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Tag: Tolkien

  • Tolkien’s “Take That!” to Shakespeare

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    harmamae
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    Literary Fencing: Tolkien vs. Shakespeare While reading a book about Tolkien this week, I came across the fact that parts of Lord of the Rings were inspired by Macbeth.* Which I’d already known, and was super-obvious to me, especially in Eowyn’s most famous scene. But what I didn’t realize was how much of Lord of…

  • My Favourite Lord of the Rings Quote

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    harmamae
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    Continuing on my Lord of the Rings theme (or, to be honest, just barely remembering to post today), I have decided to share one of my favourite quotes from The Fellowship of the Ring: “For I am Saruman the Wise, Saruman Ring-maker, Saruman of Many Colours!” I I looked then and saw that his robes,…

  • Just Do Something

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    “I wish it need not have happened in my time,” said Frodo. “So do I,” said Gandalf, “and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.“ – The Fellowship of…

  • Of Cellar Doors, and Naming Characters

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    harmamae
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    “Most English-speaking people … will admit that cellar door is ‘beautiful,’ especially if dissociated from its sense (and from its spelling). More beautiful that, say, sky, and far more beautiful than beautiful…” –         Tolkien, again, in English and Welsh  Funny how some words sound nice, but when written, look ugly. I never would’ve thought of…

  • Concerning Hobbits

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    harmamae
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    In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. – The Hobbit  That has to be the most famous line ever scrawled on the back of a student’s exam paper. It’s such a good example of an intriguing opening line for a novel – I remember wondering just what a hobbit was, and why…

  • Un Bon Mot – Language Learning is Hard…

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    harmamae
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    No language is justly studied merely as an aid to other purposes. It will in fact better serve other purposes, philological or historical, when it is studied for love, for itself. – Tolkien, English and Welsh  I’m thinking this is true, as my Spanish and Portuguese “fluency” languishes… It’s tough to learn languages, and I…

  • Tolkien’s Take On True Love

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    harmamae
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    Since we’ve been talking about romance, here’s Tolkien’s take on the subject. He actually wrote an astoundingly long letter on the marriage to his son, in typical Tolkien style:  “But…  only the rarest good fortune brings together the man and woman who are really as it were ‘destined’ for one another, and capable of a…

  • A Thought from JRR Tolkien – Outside the Prison Walls of Reality

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    I thought I’d run out of quotes, until it occurred to me to look up authors I like and see what they say about writing. So – voila! – here is Tolkien, nicely following up on Oscar Wilde’s thoughts on real life in literature: I have claimed that Escape is one of the main functions…

  • A Meaningful Universe?–Defining Fantasy

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    harmamae
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    Fantasy, according to Crawford Kilian, takes place in a morally meaningful universe, and that is why readers like it so much. “In fantasy, meaning is not something we slap on from the outside, it’s built right into everything from the rocks and trees to the political system.” I do love fantasy, possibly because I believe…

  • EPICNESS in the Footsteps of Tolkien

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    harmamae
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    I went through a phase of being obsessed with epic fantasy (see the post Fantasy Round-Up). I still like it, but it’s less of an obsession. Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, The Wheel of Time series… the more epic, the better. So when I was assigned to write poetry in school I tried my…