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

[mechtild.livejournal.com]

TORC is still going? That's excellent. I had heard it had closed.
Ah, Pearl, I wish they had heeded Di's plea. Watching the Hobbit films, seeing Bilbo portrayed (so far) as someone who, however an "everyman", is possessed of pluck, clear perception and fortitude, I go, "if only...." All the more, I should think, will new viewers, people only coming into Tolkien's world via the Hobbit films, wonder when watching the LOTR, "why didn't they give the ring to Frodo? why couldn't they find someone with the courage, moral resources and inventiveness of Bilbo?"

*sobbing faces* (even though I shouldn't care any more; can't help it, I've been listening to the LOTR EE soundtracks this week, such gorgeous stuff)

[pearlette.livejournal.com]

Oh, the music is wonderful. TTT is my favourite (and certain bits of RotK). I'm not half so taken with Shore's Hobbit scores. DoS is a bit more like it, but it doesn't have the memorable themes and leitmotifs of the LotR scores.

Freeman's Bilbo is the best hobbit characterisation by far. He's brilliant.

The number of internet memes I see about Sam being the 'true' hero of LotR and not that drippy Frodo ... sigh.

I prefer that glimpse of thirty-something Frolijah in AUJ to his younger self: with hindsight, I would now much prefer a 30something to play Frodo and not the dewy youth that EJW was when he began filming. Had EJW had been older at the time of filming LotR, and also had he actually READ LotR (the silly boy), might he have fought harder for his character, I wonder? Astin was (understandably) annoyed that PJ wanted to make Samwise too bumbling and silly. He fought for his character. Well done him. (Unfortunately, his Sam still annoys me. Way too bossy, and forever rescuing a Frodo who makes silly decisions, i.e. sending Sam away at the Stairs of Cirith Ungol).

I'm glad you think 'I am quite a good writer.' ;)

[mechtild.livejournal.com]

You certainly ARE quite a good writer, Pearl/Di/Diamond of Long Cleve. I've thought that since I first read your posts at TORC, only reinforced by your writing at K-D. And that's not even talking about your fine fiction.

Yes, the Hobbit score is not as good as those that came before. It's still very good stuff, but not the "great" stuff written for LOTR. Perhaps Shore is a bit tired of it at this point. Too many years in between, not able to get the original passion back.

I agree with all you said about EW being too young to play Frodo. Not because he couldn't have done it as such, but for the reasons you state. Older, more seasoned, he'd have been far more likely to stand up to PJ and the writers on behalf of his character. Astin did, as you pointed out. McKellen did regularly, even if he did not always gain his point. He spoke up, he tried. Even agreeable Liv Tyler put her foot down now and then (I'm thinking of protesting the idea of kissing Aragorn's double rather than Viggo when filming that part of the coronation scene).

The trick would still be getting EW to read the blasted book. Would he be any more likely to read it at thirty than nineteen? He said in an interview during one of his films after LOTR he purposely didn't read books before acting in their adaptations for film, I think on the grounds that the film's version was always different so why lose sleep over it. Would he have changed his philosophy by thirty? Or better, I might ask, *has* he changed his method of not reading the original material from which roles he acts have been taken? I don't follow his career any more so I don't know.

I, too, am very impressed with Freeman's Bilbo. I'm so glad he was cast. I just wish the films were more focused on story-telling than opportunities for action sequences (typical PJ but someone needs to reign him in). They'd be so much richer, more nuanced, more interesting if there was more shown of what's going with the characters on a deeper level.

By the way, in my comment I wrote that new viewers of LOTR would be saying, "why didn't they give the ring to Frodo?" I am sure you realized I meant to write, "why DID they give the ring to Frodo?"