tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5746173806126403959.post621425690866296622..comments2023-11-07T06:20:12.181-08:00Comments on Tolkien: Medieval and Modern: Giving the Ordinary Meaning"Tolkien: Medieval and Modern"http://www.blogger.com/profile/04348913969813157482noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5746173806126403959.post-60947659863824659902014-04-24T17:32:07.085-07:002014-04-24T17:32:07.085-07:00I very much enjoyed this post, and I especially ap...I very much enjoyed this post, and I especially appreciated your recognition of Farmer Giles as a sort of living example of Tolkien's project as a whole. It really spurs me to pursue this thread further. Not only can we trace how Tolkien does this throughout, Daniel very wisely points to Sam as a key example of this, but also we can examine what the consequences of this ennobling is. Tolkien ennobles England with his myth/history-making. What then does this ennobled England "look" like? What does it tell us about England and about the world more generally? Fascinating questions that strike at what I take to be the heart (or at least *a* heart) of Tolkien's project. <br /><br />In response to Daniel, I'd push back a little against the idea that Sam's actions are properly characterized as "mundane," or as the result of coincidence (indeed, suggesting that it is coincidence seems to me to ignore the clear sense that Providence is playing a hand in everything that occurs with LotR) Certainly storming an orc fortress is no mundane or ordinary thing, even if it is a manifestation of a down-to-Earth and pure sort of loyalty. However, I think you're largely right that Tolkien is trying to say that there is an inherent heroism, perhaps the greatest heroism of all, within the ordinary. dyingsthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02087241514388178221noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5746173806126403959.post-1981158800735604342014-04-23T19:35:28.557-07:002014-04-23T19:35:28.557-07:00In your first example of a pen you choose two extr...In your first example of a pen you choose two extraordinary events as the history of the pen. It's very exciting to think of the first pen to have gone into space or the pen which wrote the words of the first manuscript of The Hobbit, yet I do not think such a wonderful history is needed. Tolkien certainly likes the common becoming extraordinary, with Farmer Giles of Ham being an obvious example, but history does not need to be extraordinary to be important. Tolkien remarked on Sam being the chief hero of the Lord of the Rings. But his heroism was the sort of heroism that is seen in the most mundane of situations. He returns to a friend in need, even though that friend had scorned him. He gave up something extremely tempting. He carried his friend when his friend could not walk. It is only by coincidence that Sam made these choices while on a quest to save the world. And that makes for very exciting history. But these acts of heroism which are woven through Sam's history could have happened living with the Shire. It's the everyday actions that form most of our histories. And these little actions might very well be as heroic as Sam's.Daniel Trachthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18428872543858551066noreply@blogger.com