Thursday, May 02, 2019

Tolkien

I have a long post on Moral Choice in Tolkien, based on reading an early collection of essays, Tolkien and the Critics. I ran across the following quote that tells you something about the man.  It is from his grandson, Simon:
I vividly remember going to church with him in Bournemouth. He was a devout Roman Catholic and it was soon after the Church had changed the liturgy from Latin to English. My grandfather obviously didn't agree with this and made all the responses very loudly in Latin while the rest of the congregation answered in English. I found the whole experience quite excruciating, but my grandfather was oblivious. He simply had to do what he believed to be right.
As one who does a milder version of that, retaining the old language sometimes when hymns are sung - and especially Christmas Carols - I understand entirely.  There is one modernisation of a carol I endorse, however, because of Tolkien.  "Born to raise the sons of earth" makes me think of dwarves, and I happily go along with the more modern "Born to raise each child of earth."

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