J.R.R. Tolkien, Motorcars, and “The Bovadium Fragments”

We’ve visited Oxford during most of our trips to England. We rake the tube to Paddington Station and then a train to Oxford. The trip takes about an hour. We’d visit various colleges, the Sheldonian, Blackwell’s Bookstore, the covered market, the Ashmolean Museum, and the Bodleian Library. It’s an easy day trip from London.  

Christ College (which, if you’ve seen the Harry Potter movies, includes the dining hall) faces a meadow. It’s almost a shock to see a large tract of undeveloped land right by the bustle of traffic and tour groups. It’s quiet, peaceful, and rather beautiful. 

 

What I didn’t know until I read The Bovadium Fragments by J.R.R. Tolkien, was that for more than two decades, Oxford authorities almost ran a road through the middle of it.

To continue reading, please see my post today at Tweetspeak Poetry.

Some Thursday Readings 

 

Greek Fire – poem by Andrew Roycroft.

 

The Loneliness of Russia’s First Poet: Pushkin – Ilya Ganpantsura at Front Porch Republic.

 

“From a Window,” poem by Charlotte Mew – Sally Thomas at Poems Ancient and Modern.

 

How a Poem Often Happens – Megan Willome.

Editor of the Legendarium: Christopher Tolkien (1924-2020)

Imagine being a child, listening with your siblings to bedtime stories about Bilbo Baggins, or being enchanted at Christmas-time as your father read the latest installment in the Father Christmas letters, featuring the antics of Polar Bear. Then imagine being that child at five years old and grasping enough to point out inconsistencies in your father’s stories. Or being a young man in your 20s, and joining the likes of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Owen Barfield, and others for a weekly pint at the pub – participating in one of the most famous literary discussion groups of the 20^th century,

Perhaps it’s no wonder that J.R.R. Tolkien (1892-1973) eventually chose his youngest son Christopher Tolkien (1924-2020) as his literary executor. An academic and writer in his own right, Christopher would preserve and extend his father’s legacy for nearly 50 years after the author of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings died. It is because of Christopher’s dedication to this task that we have The Silmarillion, The Fall of Arthur, The Fall of Gondolin, Beren and Luthien, The Children of Hurin, The Lay of Aotrou and Itroun, and many other stories and tales. 

To continue reading, please see my post today at Tweetspeak Poetry.

The Last of the Tolkien Tales: “The Fall of Gondolin”

Gondolin is a city created by elves, hidden away in the mountains, the last outpost of light in the First Age of Middle-earth, when the evil forces of Morgoth have conquered almost everything else. Morgoth knows this city must exist, and he regularly sends search parties of orcs to find it. Its end is almost inevitable, and the story of that end is told in The Fall of Gondolin, the last of the unpublished tales of J.R.R. Tolkien.

Opposing Morgoth is Ulmo, the god of the sea, who raises up Tuor of the race of men. Tuor undertakes three great journeys in his life. 

The first is his journey from his own homeland toward the sea, subconsciously hearing the call of Ulmo. 

The second is his journey to Gondolin, where he comes to live and marry Idril, the daughter and only child of the elvish king. Tuor and Idril have a son, Earendil, who, outside the arc of this story, will have a son named Elrond of Rivendell, a main character of The Lord of the Rings.

Tuor’s third great journey will be to lead his family and a small remnant of the elves of Gondolin to safety, after the destruction of the city. 

And thus ends one of the great publishing stories of modern times.

To continue reading, please see my post today at Tweetspeak Poetry.

“The Fall of Arthur” – A Fragment by J.R.R. Tolkien

Blame it on Geoffrey of Monmouth(c.1095-c.1155). 

About the year 1136, Geoffrey published The History of the Kings of Britain. The account began with the founding of the British nation by the Trojans after the Greek-Trojan War, continuing through the arrival of the Anglo Saxons in the 7^thcentury. The work included the first known account of King Lear and his daughters, and it included an official account of King Arthur, the Knights of the Roundtable, and the prophecies of Merlin.

The work was accepted as history well into the 16^thcentury. It turned out to be mostly but not entirely fiction. But it was Geoffrey who first formalized the legend of King Arthur, which was further elaborated by Thomas Malory(1415-1471) and his Morte d’Arthur. (It was a Frenchman, however, Chretien de Troyes, who added Lancelot and the Holy Grail to the story.)

Arthur is a legend that still captivates – the idealist warrior who wanted to govern in a different way but ultimately betrayed by those he loved most, and those who loved him. Arthur has given us some of most enduring literary works, including Idylls of the Kingby Alfred Lord Tennyson. He’s also given us the widely popular versions of the story, including the Disney movie The Sword in the Stone, thenovels by Mary Stewart, and the Broadway musical and movie Camelot.

To continue reading, please see my post today at Tweetspeak Poetry.

Tales of the First Age: “Beren and Luthien” by J.R.R. Tolkien

Christopher Tolkien, the youngest of J.R.R. Tolkien’s three sons, will be 93 this year. He is his father’s literary executor, and he has spent the years since his father’s death in 1973 poring over papers and files, considering an array of various texts, different versions of stories and poems, staying true to his father’s vision and helping publish a considerable number of books that represent both wonderful stories and insights into The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. It is because of Christopher that we have The Silmarillion, The Children of Hurin, many of the lost tales, the elder Tolkien’s translation of Beowulf, and many other works.

Christopher Tolkien

The latest, and possibly the last, is Beren and Luthien, a love story between Beren, a mortal man in exile after his father and clanare killed, and Luthien, an Elf princess (the idea of which was carried over into The Lord of the Rings). Luthien is also called Tinuviel by Beren, and it is by that name we see her part in the story. Beren sees Luthien dancing in the woods and falls in love with her. Her father isn’t exactly pleased, and he agrees to the marriage only if Beren can steal a Silmaril, a jewel in the crown of Melkor, the Black Enemy, also known as Morgoth – and a forerunner of Sauron in the trilogy. He’s captured and enslaved in the kitchen, and Luthien travels to his rescue. With the help of a giant dog (who tricks an evil cat), she succeeds in Beren, and then more adventures happen.

To continue reading, please see my post today at Tweetspeak Poetry.