Tolkien: Maker of Middle-Earth
Anne Maria Clarke @ the Bodlelian Libray Oxford
Part One
On the 1st of June this year I had the very great privilege of attending the opening day of a major new exhibition about J.R.R. Tolkien at the Bodleian libray, Oxford. The city was full of Tolkien enthusiasts the day before when I arrived with my husband. On the way in we drove by 20 Northmoor Road, the quiet leafy street just outside the city where Tolkien had lived with his family between 1930 and 1947 and from where he wrote the Hobbit & much of The Lord of the Rings. Whilst we were parked, discreetly we hoped on the opposite side of the road, several other cars pulled up and people emerged briefly with cameras to take photos before continuing on their way. Our central hotel too was full of those who had come especially from all over the world and we overheard several fascinating conversations about the great man, whose appeal as we know is universal. Nearly one hundred thousand exhibition tickets we were told, have been booked in advance.
*******
The Bodleian library, under the direction of curator and Tolkien archivist, Catherine Mcllwaine has created a wonderful exhibition. A ' once in a life time event' announced the Telegraph, and for fans, it is indeed a treat.
One enters via a hallway onto whose surfaces familiar maps and images from the tales have been brilliantly projected as illuminated animations, effectively drawing you in so to speak, to the terrain of Middle Earth. The interior of the exhibition is replete with treasures and curiosities of all kinds, ordinary and extra-ordinary alike. Tolkien's old desk and chair for example, intricate doodles on faded newspaper crossword pages, overlaid with Tolkien's exquisite calligraphy and snippets of obscure Elven phrases.....clearly works of art in their own right. There are photos and details of his childhood and early education, his time in the army during the First World War, the love of his life Edith and their four children: progressing sequentially through to his time as an Oxford Don and the beginnings of his writing, illustration and consolidation of his Elven languages of which astoundingly, there were sixteen. There are audio recordings too, featuring classic and well-loved Elven phrases and a large central 3D map of Middle Earth illuminating the route taken by Frodo and his companions from the Shire, through Rivendell and Lothlorien to Mordor.
Particularly charming are the hand-written pages and illustrations from Tolkien's Letters from Father Christmas which he wrote and illustrated for his children for a full twenty-three years.
There are letters from fans including the Queen of Denmark, Joni Mitchell and Iris Murdock, all in praise and wonderment at his achievements.
Prominently featured are Tolkien's own illustrations of his work, several of which have been enlarged and projected onto the walls. His original covers for three parts of The Lord of the Rings are displayed alongside his delightful Book of Ishness and some original manuscript from his founding epic The Silmarillion, all of which so perfectly depict the magical realms in a way which as in the writing, exhibit his unique capacity to juxtapose utterly sublime and visionary themes with the humble everyday concerns and comforts of life, like the importance of the hobbits second breakfast. He renders both with finesse and an almost transcendent lucidity.
Judging from snippets of conversations overheard as we made our around, it seemed to me as if each person had their own very personal thing going on, their own deep and intimate connection with the landscape and characters of Middle Earth - as if they had personally traversed the difficult terrain, experienced the terrors, exhilarations and profound beauty of that world. And I marvelled at Tolkien's great genius at being able to realise and to animate such a realm and convey it simultaneously into our collective and deeply intimate and private worlds.
He wanted to create a new mythology some have said, one rooted in the landscape of Britain and in the Northern countries to which he felt such affinity. It is abundantly clear and has been so for many years, that he suceeded in doing just that.
A clever, clever man without doubt, an Oxford don, philologist, medievalist, creator of languages....and yet....his sucesss as a person, a husband and father as well as an author is rooted not only in these scholarly attributes but in his connection to and his deep humility in relation to something far greater than himself, as the following little story reveals.
Tolkien once received a letter from a reader who said that although he himself had very little faith, the world Tolkien wrote of seemed permeated with such a quality....
*******
The Bodleian library, under the direction of curator and Tolkien archivist, Catherine Mcllwaine has created a wonderful exhibition. A ' once in a life time event' announced the Telegraph, and for fans, it is indeed a treat.
