Tolkien’s The Great Tales Part Three— The Fall of Gondolin
It is now beyond reasonable doubt that Tolkien all along intended The Lord of the Rings to be the continuation of the stories we have in the Silmarillion and in larger and more detailed form in the 3 long tales now published in this collection, tales of the elder days or first age of Middle Earth. These tales evolved from about 1919 until the early 1950s, and in some ways it is too bad that Tolkien never completed his final… Read more
Police Brutality and the Larger Issues in Play
Sherlock Holmes used to say ‘the game’s afoot’ to signal that something major was happening in regard to solving crime, and in particular murders. Our recent string of disasters with police using excessive force even to the point of killing unarmed people has put in place lots of complex societal factors such that the ‘game’ really is afoot— racism, sanctioned violence by city officials, the militarization of police forces, peaceful protests infiltrated by looters and other opportunists, and the increasing… Read more
Tolkien on Destiny, Doom, Fate
In the third of his great tales from the first age of Middle Earth, there is a point in which Ulmo, the god of the sea, a sort of cross between Aquaman, Poseidon and Neptune with a Nordic flare, tells Tuor the main character in the ‘Fall of Gondolin’ tale the following: “in the armor of Fate…there is ever a rift, and in the walls of Doom a breach, until the full-making, which ye call the End.” (p. 165). What… Read more
Summer Song
SUMMER SONG (FOR EMILY ON HER BIRTHDAY) I must go down to the sea Because it clearly calls my name I can’t ignore the constant cry Or I’ll never be the same. I love the sound of wave on wave The roar and then the reach, Rise and fall, and rise and fall Until it covers the beach. The air is warm, the pelicans play In search of endless fish All too soon the day goes down Despite my deepest… Read more
Helen Bond’s The First Biography of Jesus– Part Nineteen
BEN: On p. 152 I had an ah ha! moment when you showed that Mark had juxtaposed a two-stage healing of a blind person with the two stage growth in understanding of Jesus by the disciples starting in Mk. 8. Throughout, one of the things you are showing is how carefully crafted and ordered this Gospel is by Mark—there is nothing haphazard about it. This means that older characterizations of Mark’s work as clumsy, awkward, rough and ready simply do… Read more
43 Years… and Counting (but who’s counting???)
43 years ago today, Ann and I got married in the Methodist Church in South Hamilton Mass. We’ve been all over the world together, and still going! Read more
Helen Bond’s The First Biography of Jesus– Part Eighteen
BEN: On p. 152 I had an ah ha! moment when you showed that Mark had juxtaposed a two-stage healing of a blind person with the two stage growth in understanding of Jesus by the disciples starting in Mk. 8. Throughout, one of the things you are showing is how carefully crafted and ordered this Gospel is by Mark—there is nothing haphazard about it. This means that older characterizations of Mark’s work as clumsy, awkward, rough and ready simply do… Read more
