New blog on the kid: JRRT

On peut voir des mobiles patriotiques.

Après tout, Shakespear vilipendie Sainte Jehanne (pas encore canonisée) et soutient que les rois d'Angleterre auraient un droit à la France.

On peut voir des mobiles de versification.

Le pentamètre iambique ne va pas très bien avec la langue française.

On peut voir des mobiles d'académie.

Si une certaine académie trouvait défaut chez Corneille, pourquoi même considérer Shakespear, genre Corneille au cubique ?

On peut voir des mobiles politiques.

Fénélon se trouva en disgrâce pour son Télémaque, parce qu'il est anti-absolutiste. Shakespear semble avoir une relation un peu tendu à l'absolutisme des Tudor (d'ailleurs le modèle hérétique de l'absolutisme français, à partir de Cardinal Richelieu).

On peut voir des difficultés de prononciation.

Pourquoi prononce-t-on Lear comme "lîre" ou à l'époque peut-être encore comme "lêre" ? Et lire (!) Shakespear avec une mauvaise prononciation, c'est atroce.

Combien de Français compareraient Shakespear à Kaamelott de nos jours ?

Je viens de trouver un homme (avocat, a priori instruit) sur FB qui trouvait remarcable que l'Antipape Prevost ait cité une phrase du Seigneur des Anneaux, et un autre qui prétendrait qu'alors il aurait pu citer Eye of the Tiger. Or, Eye of the Tiger est, comme pas mal des poësies de Tolkien, un peu simple en message, mais c'est surtout la célébration d'une pure survie comme achêvement admirable. Les poësies de Tolkien ne sont quasi jamais auto-célébrations, ni de l'auteur, ni du personnage. Le personnage de Tolkien (en prose, en occurrence) délibérait sur les enjeux de la situation fictive, et l'antipape veut délibérer sur les enjeux de la situation actuelle. Le problème est plutôt comment, et si on regarde les lettres, il y a peut-être de quoi refuter Prevost.

Mais pour cet homme français, Tolkien était simplement bas de gamme, un peu comme (sans doute aussi) Eye of the Tiger. Il y a quelques siècles que les Français ont cessé de faire ça sur Shakespear. Avait-il juste vu les films en étant insensible aux paysages ? Et à la musique. Quand Tolkien se fit composer dans ses poësies, c'était pas un Donald Swann, le meilleur pour ce qui est des chants des hobbits. Pour Namárie, il interromput Donald Swann et fredonna en grégorien.

Hans Georg Lundahl
Nanterre, BU
Mercredi de Quatre Temps de Pentecôte
27.V.2026

Wednesday, 20 May 2026

Un jour, à l'âge de treize je découvris Tolkien pour du vrai

À la Bibliothèque de mon école, une Serbe qui était très gentille accueillit ma question, s'il y avait d'autres livres un peu comme le Monde de Narnia.

Elle me pointait vers Tolkien et Alexander, et plus généralement vers un genre appelé fantasy ou en français fantastique. Oubliez "le fantastique est mal écrit" il y a beaucoup de mauvais écrivains en chaque genre. Oubliez ou remettez en cause "le fantastique est esotérique" ... il y a d'autres choses que les ésotéristes abusent et reclament aussi. Oubliez "Tolkien est raciste", il était contre l'apartheid. Notons, les Noirs les plus proches de Bloemfontein, c'est assez idyllique, pas les plus typiques adhérants d'ANC. Et les Boers qui plus tard vont fonder le parti national là-bas, c'est en 1914, et Tolkien avait quitté sa ville natale depuis longtemps, et en plus, il faisait partie des Anglais, pas des Boers.

Oubliez surtout "le national-socialisme est basé sur la mythologie nordique", affirmation par un psychologue peut-être parfois psychopathe nommé Jung. Le national-socialisme allemande est le second national-socialisme, après le Tchèque et il est fondé par un autre Jung, prénommé Rudolf. Spirituellement, le fait d'être Gottgläubig n'est pas constitutif et les Gottgläubige de l'époque sont plus Kantiens, Hégéliens et Spinozistes que vraiment de la vieille réligion germanique. Écoutez.

Bilbon le Hobbit. Seigneur des Anneau. Y a-t-il davantage ? La Bibliothèque ne possède pas Silmarillion, donc je l'acquiers en traduction suédoise. La grande bibliothèque en ville a par contre Unfinished Tales, en VO anglaise.

Et, voici, un truc en Silmarillion, il y a un chapitre nommé "du soleil et de la lune" ... chez Tolkien, comme dans la mythologie nordique, il y a d'agents conscients derrière les astres visibles au moins soleil et lune, et c'est beaucoup plus tard que je vais découvrir que des Chrétiens ont explicitement pensé ça aussi, sans aucun contexte mythologique qu'il soit païen ou fictionnel. Notamment St. Thomas d'Aquin, Prima Pars, Q 70, A 3. Mais, chez Tolkien comme dans la mythologie nordique, les deux grandes lumières sont masculin, pour la lune, féminin pour le soleil. Oui, vous avez bien capté. Der Mond, die Sonne. Fallega máninn, deux n, fallega sólin, un n.* Deux langues qui ont aboli la distinction entre masculin et féminin pour la plupart des noms, The Man in the Moon, sola ho skiner öfver Kalsta.

La mécanique céleste du Silmarillion et dans la mythologie nordique, comme chez Riccioli, ce que je découvre plus tard, deux êtres angéliques (genrés dans la mythologie nordique et celle de Tolkien, différemment, uniquement masculins dans l'iconographie chrétienne de Thomas d'Aquin et de Riccioli) mènent jour après jour soleil et lune visibles, qu'ils portent quelque part comme des lampes, autour de la terre. Je dis êtres angéliques, pas dieux, pour la mythologie nordique aussi. Car Sól et Máni n'avaient pas droit à des sacrifices. Quand un chant, sur Sigurd et Brynhild, affirme qu'ils invoquèrent ces êtres pour des pouvoirs de guérison et de gynécologie, je pense qu'il s'agit d'une référence à des divinités greco-romains, dont l'une figure encore dans le serment d'Hippocrate.

