Sam Iles's Blog

From chapter 6 of The Fellowship of the Ring, ‘In the Old Forest’:

A golden afternoon of late sunshine lay warm and drowsy upon the hidden land between. In the midst of it there wound lazily a dark river of brown water, bordered with ancient willows, arched over with willows, blocked with fallen willows, and flecked with thousands of faded willow-leaves. The air was thick with them, fluttering yellow from the branches; for there was a warm and gentle breeze blowing softly in the valley, and the reeds were rustling, and the willow-boughs were creaking

Tolkien is just sumptuous.

Yesterday was an odd day.

I recently discovered that my favourite author, and just one of my favourite people in general, was buried in Wolvercote Cemetery, which is not to far from my house. It seemed like the only appropriate thing to do would be to visit him.

I didn’t quite expect to see what I saw. I expected an ordinary grave, marked in the way ordinary graves are. I also expected to have a hard time finding it, since the cemetery apparently has over 15,000 graves. In fact, I wasn’t entirely sure I even would find it.

When I arrived I went to the large map which is fastened to the gate to see if I could discern any clues. The cemetery was, handily, split up into various sections and, using my knowledge of Tolkien, I discerned that he would be buried in the Roman Catholic section. So that’s where I headed.

It was, however, at that point that I noticed a sign on the ground saying “J. R. R. Tolkien. Author.” and an arrow showing me where to go. Finding it suddenly became easy. I followed these signs, of which there were many, all the way to his grave.

And, there it was. Tolkien and his wife, buried together. Tolkien’s wife, referred to in Elvish as “Luthien” and Tolkien himself referred to as “Beren”, names about a couple in love from Tolkien’s works. Wow.

What I certainly wasn’t expecting was the amount of things people had left behind. Rings (as in, replicas of The Ring), little thank you notes, metal jewelry with “Not all those who wonder are lost” and other the Lord of the Rings quotations etched on it and even copies of his books.

All this reminded me just how wonderful Tolkien is. It’s incredible how many people he touched. I’m sure other graves get lots of visitors, but this one was just overflowing with items which only a certain type of person would understand. This is fandom. I can’t think of many other authors who would receive this kind of treatment.

It’s also made me want to commence my yearly Lord of the Rings read right away, which I intend to do once I’ve finished the book I’m reading at the moment. It’s also made me want to reread the Silmarillion and so on, which I’ve not read for a while now.

It’s an odd excursion to take, I know. I first read the Lord of the Rings when I was ten years old. It was the first book I ever loved and the only book I’ve read every year since first reading it – it was the book which made me realise that books could be. And, as I was walking away, I couldn’t help but look back and think “thank you, Mr Tolkien”.

[Full Flickr set can be found here.]

Here’s a quick note for people who like to ruminate on all the hidden meanings of the Lord of the Rings, professing it to be about everything from Christianity to Hitler to God only knows what.

This is J. R. R. Tokien himself writing in the introduction to the second edition of the Lord of the Rings:

It is neither allegorical nor topical…. I cordially dislike allegory in all its manifestations, and always have done so since I grew old and wary enough to detect its presence.

He was writing a story. A story.

Case. Closed.

Book: The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien. Someone once said that the English speaking world is split into two groups: those who’ve read The Lord of the Rings and those who haven’t. And, whilst I think most people who read probably have read this book, I have to include it here because it is without a doubt my favourite book of all time. It is perfectly written and manages to capture romance, fantasy, war and so much more so well. It’s actually six books too, so if you feel it’s a little long you can read one then move onto the second after having a break until you get to book six. Please try and read it: your life will only be the better for it.

Movie: Sticking with the theme, the movie too will be The Lord of the Rings. These three films are amazing. Doing the film justice was near impossible and I was nervous to watch the film, but Peter Jackson Managed it near perfectly. I love all these three films and if you haven’t seen them yet and haven’t read the books either, then I suggest you read the books then watch the films as it will make the experience much more enjoyable.

Song: A Storm is Coming from the LOTR movie soundtrack is the definitive song which runs throughout every single part of the entire movie. If you’ve seen the films, you’ll recognise this song. Listen here.

Random: Talking so much about LOTR in this post has made me think about reading itself, so that is what I’m suggesting to you in this post: reading. I am firmly convinced that reading itself breeds intelligence. I always think that when reading a blog post or email you can always tell the difference between someone who reads and someone who doesn’t. Reading non-fiction or fiction builds up so much knowledge without you even realising. It really is incredible. Reading takes you to whole new places, paints a picture a thousand times as vivid as any movie of video game. Reading is so interesting and exciting. Great literature too, like Dickens, is just amazing to read. It’s also a great habit to get into if you are a student, as when you get to higher education you’ll have to read a lot of books and write a lot of treatises and being an avid reader already will certainly help with this. Perhaps your new year’s resolution could be to read one book a month or something. In my opinion, literature is the greatest accomplishment on man kind bar none.

Remember The Last March of the Ents? It was an exciting moment. When faced with destruction, the Ents did something they hadn’t done for years and something very much out of their character. They rose up, and marched on Isengard to teach Saruman a lesson. And that they did. Since then, I like to think that they lived long and happy lives.

And – would you believe it – the forests of the UK face a similar plight. For you see, the government has decided to sell off nearly all of the UK’s forests to private companies. This is very bad news.

Now, I hesitate to compare the current Coalition government to the coalition between Sauron and Saruman, but… I shall. I like to think of the Tories as Sauron and the Liberal Democrats as Saruman. You see, Saruman used to love the trees of Fangorn forest. He used to walk amongst them and talk to the trees. I see the Lib Dems in the same way. They were fans of the trees. Their manifesto contained plans to further their protection.

Sauron however, didn’t care about the trees. You see, he had bigger plans. All he wanted was that ring. And Sauron used Saruman to get it. Sauron forced his ally to burn the trees to power his industry of war. Compare that to the Tories. It’s strikingly similar. Sauron wanted his ring, and used Saruman had to burn his beloved trees. The Tories want to make their damn cuts, and the Lib Dems have to agree to sell their beloved trees.

So that is what is happening. The modern day coalition of the Black land is selling the remaining trees of Britain. Yes, unconditionally selling our trees. Like Middle Earth, there was once a time when nearly all of the UK was covered in forest, now what little public woodland we have left is being taken from us for whatever use its purchaser sees fit. Anything. Cutting it down for timber, making a Center parcs, or installing a structure similar to Barad-dûr to suspend your giant eye from. This scares me like crazy.

Our forests are vital. They are havens to countless species of animals (dormice are already under threat of extinction in the UK due to habitat loss). They are incredibly important carbon sinks and oxygen producers. They provide thousands of people with places to walk and ride and study and whatever else they want. They are so, so important. I believe it to be the worst thing they’ve done yet. What it next? Selling roads? Selling schools? Children? Producing a super army of Uruk-hai in the basement of the government buildings of Whitehall?

I say we march on Isengard Whitehall. Who’s with me? (If we’re really fortunate, our quest may even yield the entwives.) What say you, Ent council?