Book Review: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight by J.R.R. Tolkien

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight by J.R.R. Tolkien

Among his other accomplishments, J.R.R. Tolkien translated many ancient and medieval texts into modern English. One project was "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight." The poem survives from the fourteenth century AD and is one of the more famous Arthurian legends. Gawain is a knight of the Round Table and nephew to King Arthur. One Christmastide, the enigmatic Green Knight shows up and makes a challenge to a beheading game. Arthur gets one swing of his axe to behead the Green Knight, then in a year and a day the Green Knight will get one swing to behead Arthur. Gawain rises to the challenge, takes Arthur's place, and lops off the Green Knight's head in one blow. The Green Knight picks up his head, reminds Sir Gawain of his appointment in a little over a year, and bids him to come to the Green Chapel where payment will be taken.

Gawain then has to travel all over England in search of the Green Chapel, since it is as unknown as the Green Knight. His search takes almost a whole year. He finds a hidden castle. The castle's lord says he knows where the Green Chapel is and will have someone guide Gawain on the appointed day. At this point, the appointment is only a few days away. As Gawain prepares, a lady of the castle tries to seduce him before the encounter. Being a chivalrous knight, he resists, especially as he sees himself about to die and not wanting to commit a grave sin just before. The final confrontation with the Green Knight reveals a lot about what is going on (including the source of his supernatural powers) and brings the story to an interesting conclusion.

Gawain is a classic knight of the Round Table, embodying honor and initiative. He follows through on his promise even when it turns out quite the opposite of what he expected. He searches for the Green Chapel even though getting there has little appeal. He resists the lady even as she comes into his room in the morning to have a tete-a-tete and maybe something more. His nobility makes him an appealing character. 

The poetry has an interesting style. Rhyming isn't as important as alliteration, giving it a rolling rhythm as it runs its race. I enjoyed the creativity. The vocabulary made some vivid visuals and keeps the reader engaged. Here's a sample:

Now New Year draws near and the night passes,

day comes driving the dark, as ordained by God;

but wild weathers of the world awake in the land,

clouds cast keenly the cold upon the earth

with bitter breath from the North biting the naked. [Stanza 80]

The poem is reviewed on A Good Story is Hard to Find Podcast #378. Check it out!

The book has two other poems. "Pearl" is, at the beginning, a poem describing a man who has lost a pearl of immeasurable value. The first few stanzas immediately put a Christian in mind of Jesus's parable of the man who sold everything he had to buy a pearl of inestimable price. That parallel becomes explicit as the poem moves on from the physical jewel to a pure, unblemished woman to the very biblical reference. The praise of purity continues on as the author invokes many biblical images of perfection, finishing with a lot of the imagery from the Apocalypse of John. The poem is interesting and delightful.

The final poem, "Sir Orfeo," describes the life of an early medieval king name Orfeo whose wife is kidnapped by fairies. In sorrow, he puts himself in exile, wandering the earth and slowing growing thinner and hairier as the years go by. A chance encounter with fairy folk lets him into their kingdom where he has the opportunity to discover his love again and return with her to his kingdom that was left in the care of a steward. The story is charming, told in rhyming couplets with vocabulary that puts the reader into bygone era.

Recommended for Tolkien fans, poetry fans, and the like.

Book Review: Abiding the Long Defeat by Connor Sweeney

Abiding the Long Defeat: How to Evangelize Like a Hobbit in a Disenchanted Age by Conor Sweeney

As the title suggests, author Conor Sweeney has a bit of a pessimistic outlook. The world's curent post-modern outlook that has little in common with the predominantly Christian culture that came before it. In fact, many elements are in direct contradiction with Christian views. Morality has devolved to the point where everyone is their own moral guide, leading to "anything goes" attitudes, especially with sexual morality. Popular culture makes Christianity look like it is on its way out. Sweeney acknowledges this and even argues that a lot of Christian thoughts and attitudes have unwittingly enabled this outcome. An over reliance on the distinction between faith and reason, between the supernatural and the natural, leads to an eventual bracketing off of the divine in favor of the scientifically verifiable. The next step of leaving the divine out entirely is a short step and quickly taken.

