Good morning, hobbits! Micaiah has tagged me for the Liebster Award!
Rules:
Thanks, Micaiah! And thanks, Jaidyn, for letting me steal your questions as well! So I’ll be answering 22 questions. #rebel
This’ll be a good chance to get to know some random facts about yours truly! 🙂
“If you could be a fairy, what would you make?”
I smiled when my little sister asked me. It was her way of phrasing the popular question, What superpower would you have?
“I would want healing,” I said. “So I could just touch someone who was hurt or sick, and they would be better.”
Little sister giggled. “Like Jesus.”
“Yes,” I agreed, “like Jesus. What kind of fairy would you be?”
“I would be a world-fairy. I would make fairytale worlds.”
“I’d like to visit them,” I said, thinking, Also like Jesus.
She asked what “kind of fairy” she could be that people would like. I suggested she made food, people always need food; before realizing that was like Jesus too.
What’s the appeal of magic in fairy tales? What if we like magic and wizards and superheroes because we’re craving something (or someone) that can set the world to rights? Craving someone–or Someone–who can make our stories like the stories in the Bible.
I am a great advocate for magic in stories. Not sorcery or witchcraft, or summoning spirits–not the kind of things humans do because they want control. I’m a fan of wizards like Gandalf (The Lord of the Rings): supernatural beings working to make the world a better place. I’m a fan of dragons like Sapphira (The Inheritance Cycle): beautiful, untameable creatures tapping into ancient power to make things right.
I believe in stretching our imaginations in ways that help us imagine heaven on earth.
Because one day that happy ending will be ours.
“He rose and looked long at Gandalf. The others gazed at them in silence as they stood there facing one another. The grey figure of the Man, Aragorn son of Arathorn, was tall, and stern as stone, his hand upon the hilt of his sword; he looked as if some king out of the mists of the sea had stepped upon the shores of lesser men. Before him stopped the old figure, white, shining now as if with some light kindled within, bent, laden with years, but holding a power beyond the strength of kings.” (489)
-The Two Towers by J.R.R. Tolkien
Nerd points if you know why I’m posting this today. 😉
Have a good March!
‘There lies the fastness of Southern Mirkwood,’ said Haldir. . . ‘where long the hidden Enemy had his dwelling. We fear now it is inhabited again, and with power sevenfold. A black cloud lies often over it of late. In this high place you may see the two powers that are opposed one to another; and ever they strive now in thought, but whereas the light perceives the very heart of the darkness, its own secret has not been discovered. Not yet.’ (395)
The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien
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In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.
John 1:1-5
~*~
Just a friendly reminder that Haldir is awesome!
Happy Saturday!
Since I attended a girls’ conference when I was little more than a decade old and committed to read my Bible every day, I’ve known it was important for me to read the Bible as a Christian.
While I did not honor my original commitment very well at that stage, it was the beginning of my journey towards making the habit of picking up my Bible every day. It’s a been a roller coast to say the least, but I stuck with it fairly well.
Then I started reading “My Utmost for His Highest” by Oswald Chambers, and he posed the question: am I worshiping God while I form good habits, or have I started worshiping the habit itself? And I began to wonder if I was worshiping the habit. Was I reading my Bible to “be a good Christian” or to learn more about God? In the circles I move in, reading your Bible every day is “cool”. Was I persisting just so I could smile and answer affirmative if the topic of daily reading ever came up?
So I started to let myself take breaks. I took the pressure off. If I didn’t find time for the Bible, I would assure myself I was doing important things and God didn’t want me to spend all my time reading (like that argument would have carried a fleck of weight if we’d been discussing reading The Lord of the Rings instead *cough*). And maybe if I remembered I would run through a psalm I had memorized before I fell asleep.
It’s not like you would have found my Bible a month later, in the back of a cupboard, covered in dust; I probably still read it most days. But it certainly wasn’t a priority. Even when I came to the conclusion it probably was beneficial to read it every day, it was still not top of the list.
But then I noticed a difference. When I didn’t read the Bible, I was different–and I didn’t like the different me. Reading God’s Word changed me. And THAT was the beginning of another journey, towards prioritizing my Bible reading. . . again.
So I read the Bible every day; not because someone tells me I should, not as a safety net in case I’m asked, not even really because I want to know what’s in it. I read the Bible every day because it makes me feel closer to God, and that’s where I want to be.
But what I didn’t anticipate was the how darn inspirational this reading plan was going to be–while I knew it was going to affect me spiritually, I didn’t expect it to affect my imagination. My writer-brain gets on fire when I’ve been consistent in reading God’s Word. I don’t why it took me seventeen years to understand it’s important to read the Bible as a storyteller. It’s gotten to the point where I can hardly read my Bible anymore, if I’ve been consistent for days, because the story ideas come so fast while I read.
