Chris Newton's Blog, page 3
October 6, 2023
A Knife in the Dark
It feels very appropriate that the events of A Knife in the Dark coincidence with National Poetry Month, as this chapter contains some of Tolkien's most beautiful verse.
Not only do we get Sam's rendition of The Fall of Gil-galad:
"Gil-galad was an elven-king.
Of him the harpers sadly sing;
the last whose realm was fair and free
between the Mountains and the Sea.
...
But long ago he rode away,
and where he dwelleth none can say;
for into darkness fell his star
in Mordor where the shadows are."
But also Strider singing The Song of Beren and Lúthien, which is quite possibly my favourite poem in the entire book:
"The leaves were long, the grass was green,
The hemlock-umbels tall and fair,
And in the glade a light was seen
Of stars in shadow shimmering.
Tinúviel was dancing there
To music of a pipe unseen,
And light of stars was in her hair,
And in her raiment glimmering..."
I've re-read The Silmarillion (and listened to the new Andy Serkis audiobook) more recently than The Lord of the Rings, so it's strange remembering quite how much Tolkien tells us about the First Age in this chapter. We hear about the Silmarils, brightest of all jewels; the Dark Lord Morgoth
and the elven king Thingol; the forest of Neldoreth and the river Esgalduin, and there are even mentions of Eärendil and the Kings of Númenor!
I wish I could remember what I made of all this when I first read it at 15 with absolutely no idea what any of that meant. I don't remember it seeming weird- I was too engrossed.
Tolkien’s genius was to incorporate these elements of his wider mythology into the 'New Hobbit' so that these 'textual ruins', though we might not understand them, contribute to giving his work the feel of a genuine history - like the reference to the mysterious "Oromë the Great" in The Ride of the Rohirrim.
I was working today, so I listened to the Rob Inglis audiobook on my drive home and, whilst I enjoy his narration, I am slightly disappointed that he doesn't sing. For me the ultimate rendition of The Fall of Gil-galad will always be Bill Nighy's as Sam in the BBC Radio dramatisation! (That, and my friend Jo, who sent me a voice note of her singing it the other night!!)
It's decidedly more autumnal since my last blog post. I'm writing this by pumpkin light. The golden sun of September is gone, replaced with grey rain and swirling leaves as tall black figures advance up the slope of Weathertop "so black they [seem] like deep holes in the shade behind them".
Reading this with the changing season really highlights the extent to which Frodo's Journey mirrors the death and rebirth of the year itself, as we move further from the Shire and into darkness.
Not only do we get Sam's rendition of The Fall of Gil-galad:
"Gil-galad was an elven-king.
Of him the harpers sadly sing;
the last whose realm was fair and free
between the Mountains and the Sea.
...
But long ago he rode away,
and where he dwelleth none can say;
for into darkness fell his star
in Mordor where the shadows are."
But also Strider singing The Song of Beren and Lúthien, which is quite possibly my favourite poem in the entire book:
"The leaves were long, the grass was green,
The hemlock-umbels tall and fair,
And in the glade a light was seen
Of stars in shadow shimmering.
Tinúviel was dancing there
To music of a pipe unseen,
And light of stars was in her hair,
And in her raiment glimmering..."
I've re-read The Silmarillion (and listened to the new Andy Serkis audiobook) more recently than The Lord of the Rings, so it's strange remembering quite how much Tolkien tells us about the First Age in this chapter. We hear about the Silmarils, brightest of all jewels; the Dark Lord Morgoth
and the elven king Thingol; the forest of Neldoreth and the river Esgalduin, and there are even mentions of Eärendil and the Kings of Númenor!
I wish I could remember what I made of all this when I first read it at 15 with absolutely no idea what any of that meant. I don't remember it seeming weird- I was too engrossed.
Tolkien’s genius was to incorporate these elements of his wider mythology into the 'New Hobbit' so that these 'textual ruins', though we might not understand them, contribute to giving his work the feel of a genuine history - like the reference to the mysterious "Oromë the Great" in The Ride of the Rohirrim.
I was working today, so I listened to the Rob Inglis audiobook on my drive home and, whilst I enjoy his narration, I am slightly disappointed that he doesn't sing. For me the ultimate rendition of The Fall of Gil-galad will always be Bill Nighy's as Sam in the BBC Radio dramatisation! (That, and my friend Jo, who sent me a voice note of her singing it the other night!!)
It's decidedly more autumnal since my last blog post. I'm writing this by pumpkin light. The golden sun of September is gone, replaced with grey rain and swirling leaves as tall black figures advance up the slope of Weathertop "so black they [seem] like deep holes in the shade behind them".
