Winds of Winter

George R.R. Martin has released a new excerpt from his forthcoming novel, The Winds of Winter, the next installment in his series A Song of Ice and Fire (or the "Game of Thrones" series, as its known in its HBO version).  Good stuff--check it out here.  (But be warned: spoilers if you haven't read A Dance With Dragons).

7. Is Gandalf a Jesuit?

"Among the Wise I am the only one that goes in for hobbit-lore: an obscure branch of knowledge, but full of surprises" (FotR 58).

Quite an Ignatian sentiment--"finding God in all things"--from Gandalf the Grey!


"Tolkien 365" is a (hopefully) daily reflection on a quote from the writings of J.R.R. Tolkien, beginning with The Lord of the Rings and branching into his other writings as opportunity and inspiration allow.  Comments are especially welcome.  Page references are from the hardcover American Second Edition, published by Houghton Mifflin.

6. Bilbo's Song

[Oops, missed a few days there...  Gonna be playing catch-up the rest of the week.]

The Road goes ever on and on
     Down from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone,
     And I must follow, if I can,
Pursuing it with eager feet,
     Until it joins some larger way
Where many paths and errands meet.
     And whither then?  I cannot say.

                                          (FotR 44)

This is the song that Bilbo "sang softly in the dark" upon his final departure from Bag End.  It's an echo of the song he sings upon his return home in The Hobbit ("Roads go ever, ever on, / Over rock and under tree...") which itself reminiscences on his journey with the dwarves, and which causes Gandalf to remark how Bilbo has changed.  So here, at the beginning of Fellowship, we have an older Bilbo's new song--one can imagine him revising or adding to his first one over the years since journeying "there and back again."

This Bilbo is a veteran of the Quest, and as such, he knows well what my students would be able to tell you (they've been studying the quest story in depth, with The Hobbit, Neil Gaiman's Stardust, and now a crack at writing an original quest story): the journey undertaken by the quest hero never takes him where or how he expects it to, whether literally, figuratively, or symbolically.  This song shows Bilbo's knowledge with its tone of obligation ("I must follow"), humility ("if I can"), optimism ("eager feet"), uncertainty ("And whither then?") and openness to that uncertainty ("I cannot say").

An appropriate song for the New Year, or any beginning at all!


"Tolkien 365" is a (hopefully) daily reflection on a quote from the writings of J.R.R. Tolkien, beginning with The Lord of the Rings and branching into his other writings as opportunity and inspiration allow.  Comments are especially welcome.  Page references are from the hardcover American Second Edition, published by Houghton Mifflin.

4. Thirty-three & 5. Birthday Presents

Two quotes today to make up for missing yesterday...

4. "At that time Frodo was still in his tweens, as the hobbits called the irresponsible twenties between childhood and coming of age at thirty-three" (29).

5. "Hobbits give presents to other people on their own birthdays.  Not very expensive ones, as a rule, and not so lavishly as on this occasion; but it was not a bad system.  Actually in Hobbiton and Bywater every day in the year was somebody's birthday, so that every hobbit in those parts had a fair chance of at least one present at least once a week.  But they never got tired of them" (35).

Look no further than the first chapter, "A Long-Expected Party" (I've always loved the play on the title to the first chapter of The Hobbit, an "Unexpected Party"), for evidence of the hobbits' simplicity as a people.  The chapter is full of details of the vast pleasures they take in simple things.

But the two quotes I've chosen today have to do with hobbit birthdays.  I think they've got it right on both counts: let's be honest, no one is really all that grown-up at eighteen, or even at twenty-eight, speaking for my own generation.  It takes the twenties to figure out adulthood... thirty-three really sounds quite right for a real "coming-of-age."

As far as birthday presents, it sounds like the hobbits have got us beat: a small present every week adds up to much more than a few on your birthday!  Not to mention the rather generous and gracious nature of giving gifts away on one's own birthday.  (As a side note, I've always wondered if Gollum's famous "birthday present," the ring, was one he received on his birthday or someone else's...).

So it's settled: for my thirty-third birthday in two years, I'll celebrate hobbit style: a party for my "coming of age," and presents for my guests.


"Tolkien 365" is a (hopefully) daily reflection on a quote from the writings of J.R.R. Tolkien, beginning with The Lord of the Rings and branching into his other writings as opportunity and inspiration allow.  Comments are especially welcome.  Page references are from the hardcover American Second Edition, published by Houghton Mifflin.

3. Mathoms

"So, though there was still some store of weapons in the Shire, these were used mostly as trophies, hanging above hearths or on walls, or gathered into the museum at Michel Delving.  The Mathom-house it was called; for anything that Hobbits had no immediate use for, but were unwilling to throw away, they called a mathom.  Their dwellings were apt to become rather crowded with mathoms, and many of the presents that passed from hand to hand were of that sort" (FotR 14-15).

What a great word, "mathom," to describe the types of generally useless things we all have in abundance.  What mathoms are there in your life?  How interesting, too, that the first and only specific example is weaponry, and how wonderful it would be to have no immediate use for weapons.  More interesting, still, is the fact that the Hobbits are "unwilling to throw [them] away," as if possessed of some ancestral memory or sneaking suspicion of the world at large and its dangers.  (More interesting still: isn't the Ring something of a mathom to Frodo in the idle years between Bilbo's departure and his own?)

Are any of your mathoms like this--things that you are unwilling to part with for some fear of being without it in a time of need, or for hope of its future usefulness, or some inkling of its unrecognized importance?


"Tolkien 365" is a (hopefully) daily reflection on a quote from the writings of J.R.R. Tolkien, beginning with The Lord of the Rings and branching into his other writings as opportunity and inspiration allow.  Comments are especially welcome.  Page references are from the hardcover American Second Edition, published by Houghton Mifflin.

2. Epigraph

''Three Rings for the Elven-kings under the sky,

     Seven for the Dwarf-lords in their halls of stone,

Nine for Mortal Men doomed to die,

     One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne

In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.

     One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them,

     One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them

In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie."

Tolkien's epigraph to The Lord of the Rings, the first text one encounters after the title page of The Fellowship of the Ring, is interesting in its characterization of the three races of Middle-earth, and of men in particular.

1. A new project

Happy New Year! In 2013, to kickstart the blog and give myself motivation to write everyday, I'm going to attempt a 365 Tolkien project, with a short reflection on a quote from Tolkien's writings every day, beginning with a re-reading of The Lord of the Rings.

But to start things off today, I'll use that legendary line that started it all more than a decade before LotR:

"In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit."

Since I just saw the movie this weekend for the first time, some thoughts (and spoilers) below: