Category: Tolkien
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Schaubert’s Laws of Fantasy Religions
Author’s Note: this post on fantasy religions was originally drafted for a handful of local writing friends with a more thorough catalogue. That piece was lost and due to some life circumstances, I rushed out this much less thorough piece for those friends assuming (wrongly) it would not circulate widely. I realize there’s a lot…
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Tolkien’s Art Finds a Hobbit Hole
I stand in the rounded doorway of the entrance chamber. The wall to my right bears a calligraphed monogram in the form of a cross laid over a curl of ribbon. The gatekeeper, a man with a black suit and a walkie-talkie, cautions me against phone use. ‘We were trying to make it feel like…
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Why I Never Try to be a Dark Person
Many of the people I know, whether friends or acquaintances or neighbors, automatically give greater credibility to films, literature, plays, TV shows and the like when these things are filled with darkness. I don’t. These people, whether local or national or international, tend to say things like, “Man that was good. It was so dar-har-har-hark.…
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On Good Catastrophes
Pneumonia. Turns out, something does beat the shingles and it comes in the form of a needle thick as an IV and full of muscle-maddening antibiotic. That was last week, who knows what adventures this one will behold? Anyways, sorry to hide under a wet, cold dishrag all week but I’m back in the space-saddle editing…
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Sitting at the feet of : a Medievalist
When he asked his Franciscan Father, “When did you become a Franciscan?” Alex Giltner’s Father answered, “When I was born.” Alex feels the same about medievalism—he can’t trace back the source. However, like most young boys, he drew close to stories and films of dragons and swords. Then at fourteen, he read The Lord of…
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The New Hero: Tolkien and Subversion
We have this innate hunger for heros. Every culture has them, and every hero has a sort of journey. Joseph Campbell made this concept famous with his “Hero with 1,000 Faces”. In fact, being freinds with George Lucas, he inspired Lucas to create Star Wars. Along this line of thought, meditating the various heroes of…