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Tolkien’s Circle: Fr. John Maguire, S.D.B.
I wrote a previous post on Tolkien’s student, Helen Buckhurst, and it occurred to me that it would be interesting to occasionally do more posts delving into Tolkien’s circle of friends and acquaintances who are lesser known than his more famous Inklings friends. So from time to time, I plan to do more such posts… Continue reading
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Gardens in The Lord of the Rings
Gardens are frequently mentioned in The Lord of the Rings, and their virtues in the tale are many. Tolkien himself loved gardening, although he was not the most diligent gardener by his own admission. In this post I want to review most of the references to gardens in The Lord of the Rings and to… Continue reading
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Stargazing in Middle-earth
When Faramir explains the downfall of the Kings of Gondor to Frodo, he says something interesting about stars: Kings made tombs more splendid than houses of the living, and counted old names in the rolls of their descent dearer than the names of sons. Childless lords sat in aged halls musing on heraldry; in secret… Continue reading
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The Harrowing Paths of the Dead
For most Western Christians, this week is “Holy Week,” the most important liturgical period of the year. The week begins with Palm Sunday, the commemoration of Christ’s entrance into Jerusalem and ends with Easter Sunday, the celebration of Christ’s resurrection from the dead. As it was for many Catholics, Holy Week was a special time… Continue reading
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The Mantle of Eowyn
On March 25th, as the Host of the West stands before the Black Gate and Frodo and Sam ascend to the Sammath Naur, Faramir and Eowyn stand upon the walls of Minas Tirith: No tidings had yet come, and all hearts were darkened. The weather, too, was bright no longer. It was cold. A wind… Continue reading
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Who was Helen Buckhurst?
In Holly Ordway’s book, Tolkien’s Faith, I came across the name of Helen Buckhurst, which I recognized but realized I knew very little about her other than one of her books and that she had been a student of Tolkien’s. I thought I would look into her biography and connection to Tolkien a bit more.… Continue reading
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Dawn, the Hope of Men
In the chapter, “Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age” in The Silmarillion, we learn about the great cities founded by the Numenoreans in exile after the Fall of Numenor: Other strong places they built also upon either hand: Minas Ithil, the Tower of the Rising Moon, eastward upon a shoulder of the… Continue reading
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Ashes in The Lord of the Rings
For Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent, I had the idea to share some thoughts on the references to “ashes” in The Lord of the Rings. Ashes are referred to about twenty times in The Lord of the Rings. Two of those references are the line from “The Riddle of Strider”: “from the ashes… Continue reading
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The Virtue and Wisdom of Gimli
Re-reading some sections of The Lord of the Rings recently led me to reflect on the virtue and wisdom of Gimli, son of Gloin. He is a more remarkable character than he often gets credit for, especially in light of the almost purely comic role he plays in Peter Jackson’s films. We meet Gimli at… Continue reading
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Tom Bombadil the Kingfisher
In my last post, I wrote that Tom Bombadil can be said to represent Arda Unmarred. In this post, I want to talk about what kind of person Tom is and one of the ways Tolkien subtly communicates this to us. When we first meet Tom in The Lord of the Rings, he has a… Continue reading
About Me
Thinking and writing about Tolkien’s life and works.
Thoughts on Tolkien 