THROWBACK THURSDAY: It’s Always Good to Go Back to Middle Earth

I still think The Lord of the Rings is the greatest literary achievement in my lifetime. Like so many other people, I couldn’t wait for the second and then the third book. Nothing like it had ever been written.

English actor, Sir Christopher Lee, was born on this day in 1922 (died 2015).

I can’t imagine being around to wait for the next book in The Lord of the Rings series.

I wrote recently about how I waited some forty years to complete the Shanarra series. I enjoyed them, and they follow many of the themes of LOTR. But they’re not just the same.

It was hard enough to wait for THE MOVIES when they came out in a three-year time span.

I spent much of that time seeing THE MOVIES multiple times, and chatting online with friends who were as anxious as I to see the next installment.

So much so that when The Return of the King came out, we rented a beach house in Florida and watched all three of THE MOVIES. I told some of our story when one friend sailed into the west.

I was first introduced to Tolkien in high school. I can’t recall whether it was a teacher or a classmate who first told me about t him. But, I was hooked.

Almost fifty years later, I’m still hooked.

This design and more available in The Write Side Shop (click the pic).

Also, I need to read more of Tolkien’s works.

I can’t imagine anyone other than Christopher Lee for the role of Saruman in THE MOVIES. He was an amazing actor.

I mean, how many actors have a resume that includes The Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, Sherlock Holmes, Dracula, and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory?

A few. Very few.

I used to think that I wanted to write fantasy or science fiction. I’ve started numerous pieces over the years, but they’ve never really taken off.

I’m much better at things like historical fiction, or heart-warming Hallmarkesque family pieces.

Or snark.

I excel at snark.

But I have to agree with Sir Christopher. I am not aware of another such outstanding work written in my lifetime.

I admit that I get emotional over THE MOVIES. They came at a significant time.

Significant for our country in that The Fellowship of the Ring hit the theaters just a few short months after the attacks of 9/11.  We needed a story of hope.

Significant for me for many other reasons that I may, or may not include in some heartwarming piece of historical fiction one day.

Maybe it will be one of the great tales that people remember.

‘I don’t like anything here at all,’ said Frodo, ‘step or stone, breath or bone. Earth, air and water all seem accursed. But so our path is laid.’

‘Yes, that’s so,’ said Sam. ‘And we shouldn’t be here at all, if we’d known more about it before we started. But I suppose it’s often that way. The brave things in the old tales and songs, Mr. Frodo: adventures, as I used to call them. I used to think that they were things the wonderful folk of the stories went out and looked for, because they wanted them, because they were exciting and life was a bit dull, a kind of a sport, as you might say. But that’s not the way of it with the tales that really mattered, or the ones that stay in the mind. Folk seem to have been just landed in them, usually – their paths were laid that way, as you put it. But I expect they had lots of chances, like us, of turning back, only they didn’t. And if they had, we shouldn’t know, because they’d have been forgotten. We hear about those as just went on – and not all to a good end, mind you; at least not to what folk inside a story and not outside it call a good end. You know, coming home, and finding things all right, though not quite the same – like old Mr. Bilbo. But those aren’t always the best tales to hear, though they may be the best tales to get landed in! I wonder what sort of a tale we’ve fallen into?’

The Two Towers, by J.R.R. Tolkien

What tale will you fall into today?

MUSICAL INTERLUDE


 

WHAT I’M READING


 

RANDOM LINKS YOU SHOULD READ

A Decent and Honorable Man
Shaun Kenney at The Republican Standard
So it is with sad news that Virginians hear former US Senator John Warner passed away last night at the age of 94, and it is a uniquely Virginian lament if for no other reason than Warner was indeed one of us — a Virginia gentleman in the old style. Frustrating at times in his moderation, few questioned his sincerity or his quality. Read More.

Trump: ‘It was obvious to smart people’ COVID came from Wuhan lab
New York Post
Former President Donald Trump claimed in an interview Tuesday that “it was obvious to smart people” that the coronavirus emerged from a lab in the Chinese city of Wuhan. Read More.

Former Seattle Police Chief Says Media Downplayed Violence At CHOP To Make It Appear Peaceful
Daily Mail
Former Seattle Police Chief Carmen Best, who resigned last summer after the Seattle City Council voted to cut millions of dollars from the Seattle Police Department’s budget, recently acknowledged what most outside the mainstream media bubble already knew: That the media manipulated news coverage inside Seattle’s Capitol Hill Organized Protest (CHOP) to make it look less dangerous. Read More.

Biden State Department quietly shut down team probing COVID origin
Fox News
The Biden State Department ended an inquiry into the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic that was investigating whether the virus stemmed from a leak out of the Wuhan Institute of Virology, Fox News has confirmed. Read More.

Biden’s Tax Plan is a Lose/Lose for American Families
Real Clear Policy
What liberals don’t want Americans to know is there is no such thing as corporate taxes — it’s not a fee, it’s a pass-through. Every dollar the U.S. government charges American businesses is paid for by workers and shoppers. Read More.

BLM Activist Threatens Kansas City Police: ‘We Gonna Blow Your Motherf-cking Head Off’
The Federalist
Footage captured Tuesday on the anniversary of the death of George Floyd shows a Black Lives Matter demonstrator in Kansas City threatening to murder law enforcement. Read More.

With Trump Out of the White House, Media Suddenly Finds the ‘Lab Leak Theory’ Plausible
Tim Murtaugh in The Daily Signal
Practically and factually, the only real difference today, versus a year ago, is that Trump is no longer in the White House, so journalists are safe to entertain competing ideas again. Read More.

PODCASTS I’M LISTENING TO

The British History Podcast

Chopped Bard

 

 

BENEDICTION

The Lord bless you and keep you;
the Lord make his face shine on you
and be gracious to you;
the Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace.

Numbers 6:24-26

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