Avalon Mentors

In which our hosts discuss songs, The Master and a city on stilts.

In which Dr. Cameron Thompson & I discuss spiders (not flies), mirk, white deer and being caught in a net (and how, with a little luck, to perhaps be disengannoed therefrom).  There are some funny outtakes at the end and perhaps some wisdom as well.

"Flies & Spiders" chapter 8 in the Hobbit

The escape from the webs of the spiders is reminiscent of the escape from sin and slavery that we all long for.

Surely he will save you     from the fowler’s snare     and from the deadly pestilence. - Psalm 91:3

Perhaps that white deer is sent partly as a sign of the glory in the midst of the darkness (like the candle returning to the church at the Easter Vigil); perhaps it is sent to increase the desire for freedom, light, and cleanness - a hunger transcending the hunger of the belly that drives them off the path.  Shooting at the gift, then, is like the Mariner in Coleridge's poem shooting at the albatross, isn't it?  The result is a tremendous weight around the neck of the Mariner, like the penitential weight Robert DeNiro's character bears in "The Mission", or like Bombur sleeping through the rest of the journey.  Surviving that weight, enduring the dark mirk of the soul, seems to create in Bilbo a resilient defiance that transforms him and grants him the strength not only to fight the arachnoid demons of darkness but to lead the dwarves through Mirkwood and beyond.

The one where we discuss Beorn & berzerkers & eagles & Russian novels and what a queer thing man is, what a queer thing language is, and what one has to do with the other. And also totemistic bear spirits.

Did Tolkien read Dostoevsky? The protagonist in Dostoevsky's “The Double” is a fellow named Golyadkin (Голядкин); a neurotic individual on the verge of a nervous breakdown who has conversations with himself very similar to Gollum/Smeagol in Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings".  Coincidence?  Golyadkin debaters with himself,

Everything, apparently, and even nature itself, seemed up in arms against Mr. Golyadkin; but he was still on his legs and unconquered; he felt that he was unconquered. He was ready to struggle. he rubbed his hands with such feeling and such energy when he recovered from his first amazement that it could be deduced from his very air that he would not give in. yet the danger was imminent; it was evident; Mr. Golyadkin felt it; but how to grapple with it, with this danger? - that was the question. the thought even flashed through Mr. Golyadkin's mind for a moment, "After all, why not leave it so, simply give up? Why, what is it? Why, it's nothing. I'll keep apart as though it were not I," thought Mr. Golyadkin. "I'll let it all pass; it's not I, and that's all about it; he's separate too, maybe he'll give it up too; he'll hang about, the rascal, he'll hang about. He'll come back and give it up again. Than's how it will be! I'll take it meekly. And, indeed, where is the danger? Come, what danger is there? I should like any one to tell me where the danger lies in this business. It is a trivial affair. An everyday affair. . . ."

Tolkien's Library: An Annotated Checklist by Oronzo Cilli might give answer to this if the good professor had the Russian novel on his shelf (either in Russian or in translation as Tolkien new the Slavic language well).

More likely, though is that It is from Old Norse.

In The Annotated Hobbit with annotations by Douglas Anderson, Anderson claims that Gollum is from the Old Norse gull meaning Gold, and an inflected form of this is gollum meaning; gold, treasure or something precious. In the oldest manuscripts it is spelled goll. One inflected form would be gollum, 'gold, treasure, something precious.' It can also mean 'ring,' as is found in the compound word fingr-gull, 'finger-ring.'"

As for Beorn, Tolkien's original name for this character was “Medwed” (Russian/Slavic: “medved” = “bear”) - which indicates Tolkien knew Slavic.

So the question is still up for debate: did Tolkien read Dostoevsky?

A review of the Movie "Brightburn" and an examination of the nature of power.  The question of whether absolute power necessarily corrupts absolutely was addressed by Plato in his 4th century BC work "The Republic".

Brightburn 

Mob Psycho 100 

One Punch Man 

Chronicle

Republic Book II 

General Zod 

Bizarro 

Michael Daugherty's "Bizarro" 

In which our hosts follow the little hero as he narrowly escapes being scorched by heoruweargs and goblins, only to be carried aloft to dizzying heights by fiercesome eagles.

The antipathy toward wolves seems to go deep into human consciousness, and when we read a passage such as this from 19th century author, Willa Cather, we can understand why:

A black drove came up over the hill behind the wedding party. The wolves ran like streaks of shadow; they looked no bigger than dogs, but there were hundreds of them.

Something happened to the hindmost sledge: the driver lost control—he was probably very drunk—the horses left the road, the sledge was caught in a clump of trees, and overturned. The occupants rolled out over the snow, and the fleetest of the wolves sprang upon them. The shrieks that followed made everybody sober. The drivers stood up and lashed their horses. The groom had the best team and his sledge was lightest—all the others carried from six to a dozen people.

Another driver lost control. The screams of the horses were more terrible to hear than the cries of the men and women. Nothing seemed to check the wolves. It was hard to tell what was happening in the rear; the people who were falling behind shrieked as piteously as those who were already lost. The little bride hid her face on the groom’s shoulder and sobbed. Pavel sat still and watched his horses. The road was clear and white, and the groom’s three blacks went like the wind. It was only necessary to be calm and to guide them carefully.

