Raise a Toast to the Professor!

It's J. R. R. Tolkien's birthday today, his 128th to be precise. A great intellect, a creative mind, and a man of faith; a humble man whose impact on our culture has become almost incalculable.

A man whose legacy seems to be in danger, to me, now that his son Christopher has retired from being conservator and gatekeeper. At least in the old days, writers who wanted to "expand" the Legendarium had to use some kind of obvious disguise; now expansions will operate with the shield of licensing. What will the new stories from Amazon about the Second Age contain? Will they contradict Tolkien's own philosophies and creations?

Frankly, I don't care. I don't plan on expending any time or resources on it. Only if something different is published from Tolkien's own files do I expect to buy any more Tolkien books. Or a volume containing his work on Finn and Hengest, The Old English Exodus, and The Ancrene Riwle, with perhaps his Middle English Dictionary from 14th Century Verse and Prose included. Now that would be worth having.

Mr. Baggins' Birthday

Happy 127th, J. R. R. Tolkien!

One hundred and twenty-seven years ago today, this quintessentially English author was born in South Africa, where his father had taken his wife and had a job being a representative for the bank he worked for. Tolkien and his younger brother had been moved back to England when he was three, for his mother's health, and while there his father had died unexpectedly. A complete orphan from the age of thirteen, a Catholic convert in an Anglican milieu, and poor, he struggled with his education in philology, his pursuit of the love of his life, Edith, his perceived avocation as poet, and just as he was maturing into adulthood, the calamity of the First World War. He survived to achieve all these quests, and in the process became one of the most recognized and influential authors of the Twentieth Century, whose dreams are still going strong in the Twenty-First.

I have been following the Straight Road that leads to Elfinesse since 1973, the year he passed away, when I first went to see a dramatic version of "The Hobbit" at our local high school. Now I'm wondering, with the publication of "The Fall of Gondolin", the last volume of Tolkien's original work to be overseen by his son Christopher, if I should, so to say, 'close the book' on the Tolkien Phenomenon for myself. Not to stop reading him, of course, but perhaps to step back from the cultural roller-coaster that seems to have developed around his Legendarium. I have watched it, in the hands of others, move farther and farther away from his original vision. Some of it, of course, can be seen as development; but it is painful to observe what is all too obviously deviation.

And so, after forty-six years, I think it might be time to step off the popular culture ride. I know we've got a five-year Amazon LOTR series on the horizon, but I just don't have the faith to pin any hopes on it. I'm not sure if I'll have the time, treasure, and attention to follow it. But perhaps there will be a miracle. Perhaps the vigor of the source material will be strong enough to shine through. Maybe the old tree will put forward a new leaf for the next generation. Maybe.

May it be.

Many Happy Returns!

Today is the celebration of Bilbo and Frodo's birthday, or, as the vulgar have it these days, Hobbit Day. It is also the first day of Fall, so we doubly celebrate it around here.
I have been very busy for the past two weeks, first with a beloved niece's wedding and then with my brother and his family's visit that was a happy consequence of the same. I apologize for my unexplained absence, but there it is. As Sam would say, "Well, I'm back."

Happy 126th!

Today is J. R. R. Tolkien's birthday!

Bilbo and Frodo's Birthday (Observed)

Tolkien made September 22, the day on which the first copies were purchased and read, Bilbo's and Frodo's birthdays, and the American Tolkien Association has designated as "Tolkien Week" the week in which September 22 falls. --The 1938 Hobbit Project

How the date of Bilbo's (and Frodo's) birthday corresponds with our calendar is a matter of debate. Appendix D of The Lord of the Rings says that our New Year's Day (January 1) corresponds "more or less" to the Shire's "January 9", and in standard years our September 14 and the Shire's "September 22" both fall 256 days after that date. However, Appendix D also says that the Shire calendar's "Midyear's Day" is "intended to correspond as nearly as possible to the summer solstice." In the Shire calendar, "September" (Halimath) 22 is 83 days after Midyear's Day. If we take the summer solstice to be our June 21, then Bilbo's and Frodo's birthday must be 83 days later, which is our September 12. --Footnote from Tolkien Gateway

Happy Birthday J. R. R. Tolkien, 2016

Today would have been J. R. R. Tolkien's 124th birthday; it is hard to think of any writer who has had such a continuing impact on literature and culture. I like to think it is because in many ways he offers a type of spiritual nutrition in such an attractive manner that people imbibe it which, when it is offered in its bare state, they would usually reject. It is the mental equivalent of broccoli and cheese.