Sweeney traces this intellectual tradition and provides something of a twist to get Christianity back on track. He advocates a return to a perspective founded on the baptismal reality created by Christ. We have become adopted children of the Father, brothers and sisters to the Son, and a deep community founded on the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. This foundation creates a radically different relationships between people and with the world. It's not the layering on of grace on top of nature but a new creation combining both in a dynamic way that is far different than just incorporating Plato or Aristotle into Christian theology, or shoehorning the Christian worldview into modern media distribution channels. While there can be some success in such methods, it also introduces a fundamental misdirection for the faith life. Post-Vatican II Catholic leaders like Pope St. John Paul II and Benedict XVI have shown a more authentic way to get to the roots of the Christian faith and message without watering it down to fit in modern ways of thinking and communicating. The division of the secular and the religious has to be broken down and reality made whole.

Sweeney draws a lot of parallels with Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, specifically how the Hobbits' lifestyle is more conducive to an authentically lived Christian life. They are simple and humble, loving the ground and good food and good drinks and a quiet life. This "salt of the earth" attitude is precisely what makes Frodo an ideal candidate to carry the Ring to Mount Doom. So many other characters (Boromir, Gandalf, Galadriel, etc.) would fall to the temptation to use the Ring for their own ends, though they would wind up as servants of the Ring. Frodo's lack of great ambition inoculates him to a great degree from the temptation to wield the Ring. Secular culture offers a lot of bright, shiny objects to Christian evangelists. It might be good to take a close look at what is being offered and be sure to keep the right things in focus.

In some parts of his arguments, Sweeney struggles with his ideas and what he acknowledges is a pessimistic outlook on the situation. He does provide a way for individuals to get out of the temptations and traps found in modern culture. His focus on fundamentals of faith is refreshing and heartening, ultimately providing the reader with hope that even if the world cannot be saved (and it won't be), the people in it can.

Recommended.

Book Review: Letters from Father Christmas by J. R .R. Tolkien

Letters from Father Christmas by J. R .R. Tolkien

From 1920 to 1943, J. R. R. Tolkien wrote special letters to his children from Father Christmas. The letters did not become available to the general public until the late 1970s. This edition from 2004 includes more content than previous editions along with reproductions of pictures from the letters.

The letters included fanciful drawings of life at the North Pole along with entertaining incidents. Father Christmas talks about troubles with the elves and with one special helper, the North Polar Bear, who also writes notes or comments in the margins. The Polar Bear is a comic bumbler, often messing up things. On a windy day, Father Christmas's hat flew up to the top of the North Pole. The bear climbed the pole to get it back, only to have the pole snap off and fall on Father Christmas's house! So he had to get a new home nearby. Even worse (though not the bear's fault) was the attack of goblins a few years later. A minor war ensued, enlisting the aid of other bears and various elves. Most of the time, Father Christmas talks about his work and his plans for delivering presents to everyone. 

The book is very charming and the illustrations are delightful.

Recommended, highly for Tolkien fans.

Sample of the drawings--tragedy strikes the North Pole! And the new cliff-side house for Fr. Christmas.

Book Review: The Fall of Gondolin by J. R. R. Tolkien

The Fall of Gondolin by J. R. R. Tolkien, edited by Christopher Tolkien

The evil reign of Morgoth is almost universal. After the Battle of Unnumbered Tears, men and elves were defeated and enslaved. The elf Turgon survived the battle and fled to the hidden city of Gondolin. The city is surrounded by high mountains that are protected by magic, vigilance, and the great eagles of old. Tuor is a man of noble birth who spent much of his youth enslaved to one of Morgoth's minions. He escapes and is drawn on a quest to find Gondolin. He is inspired and guided by Ulmo, the Lord of Waters. As Tuor wanders over vast stretches of Middle Earth, he finds the elf Voronwe who accompanies him on the journey. They eventually discover Gondolin. There Tuor weds the princess and becomes part of the great battle that finally happens when Morgoth discovers the location of the city (through the treachery of a bitter rival of Tuor). As readers might guess from the book's title, the battle ends tragically.

