Don't skip Tolkien's songs and poems this time

I've done it, too. Our hearts are racing at the thought of getting to the confrontation with the Black Riders on Weathertop. Or out of the Hall of Fire to the loremastery of the Council of Elrond. Or across the plains of Rohan with the Three Hunters to reassure ourselves that Merry and Pippin really are safe with Treebeard again. But don't be hasty.

To miss out on Strider chanting the tale of Tinúviel, Bilbo's bold gesture, or the keening dirge for Boromir is to deprive ourselves of the true pacing of J.R.R. Tolkien's masterpieces. It distances us not only from the ancient days of Middle-earth, but from the Professor's own time in which cultured folk saw it as a right of leisure to pause for songs and poetry. You'd never know it from modern marketing, but we also deserve these moments.

May I confess that the noise coming through the screens nearest me has a depressing effect upon my spirit? There are explosions. There are endless alarms. There are robot voices droning, "Give me that thing. Give me that thing." Somewhere, some board thinks this will hypnotize me into bingeing serials and buying detergent and phones.

Tolkien be my shield. I want things thrawn and cloven. I want to speak aloud in a clear, pondering voice about "seven stars and seven stones and one white tree." I want to meet hidden kings who chant to poetry-loving hobbits to stave off the terrors of a dark night. I want to love words well, and use them well.

With this painting, I hoped to suggest the enchanting power of Strider's (and Tolkien's) storyweaving for good. If you had a place beside this campfire, don't you believe you would see the ancient, reverend figures of Beren and Lúthien rising from the ashes and smoke into the starry sky while your mysterious guide intoned? What recovery, escape, and consolation await us in Tolkien's good words!

"Beren and Lúthien -" Miriam Ellis

The Lord of the Rings is so many things to so many of us - a travelogue, a philological marvel, an epic adventure, a spiritual companion guide...and a musical. Characters riddle, and rhyme, and sing, and I believe we lose the true Tolkienian flavor if we behave like modern folk and rush onto the next big thing. Probably, we've all done this at some point, but how about a little luxury in our reading? We can accord ourselves the laughter with the bath song, tears with the longing for Valinor in the Golden Wood, and the astonishment of an actual voyage to its jewel-spangled shores with Eärendil.

The next time you treat yourself to Tolkien, why not take it à la mode? Slow down to real Third Age time, or even to the leisure of the Elder Days. I don't suppose any other poet of his era knew more about words than Professor Tolkien. These are amazing words of his! Getting tree-ish enough to enjoy them in full can be a kind of Entish rebellion against the absurd 21st-century rush to...who knows where? Good for the spirit.

Why not start with a little huddle around this campfire with Strider and the hobbits? Watch the video, perhaps, and then go read the poem. Real Tolkien Fäerie! There's nothing else quite like it.