Tolkien, A Son and A Father’s Legacy

Recently the first ever press interview with Christopher Tolkien, son of J. R. R. Tolkien and the official executor of J.R.R. Tolkien’s estate, was published (the link takes you to an even more recent translation of the interview into English). The headline makes much of Christopher Tolkien’s displeasure with Peter Jackson’s movie interpretations, but what …

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“Fools for Christ,” An Inklings Weekend

I am excited about participating this weekend in “Fools for Christ, An Inklings Weekend at Montreat,” a conference sponsored by the Inklings Fellowship and organized by my colleague, Hal Poe. Here is the official conference description: FOOLS FOR CHRIST I Corinthians 1:18-25 “for the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom” Join us to …

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Tolkien, Old Norse Poetry and Preaching

J. R. R. Tolkien was captivated by Old Norse poetry and described it this way: “Old Norse poetry aims at seizing a situation, striking a blow that will be remembered, illuminating a moment with a flash of lightning- and tends to concision, weighty packing of the language in sense and form …” (The Legend of …

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The Fortifying Value of Stories

I have been quite behind in posting for a number of reasons including the fact that we have been reading the Lord of the Rings books which are taking considerably longer than many others we have read!Just last night we read the following portion from The Two Towers.I am struck by how often in great …

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Tolkien, Read Books Above You

I recently came across a great comment from one of J. R. R. Tolkien’s letters (written in April 1959). Tolkien is advocating reading books with more difficult books to children rather than confining the reading to easier books. Tolkien states: “A good vocabulary is not acquired by reading books written according to some notion of …

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