Medieval Russian Tolkien Illustrations

These illustrations popped up on my feed from theonering.net
As an Orthodox Christian I find them kind of fascinating- some look more iconographic than others,
which I'm not sure how I feel about.
Some of them are a bit confusing- I'm not sure, for example, which scene this image is supposed to depict.
Any guesses?

source

I thought perhaps it had something to do with King Theoden,
But if so, why is there an eagle around?

A Merrier World

I overheard my parents having a conversation recently after hearing about the lottery winners on the news:
"It would be so great to pay off all of our debts."
"And we could give half the money to the church, and to the OCMC" {Orthodox Mission Center}
"I don't even think I'd want to move into a bigger house. Maybe we could just buy a second home..."

Yea, I would not say no to a second home if it looked like this.

It made me laugh inside.
And not because I thought they were being silly,
or that I was above them or anything like that:
It was because Peter and I had the same conversation about a month ago.
It went the same way-
We'd give money to the church,
Pay off our school loans,
Send our children to good colleges,
Help out our loved ones if they've fallen down.

And in theory,
Throwing money at people and problems seems a brilliant idea.
Money always makes people happy, right?

right. Not exactly.
We've all seen how The Great Gatsby ends
{ok, maybe Baz Lurhmann hasn't. He kind of lost the plot there...}

And I know this is not a new rant;
We live in a consumer society, I get that-
We have the freedom of choice,
and we must always have the Next Big Thing.
In fact, we must have ALL THE THINGS,
if we are to eventually find happiness.
That's what the commercials are saying these days, anyways.
Merry Christmas to all, right?

shout out to Allie Brosch, whose book happens to be one of my gifts for a certain sibling...ahem. 

I've noticed a lot of bloggers post 'wish lists,'
They maybe thinly veiled under a guise of 'for that special someone'
{i.e. things you WISH that he'd wear}
or a little less subtle
like what you'll be buying for yourself with your crisp Christmas bills,
'your prize for being good all year'....

Don't get me wrong;
I'm all for a proper gift guide!
For one, I've gotten at least three gift ideas from these kinds of posts,
Many of which are pretty spot on and have some great ideas for what to get for loved ones
{Joanna Goddard's very often hit the nail on the head.}
And I am DEFINITELY victim to this consumer mindset.
My closet is literally spilling over with stuff,
And yet I still feel like I need more, somehow;
This essential cardigan or that absolutely necessary cognac boot
{c'mon, self, you live in Florida. You do not need leather riding boots. let it go}

The truth is,
We really don't need all the things,
I doubt we even need most of the things.
And we certainly don't need to win the lottery do good and to live a good life
I mean, look where it gets Thorin Oakenshield,
The King under the Mountain, when he wins back his piles of riches and gold, and the arkenstone.
{hint/spoiler alert: it doesn't get him very far}

                                                                                                                                                 


 Anyways, the best I can do is repeat the words of another who is wiser than me:

"if more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world."

You know where that's from, don't you?
Have a blessed Christmas, everyone <3

Music Monday

Seeing as this is a sorta kinda Tolkien blog,
and seeing as The Desolation of Smaug hits theaters Friday,
This music monday is going to the genius that is Howard Shore.
This guy really nails it every time,
even if Peter Jackson doesn't {and I really, really, really hope he does!}
From the very first opening sequence of the Fellowship, all the way through to the Grey Havens,
Each piece of the Lord of the Rings (and Hobbit) soundtrack
are perfectly welded to character, plot and mood.

There are so many great ones
The King of the Golden Hall,
The Fellowship's theme {most grandly heard as the intro to Moria}
But I have to say,
This one is probably my favorite.

Have a Great Week, everyone! 

Hope you get to enjoy the second installment of the Hobbit with your friends and loved ones :)

Escape

Ever had one of those weeks you just wanted to run away from?

I have too many of them.

