Tolkien in the Real World

  Hey there fellow Tolkienian followers! It’s your boy NoahtheBlue2003 again, this time with a book suggestion for you! I recently stumbled upon Defending Middle-Earth: Tolkien: Myth and Modernity by Patrick Curry . I personally, loved this book and suggest it to all Tolkien fans and scholars alike, as I felt like it was a good way to learn more about the man himself, J.R.R. Tolkien and how his life influenced his creation of my home away from home, Middle-Earth. Seeing as this book directly analyzes the influences of Tolkien’s life on his creation of Middle-Earth it seems only fitting that it belongs in a blog dedicated to his writings. By reviewing the themes presented in this secondary source, this book review highlights the connections that are drawn by the author, Patrick Curry, between Tolkien’s life and upbringing and the liveliness and depth of Middle-Earth’s role in The Lord of the Rings .   “Defending Middle-Earth: Tolkien: Myth and Modernity” The intersect...

The Dragon Comes , an original poem by Asher R. Go and look, and see its path, Barren, black, the trail of wrath, Its darkness consumes, both light and life, Insatiable hunger of draconic strife.   Produce, consume, discard, repeat, No matter the cost, or destruction you reap, The greed of the worm lives on in man, Its smog and annihilation from ourselves at hand.   Terrible fire, burning pits, Knowledge and hubris do not well mix, In pursuit of comfort, knowing and power, From hence does come our reckoning hour.   With wings of steel, and smokey breath, Now the dragon comes and brings death.   This poem was inspired by Tolkien's New Year's lecture on dragons, and particularly the following excerpt: If you want to see a dragon-trail just go and look. There they are smooth, slimed, blasted, barren – death to trees and hedges and green things: black with pitch of the nether pit, taking the local colour and the sunlig...

  The Worlds of J.R.R. Tolkien: The Places That Inspired Middle-earth , by John Garth. A Review The landscapes and world of Tolkien’s legendarium, so brilliantly conceived and illuminated by the author’s words, inspire extensive commentary. John Garth’s new book The Worlds of J.R.R. Tolkien offers this and more, as it provides – along with an extensive collection of beautiful imagery including artwork from J.R.R. Tolkien himself - thoroughly researched insights into Tolkien’s life and experiences, and their inspirational power in shaping Tolkien’s fictional worlds. The beautifully constructed and informative final product is one that should be of interest to both casual fans of Tolkien’s work as well as Tolkien scholars, providing a background on Tolkien’s life and his development of his legendarium which should contain at least some new insights for any reader, whether they’ve read all Tolkien’s writings or only his most iconic. I would echo Garth’s own sentiment in his Introduct...