Posted on 02/20/2019 9:52:46 PM PST by BlackVeil
Yes, my precious, the preview will stoke your appetite for the upcoming adventure about the fantasy-writing author. ...
(Excerpt) Read more at huffingtonpost.com.au ...
Tolkien’s estate is really starting to milk it. Was this biopic done with Christopher Tolkien’s blessing?
Listmembers! This film about Tolkien will have to include his good friend C.S. Lewis. They both taught at Oxford University and wrote fantasy novels, at the same time.
That’s a good question - I don’t know.
It looks interesting. I have read a few Narnia books and know that Tolkien influenced CS Lewis, but I have not read LOTR/Hobbit.
If the Christian faith was as instrumental in the life and imagination of Lewis as it was for Tolkien, I would hope the film touches on that...
You should read Lewis’ Space Trilogy: ‘Out of the Silent Planet’, ‘Perelandra’, and ‘That Hideous Strength’.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Hollywood completely ignored the always present Christian influence on his writing. But make no mistake, Tolkien was also fascinated by mythology, particularly Norse mythology, which was pagan. I read his authorized biography a long time ago, and they were both overshadowing themes in his literary studies.
Thanks so much for the reminder. I remember reading a moving quote in an article a few years ago and it turns out it was an excerpt taken from That Hideous Strength...
That Hideous Strngth anticipates the academic lunacy of today. Its a fantastic book.
Gave me nightmares. Perelandra was my favorite. I will have to re-read.
Tolkien’s impetus for writing was his belief that unlike the Romans, Greeks etc, the Ango-Saxons lacked a mythology. He thus set out to create his own
Anglo-Saxon I should say
It has its crazy sections. But the chapters about NICE are brilliant and prophetic.
In fact. The English had folklore, however. Tolkien sought to combine it with a sort of Norse-flavored mythology. Not a bad idea, by the look of it.
Few authors have created such a believable complex fictional history and lines of descent
Was that in the biography? I don’t remember although it was a long time since I’ve read it. One thing I remember is Tolkien describing himself and us as sub-creators to the one creator, God. That having imparted his spirit into us we also have the desire to create. So he created his land of Middle Earth and all the creatures in it. Middle Earth, being in the middle, between Heaven and Hell.
I hope they make a good job of it.
I attended a talk once by the actor Robert Hardy (All Creatures Great and Small, Churchill:The Wilderness Years, Harry Potter etc) who remembered listening with some degree of wonder even then, to CS Lewis and JRR Tolkien during his time at Magdalen. What a pair to be taught by!
Professor Tolkien would be regarded as deeply unfashionable today, and would certainly be sneered at by many on the Left. Aside from his magnificent work with language (as already commented on in this thread) he was a conservative and had a deep passion for (gasp) England.
Why in Gods name would the goddamn nothington post, post anything about personal responsibility?
Another theme I suppose was his ‘down to nature’ outlook. Not a tree-hugger in the modern sense but respectful of it. The elves particularly represented that aspect of him. By the way, they also reflect his long study of Norse mythology. In early German lore, they were regarded as enlightened beings, but later as evil, mischievous ones. This reflects how they were viewed by humans in Middle Earth. In LOTR, Boromir and generally all Gondorians viewed them with mistrust, but that was set in a later age than the Silmarilian, when they weren’t. There’s a lot more behind his stuff than is immediately apparent. Like a lot of things I suppose.
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