Reading this with the changing season really highlights the extent to which Frodo's Journey mirrors the death and rebirth of the year itself, as we move further from the Shire and into darkness.
September 30, 2023
Leaving Bree
We remarked on A Book at Breakfast how analogous Fellowship is to The Hobbit: Gandalf comes to the Shire, sends a middle aged hobbit off on an adventure, they stop at Rivendell for counsel, before continuing across the Misty Mountains and ending up underground with goblins. Gandalf leaves the company just before they enter an Elvish woodland realm, from which they eventually depart by sailing down a river... at which point they diverge slightly.
The only thing that doesn't follow chronologically is Tom Bombadil - although he is hugely analogous to Beorn. They're both more connected to nature that to the "human" elements of the story, and let the company stay at their house, despite not being invested in their cause. They also send the company on their way with ponies! And, like the ponies returning to Beorn on the outskirts of Mirkwood, I like the detail at the beginning of A Knife in the Dark that Merry's horses have returned to Tom Bombadil!
The only thing that doesn't follow chronologically is Tom Bombadil - although he is hugely analogous to Beorn. They're both more connected to nature that to the "human" elements of the story, and let the company stay at their house, despite not being invested in their cause. They also send the company on their way with ponies! And, like the ponies returning to Beorn on the outskirts of Mirkwood, I like the detail at the beginning of A Knife in the Dark that Merry's horses have returned to Tom Bombadil!
September 29, 2023
The Prancing Pony
Now that I've finally reached Bree, it would be rude not to have a pint in my Prancing Pony mug! Cheers!
And - seeing as I've finally heard from Gandalf for the first time since June, I'm reading from the hardback version of the John Howe one volume The Lord of the Rings
Also, I wanted to be reading a version with the appendices, to dip into The Tale of Aragorn and Arwen, seeing as we have just learned of Strider's true identity...
And - seeing as I've finally heard from Gandalf for the first time since June, I'm reading from the hardback version of the John Howe one volume The Lord of the Rings
Also, I wanted to be reading a version with the appendices, to dip into The Tale of Aragorn and Arwen, seeing as we have just learned of Strider's true identity...
September 28, 2023
Fog on the Barrow-downs
If In the House of Tom Bombadil was all about enjoying Pauline Banes' illustration, for Fog on the Barrow-downs, I'm going to listen to Andy Serkis narrating this chapter from his 2021 The Fellowship of the Ring audiobook.
Of all the voices he gives the characters, his Bombadil is by far my favourite - solely for the sheer infectious joy he puts into Tom's voice. I think I remember hearing Serkis say that Bombadil was his favourite character to voice - and you can hear why!
It probably goes without saying that I've been reading along to a soundtrack of Howard Shore. The last few chapters, however, have had no corresponding music on the soundtrack as the Old Forest / Tom Bombadil / Barrow-wights are entirely absent from Peter Jackson's film adaptations.
Or ... perhaps not entirely.
One thing I respect about Jackson's adaptations are the constant concessions to missing material. Tolkien himself acknowledged that the 'cannons of narrative art' require methods of telling a story or conveying an idea.
A perfect example is one of my favourite exchanges in The Two Towers, which is missing from even the extended edition of the film, in which Gandalf declares: 'Behold, I am not Gandalf the Grey, whom you betrayed. I am Gandalf the White, who has returned from death. You have no colour now, and I cast you from the order and from the Council.’
I mourned the loss of that line. However - the same exchange is portrayed visually at Meduseld when Théoden, under the influence of Saruman says, 'you have no power here, Gandalf the Grey,' to which Gandalf responds by casting aside his tattered grey cloak and revealing his white robes to Saruman. Same sentiment - different medium!
With Fog on the Barrow-downs, Jackson, Walsh, and Boyens seem deliberately to have peppered in multiple nods to this chapter to compensate for its absence. Firstly, there is Sméagol's song in the Forbidden Pool:
Cold be heart and hand and bone,
Cold be travellers far from home,
They do not see what lies ahead
when sun has failed and moon is dead.
Which is virtually identical to the Barrow-wight's incantation:
Cold be hand and heart and bone,
and cold be sleep under stone:
never more to wake on stony bed,
never, till the Sun fails and the Moon is dead.
In the black wind the stars shall die,
and still on gold here let them lie,
till the dark lord lifts up his hand
over dead sea and withered land.