This book is a compilation of various versions of the story written by Tolkien over some thirty-five years. The first text was written in the midst of World War I; the final text written in the early 1950s. Each version is presented with some introductory remarks. The story has a lot of the earmarks of an ancient epic--the wandering hero, the sweeping landscapes, the interventions of the gods, the great battles, etc. A final chapter provides a comparison of the various texts, showing how they fit together (the consistency is fairly amazing) and where they differ (often focusing on different details).

I enjoy heroic epics so this book has a lot of appeal to me. The style is very old-fashioned, like this description when they first see Gondolin:

Then they looked up and could see, and lo! they were at the foot of steep hills, and these hills made a great circle wherein lay a wide plain, and set therein, not rightly at the midmost but rather nearer to that place where the stood, was a great hill with a level top, and upon that summit rose a city in the new light of the morning. [p. 50]

I delight in that style of writing but can see how it would be off-putting for others. The characters are not the deepest. They do evoke respect and sympathy through their actions and live fascinating lives. The Fall of Gondolin is a great triumph for Morgoth but is not the end of the story for the First Age of Middle Earth. Christopher Tolkien writes that it will be his last work editing his father's stories together, so this is probably the last "new" material to be published.

Recommended, highly for Tolkien fans.

Book Review: After the King ed. by Martin H. Greenberg

After the King: Stories in Honor of J. R. R. Tolkien edited by Martin H. Greenberg

This anthology is a tribute to J. R. R. Tolkien, the author of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, books which had a substantial impact on the fantasy genre. Thirty or so authors have contributed stories inspired by Tolkien. As with many such works, the quality of the writing here varies from story to story. Most are good to excellent, making it an enjoyable read.

But let's get the bad stuff out of the way first. A few stories seem out of place in the volume. Gregory Benford's "Down the River Road," is similar to Tolkien only in world-building, otherwise it is a very different sort of fantasy--a boy travels down a river that is literally a time stream, with "timequakes" and storms that alter the speed of time. It's an interesting story but hardly Tolkienesque. "Revolt of the Sugar Plum Fairies" by Mike Resnick desperately and unsuccessfully tries to be comic. But the lesser stories are few in this volume.

My favorite stories were the fantasy horror "Faith" by Poul and Karen Anderson, where a goblin fortress appears near a human village and the human children start disappearing, and "The Fellowship of the Dragon" by Patricia A. McKillip, where a band of female warriors headed into the wilderness to save a bard from the clutches of a dragon. The most Tolkienesque story was "Nine Threads of Gold" by Andre Norton--nine children gather at a Hold where a sorceress binds them together to fight the evil that has overwhelmed the land. The narrative and the writing style mimic well the tone of old epics, the like of which Tolkien translated. The book has a lot of other entertaining stories.

Overall, I recommend this for Tolkien fans.

Book Review: The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrun by J. R. R. Tolkien

The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrun written by J. R. R. Tolkien and edited by Christopher Tolkien

Old Norse and Germanic tales were a huge influence on J. R. R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings. He was a university professor specializing in philology, studying ancient languages and texts. Among the works he studied were the old Norse and Icelandic poems (called Edda) along with the later prose work Volsunga Saga. He re-wrote the poems concerning the hero Sigurd, who slays the dragon Fafnir, takes his horde of gold, frees the Valkerie Brynhild, and winds up at the court of the Niflungs (known in German as the Nibelungs). His life there proves to be his undoing as the princes's mother uses witchcraft to mix up their fates, resulting in sorrow and death for pretty much everybody. Tolkien called this poem "The New Lay of the Volsungs," the Volsungs being Sigurd's family. He imitates the terse and alliterative style of the Edda poems to great effect:

'Men sing of serpents
ceaseless guarding
gold and silver
greedy-hearted;
but fell Fafnir
folk all name him
of dragons direst,
dreaming evil.' [p. 101]

Tolkien also wrote "The Lay of Gudrun," about Gudrun, the daughter of the Niflungs who is wedded to Sigurd, even though he pledged his troth to Brynhild. A tale of betrayal and revenge spins out, resulting in the overthrow of the Niflungs by a foreign king.