One enters via a hallway onto whose surfaces familiar maps and images from the tales have been brilliantly projected as illuminated animations, effectively drawing you in so to speak, to the terrain of Middle Earth. The interior of the exhibition is replete with treasures and curiosities of all kinds, ordinary and extra-ordinary alike. Tolkien's old desk and chair for example, intricate doodles on faded newspaper crossword pages, overlaid with Tolkien's exquisite calligraphy and snippets of obscure Elven phrases.....clearly works of art in their own right. There are photos and details of his childhood and early education, his time in the army during the First World War, the love of his life Edith and their four children: progressing sequentially through to his time as an Oxford Don and the beginnings of his writing, illustration and consolidation of his Elven languages of which astoundingly, there were sixteen. There are audio recordings too, featuring classic and well-loved Elven phrases and a large central 3D map of Middle Earth illuminating the route taken by Frodo and his companions from the Shire, through Rivendell and Lothlorien to Mordor.
Particularly charming are the hand-written pages and illustrations from Tolkien's Letters from Father Christmas which he wrote and illustrated for his children for a full twenty-three years.
There are letters from fans including the Queen of Denmark, Joni Mitchell and Iris Murdock, all in praise and wonderment at his achievements.
Prominently featured are Tolkien's own illustrations of his work, several of which have been enlarged and projected onto the walls. His original covers for three parts of The Lord of the Rings are displayed alongside his delightful Book of Ishness and some original manuscript from his founding epic The Silmarillion, all of which so perfectly depict the magical realms in a way which as in the writing, exhibit his unique capacity to juxtapose utterly sublime and visionary themes with the humble everyday concerns and comforts of life, like the importance of the hobbits second breakfast. He renders both with finesse and an almost transcendent lucidity.
Judging from snippets of conversations overheard as we made our around, it seemed to me as if each person had their own very personal thing going on, their own deep and intimate connection with the landscape and characters of Middle Earth - as if they had personally traversed the difficult terrain, experienced the terrors, exhilarations and profound beauty of that world. And I marvelled at Tolkien's great genius at being able to realise and to animate such a realm and convey it simultaneously into our collective and deeply intimate and private worlds.
He wanted to create a new mythology some have said, one rooted in the landscape of Britain and in the Northern countries to which he felt such affinity. It is abundantly clear and has been so for many years, that he suceeded in doing just that.
A clever, clever man without doubt, an Oxford don, philologist, medievalist, creator of languages....and yet....his sucesss as a person, a husband and father as well as an author is rooted not only in these scholarly attributes but in his connection to and his deep humility in relation to something far greater than himself, as the following little story reveals.
Tolkien once received a letter from a reader who said that although he himself had very little faith, the world Tolkien wrote of seemed permeated with such a quality....
which seems to be everywhere without a visible source like light from an invisible lamp....and this gives me great comfort.
Tolkien replied as follows:
I can only answer that of his own sanity no man can securely judge....I can only say that if santity inhabits his work or a pervading light illumines it then it does not come from him, but through him and you would not perceive it in these terms unless it was with you also.
It is this most generous and inclusive recognition (to which I would like to return in part two) that marks Tolkien out as a man of real wisdom and that imbues his work with a purity all too rare in our contemporary world.
To be continued.....
Anne Maria Clarke
x x x
tolkien.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/
Weston Library
Broad Street
Oxford OX1 3BG
Dates1 June – 28 October 2018
Exhibition hours Mon-Sat 10AM – 5PM
Sun 11AM – 5PM
To be continued.....
Anne Maria Clarke
x x x
tolkien.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/
Weston Library
Broad Street
Oxford OX1 3BG
Dates1 June – 28 October 2018
Exhibition hours Mon-Sat 10AM – 5PM
Sun 11AM – 5PM
Subscribe to Anne Maria Clarke's YouTube channel
http://www.youtube.com/c/annemariaclarke
More fairy-stories, myths, legends and books by
Anne Maria Clarke
http://www.archivepublishing.co.uk /Transpersonal Books - Transpersonal Psychology. Understanding the Soul - Expanding Consciousness
www.annemariaclarke.net
http://www.annemariaclarke.net/blog
http://www.youtube.com/c/annemariaclarke
More fairy-stories, myths, legends and books by
Anne Maria Clarke
http://www.archivepublishing.co.uk /Transpersonal Books - Transpersonal Psychology. Understanding the Soul - Expanding Consciousness
www.annemariaclarke.net
http://www.annemariaclarke.net/blog
