Platypus of Truth

Knowledge plays a key role in J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings . Eomer troubles over questions of moral knowledge, to which Aragorn replies: "Good and evil have not changed since yesteryear, nor are they one thing among elves ... and another among men." Gandalf puts his skills in archival research to use in Gondor where he discovers the scroll containing the description of the One Ring. The Council of Elrond fills a whole chapter with historical narrative and debate. The desire for knowledge leads both Saruman and Denethor to use the Palantiri to their doom. Frodo discovers the limits of knowledge in Gandalf's admonishment: "... do not be too hasty to deal out death in judgment. For even the very wise cannot see all ends." After living for nine years in Southern California, I can say with some confidence that people in Connecticut place a higher value on knowledge and education (Southern California has its own virtues that Conn. lacks and co...

When he was pressed with the question "what is The Lord of the Rings about," J.R.R. Tolkien usually stated that it was not about anything. On one occasion, however, he gave a different answer. He said that, if it was about anything, it was about death. This can be seen, as I mentioned in the previous post , in the fact that much of Middle Earth is in terminal (or at least advanced) decline when we are introduced to it at the end of the Third Age. The return of King Elessar does bring hope, but it is a limited one. The elves do not remain in Middle Earth to share it, nor does Frodo. As a survivor of childhood cancer, I was introduced to death at an early age. In fact, the life I live is one given by grace. One might say "on borrowed time" (as if each of our lives isn't just that). I might have died in '91. The interval, short or long, I live in is the gift of God. Mortality. It means giving up life upon this Middle Earth; the joy and the ...

I grew up in Shelton, Connecticut; a small, rural town straddling the Housatonic River. It was a land of forests, rolling hills, and quiet rivers. Thus, imagining J.R.R. Tolkien's Shire was never very hard for me. I often felt as though I lived in it. Being on the East Coast, there was a lovely sense of history to Shelton; though it pales in comparison with that of Tolkien's England. Main Street was still dominated by the shells of the old mills and the J.P. Morgan Restaurant; from a time when the great robber-baron himself had high hopes for the town. The Plumb Memorial Library still sported its quaint Victorian exterior, my friend lived in a 200 year old converted farm-house, many of the churches were at least that old, and crisscrossing the woods were miles and miles of stone walls, stone foundations, and little old cemeteries. Quaint. Charming. But I never thought then what all this beauty meant. Shelton is part of a dying civilization. You can tell from the...

As I continue to process our grand trek through The Lord of the Rings , I thought that I'd share some helpful resources for those interested in delving deeper into Tolkien's world. The first is the indispensable biography by Humphrey Carpenter: J.R.R. Tolkien: A Biography . To date, this is the only "authorized" biography, and it is the best of any that I am aware of. Carpenter explores his subject with care and dignity. He makes no attempts to sensationalize a rather mundane(for his generation) life, while avoiding a sort of "hagiography" devoid of any mention of Tolkien's quirks and struggles. The portrait that emerges is of a middle class college professor, quiet, friendly, incurably nerdy, highly intelligent, a bit thin-skinned, often melancholy, devoted to his family, and completely unremarkable where it not for the fact that out of his ordinary life came the most extraordinary work of the 20th century. The second book is the equally indispe...

My wife and I have been reading through J. P. Moreland's "Kingdom Triangle" over the past month. As a spiritual discipline, Moreland suggests writing down and recording answers to prayers, as well as asking God for signs to demonstrate His presence in our lives. (Note: these are spiritual disciplines that are meant to go along with an active life of the mind, participation in Christian duties, etc. We are not meant to be "sign-chasers," or "those who put God to the test.) So I thought while reading these things yesterday, ok Lord, let's give it a try. Response I: I don't typically pray with my wife for short car trips in town. On setting out to run a few errands yesterday afternoon I was stuck by a sensation that we really needed to pray on this trip. I suggested it to Sharon, and we did. Five minutes later, we barely escaped a nasty accident that we could have done nothing to prevent or escape from. We staid to help the people in the two ca...

My wife and I have just finished reading The Lord of the Rings together. We started with the Silmarillion and then moved on to The Hobbit and so on. It's a journey that has taken us some eight months to complete. All this has put into my mind the importance of having favorite books; books that you turn to again and again over the years for insight, guidance, challenge, and comfort. My personal top three are, in chronological order (not order of preference): The Oresteia by Aeschylus: Aeschylus, as the greatest poet of the old tragedies in Athens, presents us with a struggle between conflicting claims of love, loyalty, and honor in a world doomed to destruction apart from a divine intervener and a human atonement. The Idylls of the King by Alfred, Lord Tennyson: Tennyson, poet laureate to Queen Victoria, uses the Arthur legends as the backdrop for an elegy of the Victorian age; a civilization undone by its failure to live up to, and grasp the threat to the intellectual ...