I mean, tell me this isn’t Middle Earth or Narnia-esque:
“But you, O God, are my king from of old;
you bring salvation upon the earth.
It was you who split open the sea by your power;
you broke the heads of the monster in the waters.
It was you who crushed the heads of Leviathan
and gave him as food to the creatures of the desert.”
-Psalm 74:12-14
And is this not just begging for a novelization?
“I also saw under the sun this example of wisdom that greatly impressed me: There was once a small city with only a few people in it. And a powerful king came against it, surrounded it and built huge siegeworks against it. Now there lived in that city a man poor but wise, and he saved the city by his wisdom. But nobody remembered that poor man.”
-Ecclesiastes 9:13-15
And that’s only two of many I’ve run across (Job, for instance, always just sets my imagination on fire!!). I’m sure I’ll find more.
A compilation of my favorite Tolkienisms to celebrate September 22nd, otherwise known as Bilbo and Frodo’s shared birthday, otherwise known as Hobbit Day. Fair warning, there’s a good dose of Aragorn and Faramir–because all the L.R. fans pick favorites!
~*~
“Bilbo was sadly reflecting that adventures are not all pony-rides in May-sunshine.” -The Hobbit, pg. 36
~*~
“‘War must be, while we defend our lives against a destroyer who would devour all; but I do not love the bright sword for its sharpness, nor the arrow for its swiftness, nor the warrior for his glory. I love only that which they defend.” -The Two Towers, pg. 656
~*~
“It needs but one foe to breed a war, not two. . . And those who have not swords can still die upon them.” -The Return of the King, pg. 937
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“Among the tales of sorrow and of ruin that come down to us from the darkness of those days there are yet some in which amid weeping there is joy and under the shadow of death a light that endures.” -The Silmarillion, pg. 162
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“‘There go three that I love, and the smallest not the least,’ he said. ‘He knows not to what end he rides; yet if he knew, he still would go on.'” -The Return of the King, pg. 762
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“‘Maybe the paths that you each shall tread are already laid before your feet, though you do not see them.'” -The Fellowship of the Ring, pg. 413
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“‘Too often have I heard of duty. . . I have waited on faltering feet long enough. Since they falter no longer, it seems, may I not now spend my life as I will?’
‘Few may do that with honour,’ he answered.”
-The Return of the King, pg. 767
~*~
“‘But these evils can be amended, so strong and gay a spirit is in him. His grief he will not forget; but it will not darken his heart, it will teach him wisdom.'” -The Return of the King, pg. 851
~*~
“‘Good morning!’ said Bilbo, and he meant it. The sun was shining, and the grass the was very green. But Gandalf looked at him from under long bushy eyebrows that stuck out further than the brim of his shady hat.
‘What do you mean?’ he said. ‘Do you wish me a good morning, or mean that it is a good morning whether I want it or not; or that you feel good this morning; or that it is a morning to be good on?’
‘All of them at once,’ said Bilbo.”
-The Hobbit, pg. 13
~*~
“This of course is the way to talk to dragons, if you don’t want to reveal your proper name (which is wise), and don’t want to infuriate them by a flat refusal (which is also very wise). No dragon can resist the fascination of riddling talk and of wasting time trying to understand it.” -The Hobbit, pg. 191
~*~
“All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not whither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.
From the ashes a fire shall be woken,
A light from the shadows shall spring;
Renewed shall be blade that was broken,
The crownless again shall be king.”
-The Fellowship of the Ring, pg. 193
~*~
“There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach. His song in the Tower had been defiance rather than hope; for then he was thinking of himself. Now, for the moment, his own fate, and even his master’s, ceased to trouble him.” -The Return of the King, pg. 901
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“He walked in the deserted ways of Tirion, and the dust upon his raiment and his shoes was a dust of diamonds, and he shone and glistened as he climbed the long white stairs. And he called aloud in many tongues, both of Elves and Men, but there were none to answer him.” -The Silmarillion, pg. 248
~*~
“‘In this high place you may see the two powers that are opposed one to another; and ever they strive now in thought, but whereas the light perceives the very heart of the darkness, its own secret has not been discovered. Not yet.'” -The Fellowship of the Ring, pg. 395
~*~
“‘Then you would have us retreat to Minas Tirith, or Dol Amroth, or to Dunharrow, and there sit like children on sand-castles when the tide is flowing?’ said Imrahil.
‘That would be no new counsel,’ said Gandalf. ‘Have you not done this and little more in all the days of Denethor? But no! I said this would be prudent. I do not counsel prudence.'”
-The Return of the King, pg. 860
~*~
“‘Do not scorn pity that is the gift of a gentle heart!'” -The Return of the King, pg. 943
~*~
“‘I wish it need not have happened in my time,’ said Frodo.