But, far more importantly, it's easy to forget that Ian McKellen's 'Death is just another path, one that we all must take,' speech in The Return of the King film isn't in the book at all - although his words about the grey rain-curtain of this world are lifted entirely from Frodo's dream in Bombadil's house at the beginning of this chapter:
'Frodo heard a sweet singing running in his mind: a song that seemed to come like a pale light behind a grey rain-curtain, and growing stronger to turn the veil all to glass and silver, until at last it was rolled back, and a far green country opened before him under a swift sunrise.'
It's a nice nod to an overlooked chapter - skippable in adaptations, maybe, but important nonetheless, as this is where Merry gets his Westernesse dagger that he will eventually stab the Witch King with!
When I reach Bree tomorrow, I'll be able to resume the Howard Shore soundtrack - but in the meantime I'm happily reading along to 'Tom Bombadil's Song' by the Tolkien Ensemble!
I'm not quite at the end of the chapter today, so I still have a few pages of Tom's infectious joy to enjoy tomorrow...
Of all the voices he gives the characters, his Bombadil is by far my favourite - solely for the sheer infectious joy he puts into Tom's voice. I think I remember hearing Serkis say that Bombadil was his favourite character to voice - and you can hear why!
It probably goes without saying that I've been reading along to a soundtrack of Howard Shore. The last few chapters, however, have had no corresponding music on the soundtrack as the Old Forest / Tom Bombadil / Barrow-wights are entirely absent from Peter Jackson's film adaptations.
Or ... perhaps not entirely.
One thing I respect about Jackson's adaptations are the constant concessions to missing material. Tolkien himself acknowledged that the 'cannons of narrative art' require methods of telling a story or conveying an idea.
A perfect example is one of my favourite exchanges in The Two Towers, which is missing from even the extended edition of the film, in which Gandalf declares: 'Behold, I am not Gandalf the Grey, whom you betrayed. I am Gandalf the White, who has returned from death. You have no colour now, and I cast you from the order and from the Council.’
I mourned the loss of that line. However - the same exchange is portrayed visually at Meduseld when Théoden, under the influence of Saruman says, 'you have no power here, Gandalf the Grey,' to which Gandalf responds by casting aside his tattered grey cloak and revealing his white robes to Saruman. Same sentiment - different medium!
With Fog on the Barrow-downs, Jackson, Walsh, and Boyens seem deliberately to have peppered in multiple nods to this chapter to compensate for its absence. Firstly, there is Sméagol's song in the Forbidden Pool:
Cold be heart and hand and bone,
Cold be travellers far from home,
They do not see what lies ahead
when sun has failed and moon is dead.
Which is virtually identical to the Barrow-wight's incantation:
Cold be hand and heart and bone,
and cold be sleep under stone:
never more to wake on stony bed,
never, till the Sun fails and the Moon is dead.
In the black wind the stars shall die,
and still on gold here let them lie,
till the dark lord lifts up his hand
over dead sea and withered land.
But, far more importantly, it's easy to forget that Ian McKellen's 'Death is just another path, one that we all must take,' speech in The Return of the King film isn't in the book at all - although his words about the grey rain-curtain of this world are lifted entirely from Frodo's dream in Bombadil's house at the beginning of this chapter:
'Frodo heard a sweet singing running in his mind: a song that seemed to come like a pale light behind a grey rain-curtain, and growing stronger to turn the veil all to glass and silver, until at last it was rolled back, and a far green country opened before him under a swift sunrise.'
It's a nice nod to an overlooked chapter - skippable in adaptations, maybe, but important nonetheless, as this is where Merry gets his Westernesse dagger that he will eventually stab the Witch King with!
When I reach Bree tomorrow, I'll be able to resume the Howard Shore soundtrack - but in the meantime I'm happily reading along to 'Tom Bombadil's Song' by the Tolkien Ensemble!
I'm not quite at the end of the chapter today, so I still have a few pages of Tom's infectious joy to enjoy tomorrow...
September 26, 2023
Tom Bombadil
For the arrival of quite possibly my favourite character in Tolkien's entire legendarium, I had to read The Old Forest & the first half of In the House of Tom Bombadil from the one volume The Lord of the Rings illustrated by Pauline Baynes.
Tom Bombadil might not grace the cover of this volume, but Baynes' wonderful illustrations always bring to mind The Tolkien Treasury: The Adventures of Tom Bombadil
After Golberry shut the night out and the hobbits went to bed, I couldn't resist also re-reading the poems 'The Adventures of Tom Bombadil' and 'Bombadil goes Boating' from that collection.
Reading the appendix to the treasury for the first time, I discovered there was a third poem featuring Tom and Goldberry which I had never read - 'Once Upon a Time'!
