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“There is an essential bond between human freedom and truth, so that freedom which refused to be bound to the truth would fall into arbitrariness and end up submitting itself to the vilest of passions, to the point of self-destruction.”

~Pope Leo XIII

The Angel with the Key to the Abyss - Albrecht Dürer, 1511.

What inspired Tolkien to create the Middle Earth?

As Tolkien himself puts it, the whole legendarium started when he came across a strangely-sounding name of Earendel in one of the Old-Saxon poems. Upon reading the first few lines, he felt

“a curious thrill, as if something had stirred in me, half wakened from sleep. There was something very remote and strange and beautiful behind those words.”

In a letter to Mr. Rang, Tolkien says that it was the sound of this name that enchanted him. This sound was enough to plant in him the desire to create myths around this name.

For the Inklings, the name is the primary reality. The story — or what happened — is secondary. The main question is “Who?”, not “What?” What happens is always secondary to who it happens to.

The Hobbit was conceived in much the same way when Tolkien mindlessly scribbled on a piece of paper: “In the hole underground, there lived a hobbit.” The subsequent story was the elaboration on that name. The primary reality is “Who,” not “What.”

“What’s in a name?” Everything. By naming something or someone, we invoke the invisible reality that this name points to.

For Tolkien, the name is the ultimate mystery of who we are and what we are capable of. The name is for him “the primary world.” Everything else flows out of it. The reason Tolkien’s writing is so appealing is that WE ALL WANT TO KNOW WHO WE ARE!

“A poet is a blind optimist. The world is against him for many reasons. But the poet persists. He believes that he is on the right track, no matter what any of his fellow men say. In his eternal search for truth, the poet is alone. He tries to be timeless in a society built on time.”

― Jack Kerouac, Atop an Underwood: Early Stories and Other Writings

"No pessimist ever discovered the secrets of the stars, or sailed to an uncharted land, or opened a new heaven to the human spirit."

Helen Keller

Thorin’s letter to Bilbo/the contract, written in Tengwar by J.R.R. Tolkien [page 2]. Not printed in the original edition of The Hobbit because it was too diffuclt to reproduce.

Thorin and Company to Burglar Bilbo greeting! For your hospitality our sincerest thanks, and for your offer of professional assistance our grateful acceptance. Terms: cash on delivery, up to and not exceeding one fourteenth of total profits (if any); all traveling expenses guaranteed in any event; funeral expenses to be defrayed by us or our representatives, if occasion arises and the matter is not otherwise arranged for. Thinking it unnecessary to disturb your esteemed repose, we have proceeded in advance to make requisite preparations, and shall await your respected person at the Green Dragon Inn, Bywater, at II a.m. sharp. Trusting that you will be punctual. We have the honour to remain Yours deeply Thorin & Co.

“Come away, O human child!

To the waters and the wild

With a faery, hand in hand,

For the world's more full of weeping than you can understand.”

William Butler Yeats, The Collected Poems of W.B. Yeats.

Margaret Tarrant - Midsummer Night.

The Song of Wandering Aengus

BY WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS

I went out to the hazel wood,

Because a fire was in my head,

And cut and peeled a hazel wand,

And hooked a berry to a thread;

And when white moths were on the wing,

And moth-like stars were flickering out,

I dropped the berry in a stream

And caught a little silver trout.

When I had laid it on the floor

I went to blow the fire a-flame,

But something rustled on the floor,

And someone called me by my name:

It had become a glimmering girl

With apple blossom in her hair

Who called me by my name and ran

And faded through the brightening air.

Though I am old with wandering

Through hollow lands and hilly lands,

I will find out where she has gone,

And kiss her lips and take her hands;

And walk among long dappled grass,

And pluck till time and times are done,

The silver apples of the moon,

The golden apples of the sun.

#Constantinople #thelaststand #enemyatthegates