Middle-earth Journeys

Merry, I think another major theme in LOTR is, of course, the concept of Death as a Gift and Tolkien's creation of the race of the Eldar/Elves as an attempt to illuminate what it might truly mean to be immortal, to show us that immortality does in fact have its tremendous pitfalls. In a way, Anne Rice examines the same concept in her series of books that have come to be known as The Vampire Chronicles, illustrating the difficulties an immortal creature encounters as he/she remains the same while the world about them changes.

Shippey comes back to this theme quite a bit as well. I think he is the one who made the comment that immortality in effect causes the Elves to become "embalmers" of the world they knew and loved -- that in essence they remain constantly the same while the world around them changes like lightning, and the only way they can cope is to use their power to preserve the familiar. If I remember correctly, Tolkien himself says in his letters that his works are ultimately about the question of Death and Immortality.

Il y a un message, un autre point de vue dans ''Le portrait de Dorian Gray'', intéressant, qui ne parle pas tout à fait d'immortalité, mais de beauté, et ce récit a fait l'objet de plusieurs films. Ce n'est pas mal non plus comme leçon sur la futilité, le superficiel; évidemment ,à la longue, l'immortalité doit être pénible au milieu des personnes à durée de vie normale.... Comme le dit un humoriste français, Pierre Dac, (ou Woody Allen ,je ne sais plus,pardon) :''L'éternité c'est long, surtout à la fin''!!-clin d'oeil-

Simplement je me souviens de signaler que je pense que Tolkien a été inspiré également par la légende nordique de Siegfried e l'anneau sacré; récit fantastique scandinave mis en musique par Wagner, et dont un film en 2 parties a été tiré.
En fait ce sont toujours les mêmes thèmes qui sont exploités: l'innocence(au début), le désir, la puissance, le sacrifice, la trahison, la force, la faillibilité, le courage, l'espérance,et enfin le salut ou la fin tragique. Et je crois bien que l' amour pur, sincère , indéfectible, n'est évoqué que par Tolkien dans les personnages 'Aragorn et Arwen', deux héros tendres et forts, divins et humains, fidèles et résolus.

Great line about eternity, Michka!

Death/deathlessness is certainly one of the themes I had on my list. I'm reminded of the tragic line from one of Tolkien's letters, that by the time he was twenty-one, all but one of his friends were dead, as were, of course, his parents. How to reconcile this with his belief in a loving God? When Gollum and the Ringwraiths are the alternatives to death, however, a death such as Theoden's might even be embraced.

I also had the Norse legends on my list of influences. I'm starting to think that four one-hour lectures might not be enough!

Pour devenir un peu plus savante, j'ai trouvé sur le site 'Librairie de Tolkien', 3 ouvrages qui me tentent: Le lais de Beleriand, Les lettres de Tolkien(H.Carpenter), et Tolkien, auteur du siècle( T.Shippey). Afin de poursuivre nos discussions ,j'ai besoin d'en connaître davantage en lisant tout cela. Y aura-t-il un résumé de vos conférences sur le forum, svp?

Good choices, Michka, and we'd love to continue discussion in those threads! One really feels that one knows Tolkien after reading those letters.

salut, au sujet des conférences ,je pense aussi à un développement sur l'IDEALISATION des sentiments, de la relation amoureuse, comme les voit JRR Tolkien, qu'en pensez-vous?

Happy birthday, dearest Bilbo and Frodo! May your long-expected party be a celebration of special magnificence!

In my heart of hearts, the Baggins' birthday is the real celebration of fall, moreso than Halloween! Tonight there will be mushrooms and cake for dinner!

Et qui soufflera les bougies? Bonne et belle soirée d'anniversaire à nos chers Hobbits!!!

No candles, Michka. It would be fun to celebrate the hobbits' birthday with children, though, wouldn't it?

Oui, ce serait sympathique, les adultes seraient ravis de la fête aussi, et ces jours prochains ce sera l'anniversaire de notre grand ROI, alors là, ce serait du délire!!!

I thought I'd report on how my first talk on LOTR went this morning. It was so much fun! This was in one of the local Presbyterian churches, between services so that people could come early or stay later to attend. There were about thirty people there, ranging from folks who had never read the books or seen the movies to a young guy who brought his one-volume tome and had written about LOTR for his senior college thesis. So finding middle ground was challenging!

My first talk was about the more biographical themes for Tolkien: his life story, the influence of WW1, his English-ness, his philology, his friendship with CSL, and his theory of myth and eucatastrophe. We had nice discussions about why the Hero has to be motherless and whether we like CSL's very obvious Christianity or JRRT's more subtle version better. I also asked them to think of real-life stories that have mythic qualities. There was a lot of good participation and the people who hadn't seen the movies arranged to meet before next Sunday to watch them all! (I warned them that that might take twelve hours or so!)

Next week, the topic will be moral themes and the week after that will be religious themes. I have to say that it is really nice to be able to present myself in a situation like this, where I didn't know the audience or their level of engagement with the material, and sort of fly by the seat of my pants! I think all the years of discussion here and in other places has really helped with that. Gotta love being thought of as a Tolkien expert!

Il est réellement bon et efficace de lire les compte-rendus des discussions, interventions publiques, partages des idées, confrontations des théories et je suis vraiment ravie de pouvoir m'en imprégner afin de connaître davantage l'auteur de ce trésor d'imagination qu'était Tolkien, ainsi que les sources dont il a tiré les éléments de son écriture; avoir l'avis éclairé de spécialistes me remplit d'enthousiasme et fortifie ma soif de connaissance, merci!

I agree, Michka--this is all good and wise and fun!

May I ask you about idioms? Does the phrase 'fly by the seat of my pants' translate into French?