Goldberry was there in a lady-smock
blowing away a dandelion clock,
stooping over a lily-pool
and twiddling the water green and cool
to see it sparkle round her hand:
once upon a time in elvish land.
Tom Bombadil might not grace the cover of this volume, but Baynes' wonderful illustrations always bring to mind The Tolkien Treasury: The Adventures of Tom Bombadil
After Golberry shut the night out and the hobbits went to bed, I couldn't resist also re-reading the poems 'The Adventures of Tom Bombadil' and 'Bombadil goes Boating' from that collection.
Reading the appendix to the treasury for the first time, I discovered there was a third poem featuring Tom and Goldberry which I had never read - 'Once Upon a Time'!
Goldberry was there in a lady-smock
blowing away a dandelion clock,
stooping over a lily-pool
and twiddling the water green and cool
to see it sparkle round her hand:
once upon a time in elvish land.
September 25, 2023
Mushrooms & Conspiracies
From one chapter over five months to two chapters in one day!
Today I'm reading THE John Howe illustrated The Lord of the Rings one volume paperback, with the cover image that Mark and I refer to as 'Gandalf in the Rain', and talk about at length on our LOTR episode of A Book at Breakfast
https://spotify.link/AoyyCS7YnDb
Farmer Maggot doesn't get much of a look in in the Jackson film, and it's easy to miss his significance.
Up to this point, Farmer Maggot and his dogs are about the scariest thing in the world to Frodo. There's something about revisiting things that terrified you as a child when you're an adult - they seem so much smaller. Meanwhile, something much more deadly is on Frodo's trail!
Frodo has faced a childhood fear in returning to Farmer Maggot's farm, but in laying those fears he is now realising the true perils ahead, as we stray further and further away from that cosy Hobbit tone...
I know some people who love reading in the bath, but it's never been for me. I'm too precious about books getting wet, but tonight I'm going to ignore that and read the last few pages of A Conspiracy Unmasked as the hobbits sing, hey! for a bath at the close of day that washes the weary mud away!
Today I'm reading THE John Howe illustrated The Lord of the Rings one volume paperback, with the cover image that Mark and I refer to as 'Gandalf in the Rain', and talk about at length on our LOTR episode of A Book at Breakfast
https://spotify.link/AoyyCS7YnDb
Farmer Maggot doesn't get much of a look in in the Jackson film, and it's easy to miss his significance.
Up to this point, Farmer Maggot and his dogs are about the scariest thing in the world to Frodo. There's something about revisiting things that terrified you as a child when you're an adult - they seem so much smaller. Meanwhile, something much more deadly is on Frodo's trail!
Frodo has faced a childhood fear in returning to Farmer Maggot's farm, but in laying those fears he is now realising the true perils ahead, as we stray further and further away from that cosy Hobbit tone...
I know some people who love reading in the bath, but it's never been for me. I'm too precious about books getting wet, but tonight I'm going to ignore that and read the last few pages of A Conspiracy Unmasked as the hobbits sing, hey! for a bath at the close of day that washes the weary mud away!
September 24, 2023
Three is Company: Home is Behind
At last, I've come to the end of Three is Company, having started reading it in April!
The hobbits have hidden from a Black Rider on the road, and are currently resting with Gildor and the other elves on the outskirts of Woodhall.
This reading has been enhanced greatly by my friend Mark Hetherington who - when I told him about my epic re-read - lent me a copy of Journeys of Frodo: An Atlas of J.R.R.Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings"
Barbara Strachey has created an absolutely wonderful book which provides step by step scale maps of Frodo's journey - complete with dates! It's comparatively rare nowadays, but absolutely worth tracking down a copy to accompany your next re-read of The Lord of the Rings.
Yesterday, I talked about the shifting tone from The Hobbit to LOTR. Upon meeting Gildor, his initial quip that 'hobbits are so dull', is reminiscent of the line in The Hobbit about elves teasing dwarves and laughing at their beards, but soon he is issuing stark warnings about the Enemy...
That shifting tone is perhaps best summed up by Frodo's paraphrasing of Bilbo's 'The Road Goes Ever On' in which 'eager feet' become 'weary feet.'
And, speaking of Elves, I'm embarrassed to admit it, but when I first read this at 15, I initially imagined Gildor to look like a certain diminutive 'elf' from the franchise-that-must-not-be-named. But it didn't take much 'I am Gildor Inglorion of the House of Finrod. We are Exiles, and most of our kindred have long ago departed and we too are now only tarrying here a while, ere we return over the Great Sea,' for the concept of elves to become radically altered in my mind...