La mécanique céleste de St. Thomas est, chaque jour Dieu mène le Ciel des étoiles fixes** autour de la terre. La lune et le soleil vont avec, sur des cieux ou sphères distinctes, mues par celui-là, mais en plus, les êtres angéliques ajoutent un déplacement par rapport au zodiac. J'ignore ça de St. Thomas à l'époque, un peu plus tard, qui nous concerne.

Mon prof de physique, remplaçant retraité mais qui rend service à SSHL*** nous donne une leçon, j'étais probablement en neuvième année° du parcours scolaire, et il y a la mécanique céleste newtonienne, représentée comme le problème de deux corps. Je n'avais pas de difficulté de comprendre l'idée.

Par contre, ce qu'il n'expliquait pas d'emblée, c'est, comment nous le savons. Je le savais chrétien, à peu près, comme le sont les évangélistes, donc, il ne pouvait pas exclure les anges d'un rôle à partir de son athéisme. Est-ce que cette mécanique céleste, comme facteur seul ou très prédominant, donc à conséquence Héliocentrique, est une conclusion sue par un Chrétien, ou juste une conclusion "sue" par un athée. Avec lui, le bon moment de demander.

Il prouve que, oui, nous savons que le système solaire fonctionne comme ça. Comment ? Parce que, comme déjà dans l'assymétrie du problème de deux corps, les masses respectives et leurs proportions vont déterminer les orbites. Or, sachant les masses, nous pouvons déduire des orbites qui coïncident avec les orbites observés. Cette coïncidence prouve la vérité exclusive du newtonisme, et donc l'héliocentrisme.

FFW, j'ai plus que 30 ans. Je me trouve dans un débat sur internet, où, contre le créationnisme jeune terre, on met en avant, quelqu'un, que la lumière des étoiles distantes, par exemple de 100 000 ans, exclut une création il y a 6000 ou 7000 +°° années en arrière. Je me souviens des preuves pour laquelle j'avais accepté l'héliocentrisme, qui est le premier pas dans l'échelle des distances cosmiques pour les étoiles.

Une autre preuve, plus tard que le décrit, la parallaxe. Bon, avec des anges moteurs, la parallaxe pouvait être une démarche libre de ces anges, pas l'inverse automatique d'un mouvement de la terre. Mais les corps du système solaire ont une masse connue et un orbite qui correspond, non ?

Non. L'orbite théorique est déduit de la masse. Mais on la déduit pour un orbite qui correspond à l'orbite observé. Donc, la masse elle-même n'est pas connue indépendamment, elle est connue par les orbites. Circulus vitiosus in demonstrando.

La densité de chaque corps céleste est connue uniquement comme proportion entre masse théorique et volume observé. Et la masse théorique, comme dit, uniquement de l'orbite et d'une présupposition que le tout fonctionne uniquement par newtonisme (ou par einsteinisme, légèrement différent).

Donc, la coïncidence entre masses, orbites théoriques, orbites observés, n'est pas une preuve. Ou, comme on verra plus tard, au moins pas pour l'héliocentrisme. Mais en première approximation de ma révision, elle n'est pas une preuve du newtonisme, tout court.

Pourquoi ça me vient en esprit aujourd'hui ?

À l'âge de 8, j'étais le plus proche d'athée que j'étais toute ma vie. Mon grand-père était mort, ma mère devait absenter, ma grand-mère athée avait la charge de moi. Je suis inscrit à M.A.R.S. Ce qui se traduit "Malmö Astronomiska och Rymdfärds-Sällskap" ... Société astronomique et astronautique de Malmö. À ma connaissance, personne de cette société n'a encore été astronaute. À l'âge de 8, je pouvais en rêver, le plus jeune de leurs membres.

Il y a eu des conférences, pas seulement sur ce qu'on observe, mais aussi sur ce que les scientifiques (chez nous très prédominnamment athées) en déduisent. Y compris, et ça m'a passionné, sur l'origine du cosmos et des planètes du système solaire. À l'époque, la lune s'était détaché d'une terre encore très chaude et donc fondue. Et aujourd'hui, on a une réfutation de ça sur CMI :

Calculations, however, indicate that the earth’s rotational speed would never have been great enough for this to happen—see box p. 55. Another problem is the marked differences between rocks found on the moon and those on the earth. If the moon were once part of the earth, we would expect moon and earth rocks to contain elements in similar amounts; but this is not so. For example, potassium and sodium are found in abundance in Earth’s rocks, but not in those on the moon. Conversely, moon rocks contain significantly more aluminium, calcium and thorium. This is also a problem for the ‘condensation theory’.

Another good reason for rejecting the ‘fission theory’ arises from a consideration of the moon’s orbital path. If the theory were correct, we would expect the moon to orbit around the earth’s equator as shown in fig. 3; but it does not!

Je traduis :

Les calculs, pourtant, montrent que la vitesse rotationnelle de la terre n'était jamais suffisante pour que ceci devienne le cas (voir encadré, p. 55). Encore un problème est la différence marqué entre les roches trouvées sur la lune et celles sur la terre. Si la lune avait une fois été partie de la terre, on devrait voir des éléments en des proportions semblables dans les roches de la lune et de la terre, mais ce n'est pas le cas. Par exemple, le potassium et le sodium se trouvent en abondance dans les roches de la terre, mais pas celles de la lune. Inversement, les roches lunaires contiennent de manière signifiante davantage d'aluminium, calcium et thorium. Ceci est aussi un problème pour la thérie de condensation.

Une autre bonne raison contre la théorie de fission découle de la considération du parcours orbital de la lune. Si la théorie était correcte, on croirait que la lune orbitait l'équateur de la terre, comme montré fig. 3, mais elle ne le fait pas !

Et surtout, ce passage°°° :

If this explanation were correct, however, we would expect the moon to be akin to a mini Earth, being made up of essentially the same materials. The moon, however, is significantly less dense than the earth, and hence must be made up of different materials.

Si cette explication était correcte, pourtant, on dirait que la lune s'apparenterait à une mini Terre, faite d'essentiellement les mêmes matériaux. Par contre, la Lune est de manière signifiante, moins dense que la terre, et doit donc être composée de matières différentes.

