J. R. R. Tolkien entered my life on a dreary winter day early in 1966.
I will never forget the moment, even if I don't remember the exact date.
I had been fighting bronchitis, strep throat, and a high fever for a number of days,
and I was completely miserable.
My only comfort was my blue Sony transistor radio
that was sitting on my stomach as I lay in bed.
J. R. R. Tolkien
ca. 1925
CJFX Radio, 580 on the AM dial, broadcasted from Antigonish, Nova Scotia,
sending its welcome waves out to eastern Nova Scotia and beyond.
At that time CJFX played country, pop, jazz, rock, and Celtic music,
and I listened to it hour after hour, day after day, from my home 35 miles away in Stillwater.
I tuned in for rock; but, because of CJFX's variety format,
I was forced to develop an appreciation for Jim Reeves, the Clancy Brothers,
Eydie Gormé, and Steve Lawrence ~
not to mention John Allan Cameron and Winston "Scotty" Fitzgerald
thanks to the influence of legendary DJ and Scottish fiddle lover Gus MacKinnon.
But, the most important impact CJFX had on my life was introducing me to J. R. R. Tolkien.
That Saturday morning CJFX broadcast a program for teenagers
That Saturday morning CJFX broadcast a program for teenagers
that featured J. R. R. Tolkien and his book The Lord of the Rings.
I listened spellbound, and when I heard the following passage
from LOTR read aloud, I was caught for life.
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, J. R. R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings, Vol. 1, "The Fellowship of the Ring," 2nd ed., Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, 1967.
Getting my hands on The Lord of the Rings in Stillwater was not an easy thing.
The nearest store that might carry the books was in Antigonish, and I had little money.
It was a long wait until the end of the school year when I won a prize
that covered the cost of the books and my mother had the time to drive me to Antigonish.
(I wish I hadn't worn my copies out. They'd be worth a lot now.)
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I read the trilogy nonstop for days, and then the hunt was on for The Hobbit.
I couldn't find it anywhere!
We moved over the summer to Freeport at the opposite end of Nova Scotia,
and a new neighbor, who had a teen-aged son visiting down in the States,
heard about my fruitless efforts to find The Hobbit.
The son returned home in the fall with the book for me in which
he had inscribed, "May the hair on your toes grow ever longer!"
The story did not disappoint!
I have been reading and studying Tolkien ever since.
One of the best courses that I have ever taken at university
was a course on Tolkien and the Inklings with
Dr. John J. Brugaletta at Cal State Fullerton in Fullerton, California.
This phenomenal professor immersed me
in the complexity and the depth of Tolkien's world and his mythology.
Tolkien and The Hobbit
Aurora, Colorado, USA
Date Unknown
© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue. All Rights Reserved
Humphrey Carpenter, writing in his authorized biography of Tolkien, describes how
Tolkien's imagination followed two different tracks during the 1920s and early 1930s.
On the one hand Tolkien was writing entertaining stories for children;
and on the other, he was constructing his personal mythology
that was eventually published posthumously in The Silmarillion.
The two tracks did not meet until one summer's day
when Tolkien was marking exam papers.
Later in his life Tolkien could not remember the year this happened,
but, this is how he remembered the occasion:
"One of the candidates had mercifully left one of the pages with no writing on it (which is the best thing that can possibly happen to an examiner) and I wrote on it: "In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit." Names always generate a story in my mind. Eventually I thought I'd better find out what hobbits were like. But that's only the beginning."
(Humphrey Carpenter, Tolkien, Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, 1977, p. 172)
From a sentence written on a blank page in an exam paper almost ninety years ago
came the books that have captivated millions of readers and continue to do so today.
Citation: "J. R. R. Tolkien." AZQuotes.com. Wind and Fly LTD, 2024. 27 September 2024. https://www.azquotes.com/quote/354684
Tolkien went on to find out a whole lot about hobbits and much more about Middle-earth.
When I first read Tolkien's books and Carpenter's biography,
it did not take me long to recognize that Tolkien was the quintessential hobbit.
He recognized this himself and once wrote, "I am in fact a hobbit." (Carpenter, p. 176)
It is fascinating to read about Tolkien's childhood
and to speculate about what might have influenced his later writings.
