Welcome back to Fantasy Friday! Today we swerve a bit into a non-fiction book about one of the grandmasters of fantasy. J. R. R. Tolkien, the beloved author of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, brings to his … { Read More }
Welcome back to Fantasy Friday! A murdered empress. A missing emperor. Mairynne Evangale called them Mother, Father. The country mourns while rumors of unrest stir. The sorcery castes struggle for power and the casteless riot in the streets. Conflict … { Read More }
Welcome back to Fantasy Friday! “Reading Books can get you killed.” In the land of Oration, magic is cast by reading aloud words of power from Spoken Books. Only a select few, the Speakers, are born with the ability to … { Read More }
At the ‘Council of London’ held by the Tea Club and Barrovian Society in December 1914, J. R. R. Tolkien and his three dearest friends spoke of the call they felt to bring beauty and meaning back into a world grown … { Read More }
C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien varied greatly in their conceptions of the secondary worlds they fashioned. Lewis focused on the creative power of God to call into existence an entire world out of nothing. Tolkien chose to … { Read More }
As long as we could speak and realize we had a mind and intelligence and a need to explain to ourselves and to others the world around us, we have told stories. For things we have not understood like the … { Read More }
The voice of the narrator is similar in both The Hobbit and the Narnia books and used wonderfully well to draw readers into the tale. They talk directly and indirectly to their audience, offer advice, use words that speak of … { Read More }
There is such power in story-telling! Visionaries, seers, bards, poets, playwrights, and novelists have harnessed this vast resource for as long as man has existed. What a crowd we are part of. What shoulders we stand on. I am proud … { Read More }
In his wonderful essay “On Fairy-Stories”, J. R. R. Tolkien states three things fantastical stories bring us: recovery, escape, and consolation. In our shattered world, we need them all. We need to see anew everyday things that we do not … { Read More }
From early days, man defined himself and his world through stories. The mind and heart travel further along their hidden roads and secret passageways than a body does down the modern superhighway. The places reached are brighter and darker than … { Read More }