Ah, oui. Contre la simple preuve de mon prof, il y a ceci, que les corps célestes sont de densités différentes. Même pas la même entre toutes les rocheuses et toutes les gazeuses. Saturne et Jupiter, par exemple : 687,3 kg/m³, Saturne. 1 328 kg/m³, Jupiter. Pourtant, les deux sont gazeuses. 5,515 × 10³ kg/m³, Terre, 3,346 4 × 10³ kg/m³, Lune. Les deux sont rocheuses.

Je viens de dire que les masses ne sont connues que par les orbites à travers le newtonisme. Par contre, un newtonisme des masses est quelque part démontré dans les fly-by. Mais en revanche, la présence d'un newtonisme ne prouve en rien l'absence d'autres facteurs, comme Dieu, comme les êtres angéliques, parfois capables ensemble de faire un objet plus artistique, comme l'est le système de Tychon Brahé et de Riccioli par rapport à l'héliocentrisme.

Si j'étais donc un peu vite et en erreur légère, les précisions que j'ai dû apporter après s'équilibrent en faveur de ma conclusion générale. Entre temps, j'évite de faire des réflexions dans le sens cynique de Sarmoumane.

Hans Georg Lundahl
Nanterre BU
Mercredi de la Neuvaine de Pentecôte
20.V.2026

PS, je l'ai dit avant, par exemple en connexion avec un débat oral, mais je le redis :

aucun facteur causal dont le fonctionnement est reglé par des lois de la nature, ne doit par ce fait exclure toutes les autres causes, y compris non régis par les lois de la physique, comme l'action de Dieu ou même des anges./HGL

Article consulté chez les CMI : How was the moon formed?

Notes :
* gražus mėnulis, graži saulė en Lituanien. Les langues baltes aussi ont la lune au masculin, le soleil au féminin. Je pensais que l'islandais allait distinguer l'adjectif du genre, pas le cas. ** après la réfutation des sphères solides qui pourraient transmettre le mouvement par friction, je préfère le Ciel tout court, comme une globe d'éther qui circule grâce à cette action *** école qui me laisse beaucoup d'amertume dans l'arrière-goût, ce prof ne fait pas partie de l'amertume ° Nionde klass, grundskolan. À la limite dixième année, första ring, gymnasiet. °° 6000 ans environ selon une lecture Masorétique et de la Vulgate du texte de Genèse 5 et 11, plus que 7000 ans selon une lecture LXX ou Vetus Latina. °°° le paragraphe avant, sur la théorie de condensation.

Sunday, 8 March 2026

Some People Hate the Man I Grew Up Into

To me it is a very fine shade, if any at all, how that doesn't mean hatred of me, but I'm trying to put it precisely from ... their pov, as much as I'm any good at second guessing it.

My father was absent. A grandfather wasn't, but died when I was eight. Another had died even earlier. A stepfather divorced ma, and I couldn't quite see him as a father afterwards.

So, my best male voices when growing up were a few key authors.

On my old site, the MSN Group Antimodernism, I announced them. Taking them in the order they came substantially into my life, they would be:

C. S. Lewis (before age nine)
J. R. R. Tolkien (around thirteen)
Gilbert Keith Chesterton (somewhat older, but still my teens)
Hilaire Belloc (already in my twenties).

People who hate these guys are very likely to hate the person I grew up into. I'm not saying people who love them will love what I've become, but I am saying their enemies are objectively (whether they know it or not) my enemies.

I am no longer nine. I am no longer thirteen. I am no longer in my late teens. I am no longer in my early twenties.

It should be very obvious to anyone who knows anything about personal development, that I have already become the man I'm likely to remain this mortal life, barring extreme miracles or extreme defection. If I read Foundation, Dune, or Elric, I'm not likely to change into a different person or to get me different convictions.

Elric is, as far as I've gathered, not reading it myself, about a kind of devil's contract between a man and a sword reminiscent of Tyrfing. I'm already aware of the concept of Faustian contracts, and I'm also aware that God can break them. This is a common thread between Sagen aus Österreich (where in one of these legends a knight gets a castle in return for dying and getting damned on his wedding day, but the hermit to whom he confessed argues, when Satan complains about the force majeur that's preventing him from taking "what is his" that Satan hadn't fulfilled the contract: there is no chapel in the castle, so it's not a proper castle for a knight) and Hilaire Belloc (where a man argues to sell his soul on the limit between the 19th and the 20th CC. and when St. Charles Borromeo steps in and the Devil complains, St. Charles says "well, you're one year too late, it was the night between 31st Dec 1899 and 1st of Jan 1900 you would have had your go" and as the Devil says he has the universities on his side, St. Charles replies "but I have the Pope on my side"). And I read Krabat by Otfried Preusler at age 10-ish as well (he was redeemed by the love of a virgin).

So Moorcock's contribution to the genre would be showing how the Devil's contract just carries on and on and on. I could of course have misunderstood Elric, I haven't read it.

Foundation made itself unreadable very quickly. Hari Seldon is very unbearable, while alive. "Oh, they are arresting us? Well, it was a 97.5 % chance that they were going to do that right now" He becomes an even more unbearable pseudo-Jesus in a wild second guessing of how Christianity came into existance, with Asimov presumably agreeing with Karl Marx on a purely human and on top of that Socialist (Marxist style) Jesus having become misunderstood. Not least in "the Dark Ages" ... I happen to know a thing or two of Church history, and don't need a bad novelist to tell me all about it in a strictly fictional parallel.

Dune seems to have a similar story. So, like I've avoided Foundation since that page where Seldon worship takes on blasphemous parallels to Catholicism, I've avoided Dune since I read up on the plotline or watched a youtube about it.

I just came across an essay by Moorcock, which says among other things:

I suppose I respond so antipathetically to Lewis and Tolkien because I find this sort of consolatory Christianity as distasteful as any other fundamentally misanthropic doctrine.

Not linking, look it up if you really must, but don't ask me to help you out.

Now, some people think, I'm the equivalent of a fatherless child. No. I was a fatherless child. I didn't remain one. Those who dispute that are evildoers who are willing to misidentify a fandom for Chesterton (or even Seven Chronicles of Narnia) with a certain type of adult Disney who (at least supposedly) have refused to grow up. Disney didn't just make his (then, mostly, except Fantasia) films and stories child friendly. He in a sense catered to children, which, unlike the child friendly part in Lewis, the four I grew up with didn't.

