On this day in 1954 the first part of The Lord of the Rings was published: The Fellowship of the Ring.
The LotR was one of the most important influences in the topography of my life, though its influence was karstic. Once there, always there. Sometimes sublimated, then again at the surface. It shaped my world view in significant ways and helped to smooth and straighten the path of the Incarnated trascendentals.
The LotR also brought me into contact with some with whom a life-long friendship was born, but also – through seeming chance – brought me rather hesitantly to the study of Latin. Not only did that turn into multiple degrees, but also set the table for the rich banquet that was the discovery of the Catholic Church especially through her sacred liturgical worship.
I even had a brief, too brief, correspondence with the author as a teen.
I want to thank again a couple of readers who have sent volumes of Tolkien’s (posthumously published) writings, especially CG who sent the set of LotR when my childhood set was languishing, karstically, in storage well over a thousand miles – nay rather – over 400 leagues distant.
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Thank you for this!
I’m finally catching up with his son’s four-volume series, The History of The Lord of the Rings (1988-92), about its composition – fascinating!
And I saw that there will be a new edition of his selected letters apparently restoring things omitted in 1981 for fear of making the book too long…
But a “correspondence with the author” – wow! (I suspect there are many letters out there which have never been published, even abridged…)
LOTR was also important to me, not least in the growth of my moral imagination. And in my growth in grasp of language, e.g. the different ways an author can present a “tone”: LOTR bears a much stronger gravitas than The Hobbit. Not to mention adding vocabulary, and listening to a master craftsman knit poetry and prose together.
I read the first book at about age 9, and was unaware even that the other volumes existed. (Nobody in my family visited libraries.) At age 12 I discovered the rest, and consumed them as nearly in one sitting as is possible at that age. I went on to re-read them approximately once per year, until college. I spent untold hours trying to locate The Silmarillion, only to discover Tolkien had not yet published it.
Although I deplore the idiotic liberties Peter Jackson took in making the movies (especially, altering the Faramir sub-plot for no reason at all), I assumed that my children could not live in our culture without at least once seeing the movies. So I attacked at the other end, by filling their imaginations with prior imagery: I insisted that they read the books, first. I think that I succeeded in making them able to consider re-reading the books at some time or other.
Beautiful, Father. God bless you and strengthen you in your Priesthood, and thank you sincerely for all you have brought to us over the almost 20 years now since you started this website.
And how wonderful that you corresponded with Tolkien!
I recently listened to Andy Serkis’ reading / performance of LOTR. 65 hours!
Different themes are more prominent with each reading. The one that resonated with me this time was a Sense of Wonder. There were at least a dozen scenes where, upon entering a new place, the Party would “look on in Wonder”, or “feel a sense of awe”. These were just as likely to happen among the grandeur of Middle Earth itself as in the structures built by Men, Dwarves, Elves, etc.
I consider Prof. Tolkien the most important (lay, at least) moral philosopher of the 20th Century. The books I’ve read and reread most in my life are (approximately in order of frequency, though I don’t keep a formal tally)
The Lord of the Rings
The Bible
The Winds of War/War and Remembrance (Herman Wouk)
The Hobbit
The Silmarillion
2 September 2023 is also the 50th anniversary of Professor Tolkien’s transitus. To mark this, the Birmingham Oratory will be holding a Tolkien Weekend on 1/2 September. On 1 September, Dr Holly Ordway will be launching her new book “Tolkien’s Faith: A Spiritual Biography” (https://lotr.fandom.com/wiki/Tolkien%27s_Faith:_A_Spiritual_Biography) and on 2 September, there will be an (Old Rite) Requiem for the Professor, and I will be giving a talk entitled “A Fundamentally Religious and Catholic Work: J R R Tolkien and The Lord of the Rings”.
I still have a copy of The Hobbit I purchased at university in the late 1970’s. The price tag says $1.95. I read LOTR about every year or so. I read the other works regularly. Each time I get new insights. I enjoy the other works as well, especially Unfinished Tales and the Book of Lost Tales. Fr. Duncan, I wish I could come to the Tolkien Weekend.