Tolkien

I'm back! *evil laughter* =D

So today's class was very interesting and insightful. As I assumed, we spent most of the class time discussion On Fairy Stories, which honestly still confuses the hell out of me. The basic gist that I have gathered from my own interpretation as well as from what we discussed of it in class is this. Tolkien's take on the issue of fairy-stories is that they are not the "fairy-tales" that we tell our children at bedtime, instead, a fairy story is about Faerie. What is faerie? Well, based on what Tolkien says, faerie is a realm or place, but the fairy-stories are not just about this realm of Faerie, it is more than that, Faerie is also a state or nature of being. While I grasped at this concept slightly while reading, On Fairy Stories, I must admit that listening to what everyone had to say (which wasn't many) during the discussion, really helped me to gather my thoughts.

Another thing it did was give me one Tolkien sized headache. =) While headaches are not enjoyable aspects of life, I have to admit that it is a sign for me that Tolkien's essay had me so confused and in such deep contemplation that it caused me to give myself a headache trying to decipher the answers. (I'm not even sure what I am typing right now makes any sense! That is how much my head hurts right now. Don't worry, I'll live through it.) The thing that I discovered the most about On Fairy Stories is that I don't have to have all the answers right now, the more I learn, the more I will be able to link back to what he was saying in this piece and the more I will come to understand, but it will take time. Let us hope I am patient enough to learn something little by little. Patience is not my strong suit at all.

The last thing we discussed was Leaf by Niggle. I have to be honest, our discussion made me see things about the story I had originally overlooked. While I grasped the basics of the story, I missed the subtle hints (ok, so they were kind of obvious hints) that Tolkien was making about the misconception of doing good deeds and nothing else will get you into heaven or in Niggle's case "the mountains." Once that aspect was pointed out I understood the rest of the story better. The journey Niggle takes was obviously death, but I didn't get that the place he arrived at was a kind of purgatory or limbo until now. I feel stupid admitting to that, but I have to be completely honest, I didn't see that aspect. I knew that Niggle's Parish was an easier form of purgatory that continued to teach him whatever lesson he needed to learn (kinship, companionship) before he could continue on to the mountains, but for some reason I didn't see the full picture until it was being discussed in class. Lastly, I never realized how much Leaf by Niggle encompassed our views of life. In essence, I am Niggle, willing to help others, but only to get them to shut up and leave me alone. Maybe I will one day find myself in a form of earthly purgatory, a place where I will have to learn all the lessons that Niggle had to. Who knows! =) I really enjoyed this story, I will admit that it was difficult discussing it in a sensible way after discussing all of On Fairy Stories, but somehow it worked out. I have rambled on enough for now...

Next week is Anglo-Saxon lit. (Beowulf, The Wanderer, The Seafarer, etc.) I'm looking forward to it!

Until next Friday...
XOXO,
Julia