Tolkien specifically is on record as being against this catering. Spare the child a specific story, if you think he can't handle it. But don't serve it up in a mollified version.

And no, a happy end and a mollified version are not the same.

Hans Georg Lundahl
Paris
Oculi Sunday
8.III.2026

PS. Perhaps some of the guys I speak of are kind of short on people to mentor. The solution is not banding up to mentor me against my will (or through my weaknesses). The solution would have been to do less abortion, contraception, other versions of infertile sex, and more babies, when they were young./HGL

Friday, 13 February 2026

Pourquoi ceci sur le Seigneur des Anneaux ?

Seigneur des Anneaux, mes articles 2020 à 2024 en anglais sur ce blog · Seigneur des Anneaux, mes articles en anglais pendant 2025 sur ce blog · Pourquoi ceci sur le Seigneur des Anneaux ?

Il y avait un homme qui connaissait mes blogs, ou surtout celui-ci. Il avait trouvé quelque chose difficile à sa compréhension et c'était sur Le Seigneur des Anneaux, probablement sur ce blog et probablement en anglais.

Tout d'abord, je viens de vérifier mon total pour les années depuis 2020 en 2025.

2020
620 dont 237 ici
2021
603 dont 232 ici
2022
1098 dont 429 ici
2023
1243 dont 498 ici
2024
1471 dont 554 ici
2025
1411 dont 700 ici

620 + 603 + 1098 + 1243 + 1471 + 1411 = 6446
237 + 232 + 429 + 498 + 554 + 700 = 2650

14 des posts sur ce blog mentionnent Lord of the Rings (titre VO pour Seigneur des Anneaux) sur ce blog pour ces années et en anglais. Je n'ai pas compté les références vers d'autres blogs ou vers les posts antérieurs à 2020.

Dont les plus importants sont :

Dans le premier, je défends Tolkien contre les allégations de Yuri Maximov d'hétérodoxie (à part la question évolutionniste). Ce prêtre russe a retiré son article, j'ai modifié le mien pour en tenir compte. Dans le second, je défends Tolkien et C. S. Lewis contre les allégations assez peu probables de John Todd à leur égard. Il les proféra vers 10 ans après la mort de C. S. Lewis, et dans le moment que J. R. R. Tolkien se mourait. En plus John Wayne Todd est né en 1949. Bilbon le Hobbit était déjà écrit. Le Seigneur des Anneaux est sorti en 54 et 55, quand John Todd avait 6 ans au plus. Les sept parties du Monde de Narnia sortent entre 1950 et 1956. Cette dernière année John Todd célébra son 7e anniversaire. Il prétend avoir personnellement servi de coursier pour les Illuministes non seulement pour soudoyer Tolkien, mais même C. S. Lewis. Celui-ci mourrait en 1963, une heure avant l'assassinat du Président Kennedy. Et John Todd avait 14 ans cette année. Mais en plus, parmi les sources utilisées par les wikipédistes anglophones, aucune semble avoir considéré JRRT ou CSL comme des franc-maçons, comme des mystiques, comme des occultistes. Il ne s'agit pas de Gourdjeff, quoi !

En d'autres mots, si c'est bien connu que j'aime Tolkien, ce n'est pas du tout une raison d'avoir honte, ni socialement, ni comme Chrétien.

Hans Georg Lundahl
Nanterre BU
St. Julien de Lyon
13.II.2026

Lugduni, in Gallia, sancti Juliani Martyris.

(Fin)

Seigneur des Anneaux, mes articles en anglais pendant 2025 sur ce blog

Seigneur des Anneaux, mes articles 2020 à 2024 en anglais sur ce blog · Seigneur des Anneaux, mes articles en anglais pendant 2025 sur ce blog · Pourquoi ceci sur le Seigneur des Anneaux ?

New blog on the kid: For Those Who Pretend I'm Faking My Writing
https://nov9blogg9.blogspot.com/2025/01/for-those-who-pretend-im-faking-my.html

Hence my lack of rereading Lord of the Rings in extenso, which I used to do. Hence (partly) my disconnect from the Rosary

Je me plains des privations de sommeil, qui m'empêcheraient de relire le Seigneur des Anneaux, comme je le fis avant, et qui m'empêchent de prier le chapelet.

New blog on the kid: Angels for Sungenis and Levi Pingleton
https://nov9blogg9.blogspot.com/2025/02/angels-for-sungenis-and-levi-pingleton.html

However, if you are suggesting that angels and demons live in a kind of parallel reality called "the spiritual world" this is not the traditional Roman Catholic view. You can partly find it in Tolkien (whose upbringing involves not just father Francis Xaver Morgan, Oratorian, but also Methodists) when explaining the invisibility of ring wraiths and it is frankly an explanation which, suggestive as it is, and effective in dramatic setting, is clearly more suited to that particular work of fantasy than to a manual of theology. Apart from Lord of the Rings, it is also found in some Evangelical circles.

L'idée d'un monde parallèle spirituelle, à part dans le Seigneur des Anneaux se trouve aussi chez les Évangélistes. (Notons, si le tuteur de Tolkien, après le décès de sa mère était l'abbé Francis Xaver Morgan, de l'Oratoire, il dépensait aussi du temps chez des proches qui étaient Méthodistes).

L'idée catholique de base est que les esprit, quoique n'étant pas matériels et ayant une autre relation à l'espace et étant invisibles pour les yeux matériels est dans notre univers, pas dans un univers parallèle. Au moins pour les esprits pertinents pour nous.

New blog on the kid: Is Matt Walsh Pro-Russian?
https://nov9blogg9.blogspot.com/2025/03/is-matt-walsh-pro-russian.html

Presque tout a un rapport avec le Seigneur des Anneaux, je ne vais pas citer, mais résumer.