Tolkien was born on January 3, 1892 in Bloemfontein, South Africa.
When he was three he traveled with his mother and brother Hilary to Birmingham, England,
because South Africa's heat was impacting his health.
While they were in England, Tolkien's father Arthur, back in South Africa,
had a severe hemorrhage while recovering from rheumatic fever and died.
Suddenly, Tolkien's mother Mabel was faced with raising
Ronald and Hilary on her own and with very little money.
The Tolkien Family: Arthur (father), Mabel (mother), and JRR (baby)
Handwritten Christmas card with a colored photo of the Tolkien family,
sent by Mabel Tolkien from the Orange Free State to her relatives in Birmingham,
on November 15, 1892.
She finally found a place for them to rent in the hamlet of Sarehole
on the southern edge of Birmingham.
The hamlet, the Sarehole Mill, and the surrounding English countryside
were transformed by Tolkien's imagination into the village of Hobbiton
in his writing decades later. (Carpenter, p. 176)
Sarehole Mill
Moseley Bog, Close to Sarehole Mill
Mabel Tolkien began to teach her sons,
and, Ronald could read at four and write not long after.
Very quickly he demonstrated an interest in languages and drawing.
He loved to read, and his mother provided him with many books.
Ronald particularly liked The Red Fairy Book with tales collected by Andrew Lang
because it contained "The Story of Sigurd."
Sigurd is a hero from Norse Mythology known for slaying the dragon Fafnir.
From a this very early age, Tolkien desired dragons. (Carpenter, p. 22).
Around the time he was seven, Tolkien wrote a story about a dragon.
Humphrey Carpenter quoted Tolkien's recollection of his early story:
"I remember nothing about it except a philological fact. My mother said nothing about the dragon, but pointed out that one could not say a 'green great dragon', but had to say 'a great green dragon'. I wondered why, and still do. The fact that I remember this is possibly significant, as I do not think I ever tried to write a story again for many years and was taken up with language." (Carpenter, p. 23)
From these humble beginnings in his childhood, John Roland Reuel Tolkien
went on to become a world-renowned philologist, artist, and writer of high fantasy:
a hobbit who loved dragons.
I have no idea how many times I have read Tree and Leaf,
Farmer Giles of Ham, The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion.
And I have read many other books by Tolkien, the Inklings, scholars, and fans.
And then there is Peter Jackson's wonderful LOTR movies and all the spinoffs.
Last October 30th found me (and our cruise ship) blown into Wellington, New Zealand
instead of docking at our scheduled port of Auckland.
My husband Terry and I chanced upon a wonderful statue of Gandalf the Grey
in the Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington isite Visitor Information Centre.
Looking at Gandalf, I remembered that teen-aged girl
listening to CJFX Antigonish in Stillwater a lifetime ago.
What a reading adventure that broadcast started me on,
one that me made as familiar with the maps and landscapes of Middle-earth
as the lands and shores of my native Nova Scotia.
I still hope to see some of the movie locations in New Zealand.
Gandalf the Grey
Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington isite Visitor Information Centre
Wellington, New Zealand
October 30, 2023
© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue. All Rights Reserved
Today I am joining the 2024 Tolkien Blog Party at Rachel Kovaciny's
The Edge of the Precipice blog, thanks to my friend Debra at She Who Seeks.
Debra introduced me to this event last year, and she reminded me with an email this year.
What would we do without thoughtful friends?
Rachel has had fun Tolkien related activities in her blog this week.
If you're a Tolkien fan, check out Rachel's Tolkien posts.
Courtesy of Rachel Kovaciny
I, of course, am behind. 😵💫
I'm still linking to Rain's Thursday Art and Dinner Date, Tom's Aloha Friday,
and Nicole's Friday Face Off, although I'm not posting photos related to them this week.
Have a great weekend!
Till next time ~
Fundy Blue
Standing Into Danger https://selkiegrey4.blogspot.com
Copyright ©2024 – All rights reserved.
My next post will be
Wednesday, October 2nd. 🤞
On the Bay of Fundy
© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue
All Rights Reserved
