Obviously being at work, I'm not getting to see very much of interest at the moment apart from the odd crow squawking by the canteen window, although his morning I got buzzed by three low flying Canada Geese hurtling out of the girdle of Venus to the north-east. But on my way home at 630pm, I currently have three beautiful travelling companions who light my way home.
In the west there is setting Venus, gradually leaving its conjunction with Mars behind. In the south scorching Sirius twinkles violently, flashing red and green. And in the East Jupiter rises, the colour of bone.
Set in a sky where the final traces of twilight are painting the horizon with a beautiful indigo-green light, they remind me of Tolkien's Silmarrils, the jewels designed by the Elven king Finwe to capture the light of the two trees that illuminated the Undying Lands for all eternity. At the moment I set off for home, they form a wide triangle, all of them about the same height above the horizon and so adding to the illusion they've been placed there by figures from supernatural literature.
Tolkien's Silmarills ended up being responsible for the genocide of virtually an entire race of Elves and the eventual destruction of a huge chunk of Middle Earth, my personal celestial jewels merely provide a comforting sight as I make my way home, into a wind still faintly tainted with winter's malice.
How stunning they are.
Si
Let me go on the record here and state that while Tolkien is an incredible geographer, linguist and historian to create worlds as rich as he did, he can't actually WRITE for toffee. The Silmarillion is an utter teeth drilling as a read, and I still find it significant his best written book is The Hobbit, which was supposedly aimed at children
ReplyDeleteI've been watching these jewels of the night sky too Simon - your description and comparison is lovely. I loved The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings - have read both several times but I agree with you about The Silmarillion - I really had to force myself to finish it!! I also have Unfinished Tales but have never read it.
ReplyDeleteTolkien decided the best way to avoid reader confusion was to have a large number of major characters with similar names, and use them to populate a large number of places with long, difficult names to remember that were also very similar. Smart.
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