This book contains the texts of both poems along with a general introduction on the style of the writing. The introduction is mostly by Tolkien's son Christopher but based on notes from Tolkien's lectures. Christopher also provides commentary and footnotes at the end of each poem. Appendices have more background information on the poems.

The poems themselves are the highlight of the book. They communicate the story with vivid style. The introduction is well worth reading for background on the poems, their writing, and their structure. I was able to appreciate the Lays much more. The commentaries are also helpful, though probably not as necessary for a second reading. Seeing elements that show up in Tolkien's later works (like a cursed ring, etc.) is a fun discover. Overall, the book is highly satisfying reading.

Book Review: The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien

The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien

The Lord of the Rings is an epic fantasy novel published in the 1950s. It was published in three volumes and is often (understandably) mistaken for a trilogy. It is one continuous story and is available nowadays as a single volume.

The story follows the adventures of Frodo Baggins, nephew to Bilbo Baggins, the title character from The Hobbit. In that book, Bilbo found a strange magic ring that made him invisible. In this book, he reluctantly passes on this treasure to Frodo. They are both friends with Gandalf, a wizard who passes through their home town of Hobbiton every now and again. Gandalf suspects the ring has more to it than the hobbits know; through research he discovers it might be the one ring forged by Lord Sauron in Mount Doom to give him power over the other races of Middle Earth. The ring was lost for hundreds of years after Sauron lost a battle to an alliance of men and elves. Something must be done with the ring now, so Gandalf sends Frodo on an epic adventure to dispose of the ring.

The novel is an amazing work of world-building. Middle Earth is a vast expanse populated by a wide variety of races who all have distinct histories, qualities, and languages. The history of the land is long and bits of that history keep coming out as the adventurers continue their journey. Middle Earth is a fully-realized other world.

The moral imagining of the world is also impressive. Though God is never mentioned, the characters (especially Gandalf) often note the providential nature of events. When Frodo arrives in Bree to meet Gandalf, the wizard is not there. In stead, Frodo meets Strider, a northern ranger, who helps them on their way. Gandalf had left a note to be forwarded on to Frodo instructing him to hurry along but it was never delivered. Gandalf is kidnapped right after leaving the note. If it had been delivered, Frodo would not have found Gandalf or Strider. It's a case of dumb luck or divine providence. The characters acknowledge providence even if they never mention God.

The morality in the book is deeper and more complicated than it is often given credit for. Characters struggle to choose the right thing to do and sometimes they choose wrongly because of their own personal flaws or doubts. Boromir, one of the fellow travelers with Frodo, tries to take the ring to use it as a weapon against Sauron. That choice causes a lot of immediate problems (including dividing the group just as a band of orcs attacks). He realizes his mistake and valiantly dies fighting the orcs. He has a moment of redemption. Few characters are irredeemably evil or perfectly competent.

The Lord of the Rings is a triumph of narrative fiction and is, in my opinion, the greatest novel ever written.

For more commentary on the book, check out A Good Story is Hard to Find's discussion, Part One and Part Two.

Movie Review: The Hobbit (2012)

The Hobbit (2012) directed by Peter Jackson

I managed to go to the very last showing of The Hobbit at our local theatre. It was in 3D but I had kept my glasses from Prometheus, so they did not charge me extra for the glasses (though there is a £2 charge for 3D movies before the £1 charge for the glasses). After hearing a lot of different reviews (some glowing, some glowering), I settled in with medium expectations.

The movie has a lot of stunning visuals and fine performances. Both the New Zealand landscapes and the CG versions of various towns, fortresses, and homes. The CG creatures (trolls, goblins, Gollum, etc.) are seamlessly woven in with the live action actors. The cast does a great job, especially Martin Freeman as Bilbo Baggins. He has the difficult task of balancing the Tookish adventurer (his mother was from the Took family) and the Bagginsy home body he's been for most of his life. Freeman does a great job expressing his emotions and thoughts on his face without looking like he's mugging for the camera. Even CG characters like Gollum or the Goblin King are well realized and more than convincing.