La feu Soviétique avait une rancune idéologique envers Le Seigneur des Anneaux, et le Soviéto-nostalgique Kirill Yeskov l'exemplifie en racontant l'histoire d'un point de vue selon lequel Sauron serait le bon et les Elfes les méchants ;
Matt Walsh reprend pas mal d'un point de vue anti-S des A assez proche de ce genre de critique (y compris le bobard que Tolkien aurait omis une solution parfaitement possible, d'avoir la Compagnie de l'Anneau monter sur des aigles géants pour aller en Mordor) ;
à l'époque, Matt Walsh m'avait banni de commenter, mes je laisse une réponse détaillée à Ben Shapiro ;
et la reproche que Matt Walsh fait à propos les morts-vivants ayant rompu le serment est aussi une critique à l'encontre d'Aldebert de Baufort (La Guerre des sept fontaines).

New blog on the kid: Homages to St. Oswald for the Last Hundred Years
https://nov9blogg9.blogspot.com/2025/05/hommages-to-st-oswald-for-last-hundred.html

Lord of the Rings (1954—55)
It seems Aragorn was based on St. Oswald.

Il semble que le personnage Aragorn avait ses bases de caractère et de destin en St. Oswald.

New blog on the kid: A Young Swede of 15 Got a Price
https://nov9blogg9.blogspot.com/2025/12/a-young-swede-of-15-got-price.html

Une guide touristique donne une liste de 8 endroits qui ont inspiré les paysages du Seigneur des Anneaux. En vue d'un autre récit de Tolkien, Smith of Wootton Major, je remarque qu'il est drôle que cette fan ait pas inclus Wotton under Edge, vu que la bonne prononciation de Wotton s'écrirerait Wootton, et que Tolkien a certes le nom de Wotton under Edge. Surtout que l'orthographe Underedge a dû inspirer Underhill (Souscolline, en v. fr.)

(Suite)

Seigneur des Anneaux, mes articles 2020 à 2024 en anglais sur ce blog

Seigneur des Anneaux, mes articles 2020 à 2024 en anglais sur ce blog · Seigneur des Anneaux, mes articles en anglais pendant 2025 sur ce blog · Pourquoi ceci sur le Seigneur des Anneaux ?

New blog on the kid: No, I'm Not English - and Why Should I Care?
https://nov9blogg9.blogspot.com/2020/10/no-im-not-english-and-why-should-i-care.html

There are children's books that are really meant for small children, and may not give very much to adults. There are also the category "9 - 12". In the XXth C. this category has often involved better story books than the novels written for adults. Apart from Astrid and Tove, I very much favour Tolkien and C. S. Lewis. Though Lord of the Rings is considered the age group above 9 - 12, I first read it at 13.

Parmi les "livres d'enfants" une catégorie est pour les petits enfants en train d'apprendre la lecture. Normalement, un adulte qui ne lit pas ça à ses propres enfants ou en faisant du baby-sitting ne va pas les trouver très intéressants. La catégorie 9—12 ans et la catégorie au-dessus, par contre, normalement pour intéresser les jeunes ados et les préados, il faut un minimum de pensée, qui est apte à intéresser les adultes aussi.

Je positionne Le Monde de Narnia et Le Seigneur des Anneaux dans ces catégories.

New blog on the kid: What Happened Yesterday?
https://nov9blogg9.blogspot.com/2021/02/what-happened-yesterday.html

Or someone could viciously and dishonestly pretend that just because I mentioned "Narnia ou Élidor" in an article I was writing while absent, I needed to have taken some kind of drug. This is not the case, I do not need any drugs to enjoy fantasy novels, though I do need more sleep than I have had recently to enjoy any book as long as Lord of the Rings (note, I have been re-reading The Book of Three a few years ago, it is shorter). I also don't need drugs to believe God is literally almighty as Bishop Tempier believed God to be. This belief does not believe on my hallucinating in any way. So, I obviously had no drug in my luggage, but this doesn't prevent certain someones to search for those.

Quelqu'un avait fouillé mon bagage. Or, pendant ce temps, j'avais fait une allusion à deux œuvres du fantastique.

J'énonce l'hypothèse qu'un connard aurait prétendu imaginer que je m'en serais abstiné à moins d'être drogué, et qu'il avait fouillé mon bagage pour drogues illicites en mon absence.

Enfin, je clarifie, ni pour aimer le fantastique, ni pour croire très en sérieux dans la toutepuissance de Dieu, je n'ai besoin de drogues.

New blog on the kid: Have you heard the expression "von Neumann chain"?
https://nov9blogg9.blogspot.com/2022/08/have-you-heard-expression-von-neumann.html

May (yeah, Mayson) and Ter (Ter ... eesa) got a bit tired of waiting while four of their five were away. So they had a couple of friends who had received them after one tired measurement of stridings come over from Tennessee, all the way up to Niagara Falls across the Canadian border at Niagara Falls, where May and Ter were living. The friends - surprise - brought along a daughter, Danna, who married Theodore after another few months. They started to wonder what they were going to call the final correct distance to the moon - Theo-Dann? Oops, they heard of a case when someone had tried to name a business line "Lothlorien" and read Lord of the Rings and learned about Tolkien's copyright hawk, Christopher (who has reasons to hate certain very abusive derivatives) - "we can't name it Theo-Dann after all" said Theodore - "right, sounds too much like Theoden" said Danna.

En cette drôlerie d'histoire, une vue alternative sur les découvertes en métrologie, quelqu'un propose de nommer la distance entre terre et lune "Theo-Dann" après les personnages Theodore et Danna. Ils mentionnent le copy-right et l'attitude du feu Christopher Tolkien. Theodore et Danna renoncent donc, pour ne pas se trouver face à un procès en copy-right à propos Theoden, personnage du Seigneur des Anneaux.

Cette référence est en passant, le point étant qu'on n'arrive pas en métrologie correcte à quatre années lumière pour α du Centaure et ainsi de suite, sans de présumer l'Héliocentrisme.

New blog on the kid: John Shelby Spong and Joseph Ratzinger
https://nov9blogg9.blogspot.com/2022/10/john-shelby-spong-and-joseph-ratzinger.html

Third, how does a book claim to be history? Including boring detail with no or little action attached to most would be a candidate for internal evidence of historic intention.

[Citations de la Genèse et de l'Iliade]

But, this characteristic can be mimicked in fiction (see Tolkien's appendices to Lord of the Rings!). A safer approach would be the external evidence for historic intent. No one is taking Lord of the Rings as a work of history, everyone is taking it as fiction meant to entertain (even if some** consider the appendices to result in boredom rather than entertainment).

