{"id":2919,"date":"2012-01-03T23:52:00","date_gmt":"2012-01-03T23:52:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/2012\/01\/happy-twelvity-birthday-professor-tolkien.html"},"modified":"2012-01-03T23:52:00","modified_gmt":"2012-01-03T23:52:00","slug":"happy-twelvity-birthday-professor-tolkien","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/2012\/01\/happy-twelvity-birthday-professor-tolkien.html","title":{"rendered":"Happy twelvity birthday Professor Tolkien"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>
<\/a><\/div>\n

Yes, it was the 120th anniversary of the birthday of J.R.R. Tolkien.\u00a0 Not a big fantasy fan myself, and I admit I\u2019ve read the Hobbit<\/em> just to say I\u2019ve read the Hobbit.\u00a0 But his masterpiece, his magnum opus<\/em>, his work considered by many one of the greatest contributions to literary fiction in the 20th century, still holds me in awe.\u00a0 How a person can write in such a way, a way that makes you think if anyone else had done it that way, it would have been laughed out of the book stores, is beyond me.\u00a0 He says it without saying it, and yet says it well.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

He was both deep and thoughtful, wise and intelligent, witty and whimsical, a lover of ancient languages and academic exercise as much as a good pint of beer and a pipe with friends in the neighborhood pub.\u00a0 He suffered loss and heartache, experienced the horrors of industrialized warfare, and yet never lost his love for growing things, natural things, beautiful things.\u00a0 And somehow, like all of the great ones, he combined it all in a mixture of unparalleled quality and impact. <\/p>\n

The Beatles didn\u2019t make it all up, but they took the influences and combined them in a fresh and revolutionary way.\u00a0 Orson Wells didn\u2019t pioneer everything on the set of Citizen Kane<\/em>, but he took what was done and mixed it together in a way that changed cinema.\u00a0 And Tolkien didn\u2019t invent fantasy, dragons, or even orcs, but the shadow he cast over the genre, and the influence he has had on a generation of authors, filmmakers, musicians, and readers, places him on the same plane as those others, and many more.\u00a0 So for all the memories, all the fun, and all the pipeweed everywhere, thanks Professor Tolkien for the memories, and happy Twelvity, may there be many more who\u00a0follow the joy of your creation while you take in that eternal evening rest from a troubled world.
<\/span><\/span>
Roads go ever ever on,<\/span>
Over rock and under tree,<\/span>
By caves where never sun has shone,<\/span>
By streams that never find the sea;<\/span>
Over snow by winter sown,<\/span>
And through the merry flowers of June,<\/span>
Over grass and over stone,<\/span>
And under mountains in the moon.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Roads go ever ever on<\/span>
Under cloud and under star,<\/span>
Yet feet that wandering have gone<\/span>
Turn at last to home afar.<\/span>
Eyes that fire and sword have seen<\/span>
And horror in the halls of stone<\/span>
Look at last on meadows green<\/span>
And trees and hills they long have known.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Road goes ever on and on<\/span>
Down from the door where it began.<\/span>
Now far ahead the Road has gone,<\/span>
And I must follow, if I can,<\/span>
Pursuing it with eager feet,<\/span>
Until it joins some larger way<\/span>
Where many paths and errands meet.<\/span>
And whither then? I cannot say.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Road goes ever on and on<\/span>
Out from the door where it began.<\/span>
Now far ahead the Road has gone,<\/span>
Let others follow it who can!<\/span>
Let them a journey new begin,<\/span>
But I at last with weary feet<\/span>
Will turn towards the lighted inn,<\/span>
My evening-rest and sleep to meet.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yes, it was the 120th anniversary of the birthday of J.R.R. Tolkien.\u00a0 Not a big fantasy fan myself, and I admit I\u2019ve read the Hobbit just to say I\u2019ve read the Hobbit.\u00a0 But his masterpiece, his magnum opus, his work considered by many one of the greatest contributions to literary fiction in the 20th century, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2805,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2919","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nHappy twelvity birthday Professor Tolkien<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Yes, it was the 120th anniversary of the birthday of J.R.R. 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