‘So do I,’ said Gandalf, ‘and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.'”
-The Fellowship of the Ring, pg. 55
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“He rose and looked long at Gandalf. The others gazed at them in silence as they stood there facing one another. The grey figure of the Man, Aragorn son of Arathorn, was tall, and stern as stone, his hand upon the hilt of his sword; he looked as if some king out of the mists of the sea had stepped upon the shores of lesser men. Before him stooped the old figure, white, shining now as if with some light kindled within, bent, laden with years, but holding a power beyond the strength of kings.” -The Two Towers, pg. 489
~*~
“‘The world is all grown strange. Elf and Dwarf walk in company in our daily fields; and folk speak with the Lady of the Wood and yet live; and the Sword comes back to war that was broken in the long ages ere the fathers of our fathers rode into the Mark! How shall a man judge what to do in such times?’
‘As he has ever judged,’ said Aragorn. ‘Good and ill have not changed since yesteryear; nor are they one thing among Elves and Dwarves and another among Men. It is a man’s part to discern them, as much in the Golden Wood as in his own house.'”
-The Two Towers, pg. 428
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“And a great wind rose and blew, and their hair, raven and golden, streamed out mingling in the air.” -The Return of the King, pg. 941
~*~
“‘Then the prophecies of the old songs have turned out to be true, after a fashion!’ said Bilbo.
‘Of course!’ said Gandalf. ‘And why should not they prove true? Surely you don’t disbelieve the prophecies, because you had a hand in bringing them about yourself? You don’t really suppose, do you, that all your adventures and escapes were managed by mere luck, just for your sole benefit? You are a very fine person, Mr Baggins, and I am very fond of you; but you are only quite a little fellow in a wide world after all!'”
-The Hobbit, pg. 255
~*~
I sit beside the fire and think
of all that I have seen,
of meadow-flowers and butterflies
in summers that have been;
Of yellow leaves and gossamer
in autumns that there were,
with morning mist and silver sun
and wind upon my hair.
I sit beside the fire and think
of how the world will be
when winter comes without a spring
that I shall ever see.
For still there are so many things
that I have never seen:
in every wood in every spring
there is a different green.
I sit beside the fire and think
of people long ago,
and people who will see a world
that I shall never know.
But all the while I sit and think
of times there were before,
I listen for returning feet
and voices at the door.
-The Fellowship of the Ring, pg. 313
Happy Monday, readers! As you can see, we have our first-ever guest post today, by the lovely Savannah Grace! So enjoy the post, and hop over to Savannah’s beautiful blog, Scattered Scribblings, here.
“One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them …”
“Once there were four children whose names were Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy.”
I think almost every writer or reader of fantasy would know which books these two quotes are from – and neither of the books are modern! Both of them are over sixty years old – so what helped Lord Of The Rings and Narnia survive the test of time? And how can we help our stories do the same?
Fantasy was still a new thing when J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis wrote their stories – a lot of people consider them the ‘Founding Fathers Of Fantasy’. Fantasy wasn’t a popular thing back then like it is today, so it was a little risky to write a story like Lord Of The Rings or Narnia. But, looking back at these authors, and other authors whose books have lasted, I’ve learned that it can really pay off to take risks.
It’s hard to really hard “go out on a limb” with our stories nowadays – it feels like every idea has already been thought of and used! But one of the important things to learn about writing is that no one writes the same way. Two people could write a story with the same premise, and the stories would still be so different. Which means that it might not just be an idea that you can take risks with – it can be your writing style plus the idea that is a risk. And sometimes risks seriously pay off ;).
The Pevensie siblings are some of the most realistic characters – the childlike innocence of Lucy, the feeling of responsibility for his siblings that Peter had, Edmund’s jealousy, and Susan’s caution. All of the siblings are unique from each other, and they’re all easy to relate to.
Same thing goes for Lord Of The Rings. Not only are the character different from each other in personality (I don’t think anyone would mistake Gimli’s personality for Gandalf’s!), but J.R.R Tolkien has different races of people in his story, which makes each character even more different from the others.
One of the easiest ways to make sure all of your characters are different is to put them side-by-side and see if the story would change much if you cut one. If the answer is ‘no’, then you’ve probably got a character or two that isn’t quite needed in the story. And if the answer is ‘yes’, then well done! Keep your story-people realistic, unique, and easy-to- relate-to, and you’ll have a cast of winning characters on your hands.
Honestly, I think this one is the most important. Books always stick around when they have powerful themes, because – no matter what time we live in, or what the circumstances are -there are just some themes that we’ll always be able to relate to. The Lion, The Witch, And The Wardrobe (the most well-known Narnia book, in my opinion), has themes of redemption and sacrifice. The Lord Of The Rings has themes of courage and hope.
