"Life is lived forward, but understood backward. It is not until we are down the road and we stand on the mountain looking back through the valley that we can appreciate the terrain God has allowed us to scale.” Jill Savage

Sunday, January 03, 2010

J.R. Tolkien

"We either make ourselves miserable, or we make ourselves strong. The amount of work is the same."
– Carlos Castaneda

Something to thing about isn't it? So why do we make ourselves miserable instead of strong? I don't mean all of us every day all the time, but why is it easier (?) to be miserable then strong? Or is it?

Happy Birthday to j. r. Tolkien - Wikipedia - Writer of Lord of the Rings.

At the age of 16, Tolkien met Edith Mary Bratt, who was three years older, when J. R. R. and Hilary Tolkien moved into the same boarding house. According to Humphrey Carpenter:

Edith and Ronald took to frequenting Birmingham teashops, especially one which had a balcony overlooking the pavement. There they would sit and throw sugar lumps into the hats of passers-by, moving to the next table when the sugar bowl was empty. ...With two people of their personalities and in their position, romance was bound to flourish. Both were orphans in need of affection, and they found that they could give it to each other. During the summer of 1909, they decided that they were in love.

His guardian, Father Francis Morgan, viewing Edith as a distraction from Tolkien's school work and horrified that his young charge was seriously involved with a Protestant girl, prohibited him from meeting, talking, or even corresponding with her until he was twenty-one. He obeyed this prohibition to the letter, with one notable early exception which made Father Morgan threaten to cut short his University career if he did not stop.

(I wonder why he just didn't tell her and ask her to wait).

On the evening of his twenty-first birthday, Tolkien wrote to Edith a declaration of his love and asked her to marry him. Edith replied saying that she had already agreed to marry another man, but that she had done so because she had believed Tolkien had forgotten her. The two met up and beneath a railway viaduct renewed their love; Edith returned her engagement ring and announced that she was marrying Tolkien instead. Following their engagement Edith converted to Catholicism at Tolkien's insistence. They were formally engaged in Birmingham, in January 1913, and married in Warwick, England, at Saint Mary Immaculate Catholic Church on 22 March 1916.

He was also the man who brought C.S. Lewis to Christ and stopped being friends with him because he went with the Church of England and not with his Catholic faith.

Chatty

4 comments:

Eclectic Chic Style said...

I love this quote!, and so true!! We are in control of our own happiness, isn't life grand? Thank you for sharing this!!
Have a super day!
Hugs ♥ Teresa

Linda @ A La Carte said...

This quote really speaks to me! Thanks so much for sharing it. Interesting stuff about JR Tolkien.

Terra said...

This is a lovely story of Tolkien's spending time with his wife when they were teens.
Actually as far as I know, Tolkien and Jack Lewis were always friends, though spending less time together in later years. I enjoy learning about the Inklings and these 2 Christian geniuses and their lifelong friendship.

ocmist said...

Your posts are always so uplifting, and I really enjoyed hearing more about Tolkien. I had heard that he and CS Lewis knew each other from reading about CS Lewis. I've never read the Lord of the Rings, but my hubby has and he says that movies really did it justice (some movies wreck the books).

As you have probably guessed, we loved the movies... that's why we have little Gimli and little Pippin pups! LOL

Oh, by the way, I've meant to mention it in each of the comment posts I've done and forgot, but I really think your new Blog Banner is just gorgeous!