Rest in Peace, Christopher Tolkien

Christopher John Reuel Tolkien died on 16 January 2020, at the age of 95, in Draguignan, Var, France.

R.I.P J.R.R.T.

There is The Bard, and then there is The Professor.

700 Years Ago Today: The Declaration of Arbroath, 6 April 1320

"As long as but a hundred of us remain alive, never will we on any conditions be brought under English rule. It is in truth not for glory, nor riches, nor honours, that we are fighting, but for freedom - for that alone, which no honest man gives up but with life itself".

Poesie: Frost’s Birches

One could do worse than be a swinger of birches.

Poesie: Roethke’s In a Dark Time

Although thoroughly postmodern, the American poet Theodore Roethke would have been at home with almost any of the lyric poets of the 16th and 17th centuries.

Our Own Dear John Ronald: Lent with Niggle

If you are looking for something to read in a meditative way during the next 40 days, try Tolkien's 'Leaf by Niggle'.

Our Own Dear John Ronald: The Power of Song

Have we forgotten, or do we just habitually underestimate the power of song?

Our Own Dear John Ronald: Reconstructing

Here's a more scholarly way of expressing how (and why) Tolkien saw himself as a discoverer of legends rather than an inventor of stories.

Remembering Our Ancestors: Elisha Andrews

Remembering Elisha Andrews and his wife Ruth Loveland takes us back to colonial America.

Our Own Dear John Ronald: Father and Son

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (1892 - 1973) and Christopher John Reuel Tolkien (1924 - 2020)