and toast the Professor!

(Mine will be special this year because I received Prancing Pony and Green Dragon pint glasses from my favorite nephew for Christmas!)

Iolanthe · Post by **Iolanthe** » Sat Jan 01, 2011 8:27 pm

Thanks for the reminder, Merry! I will be lifting a steaming mug of Christmas Leaf Tea (very spicy)

.

Philipa · Post by **Philipa** » Sat Jan 01, 2011 10:56 pm

Yes Happy New Year to you all!

Merry wrote: (Mine will be special this year because I received Prancing Pony and Green Dragon pint glasses from my favorite nephew for Christmas!)

How very appropriate.

marbretherese · Post by **marbretherese** » Sun Jan 02, 2011 3:34 pm

I'm planning to toast the Professor in ginger beer, while reading more of the Hammond & Scull Readers' Guide to Tolkien which I got for Christmas

A Happy New Year to you all!

Lindariel · Post by **Lindariel** » Mon Jan 03, 2011 1:20 am

My toast will have to be a bottle of water as I wait in the car for the girls to finish their dance classes tomorrow evening. Meliel is taking Young Adult Jazz 1, the younger Miss L is taking Junior Tap 1, and Mom is the designated chauffeur.

Riv Res · Post by **Riv Res** » Mon Jan 03, 2011 2:19 pm

Happy Birthday Professor!

We are so much richer for this man's life. Happy Birthday Professor Tolkien!

marbretherese · Post by **marbretherese** » Mon Jan 03, 2011 3:08 pm

Many Happy Returns to the Professor!!

Philipa · Post by **Philipa** » Mon Jan 03, 2011 3:21 pm

Although I have to wait a bit for the 'official' toast

Happy Birthday Professor!

Iolanthe · Post by **Iolanthe** » Mon Jan 03, 2011 4:57 pm

Happy Birthday, dear Professor. I hope you know how rich you've made our lives!

Lindariel · Post by **Lindariel** » Mon Jan 03, 2011 7:09 pm

And he sang to them, now in the Elven-tongue, now in the speech of the West, until their hearts, wounded with sweet words, overflowed, and their joy was like swords, and they passed in thought out to regions where pain and delight flow together and tears are the very wine of blessedness.

from "The Field of Cormallen," ROTK

Thank you, dearest Professor, for singing to us!

Merry · Post by **Merry** » Tue Jan 04, 2011 5:24 am

Oh, Lindariel, that is my favorite of all of Tolkien's quotes. The first time I read LOTR, when I was ten year's old, I had to put the book down, I was sobbing so hard when I read them. And I am moved still.

Well-chosen toast!

Lindariel · Post by **Lindariel** » Tue Jan 04, 2011 4:28 pm

Merry, I had exactly the same experience, and I am moved to tears every time I revisit this tale and come to that passage. What actually gets the tears started, though, is Sam's outburst in the preceding paragraph when he learns that the minstrel intends to sing of "Frodo of the Nine Fingers and the Ring of Doom":

"'O great glory and splendour! And all my wishes have come true!' And then he wept."

Those four little words, "And then he wept," just KILL me! I can only begin to imagine that dear Sam's heart was so full that the only possible response was to weep uncontrollably from sheer joy and relief and grief and weariness and wonder, after the unimaginable ordeal they had been through and never expected to survive.

Iolanthe · Post by **Iolanthe** » Thu Feb 10, 2011 8:03 pm

Interesting online Q & A with Corey Olsen in the Washington Post. Another Sam Gamgee man (like Bressler).

Lindariel · Post by **Lindariel** » Fri Feb 11, 2011 11:13 pm

I came across Oscar Wilde's The Decay of Lying the other day, which includes the following WONDERFUL quote:

Just as those who do not love Plato more than Truth cannot pass beyond the threshold of the Academe, so those who do not love Beauty more than Truth never know the inmost shrine of Art. The solid stolid British intellect lies in the desert sands like the Sphinx in Flaubert's marvellous tale, and fantasy, La Chimere, dances round it, and calls to it with her false, flute-toned voice. It may not hear her now, but surely some day, when we are all bored to death with the commonplace character of modern fiction, it will hearken to her and try to borrow her wings.

And when that day dawns, or sunset reddens, how joyous we shall all be! Facts will be regarded as discreditable, Truth will be found mourning in her fetters, and Romance, with her temple of wonder, will return to the land. The very aspect of the world will change to our startled eyes. Out of the sea will rise Behemoth and Leviathan, and sail round the high-pooped galleys, as they do on the delightful maps of those ages when books on geography were actually readable. Dragons will wander about the waste places, and the phoenix will soar from her nest of fire into the air. We shall lay our hands upon the basilisk, and see the jewel in the toad's head. Champing his gilded oats, the Hippogriff will stand in our stalls, and over our heads will float the Blue Bird singing of beautiful and impossible things, of things that are lovely and that never happen, of things that are not and that should be.

Too bad, isn't it, that Wilde did not live to see and appreciate Professor Tolkien's extraordinary works of fantasy? Surely, of all 20th century authors, Tolkien wrote the most beautifully and the most profoundly of "things that are lovely and that never happen, of things that are not and that should be."