So, to formulate this external criterium, it is not the text itself that claims to be historic, it is its status in a society claiming it for it, and the evidence for historicity is, first known reception of the text taking it as history.

Je discute les critères pour distinguer la fiction des documents historiques.

Les critères internent favorisent certes quelque part que la Genèse et l'Iliade ne soit pas des fictions, car qui mettrait des détails barbants dedans (Genèse 4 après le verset 17, le Catalogue des Navires). Mais, ceci peut être imité en de la fiction, comme Le Seigneur des Anneaux (je pensais surtout aux Appendix) et il faut donc privilégier les critères externes. Le texte, a-t-il ou n'a-t-il pas été considéré depuis le début comme historique ? (Genèse et Iliade, oui, Le Seigneur des Anneaux, non).

New blog on the kid: Some People over Here in France Don't Get that Lewis means Louis and is a Very Common Name among Brits and Irish
https://nov9blogg9.blogspot.com/2023/07/some-people-over-here-in-france-dont.html

Some have reasoned, only perverted people can enjoy John Ronald Reuel Tolkien or his friend Clive Staples Lewis. I don't think these villagers are very closely related to the late Jimmy Savile or to Jeffrey Epstein, or that they'd applaud smut:

Les deux vidéos, le canal est certes basé aux États-Unis, mais les villageois en question sont du sous-continent indien.

New blog on the kid: Rights, Exceptions, and Pushing them Too Far
https://nov9blogg9.blogspot.com/2023/11/rights-exceptions-and-pushing-them-too.html

The Last Ringbearer is in many ways despicable, a Communist propaganda with enforced enrolment of Frodo and Sam, who are the brain children of the well known Anti-Communist J. R. R. Tolkien. However, it is at least good that the offense to good taste and manners is not driven out of existence on the online world. Once upon a time, Bored of the Rings* could be published and sold on paper, with no legal consequences, and whatever the arrangements may be between Harvard** and the Tolkien Estate, this seems to be true to this very day.

...

* People who think Tolkien is very much into illegal recreation drugs may have confused the text of Lord of the Rings with that of Bored of the Rings. Happens when your sources are oral conversations with people of quality, who, despite being people of quality, are not beyond tweaking the truth a bit in order to have what they consider legitimate fun at someone's expense.

Je discute le copy-right, avec Tolkien en exemple. Deux ouvrages dérivés existent, Lord of the Ringards (Bored of the Rings) et Le Dernier Anneau (The Last Ringbearer). Pour l'idée que l'on doive utiliser des drogues pour aimer Le Seigneur des Anneaux, je réplique qu'on ait probablement pensé à Lord of the Ringards.

New blog on the kid: We Are Not Just Consumers
https://nov9blogg9.blogspot.com/2024/02/we-are-not-just-consumers.html

PS, if you think I'm unfair to AI, see what ChatGPT can do for a sequel of LotR ...

Je donne le lien vers une vidéo qui discute si on pouvait écrire une continuation du Seigneur des Anneaux avec l'aide de l'IA. La réponse dans la vidéo est assez accablante pour l'IA.

New blog on the kid: Why "Labyrinth"?
https://nov9blogg9.blogspot.com/2024/09/why-labyrinth.html

But the film was an actual work of beauty, a real piece of art. Not just because of Jennifer Connelly, but because of the actual story. What inspired it, on the plane of story, as distinct from one very probable message in the context of the age?

[Chesterton citation]

This could have been to Labyrinth what the following may have been to The Lord of the Rings:

[Other Chesterton citation]

This also was by Chesterton, it was from the essay Ethandune.

Comme j'ai tracé une partie de l'inspiration pour Le Seigneur des Anneaux à l'essai Ethandune, par Chesterton, je trace une partie de l'inspiration pour le film Labyrinth à un extrait de Short History of England, par Chesterton.

New blog on the kid: Sharing on Conlanging
https://nov9blogg9.blogspot.com/2024/11/sharing-on-conlanging.html

Tolkien est connu pour avoir inséré dans le Seigneur des Anneaux des phrases comme "elen síla lúmenn'omentielvo" et le serment d'Elendil qui commence "Et Eärello Endorenna utúlien" et je cite une vidéo par quelqu'un qui aussi fait ses langues construites. Dans son cas, du vidéaste, il avait le devoir d'inventer une langue pour la série Pendragon (produite par Daily Wire).

(suite)

Saturday, 3 January 2026

134th Birthday of Tolkien

My Turn to Talk : Happy Birthday, Professor Tolkien!
https://myturntotalkblog.wordpress.com/2026/01/03/happy-birthday-professor-tolkien-3/

Yet in those days all the enemies of the Enemy revered what was ancient, in language no less than in other matters, and they took pleasure in it according to their knowledge.

Return of the King, Appendix F

Tuesday, 16 December 2025

A Young Swede of 15 Got a Price

Young Alve Park has been baking cookies each year for a charity for the children of the world. He's fifteen and has been baking since he was five.

It so happens, a cook who made pastry features in a short story by Tolkien. His name is Alf and that's basically the same name as Alve. In the story, the event with the baked cake and a hidden star takes place every 24 years in Wootton Major.

And Wootton is the pronunciation of Wotton, specifically Wotton Underedge, where the oldest school founded by a layman was in all England and that school was founded by a woman and made free to everyone who couldn't otherwise afford.

Katharine Lady Berkeley's School is an academy school near Wotton-under-Edge, Gloucestershire, England, for ages 11 to 18. It has been ranked as the 4th best non-fee paying school in the South-West and 250th best in the whole country.