If you're reading a blog about reading LOTR, then you've almost certainly read Tolkien's seminal essay Tolkien On Fairy-stories - but he has rather a lot to say about the modern concept of 'diminutive' elves:
'I suspect that this flower-and-butterfly minuteness was also a product of “rationalization,” which transformed the glamour of Elfland into mere finesse, and invisibility into a fragility that could hide in a cowslip or shrink behind a blade of grass.'
The hobbits have hidden from a Black Rider on the road, and are currently resting with Gildor and the other elves on the outskirts of Woodhall.
This reading has been enhanced greatly by my friend Mark Hetherington who - when I told him about my epic re-read - lent me a copy of Journeys of Frodo: An Atlas of J.R.R.Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings"
Barbara Strachey has created an absolutely wonderful book which provides step by step scale maps of Frodo's journey - complete with dates! It's comparatively rare nowadays, but absolutely worth tracking down a copy to accompany your next re-read of The Lord of the Rings.
Yesterday, I talked about the shifting tone from The Hobbit to LOTR. Upon meeting Gildor, his initial quip that 'hobbits are so dull', is reminiscent of the line in The Hobbit about elves teasing dwarves and laughing at their beards, but soon he is issuing stark warnings about the Enemy...
That shifting tone is perhaps best summed up by Frodo's paraphrasing of Bilbo's 'The Road Goes Ever On' in which 'eager feet' become 'weary feet.'
And, speaking of Elves, I'm embarrassed to admit it, but when I first read this at 15, I initially imagined Gildor to look like a certain diminutive 'elf' from the franchise-that-must-not-be-named. But it didn't take much 'I am Gildor Inglorion of the House of Finrod. We are Exiles, and most of our kindred have long ago departed and we too are now only tarrying here a while, ere we return over the Great Sea,' for the concept of elves to become radically altered in my mind...
If you're reading a blog about reading LOTR, then you've almost certainly read Tolkien's seminal essay Tolkien On Fairy-stories - but he has rather a lot to say about the modern concept of 'diminutive' elves:
'I suspect that this flower-and-butterfly minuteness was also a product of “rationalization,” which transformed the glamour of Elfland into mere finesse, and invisibility into a fragility that could hide in a cowslip or shrink behind a blade of grass.'
September 23, 2023
Three is Company: A Last Look at The Shire
It's finally September! I read of the two carts leaving Buckland on the 20th, and Frodo's birthday on the 22nd, but now this readthrough begins properly with Frodo's departure from Bag End!
For my re-read of the remainder of Three Is Company, I thought the most appropriate edition was Volume One of the Six Volume movie tie-in edition published by HarperCollins in 2001.
The Ring Sets Out
Fittingly, its foreword by Douglas A. Anderson begins: 'The Lord of the Rings is often erroneously called a trilogy..'
Famously, it was written as a single, continuous, volume by Tolkien, but it was the cost of printing such a huge book which made the publishers suggest splitting the work. Unlike the three volumes we're familiar with today, Tolkien suggested six volumes, and provided a title for each. The first volume, covering everything up to Flight to the Ford, was named 'The Ring Sets Out', which seems apposite for reading the beginning of Frodo's journey away from Hobbiton.
As the pale golden sun shines on spiderwebs in the garden, and the geese fly away for the winter in formation overhead, it's clearly no accident that the beginning of Frodo's journey - 23rd September - coincides with the Autumn equinox, when the sun's power begins to wane and we move towards the darkness.
The tone of this chapter - complete with a talking Fox - is still very reminiscent of The Hobbit, although all is beginning to change. It's interesting that Bilbo began his journey - from which we were assured he would come 'back again' in April, when life was returning and the hedgerows bursting with activity. Frodo, however, wonders if he 'shall ever see that valley again', as he looks back towards Hobbiton in the Autumnal dark.
Yet, 'hope remains' as Galadriel will remind us in Volume Two. Another interesting thing to note about this time of year is that the Morning Star reappears in the sky, rising about an hour before the sun. Although we'll have to wait until we get to Rivendell to learn more about the 'Flammifer of Westernesse'.
One thing about re-reading a book in (at this point) smaller chunks is that you pick up on details it's often easy to forget of overlook, and I'm reminded of one of my favourite Sam moments in the whole book (and it's not even his emotional farewell to the beer barrel in the cellar!)
'Presently Sam appeared, trotting quickly and breathing hard; his heavy pack was hoisted high on his shoulders, and he had put on his head a tall shapeless felt bag, which he called a hat. In the gloom he looked very much like a dwarf.'