Much have commented on how the story is being made into a trilogy of movies with a lot of extra material from Tolkien's other writings. In the book, Gandalf leaves the dwarven fellowship for a side quest involving a person called "The Necromancer," though no details are given in the novel. Jackson's movie sets this plot up as a b-story that looks intriguing though I am not sure how it will be tied thematically to the main story. I assume Tolkien added it so that the wizard wouldn't just magic them out of trouble all the time. I found this element pretty interesting.

The movie opens with a long sequence of old Bilbo (played by Ian Holm) and Frodo (Elijah Wood) getting ready for the party that starts the first Lord of the Rings movie. This drags for a bit and seems more or less superfluous, unless they are planning to bookend it in the final film with an extra ending. I found this element pretty uninteresting.

The movie also goes through the back story of the dwarfs being cast out of their kingdom by the dragon Smaug and their tribulations as an exiled race. Considering how tightly the history of the Ring is told at the beginning of the Fellowship of the Ring movie, this sequence drags on more than it should while explaining the motives of key characters. So there are many parts that could use a director's cut that tightens them up rather than makes them longer. Yeah, I'm saying the inevitable "extended DVD" should really be shorter than the theatrical version.

Another weakness of the film is the tone. Occasionally it has the light-hearted spryness of the novel, such as in the Bag End dinner scene. But too often it is ponderous and heavy-hearted, with long battle scenes that are more grim, limb-chopping combat than adventurous, swash-buckling fight. There are flashes of humor in some of the battles, such as the escape from the goblin kingdom, but not enough to keep the movie from a PG-13 rating or a 12 Certificate in the UK. Considering the novel is appropriate for 6- or 7-year olds, it seems an odd choice. I know that movies should not mirror their source material slavishly but the novel is so much better on this count.

One thing the film makers did brilliantly was adding in songs and music. Tolkien had lots of poetry in his writings, mostly songs sung by characters. The film captures quite a bit of this very well, from the famous dwarf song in the trailer to even the Goblin King having his solo. So maybe the extended edition can have more of that.

I don't mean to sound so negative. I did enjoy the film but considering how great the source material is, expectations are still pretty high regardless of what others have thought. I think the movie would over all benefit from a lighter tone and tighter storytelling. The performers do a great job and the movie looks spectacular.

Movie Trailer

Book Review: The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

I reread this in anticipation of the movie coming up in December. It is a classic tale of a fish out of water exploring the greater fantasy world he lives in, much like Luke Skywalker or Harry Potter. Bilbo Baggins is the fish, though he is much more unwilling than Luke or Harry to explore the fantastical world in which he lives. As a Hobbit, he lives in a comfortable hole in the ground where life goes on at a leisurely pace. There's plenty of time for meals, smoking, meals, drinking, and more meals. Then he's visited by the wizard Gandalf, who is helping some dwarfs organize an expedition. Gandalf wants Bilbo to go along, partly to break the unlucky number of dwarfs (thirteen), partly because he thinks Bilbo will be useful. They head off across Middle Earth to the Lonely Mountain, where the dwarfs once ruled. The dragon Smaug turned out the dwarfs and turned their underground kingdom into his lair. The head of the dwarfs, Thorin Oakenshield, is a descendant of the rightful king and is going to take their kingdom back.

Like most of these stories, at first Bilbo is out of his depth. But he quickly becomes more resourceful, using his wits and his growing bravery to get out of the various tricky situations he and his companions wind up in. At one point he is separated from the group in the caverns of the Misty Mountains and has a delightful battle of wits with Gollum, a wretched creature who loses his preciousss ring to Bilbo. The ring becomes quite pivotal in The Lord of the Rings. But that is another adventure.

This story is very well written. The descriptions are vivid and the world is well-crafted. The characters are interesting and the situations have plenty of humor and drama. The style of writing is a little old-fashioned, as if it were an epic, though some places the author addresses the reader (like, "for you it would be very strange if...") almost like he is a storyteller with an audience listening to him speak. I'm sure it will be wonderful to read this to my children in the coming years.