It's my fault, really. I'm too sensitive. Little things don't roll off my shoulder like they ought to. I'm working on that; I'm working on myself in general. And big personality changes take time. 

In the meantime, there's always escape.

Escape from the harsh criticism, the flippant, subtle scorn, the silent rejection of others.

Escape to a warm home, in my childhood bed. 

To loving parents who don't mind if I'm a little soft at the center and rough at the edges.

Escape into the worlds of stories and books. 

source

After all, if a soldier is imprisoned by the enemy, do we not consider it his duty to escape? ;-)

source

I wasn't sure for a while there why I was writing a blog.

My life is dull as dirt right now,

And no one I know in real life follow it or even knows it exists. 

But it's weeks like this that I realize I kind of need it every now and again. 

Writing publicly can be painful,

but it is also incredibly cathartic. 

So please, bear with my emo moments. 

I promise they'll blow over shortly :)

Sunday Thoughts

{from our cousin, the Catholic church.}

"We should forgive and show mercy.

If we live according to the rule an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth,

we will never overcome the spiral of evil."

-Pope Francis-

(I love this fellow)

source

source

source

feelin' for the baddies today for some reason.

but really.

That is a great quote.

And these are the two characters in The Lord of the Rings

who really exemplify this.

{full disclosure: you find really weird fan art when you search grima wormtongue on tumblr.}

War.

War is never good.

I think very few people can deny that.

It destroys life,

snatching it swiftly away regardless of age, creed or class.

But what happens if we do not fight for justice?

What happens if we turn a blind eye to massacres, to genocide, to murder?

And how do we know when it is the right time to stand and fight?

I don't have the answer to any of the above questions.

I wish I did.

But I do think it is a bit overly-simple

to be against all wars,

a stance taken by many public figures in the 21st century.

Faramir is one of my all-time favorite characters in the LOTR trilogy

and this stance on war 

is exactly why: 

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.

Source: Donato Art

I think about this quote a lot these days
As I've been working with quite a few war veterans (WWII, Vietnam and Korea)
As we commemorate the victims of 9/11/01 today, 

as my church and my priests pray for Syria,

for its people,

Christian, Muslim and in between,

for their safety and protection from the harm and violence that rocks their country.

I guess this is the nature of living in a fallen world.
I really very strongly dislike Obama
{and pretty much any politician}
But I feel for him very keenly these days,
when he's been called to make an extremely tough decision
without the foresight to know whether it is right or not.

I think Bishop Basil of the Antiochian Archdiocese has the best perspective on this
{at least from the Christian slant.}
He spoke just a few days ago on the subject at a church in Kansas

In the mean time,
all we can do is pray.
+

Those who wander

So, I've noticed a trend of people on blog posts, graphic designs 

and even iphone cases

misquoting Tolkien's most popular line (at least at the moment) 

"Not all those who wander are lost." 

It annoys my little nerd heart to NO end, 

even more than it annoys me when I see people improperly using the words "their" and "there." 

HOWEVER,

I am working a little bit on self-improvement, 

part of which is not being so judge-y. 

SO, rather than go on about my so-called "problems" 

(which, let's be honest, are kind of pitiful even on the first-world scale,) 

I'd like to share an AWESOME playlist I discovered on 8tracks and have been using to keep myself pumped through the long hours of studying

and has even introduced me to a few new artists or two ;-) 

without further ado, 

I give you "Not all those who wander are lost"

not all who wander are lost. from chlopoppy on 8tracks Radio.

A few underrated Tolkien Quotes

So technically the title of this blog is Lord of the Rings (and other such things.) and if anyone out there in cyberspace has bothered reading any of my posts, you are probably none-too-pleased when you come a cross all of these lovely blog posts and not-a-one of them remotely related to Tolkien, Lord of the Rings, or anything of the sort. Deceitful, I know. But I am pretty sure that only Peter reads this block, so to be honest, I don't feel that bad.