At length, as they breasted a long hill, Peter rose cautiously and looked back. ‘There are only three sledges left,’ he whispered.

‘And the wolves?’ Pavel asked.

‘Enough! Enough for all of us.’

- Chapter VIII of "My Antonia" by Willa Cather

As for eagles, Tennyson wrote,

He clasps the crag with crooked hands;

The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls;

Eagles have always been a symbol of power, nobility, far-seeing wisdom, and the courage to act.  They here constitute the escapism from certain peril which we are offered by Divine Providence.  Some might call the literature that professes a Providential God "escapist" - but of such escapist literature Professor Tolkien wrote

“Why should a man be scorned, if, finding himself in prison, he tries to get out and go home? Or if, when he cannot do so, he thinks and talks about other topics than jailers and prison-walls? The world outside has not become less real because the prisoner cannot see it. In using Escape in this way the critics have chosen the wrong word, and, what is more, they are confusing, not always by sincere error, the Escape of the Prisoner with the Flight of the Deserter. just so a Party-spokesman might have labeled departure from the misery of the Fuhrer's or any other Reich and even criticism of it as treachery .... Not only do they confound the escape of the prisoner with the flight of the deserter; but they would seem to prefer the acquiescence of the "quisling" to the resistance of the patriot.”

Our heroes delve deep under the earth and confront the Gollum of the second self.

The big question to ask in Tolkien's works is 

WHAT IS THE RING? 

Well, it is like 

We know that it is

Is it then

Perhaps an answer can be approached by asking

What is The World of Gollum?

· It is like the world of Grendel’s dam in Beowulf

· Which itself is based on the mythical world of Midgard and Yggdrasil the World Tree in Norse mythology

https://www.worldhistory.org/article/1305/nine-realms-of-norse-cosmology/

https://theheart756621753.files.wordpress.com/2018/10/the-9-worlds-in-mythology.jpg

o https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golem

What is the nature of the Riddle Game?

o https://medium.com/@erin.nord87/the-influence-of-norse-mythology-in-riddles-in-the-dark-19acb167b47b

What is The escape (the “birthday”) - from danger and from this world?

Great good brought about after but there is the risk of the Shadow self taking over (the dragon; Sauron)

Dr. Thompson joins me again to discuss the novel,"The Hobbit" by JRR Tolkien.  We continue the journey to chapter 2, "Roast Mutton", and when we get to the end we will stop.

In this episode Bilbo runs out in the morning without a pocket handkerchief, meets some big ugly trolls, and gets a new sword.

"The Hobbit" was written by Tolkien in 1937 for his children, though he began the work after finding a blank page in a composition book while he was grading student compositions.  There began history when the philologist, amazed & relieved at seeing the blank page, wrote the immortal words, "In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit".  Received with almost unanimously favorable reviews (among the fans were CS Lewis & WH Auden), the novel was translated into several other languages from English and eventually adapted for stage, screen, radio, board games, and video games.  It was the precursor to the later novel by Tolkien, "The Lord of the Rings" and still remains one of the most endearing novels of the 20th (and 21st) century.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hobbit

The text online

Dr. Thompson joins me again to discuss the novel,"The Hobbit" by JRR Tolkien.  We begin at the beginning, chapter 1, and when we get to the end we will stop.

In a hole in the ground is where it all begins - when suddenly BOOM!  Dwarves.  But "no thank you, we don't care for adventures around here," says our little hero, and so the journey to free the long enchanted gold almost ends where it begins.  Thank goodness he is more of a burglar than a grocer.

"The Hobbit" was written by Tolkien in 1937 for his children, though he began the work after finding a blank page in a composition book while he was grading student compositions.  There began history when the philologist, amazed & relieved at seeing the blank page, wrote the immortal words, "In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit".  Received with almost unanimously favorable reviews (among the fans were CS Lewis & WH Auden), the novel was translated into several other languages from English and eventually adapted for stage, screen, radio, board games, and video games.  It was the precursor to the later novel by Tolkien, "The Lord of the Rings" and still remains one of the most endearing novels of the 20th (and 21st) century.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hobbit

The text online

"When it comes to controlling human beings there is no better instrument than lies. Because, you see, humans live by beliefs. And beliefs can be manipulated. The power to manipulate beliefs is the only thing that counts. ... Only the right name gives beings and things their reality. A wrong name makes everything unreal. That's what lies do.” - Michael Ende, The Neverending Story

“…but nasturtians was deliberate and represented a final triumph over the high-handed printers. They had corrected his English without reference to him and he had been put to the trouble of proving to the chief proof-reader his own ignorance and rebuking him for his impertinence. He had dug in about nasturtians, which he had always said. It was an Anglicization after the "Indian Cress" was naturalized in the 18th century. Tolkien had consulted the college gardener: "What do you call these things?" "Tropaeolum, sir." "But when just talking to the dons?" "I says nasturtians, sir." "Not nasturtium?" "No, sir; that’s watercress." - Tolkien, letter 148