It’s easy for books to survive when they have themes that everyone can relate to, no matter how long ago the book was written. Some themes, like bravery and love and never-giving- up, are never going to run out of steam, because they’re some of the themes that will always play a big part in real life.
Let’s take risks, writers. Your story could be the next one to survive the test of time.
“Courage, dear heart.”
~ Savannah Grace
Our pastor recently mentioned Aragorn in one of his sermons. Needless to say, I was thrilled.
(listen to it here–the recording is from the first service, not the second, so you can’t hear me whooping the first time he says Aragorn’s name. 🙂 )
His sermon was based on the movies, which ruffled this purist just a tiny bit, but it was still very thought-provoking. One of the biggest differences between book-Aragorn and movie-Aragorn is his attitude towards inheriting the throne of Gondor:
In the books, he is 100% on board with the idea at the time of The Lord of the Rings–in fact, it’s pretty much his goal in life. Like I talked about in my post Aragorn: The Servant Leader, he knows he is a king and he knows he can lead. He isn’t afraid of who he is. And as far as I’ve seen digging through appendices, he always was on board, since he figured out who he was at the age of 20.
However, in the movies, Aragorn isn’t sure he trusts himself to rule. After his ancestor, Isildur, failed pretty miserably and left a terrible mess for others to fix, Aragorn doesn’t have faith he can do any better. It takes nearly half the movies for him to finally embrace his ancestry.
Like I talked about in my last Aragorn post, I’ve always focused on the way the king of Middle Earth represented Jesus–and I believe he does, to a certain extent. But Aragorn is still human, he isn’t perfect. Hearing Pastor Matthew’s sermon made me realize he can be an allegory of us as well.
The sermon was part of a series about being heirs of Christ. I began to realize that we are heirs of the King now. We are sons and daughters of the world’s Creator, and heirs of the universe.
People focus on salvation being access to heaven, and I get that. But there’s more. God isn’t just giving saving us from hell, He’s giving us access to Himself, His power. His Spirit lives in our hearts.
The power and dignity of kings is in us. In me. In you. Will we take it to war with us? Will we take it to the pain?
We’ll mess up, yes. People will misunderstand us, scorn us. They’ll fight us, hurt us, betray us, fail us.
But God will never, ever, ever fail us.
Middle Earth needed Aragorn to return, the world was in chaos without a king.
Our world needs the King to return and win the war as well, and it needs the heirs of the King to move. We can’t do it in our own strength, but we are the hands and feet of God.
We are heirs of the King.
The victory is ours.
So, as it turns out, yesterday was Shakespeare’s birthday. I read a couple plays when I was little, but didn’t read any more for a long time. But I’ve gotten back into it recently, reading some plays for high school, and I’ve been loving it. So I totally freaked out when Mom told me yesterday! I didn’t have time to do anything about it then, but I decided today was an appropriate time to post the first Great Books paper I wrote this year. Enjoy!!
I was first introduced to A Midsummer Night’s Dream, before I was a decade old, in Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare for Children by E. Nesbitt. I read the original version, after seeing it performed at Shakespeare on the Green, a few summers later. Even at the age of ten, I was enthralled.
Continue reading A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and other thoughts on Shakespeare
Tolkien, very explicitly, did not write The Lord of the Rings as an allegory. He rather described it as “applicable”.
Aragorn is a relate-able human, he doubts himself, he messes up. But Tolkien chose to give him a very powerful role in Middle Earth. As a king and a successful hero, I think he must, on some level, represent Jesus.
Like I talked about in the paper I posted on Easter, I believe in hero stories because I believe in one Hero who saved me.
You certainly can’t take this analogy too far, but they all break down somewhere, don’t they? The Lord of the Rings is just a story and a story’s job is not necessarily to be perfectly theologically accurate.
I knew I had to do one of my “Aragorn posts” about kingship, but someone has already put what I want to say quite beautifully, so I’m going to stop rambling and point you all over to desiringgod.org:
http://www.desiringgod.org/articles/the-allure-of-middle-earth
I know I’ve linked to this before, but I think Tolkien-fans should read it. In The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien edited by Humphrey Carpenter, Tolkien said:
Of course, Allegory and Story converge, meeting somewhere in Truth. . . And one finds, even in imperfect human ‘literature’, that the better and more consistent an allegory is the more easily can it be read ‘just as a story’; and the better and more closely woven a story is the more easily can those so minded find allegory in it. (121)
I think this article has really helped me think about stories and fictional characters, and sort out what’s merely story, what’s allegorical, and what’s “applicable”. So instead of my words (which you’ve already had enough of), you can read someone else’s on Aragorn and Middle Earth. Enjoy!