Thinking and writing about Tolkien's life and works.
Dec 12 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
In 1936, Tolkien published a Christmas poem called "Noel" in the annual journal of a Catholic school near Oxford. For about 80 years the text of the poem was lost to history until Wayne Hammond and Christina Scull visited the school and found it in the archives. Here is the poem:
Grim was the world and grey last night:
The moon and stars were fled,
The hall was dark without song or light,
The fires were fallen dead.
The wind in the trees was like to the sea,
And over the mountains' teeth
It whistled bitter-cold and free,
As a sword leapt from its sheath.
Jun 27 • 82 tweets • 14 min read
For those interested, here's a thread to follow along as I explore the letters of J.R.R. Tolkien - both published and unpublished. 1/x1. TCG Letter 2066, Christmas 1893: a Christmas card to his father, Arthur. Transcribed by his mother, Mabel, it reflects Tolkien's pronunciations at 2-years-old: to "Daddy Toekins" from "Wanild Toekins."
Jun 22, 2024 • 22 tweets • 4 min read
Okay, so here we go. A thread on some Tolkienian metaphysics - the nature of Eru, the Ainur, and Tolkienian sub-creation - as discussed in Jonathan McIntosh's The Flame Imperishable... 1/x
Let’s start with the concept that Tolkien, in McIntosh’s words, “deliberately imbues” Eru “with just the kind of Old Testament ambiguity that would allow for…a later Trinitarian interpretation.”
Dec 14, 2023 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
In 1936, Tolkien published a Christmas poem called "Noel" in the annual journal of a Catholic school near Oxford. For about 80 years the text of the poem was lost to history until Wayne Hammond and Christina Scull visited the school and found it in the archives. Here is the poem:
Grim was the world and grey last night:
The moon and stars were fled,
The hall was dark without song or light,
The fires were fallen dead.
The wind in the trees was like to the sea,
And over the mountains' teeth
It whistled bitter-cold and free,
As a sword leapt from its sheath.
Nov 28, 2023 • 12 tweets • 5 min read
Okay, as promised, here's one more thread on Tom Bombadil with a thought I've had today. When we first meet Tom in LOTR, he has a long blue feather in his hat 1/x
You might think there's nothing to this blue feather, but it actually has an origin story. In The Adventures of Tom Bombadil, the eponymous first poem introduces Tom and he has a (white) swan feather in his hat, not a blue feather.