The school was founded by Katherine, Lady Berkeley for the use of six scholars in 1384 which makes it one of the oldest surviving schools in England.[2] It is known that schools existed in the area before then, but Lady Berkeley formalised this school, gaining it a royal licence and it became a model for other schools. It was founded before Eton, Harrow, and Westminster, and two years after Winchester.[3] The first headteacher appointed in 1384 was John Stone M.A. Oxon[4]

Not only is the school tied to Tolkien via Oxford (where he was a don) or the Middle Ages (his and my favourite period), but also via another detail:

The original foundation deed of the school reads:

"We the said Kitherina (Katherine), attentively considering that the purposes of man desiring to be informed in grammar which is the foundation of all liberal arts, is daily defeated and frustrated by poverty and want of means; therefore for the maintenance and exaltation of Holy Mother Church, and the increase of divine worship, and other liberal arts and sciences, out of the goods bestowed on us by God have procured the said Walter and Williams to acquire certain lands and tenements in fee, that they may build a school-house in Wotton for the habitation and likewise dispose of them for the maintenance of a master and 2 poor scholars of the art of grammar; which master and his successors shall govern and inform all scholars coming to the same house or school coming for instruction in this art without taking anything for his trouble from them or any of them."

The Seal of Katharine Lady Berkeley's School*

The deed was sealed with Lady Katharine's personal seal showing St. John holding a lamb with the Latin inscription "Sigilla domus scolaru de Woton sub egge" meaning "the seal of the school house of Wotton-under-Edge".

So, Tolkien loved grammar, including the grammar part of any language.** His first first name was also precisely John.

I think I have more hints about Tolkien knowing Katherine Lady Berkeley's school than the title of Smith of Wootton Major. You see, Wotton is at its earliest spelled Wudetun. This means "wood town" ... in a certain story he's even better known for, which is also way longer, there is a city of elves which can extremely well be described as a "wood town" ... also in the same story, someone goes by the pseudonym of Underhill for some time. I just called the place Wotton Underedge, but the modern (rather than one historic) spelling is Wotton-under-Edge. So, he saw the historic spelling "Underedge" and liked it, and reused the general idea. It's in the Cotswolds, and it seems that Tolkien enjoyed walking that area:

8 Lord of the Rings and Tolkien Cotswolds sites to visit
Upd. November 9, 2023 / F. Publ. June 21, 2023 by Kirsty Bartholomew
https://lostinlandmarks.com/lord-of-the-rings-and-tolkien-cotswolds-sites/

I'll try to suggest her to add Wotton Underedge to the Cotswold sites. And, should she visit Sweden, to not forget a visit to one or the other of the cookie baking Parks. Alve, or the one with a bakery in Bromma.

Hans Georg Lundahl
Nanterre UL
Holy Three Boys
16.XII.2025

Sanctorum Trium Puerorum, id est Ananiae, Azariae et Misaelis; quorum corpora apud Babyloniam, sub quodam specu, sunt posita.

* The seal is very beautiful, and I tried to share the image here. As it is under Creative commons' licence Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International / CC BY-SA 4.0, I actually DO have the right to share it. Because the owner gave that permission to anyone. Note that the Creative commons' come in different flavours, my own proposal isn't the exact equivalent of any, involves an offer in return for voluntary royalties, and therefore and because it doesn't allow modification cannot be labelled as CC BY-SA 4.0. The image is attributed to Sanctusandrea - Own work, and Sanctusandrea no longer has a profile on Creative Commons. Despite me having the right to upload it, when I tried, I was met with "Sélectionnez uniquement les images pour lesquelles vous disposez des droits d'utilisation" ... I will therefore use the upload in two steps, image to computer and then computer to here:

Ah, worked. Apart from the user being Sanctusandrea, the image was uploaded on 5 Jan. 2024. Here is a link to the whole image and surrounding description: File:Seal of KLB School.jpg

** To the point of actually inventing languages for the pleasure of seeing the working out of a grammar he invented. It seems he even wrote a certain story, much bigger than Smith of Wootton Major in order to insert one of his invented languages or two, or three or ...

Tuesday, 23 September 2025

Can one enjoy Tolkien after Charlie Kirk died? I think so

You see, as a man was saying, Tolkien is reading for grief and darkness. Reading to lift you up and lift your hope.

Emotionally, and rationally, in a sub-Christian way (Tolkien imitated the method of the Beowulf poet who as a Christian set his narrative among people who had not yet heard the Gospel).

Song of the Dwarves
Chance Thomas | 22 June 2017
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jHPNPhI4mc

Courtesy of Emerald:

My Turn to Talk: Tolkien Week 2025: Song of the Dwarves
September 23, 2025 · 9:00 am
https://myturntotalkblog.wordpress.com/2025/09/23/tolkien-week-2025-song-of-the-dwarves/

Sunday, 20 July 2025

Sharing Mandy Patinkin

Jewish Actor Mandy Patinkin criticizes "unacceptable" war of Israel against Gaza
Middle East Eye | 14 July 2025
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87300T8MFTg

Tolkien died. The next day a novel was published. The Princess Bride. The author was a Jew, not a Catholic, unlike Tolkien.

The film, 14 years later, has very much overshadowed the novel. And one of the main attractions of the film is obviously Mandy Patinkin playing Inigo Montoya.

The actor cited one moment from the film. Hear him./HGL

Saturday, 31 May 2025

Homages to St. Oswald for the Last Hundred Years

Lord of the Rings (1954—55): It seems Aragorn was based on St. Oswald.
And His Word Went Marching On (2014): And His Word Went Marching On, by myself, features St. Oswald in the third stanza after the two stanza length refrain. Also beginning of fourth stanza. The main theme is the liturgy that St. Gregory the Great had held before meeting the three Anglo-Saxon slave boys on the market. The point is, English (and South Scottish, and US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica, to some extent even Irish) Christendom is the fruit of not just that meeting, but also when he had been celebrating Holy Mass that day before going to the market. I guess it was in Eastertide, and this brought him the idea of responding about their king ("what's the name of their king?" · "Ælla" · "Alleluia shall be sung there").
Whiteblade (2016): The story of the C7th King (Saint) Oswald life

The question about the possibility of there being fan fiction on Whiteblade gave us a response which gave me the hint for this post by telling me how Tolkien spent 13 years (or much of them, once he abandoned the plan for Trotter being a hobbit and replaced him with Strider) doing a fan fiction on St. Oswald.

Tolkien got us covered!
Elisabeth Wheatley | 29 May 2025
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CbzH7q7GtMk

Monday, 21 April 2025

The True Myth — What Did Tolkien Mean?

