Rest in Peace, Christopher Tolkien

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

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: 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.

Our Own Dear John Ronald: Copyists’ Ignorant Errors

'Go back to the Shadow! You cannot pass.'

Our Own Dear John Ronald: Dvergatal

In the original Old Norse, the Dvergatal contains rather more than sixty names, mostly strung together as a simple rhythmic list.

Our Own Dear John Ronald: The Energy of Old Words

"Tolkien was almost excessively 'tough-minded': (...) all drove him to work out from single words, or cruxes, or kernels, or nuggets."

Our Own Dear John Ronald: Tolkien’s Heresy

"There is an ancient myth in this feature, that of the 'true language', the tongue in which there is a thing for each word and a word for each thing, and in which signifier then naturally has power over signified."

Our Own Dear John Ronald: March 25th

"How do I feel? Well, I don't know how to say it. I feel, I feel, I feel like spring after winter, and sun on the leaves; and like trumpets and harps and all the songs I have ever heard!"

Our Own Dear John Ronald: Gold Galdre Bewunden

The old hoard the Night shall keep, / while earth waits and the Elves sleep.

Our Own Dear John Ronald: Power Corrupts

'True-hearted Men, they will not be corrupted.' (...) 'I am too strong for you, halfling'.