It is pretty amazing that after The Lord of the Rings was finished and in many fan’s hands, the publishers and fans all wanted yet another sequel from Tolkien. I love the explanation on the different types of elves in this chapter. It is interesting that the “Light-elves” have seen the light and moved on whereas the “Dark-elves” are stuck in Middle-earth as outcasts. Since they stayed in the woods, they are also called Wood-elves. This was a really cool connection to me. Yet again, it shows that Tolkien stuck with evidence to back up his word usage (which I think makes his work so much more credible even for a writer of fantasy). I think it is awesome how Tolkien defended his work by saying that all of it was “fundamentally linguistic in inspiration” (230). That is a great way to defend your career and works of fiction. I think he was rather brilliant in his explanations. I truly believe that Tolkien was incredibly motivated and believed that tradition, legend, and myth should go on. Shippey talks about Tolkien’s The Book of Lost Tales as Tolkien’s way to try and make it so that fairy-tale collections weren’t as weak in England. He wanted to reverse the effect. I think it is cool that many of Tolkien’s works show his life and his values as a human.
I think the summary of The Silmarillion that Shippey gives is pretty cool. While I was reading it I was definitely thinking about Christianity and how our world was created by God. The connection between the Fall of Man vs. the loss of innocence in elves (239) was equally cool. It is certainly neat that The Silmarillion offers a different view of sin than we have in Genesis.
The section titled A passion for family history had me so confused that I had to read it about four times before I even began to see what was going on in the story. I think it is entirely confusing because I have not read The Silmarillion. The plot that is summarized by Shippey is actually very neat if thought about. It sounds so sad. I think it is crazy that Tolkien wrote fantasy to be just as realistic and complex as non-fiction can be. Not to mention, The Silmarillion sounds quite intriguing just because of all of the complexities such as first-cousin marriage cannot happen in the elvish families (246). To me, that sounds interesting because I love stories with twists!
It is incredibly sweet that Tolkien was so in love with his stories and written works throughout his life that he had the names ‘Beren’ and ‘Luthien’ carved into his and his wife’s gravestone. The connection between him and his wife is also another thought that gets me. This man was so into his work but had all the time in the world to love his wife too. I can clearly see where the themes of Tolkien’s works fit in to his life and vice versa, especially his theme of death. I think it would be hard to lose both parents at a young age and live through a world war watching everyone around you die. It would certainly be a theme that stuck in my head for the rest of my life too.
Since Christianity is a big focus to me lately, I found it interesting that the setting of the work is pagan, or pre-Christian. Christ is not the one rescuing, but the Silmaril is. Even more interesting is the idea that the pre-Christian figures were intuitive about Christ because everything that is included in their belief could possibly equate with later religious theories. I have a lot of respect for Tolkien at this point. I realize now through the reading that his ideas was to bring his religion and pre-Christian beliefs together respectably because he loved his work and his ways of life. This is a major accomplishment and he should be proud that he did such a wonderful job. Today, people can make inferences and research the religion in his major works.
Again, I have a high level of respect for the man that was able to write about paganism which he disliked so so that the myths would remain in tradition for years to come. I do not know if I could do it myself. I also have respect for Tolkien’s son, Christopher, as he tries to keep his father’s stories alive as well as he can. Hopefully that will do the trick and Tolkien’s work will be around for many years to come.
Keilah Bradley November 12, 2008, at 10:02 PM
