Jan. 3, 2014 ~ Happy 122nd Birthday, Professor, with poem by jan-u-wine.

[mechtild]

~*~

Happy Birthday, Professor Tolkien!







Jan-u-wine has delivered yet again, writing a beautiful personal reminiscence of the Professor in narrative verse. But before the poem, a few photographs....


I posted this photograph last year, but it's one of my favourites. He's standing in front of his favourite tree in the Oxford Botanical Garden. It was taken Aug. 9, 1973, a month before he died.






There are quite a few photos of Tolkien smoking a pipe, no longer an approved pastime (however cherished by hobbits, wizards and academics of previous eras). Two of my favourites follow. I regret I do not know who photoshopped the first of the two. Note how examples of Tolkien's writing and drawing are deftly included along two of the borders.






This, perhaps, is my favourite Tolkien portrait.






The following photo shows Tolkien and his son Christopher napping together in the garden behind their Oxford house. I have always loved it as a candid snapshot offering a glimpse of Tolkien as an ordinary person, not just a Great Writer. After reading jan-u-wine's piece I found the photo more broadly applicable. Looking again, thinking of the poem, I couldn't help seeing Jan, and all us fans, as the small sleeper, experiencing through art a sense of closeness to the man who created the books and secondary world we love, as though we could share his dreams.

Mea Cuppa


Might I borrow a cupful of hours,
a tablespoon of minutes

a teaspoon of second-hand
seconds?

I promise I shall not return them.

From the hours shall be forged memories,
whip-stitched 'round the small commas of minutes,

held
at the last,
by the small 'period' of a second.

Might I borrow these things?

Might I have just a bit more
of that which you have already
so kindly given?


~ . * ~ . * ~ . * ~ .* ~ . * ~ . * ~ . * ~ . * ~ . * ~ . * ~ . * ~ . * ~ . * ~ . * ~ . * ~ . * ~ . * ~


And so, we walk among the trees,
green and swaying in the wide winds of the world,

knees knobbled by unknown Ages,
roots buried in leaves-of-Autumn-past.

And so,
we walk upon the shore,
star-grist adamant between our toes,

a long-silent leaden dog rover-ing
amongst the sea-wrack.

And so...... we talk of smials
and stars,

of curly heads
and ageless wisdom,

of malice honed sharp
as any sword

of deeds of evil
overthrown

by the bright armour
of love.

Here,
within the sweet-fogg'd lands
of your home,

is the smithy of such dear
devotion,

here,

the kindly word-smith,
forging forever

of nighted curlicues
upon a pale field.


Forever.

Just a moment
in the great river of moments,

just a rounded half-note in
the grand music
of All.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

And time runs out,
like the tide upon our life-shore,

and I lie here,
dreaming and alone,

tear-thankful that there have been
such people,

such places,
such.......

time(s).

And wishing that I might have just a
cuppa

more.

~*~

Tolkien's favourite tree today (pinus nigra in the Oxford Botanic Garden):







This more distant shot shows its great height and vast canopy. The wall behind is extremely high, much taller than any person. It makes me think of the tree Niggle spent his life painting, the one he could never finish it. Or, of course, the Tree of Tales.









Previous entry:

~ 'The Desolation of Smaug' by jan-u-wine, with screencap from film.

Other Links:

~ All entries featuring jan-u-wine's poems.

Comments

[jan-u-wine.livejournal.com]

okay, I'm ready to have another go at answering!

I have to agree that S/J is not in main similar to F/S. It's just, I suppose, that 'hero/side-kick' relationships have common elements, and that is what makes them so attractive to writers. It's such a luxury to write the common elements, and then take off in flight writing the unique elements. There are certain truths that hold true for me when I am writing pieces from LOTR (I don't really write S/J, as I don't have the sense, at least yet, of the characters). When I write Frodo, he's always got Sam somewhere there in his mind. And Sam always has Frodo somewhere in his heart. It isn't a conscious thought with me......it's part of writing in these voices. It's part of hero/side-kick character truth, imo. The wonderful ying/yang of the thing, with the intellect balanced by the organic heart.

It's like God-love (agape, a more far-off love) being balanced (and made larger thereby)by philia (human, brotherly love, such love as is immediate and 'close' in terms of our humanity).

Anyway, onward.

I think that I quite understand why slashers (or many of them) write Frodo as the emo d/q. I think we partially have Petey to blame for that, since he, by omission or commission, cut off poor Frodo's appendages, made him ever so much a different/less person than book Frodo was. Then there is the nature of slash/man-love itself. In a general sort of way, one of the partners is going to be less male than the other. One is going to be, shall we say, beta to the other one's alpha. And then it's just a matter of degree. And sometimes just sloppy, easy writing to take a Frodo who is by nature gentle, kind, a sort of dreamer(all things we unfortunately may associate with weakness and.......gayness?) and then has been undermined by the horrors of the Quest and just make him a clinging wife to *his* Sam. (but I also understand why you gave up on reading sappy slash)

No, Frodo certainly is no sociopath. But imho, he has issues that pre-date the Quest (don't we all) and that were brought to a terrible point after. He's just as emotionally in need of balancing as Sherlock. Sherlock just really (as played by BC), IS a drama queen. Frodo is really not so. But it makes you wonder: Frodo is most definitely and obviously compromised during the latter parts of the Quest and post-Quest. You don't see him so pre-Quest. But ....was what held him together the constancy of his life then? The lovely order of it.

But, when you think of it, that is what holds most of us together, holds the demons which lurk inside at bay: the normalcy and pattern of our lives, with the people and things that we hold dear at our sides. Take those things away, and the demons may come out to play. And that is really what happened to Frodo, in a large way. But no, no sociopath was he.

Sherlock and John as dating possibilities: actually, I would not want to date either of them, John being very much too dedicated to Sherlock. Right now (and for the 'past two years') he thinks Sherlock is dead and has become dedicated to someone else. How all of these relationships will be tested! (we have not had any of the new series yet in the US). It will be interesting to see how John copes with having two ultimately important and priority relationships in his life. We already know Sherlock won't cope well!