Happy birthday, Professor J.R.R. Tolkien!
I vividly recall sitting in the Library at Madison Middle School around 2001-2002 searching for a book for a book report. I remember walking around the library for nearly an hour and a half until I finally stumbled upon a copy of Professor J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Lord of the Rings” from the 1970s. I remember seeing the cover and thinking to myself “Wow! Wizards, warriors, and little people. This one is the winner!” Unfortunately for me, the book report was due the following week, so I didn’t finish it.
High school didn't fare much better for me. Not only were books and reports not within my wheel-house of academic strengths, but attending school itself wasn't a strong suit either. Looking back now in my mid-30s, it's intriguing to see that even though I had seemingly traded books for a different path, the influence of Professor Tolkien lingered in the background.
During that high school period, where my priorities shifted to jamming with friends to the tunes of Led Zeppelin, I discovered that songs like "Misty Mountain Hop," "Ramble On," and "The Battle of Evermore" drew inspiration from Professor Tolkien's "The Hobbit" and "The Lord of the Rings." The impact of Tolkien on Robert Plant was evident in the signed copy of "Led Zeppelin II," featuring the iconic phrase "Frodo Lives," which later fetched an astounding $27,621 at auction.
In hindsight, it's evident that Professor Tolkien's influence had been beckoning me from the Undying Lands into Middle Earth since my childhood. I don’t even find that strange at this point in my life. That seems to be how the communion of saints works, in my experience. The question of “why?” intrigues me far more. Anyway, I digress.
In my late 20s, having embraced a more settled life as a husband and father, I finally embarked on my hop through the Misty Mountains.
I drank in absolutley everything that Middle Earth had to offer.
I had my second breakfast in The Shire with the Hobbits. I pondered lost mysteries from ages past with the immortal elves of Rivendell. I studied the runes of Thror and found gold in the heart of the Lonely Mountain. I sang while I slayed with the Rohirrim in the Pelennor Fields. I saw Sauron fall as the Black Tower was cast to Mordor’s scorched ground.
All of this changed me. I returned with an illuminated imagination. Time spent in the enchanted Misty Mountains showed me that the world I inhabit is just as enchanted as Tolkien’s mythic world. I believe that’s what the Professor always intended to accomplish with His writings — to baptize the Christian imagination, making us aware that we truly live in a world of faerie. I believe it would be fair to say that the Professor’s intentions were echoed in the worlds of his friend C.S. Lewis who once wrote, “He does not despise real woods because he has read of enchanted woods: The reading makes all real woods a little enchanted.”
Not only has the professor had a great impact on my imagination, but he’s also greatly impacted the imagination of the 20th and 21st centuries. From The Beatles and Led Zeppelin to contemporary authors like Robert Jordan, Brandon Sanderson, and George R.R. Martin, as well as games like Magic The Gathering and Dungeons and Dragons — All of it exists as cultural phenomenon influenced by J.R.R. Tolkien or in response to him. I believe that 500 years from now, those living after us will look back and see his work as comparable to Dante's. “The Lord of the Rings” may very well be the “Beowulf” of our age.
It's remarkable how God used this man, who faced early loss and witnessed the horrors of the Great War, yet became a legend-maker through his love for languages. Let's raise a glass for the professor! Blessed are the Legend-Makers, and blessed be the Lord and God of J.R.R. Tolkien!
Well said! Completely agree about his influence on the imagination of the 20th and 21st centuries. I have always loved Terry Pratchett's way of phrasing it in likening Tolkien's influence to Mt. Fuji: “J.R.R. Tolkien has become a sort of mountain, appearing in all subsequent fantasy in the way that Mt. Fuji appears so often in Japanese prints. Sometimes it’s big and up close. Sometimes it’s a shape on the horizon. Sometimes it’s not there at all, which means that the artist either has made a deliberate decision against the mountain, which is interesting in itself, or is in fact standing on Mt. Fuji.”
Thank you! A perfect analogy. I don’t know if it can be said any better. I will have to read more of Pratchett!