What happened to Sam's 'hat'?? I like to think he carried on wearing it all the way to the Cracks of Doom...
For my re-read of the remainder of Three Is Company, I thought the most appropriate edition was Volume One of the Six Volume movie tie-in edition published by HarperCollins in 2001.
The Ring Sets Out
Fittingly, its foreword by Douglas A. Anderson begins: 'The Lord of the Rings is often erroneously called a trilogy..'
Famously, it was written as a single, continuous, volume by Tolkien, but it was the cost of printing such a huge book which made the publishers suggest splitting the work. Unlike the three volumes we're familiar with today, Tolkien suggested six volumes, and provided a title for each. The first volume, covering everything up to Flight to the Ford, was named 'The Ring Sets Out', which seems apposite for reading the beginning of Frodo's journey away from Hobbiton.
As the pale golden sun shines on spiderwebs in the garden, and the geese fly away for the winter in formation overhead, it's clearly no accident that the beginning of Frodo's journey - 23rd September - coincides with the Autumn equinox, when the sun's power begins to wane and we move towards the darkness.
The tone of this chapter - complete with a talking Fox - is still very reminiscent of The Hobbit, although all is beginning to change. It's interesting that Bilbo began his journey - from which we were assured he would come 'back again' in April, when life was returning and the hedgerows bursting with activity. Frodo, however, wonders if he 'shall ever see that valley again', as he looks back towards Hobbiton in the Autumnal dark.
Yet, 'hope remains' as Galadriel will remind us in Volume Two. Another interesting thing to note about this time of year is that the Morning Star reappears in the sky, rising about an hour before the sun. Although we'll have to wait until we get to Rivendell to learn more about the 'Flammifer of Westernesse'.
One thing about re-reading a book in (at this point) smaller chunks is that you pick up on details it's often easy to forget of overlook, and I'm reminded of one of my favourite Sam moments in the whole book (and it's not even his emotional farewell to the beer barrel in the cellar!)
'Presently Sam appeared, trotting quickly and breathing hard; his heavy pack was hoisted high on his shoulders, and he had put on his head a tall shapeless felt bag, which he called a hat. In the gloom he looked very much like a dwarf.'
What happened to Sam's 'hat'?? I like to think he carried on wearing it all the way to the Cracks of Doom...
June 30, 2023
One evening, at the end of June...
"He wanted to savour as much as he could of his last summer in the Shire."
If I'm doing this properly, it would be remiss of me not to read the beginning of 'Three Is Company' on "one summer's evening".
The edition I'm reading today is, by necessity, the Kindle edition.
I'm not a fan of ebooks - but there are a few things I like. Constantly having a copy of The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit and The Silmarillion in my pocket is one of them. Cause, you never know! Another is being able to search the text. (Just how many times *do* guls circle ominously overhead?)
I digress! I don't have a hard copy with me because I'm writing this at Glastonbury. It feels right to be reading this excerpt here. There is something very Middle-earth about The Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts. It's a bit Shire in that its very green and days are structured around eating, dancing, and excessive consumption of ales and ciders, and Gandalf's fireworks at the opening ceremony. It's a bit Rivendell with its fairy-lit woodland glades, lanterns, woodwind instruments and singing. And, of course, it's a bit Mordor when you're trudging through knee deep mud with a heavy pack on your back. Also, there's not much tech. You'll likely be consulting paper maps and asking strangers for news of the outside world in taverns with strange names.
I saw The Fellowship of the Ring on the day it came out in December 2001. The wait for the VHS release (yes, VHS, it was the past!) was interminable. There were MONTHS between it leaving cinemas and arriving on home video. Fortunately, June 2002 was my first Glastonbury. And there was a cinema field. And they were screening The Fellowship of the Ring! It's hard now to put into words what a big deal that was. There was a magic about watching that film in what was, essentially, the party field. And knowing that some people there were seeing it for the first time. You can imagine the roaring cheer from a field full of hippies when Pippin announced that they had found a shortcut "to Mushrooms!" and Biblo's "finest weed in the South Farthing!"*
Speaking of the film, I watched the first disc of Fellowship the night before I set off. Perhaps it's because of this read through (I read the last chapter in April!), but it suddenly struck me how breakneck its pace is. Even the extended edition! It's also amazing to realise what I projected onto the movie version because I knew what happened in the book. (No selling of Bag End, no Conspiracy Unmasked...)