I feel prompted at this time of celebration of "the Professor's" birthday to suggest a scholarly way of honoring his memory. I have noticed for quite a while that there are various quotes attributed to Tolkien that are more properly in origin from the film scripts by Phillipa Boyens and Fran Walsh, sometimes epitomizing ideas or longer phrases from the book, and sometimes made from the ladies' whole imagination. There is one quote, "A single fantasy is worth a thousand realities," that owes its association with Tolkien to a poster for Bakshi's animated version! I think it would please Tolkien's niggling spirit if we ascribed these things to their proper source.

Happy Birthday, Bilbo and Frodo?

I've been celebrating Bilbo and Frodo's birthday (an event that has come to be known as Hobbit Day in the wider world) more of less since I saw my first Tolkien calendar in 1977. For quite a few years, every September 14th I'd try to scrounge up some sort of feast for friends and family, even if it was only some root beer and Little Debbie Cakes.

Wait a minute, you might say. The Birthday was on September 22nd. It says so in the book. It's canon, dammit. What's this 14th biz?

Well, so it does. The story goes Tolkien chose September 22nd as Bilbo's birth date, because that was the day he misremembered as the publication date of The Hobbit (it was actually the 21st). But he also clearly states in the Appendices that there is a difference between the Shire Reckoning and the Gregorian Calendar. Here's what Wikipedia has to say about that:

"Due to the discrepancies between the Shire calendar and the Gregorian calendar there is some debate about when to celebrate Hobbit Day, since the actual birthday would be between September 12 and 14 the Gregorian calendar, as explained in the appendices of The Lord of the Rings." [The movable spread over those dates is due to optional days in the Shire Reckoning.]

The people who put together those early calendars were loyal nerds of the most devoted stripe, and had to set down the "actual" date. The fandom is a little looser, more casual these days, and it is a lot easier just to say "Happy Birthday" on the day it says right there in Chapter One, without worrying about those fusty old calculations in the back.

So, that's when I celebrate now, too. It is close to the publication of the book that started the whole business (for the public anyway), and most of the geek-world (especially the movie fandom) does it, so it's convenient. But I can't help but feel a little contrarian, and a little bit guilty, even though it's simply wishing two imaginary characters well on their made-up birthday.

Happy Birthday, J. R. R. Tolkien!

LORD OF DREAMS

Does he still walk with humble grace
Among the blessed immortal race?
Or could it be that, after rest,
He went upon a task unguessed
To once more come to mortal lands
To strengthen hearts with healing hands?
Perhaps he saw the wasted world
Darkened, doomed, to chaos hurled;
Saw blind arrogance ruling king
And the fading of all living things.

Perhaps he walks unknown to men
In different form than he wore then,
To prompt away from black despair,
And spread the word of peace and care
And teach the speech of old anew
When hearts were dear and tongues were true.
Who would not choose to aid his cause
To once more live the ancient laws,
To aid the folks who waste away,
And bring back beauty to their days?

Happy 121st, J. R. R. Tolkien!

Today is the one hundred and twenty-first anniversary of the birth of John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, shown here with his brother, Hilary Arthur Tolkien.

Happy Birthday, Bilbo and Frodo! Hobbit Oddities

"Stick to the forest track, keep your peckers up, hope for the best, and with a tremendous slice of luck you will come out one day and see the Long Marshes lying below you--and beyond them faint and far the top of the Lonely Mountain in the East. There is a path too across the Marshes..." --Bladorthin (Gandalf) bidding farewell to Bilbo and the dwarves on the verge of Mirkwood, form the original draft of The Hobbit, in The History of The Hobbit Part One: Mr Baggins, edited by John D. Rateliff. (Peckers in this instance meaning noses; he is essentially saying 'Chin up.')