Recently, however, I came across a couple Tolkien quotes that are solid gold, and I just couldn't not put them up here. And no, the only awesome line from Tolkien's work is not "not all those who wander are lost." (Though I must say that is a pretty great one. tried to use it as our roadtrip blog URL and pretty much every variation we attempted was taken. boo.) Ληπόν, here you go friends Peter!

"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." 

Yea. He wins over Boromir any day.

 This is essentially everything Tolkien believed about war and pacifism wrapped into one beautifully simple line. It also makes me love Faramir's character that much more in the books. It really shaped my beliefs growing up as well.

"Never laugh at live dragons."

Tolkien's Illustration of the Conversation with Smaug

I bet you all know where this is from. I don't know why this quote isn't more well-known. I mean, that's a classic adventurer life lesson, you know. It really ought to be rule numero UNO in all books on How to Be an Adventurer. But I don't suppose people who go on adventures read books about how to do so. That would take all the fun out of it. Silly me and my practicality. Sometimes I think I act more English than Greek.

"All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us."

This is a lovely quote. Jackson and his writers moved it from it's original place in the books, when Frodo is first discussing the ring with Gandalf in The Shire, and it still fits perfectly into the scene, movement and flow of the moment. As a Christian it brings home the importance of free will- God has given us the freedom to do what we live with our lives; it is up to us to decide how we choose to lead them. This is the incomprehensible beauty of the lives we have been given: they are ours, to do with as we will, free of any yolk of compulsion. What we do in this life is completely in our own hands.

"The Lord of the Rings is of course a fundamentally religious and Catholic work; unconsciously so at first, but consciously in the revision. That is why I have not put in, or have cut out, practically all references to anything like 'religion', to cults or practices, in the imaginary world."

I first heard this in my Harry Potter and Fantasy Literature class, the best course I ever took at FSU, and though it may seem strange at first, this fundamental lack of religion in a purportedly religious text makes sense when we take a closer look. Tolkien wanted to take Christian themes out of our daily life and hide deep within his texts- within the phial of Galadriel which protects Frodo and Sam from the evil spider spawn, within the fleeting glimpses of Christ we see in fragments of various characters (although it should be made clear that there is no Christ figure in Lord of the Rings! more on that later), even within Tom Bombadil, a man whose disinterest in earthly treasures allows him to be impervious to the temptation of the one ring- to allow us to see with fresh eyes these elements of Christianity that we often lose sight of, or forget in the material world. There is so much more to say here, but perhaps I will leave the rest of these thoughts for later.

"Many that live deserve death. and some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be so quick to deal out death and judgement. Fore even the very wise cannot see all ends."

Another excerpt from the conversation between Gandalf and Frodo in Bag-End. "It was pity that stayed Bilbo's hand," says Gandalf; and I think they did a beautiful job of illustrating this subtle point in the first film installment of The Hobbit. Both Andy Serkis and Martin Freeman were at their absolute best in this tiny moment- go re-watch it, you'll see what I mean ;-)

“If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.”

Thorin Oakenshield says this, I believe on his deathbed (it would be out of character for a Dwarf to say such a thing otherwise!) But one of the central and binding themes throughout Tolkien's fictional works.

AHEM. If only we were all like Tom. Source

“May it be a light to you in dark places, when all other lights go out.” 

 "I am a servant of the Secret Fire, wielder of the flame of Anor. You cannot pass. The dark fire will not avail you, flame of Udûn"

Two of the few times we see what seems to be some clear reference to a Holy Spirit of any sort is when Sam uses the Phial of Galadriel to chase off the evil spider Shelob (the light in dark places, first quote) and when Gandalf uses the Secret Fire to battle the Balrog in Moria. Apart from these moments there are few times (possibly none) when the Holy Trinity is not carefully veiled and deeply embedded in Tolkien's text. One must go digging to find them :) 

That's all for tonight. This and also this article are two short pieces on Tolkien's work that I hope to get to soon. If you beat me to it please let me know what you think.