Tolkien probably would have hated Glastonbury. He was famously horrified that The Lord of the Rings had become a cult book for hippies. And yet, for all its Anglo Saxonish Mead Halls and references to Christianity, The Lord of thr Rings IS a hippy book, whether you like it or not. Whilst I can't see JRRT sitting barefoot in a chai tent, you can't deny that he would wholeheartedly approved of the festival's overall message of environmentalism. And Tom Bombadil and would be having the time of his life in the stone circle.
Anyway, that's those few June pages done before things get serious in September. But in the meantime, "His uneasiness wore off, and in the fine weather he forgot his troubles for a while."
* Yes, yes, I know. Tolkien is turning in his grave. I have one word for you: applicability.
If I'm doing this properly, it would be remiss of me not to read the beginning of 'Three Is Company' on "one summer's evening".
The edition I'm reading today is, by necessity, the Kindle edition.
I'm not a fan of ebooks - but there are a few things I like. Constantly having a copy of The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit and The Silmarillion in my pocket is one of them. Cause, you never know! Another is being able to search the text. (Just how many times *do* guls circle ominously overhead?)
I digress! I don't have a hard copy with me because I'm writing this at Glastonbury. It feels right to be reading this excerpt here. There is something very Middle-earth about The Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts. It's a bit Shire in that its very green and days are structured around eating, dancing, and excessive consumption of ales and ciders, and Gandalf's fireworks at the opening ceremony. It's a bit Rivendell with its fairy-lit woodland glades, lanterns, woodwind instruments and singing. And, of course, it's a bit Mordor when you're trudging through knee deep mud with a heavy pack on your back. Also, there's not much tech. You'll likely be consulting paper maps and asking strangers for news of the outside world in taverns with strange names.
I saw The Fellowship of the Ring on the day it came out in December 2001. The wait for the VHS release (yes, VHS, it was the past!) was interminable. There were MONTHS between it leaving cinemas and arriving on home video. Fortunately, June 2002 was my first Glastonbury. And there was a cinema field. And they were screening The Fellowship of the Ring! It's hard now to put into words what a big deal that was. There was a magic about watching that film in what was, essentially, the party field. And knowing that some people there were seeing it for the first time. You can imagine the roaring cheer from a field full of hippies when Pippin announced that they had found a shortcut "to Mushrooms!" and Biblo's "finest weed in the South Farthing!"*
Speaking of the film, I watched the first disc of Fellowship the night before I set off. Perhaps it's because of this read through (I read the last chapter in April!), but it suddenly struck me how breakneck its pace is. Even the extended edition! It's also amazing to realise what I projected onto the movie version because I knew what happened in the book. (No selling of Bag End, no Conspiracy Unmasked...)
Tolkien probably would have hated Glastonbury. He was famously horrified that The Lord of the Rings had become a cult book for hippies. And yet, for all its Anglo Saxonish Mead Halls and references to Christianity, The Lord of thr Rings IS a hippy book, whether you like it or not. Whilst I can't see JRRT sitting barefoot in a chai tent, you can't deny that he would wholeheartedly approved of the festival's overall message of environmentalism. And Tom Bombadil and would be having the time of his life in the stone circle.
Anyway, that's those few June pages done before things get serious in September. But in the meantime, "His uneasiness wore off, and in the fine weather he forgot his troubles for a while."
* Yes, yes, I know. Tolkien is turning in his grave. I have one word for you: applicability.
April 13, 2023
The Shadow of the Past: Part 2
"Everything looked fresh, and the new green of Spring was shimmering in the fields and on the tips of the trees' fingers. Gandalf was thinking of a spring, nearly eighty years before, when Bilbo had run out of Bag End without a handkerchief."
It's the 13th April, and after a late breakfast I'm continuing my read-a-long as Frodo learns the truth about Bilbo's ring.
"The language is that of Mordor, which I will not utter here."
One of my favourite things about reading Chapter 2 of this illustrated copy of The Fellowship of the Ring is that the firey ring script is printed in red ink!
Apparently, Tolkien originally intended for the lettering to be red, but the publishers couldn't afford the coloured ink. So here we finally get to see it as intended! (My The Lord of the Rings Illustrated Edition also features the red script!)
This chapter also features a wonderful plate of an Alan Lee watercolour of Gandalf and Frodo by the fireplace. I know this is from the film (and during the events of the previous chapter!) but it puts me in mind of Ian McKellen muttering "Riddles in the Dark."
Speaking of which... how is this chapter so good? It's just two characters sat talking, yet it remains one of the most exciting things I have ever read. There are better moments to come. Moments of awe, heartbreak, and joy ... but for me there is no more enjoyable chapter to simply read beginning to end. As a young, first time reader, you get the joy of the familiar Gollum coming back into the tale, and revisiting the Riddles in the Dark chapter of The Hobbit, and as an older reader who's delved more deeply into Tolkien’s wider writings, I have the converse joy of knowing so much more about Elendil, Isildur, Gil-Galad, The Rings of Power and the Last Alliance!
