...that writer's block has struck again. It's strange, I can write without interruption until some point and then I get stuck on an idea and can move on no more. Very frustrating. There are a few posts in preparation, though I shall probably try to merge them into one essay. But if this proves to be anything like my ''The Heresy of Ultramontanism, Part II,'' started three years ago, it will never see the light of day. This is what I hate about blogging - that to sustain a readership you have to become as vulgar as a journalist and churn out any old rubbish on a daily basis.
I need to write something about gold and silver in Tolkien for my friend who is an expert on silver. It is telling that the One Ring was made of gold, not silver, for Tolkien said in an essay on Morgoth that in the dissemination of his power into the fabric of the earth, rendering the very world itself tend to evil, there was more of a ''Morgoth ingredient'' in gold than in silver, beloved of the Elves. I can't remember why he thought this but I've always had some affinity with the notion as I've personally always found gold to be quite an unpleasant metal, to both touch and sight. Remember mithril and the fortunes of the Dwarves of Dwarrowdelf and the Gnomes of Hollin? It was silver that they loved best.
Art: Ted Nasmith. My guess is that the river is the Silverlode, in which case we're on the wrong side of the Misty Mountains to be talking about Hollin, but Khazad-dûm lies under those peaks.
I'd love to see your take on 'gold and silver'!
ReplyDeleteI first read LOTR in Iceland at the British Embassy library when I was stationed there in the US Navy in 1960-61. when I returned to the States, no one knew who or what I was talking about as the Trilogy hadn't been published there yet. I also had the privilege of knowing a young lady who had been a student of Tolkein's who was studying Icelandlic literature at the University. She lent me her copy of the 'Hobbit' and I was sure bit by it, similar to my reading of the CS Lewis books at a retreat some years before. Still a fan! but have not read the whole Silimorfan, probably misspelled but Google wants to translate it to Kilimanjaro for some strange unreason!