The sun came out whilst I was reading, and Spring is finally shimmering on the tips of the trees' fingers in the street and I can hear the birds through the open window. (Although, suspiciously, I can't hear the sound of Sam's shears...) But sadly, it's time to close the book for now... For the sake of accuracy, I may read a few paragraphs from Three is Company "one evening, at the end of June", but otherwise that's it until the 20th September when Frodo's furniture is shipped off to Buckland... I can't promise I won't buy further editions between now and then!
What have I taken from this particular reading?
It's often remarked how the places of Middle-earth themselves are as much characters as their inhabitants, but as well as the natural landscapes, Tolkien writes beautifully about the seasons. I wanted to take the time to appreciate this in real time - and to see those shimmering fields as he describes them.
As well as listening out for the birdsong, I went for a walk after reading and made a point to cherish the blossoming cherry tries and budding flowers. I thought of Gandalf's observation that Gollum "ceased to look up at the hill-tops, or the leaves on trees, or the flowers opening in the air: his head and his eyes were downward." I made a point of keeping my eyes up and savouring all of those things.
It's also strange reading during the stirrings of spring and knowing that my reading/Frodo's Journey will commence in Autumn. Whilst that is my favourite time of year, already the specter of winter is hanging over the year, just like the weight of Frodo's knowledge that summer will come to an end and he will have to leave The Shire. Which sounds bleak - and The Lord of the Rings is an incredibly melancholy book, but that looming sense of impermanence only makes you appreciate those flowers opening in the air all the more.
It's the 13th April, and after a late breakfast I'm continuing my read-a-long as Frodo learns the truth about Bilbo's ring.
"The language is that of Mordor, which I will not utter here."
One of my favourite things about reading Chapter 2 of this illustrated copy of The Fellowship of the Ring is that the firey ring script is printed in red ink!
Apparently, Tolkien originally intended for the lettering to be red, but the publishers couldn't afford the coloured ink. So here we finally get to see it as intended! (My The Lord of the Rings Illustrated Edition also features the red script!)
This chapter also features a wonderful plate of an Alan Lee watercolour of Gandalf and Frodo by the fireplace. I know this is from the film (and during the events of the previous chapter!) but it puts me in mind of Ian McKellen muttering "Riddles in the Dark."
Speaking of which... how is this chapter so good? It's just two characters sat talking, yet it remains one of the most exciting things I have ever read. There are better moments to come. Moments of awe, heartbreak, and joy ... but for me there is no more enjoyable chapter to simply read beginning to end. As a young, first time reader, you get the joy of the familiar Gollum coming back into the tale, and revisiting the Riddles in the Dark chapter of The Hobbit, and as an older reader who's delved more deeply into Tolkien’s wider writings, I have the converse joy of knowing so much more about Elendil, Isildur, Gil-Galad, The Rings of Power and the Last Alliance!
The sun came out whilst I was reading, and Spring is finally shimmering on the tips of the trees' fingers in the street and I can hear the birds through the open window. (Although, suspiciously, I can't hear the sound of Sam's shears...) But sadly, it's time to close the book for now... For the sake of accuracy, I may read a few paragraphs from Three is Company "one evening, at the end of June", but otherwise that's it until the 20th September when Frodo's furniture is shipped off to Buckland... I can't promise I won't buy further editions between now and then!
What have I taken from this particular reading?
It's often remarked how the places of Middle-earth themselves are as much characters as their inhabitants, but as well as the natural landscapes, Tolkien writes beautifully about the seasons. I wanted to take the time to appreciate this in real time - and to see those shimmering fields as he describes them.
As well as listening out for the birdsong, I went for a walk after reading and made a point to cherish the blossoming cherry tries and budding flowers. I thought of Gandalf's observation that Gollum "ceased to look up at the hill-tops, or the leaves on trees, or the flowers opening in the air: his head and his eyes were downward." I made a point of keeping my eyes up and savouring all of those things.
It's also strange reading during the stirrings of spring and knowing that my reading/Frodo's Journey will commence in Autumn. Whilst that is my favourite time of year, already the specter of winter is hanging over the year, just like the weight of Frodo's knowledge that summer will come to an end and he will have to leave The Shire. Which sounds bleak - and The Lord of the Rings is an incredibly melancholy book, but that looming sense of impermanence only makes you appreciate those flowers opening in the air all the more.