If we look at it from 6:03 the point of view of Tolkien who you know 6:06 in debating with Lewis about religion 6:10 called Christianity a true myth in in a 6:13 in trying to help Lewis understand it 6:16 you know Lewis was kind of stuck on this 6:17 idea that Christianity is just a myth 6:20 and Tolkien was like well it's a true 6:22 myth in other words yes it's technically 6:25 a myth in that sense it just happens to 6:29 be the true one you know this was kind 6:31 of Tolkien's take on the whole thing And 6:33 by that Tolkien did not mean it's a story 6:38 that is basically fictional but which 6:40 tells us some truth about the world He 6:43 meant it is a story which provides the 6:47 kind of explanation about the world and 6:49 our past which myths try to do in 6:53 general And this one happens to be the 6:55 factually accurate one

Watch the whole episode on:

Rockadoodle and Tolkien on the Ambiguity and Power of Myth
Tolkien Lore | 21.IV.2025
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDm0TA7oWa4

Sunday, 30 March 2025

Is Matt Walsh Pro-Russian?

Because, it so happens, Russia has long had a certain beef with Lord of the Rings and its fans. A fan fiction was published (the English translation cannot be sold in the West, but is available online for free), namely The Last Ringbearer by Kirill Yeskov, also famous or infamous for The Gospel of Afranius ... the man is a walking nostalgia item for the Soviet Union.

Now, it so happens, Matt Walsh pretends to be offended by the length of the films and also to find a plot hole in "why didn't they ride the Eagles?" (good luck arriving in Mordor undetected like that!) ... I don't look up Matt Walsh, since he basically has banned me from commenting, but I hear it from Ben Shapiro:

Ben DESTROYS Walsh's LOTR Review w/ The Experts
Ben Shapiro | 29 March 2025
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wes8BL8phI8

Thank you very much!

Es war sehr schön, es hat mich sehr gefreut!

Only adding that if you want to enter former East Berlin in a chopper starting in West Germany, it's way easier now than it was before a certain date in 1989.

Similarily, for the Eagles to arrive at Barad-Dûr, it's like better after Sauron was disembodied and his spirit banished and the ring-wraiths gone as well ...

Also, Matt Walsh doesn't seem to have any feelings for Aldebert de Baufort in La Guerre des sept fontaines. (The War of the Seven Fountains in English). Some ghosts seem to have no rest until they have accomplished sth ... the Oathbreakers are in a similar position (the allusion to bad water and wine drinking in the "Middle Ages" would be more valid for the 19th C.)

[See also Matt Walsh ... Not His Best Hour (A Trans Woman is Bad. A Trans Helper is Worse for Some Others) for the occasion when he blocked me.]

Tuesday, 24 December 2024

What Did Christmas Mean to Tolkien? Holly Oardway on The C. S. Lewis Podcast

The CS Lewis Podcast #189 Holly Ordway: What did Christmas mean to JRR Tolkien?
23 December 2024 | The CS Lewis Podcast
https://www.premierunbelievable.com/the-cs-lewis-podcast/the-cs-lewis-podcast-189-holly-ordway-what-did-christmas-mean-to-jrr-tolkien/18655.article

A discussion about the poem Noel means, I'm linking to it:

Noel
A Christmas Poem
The One Ring
https://www.theonering.com/noel-a-christmas-poem-by-jrr-tolkien/

Obviously, there is a poem by Chesterton that inspired both Noel and the Narniad, I'd venture:

G. K. Chesterton’s best Christmas poem
Fr. Michael Rennier - published on 12/24/17
https://aleteia.org/2017/12/24/g-k-chestertons-best-christmas-poem

Sunday, 24 November 2024

No, Tolkien was NEITHER a Black Magician NOR a Nazi

I had in part of my teens felt an affinity to National Socialism (except the Racist and Antisemite bits), and the two men who got me out of it were basically J. R. R. Tolkien and G. K. Chesterton.

I obviously much prefer Francisco Franco, por gracias de Dios Caudillo de España. Though, I prefer Carlism (both* wings) to that. So did both of these authors.

However, when it comes to taking Tolkien for a National Socialist, apart from Åke Ohlmarks, what about looking to the guys who called Franco a Nazi? Yes, I mean Communists.

And when it comes to taking Tolkien for a Black Magician, apart from Åke Ohlmarks, what about taking a look at John Todd?

Anyway, Ohlmarks DID accuse Tolkien of being both, and here is a man taking a look at the context:

Why Tolkien Was Accused of Black Magic By His Translator
Ink and Fantasy | 23 Nov. 2024
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-P-AupASN4

The only thing he misses is, looking at Commies and the kind of people who believed John Todd. In Sweden, where I lived before I got out in 2004, and where Ohlmarks had part of his background, both Commies and "Born-Again" Congregationalists outnumber Catholics. We are 1 % or perhaps some more, clearly below 2 %. In my youth, the Communist party was regularly getting 4 % of the votes. In fact, some Social Democrats were known to vote Communist in order to give them the necessary 4 % and those were by the Communists nicknamed "Comrade 4 %" ... the registered members of the "frikyrkor" (Born Again usually Congregationalist + some Methodist and para-Lutheran) are 4.7 %. Thse participating in activities of them are 6.6 %.

Both I and Ohlmarks have some background in the Germanies as well. For me that's Frankfurt but even more so Vienna, where I was born, where last I stayed before my longest stay in Sweden. That's a Catholic city. But for Ohlmarks, it's Greifswald. The Catholics have basically one Church there, and are as to Christians, after both "Evangelische Kirche" (high and dry Protestants) and the "Freikirchen" (Born Again). It was also in East Germany prior to the Reunification. So, there, like in Sweden, Catholics would be outnumbered by both Communists and Free Church members (both "frikyrkor" in Swedish and "Freikirchen" in German are named from "Free Church of Scotland" probably more the times prior to than the times after 1900).

So, BOTH the places which Ohlmarks would have called home would have pushed him to what he was saying in his book. NEITHER of them would have helped him to an intelligent understanding of the Catholic that Tolkien actually was.

That's not the kind of people I'd like to have power to submit me to how they judge me!

Hans Georg Lundahl
Paris
Last LD after Pentecost
24.XI.2024

* Both Comunión tradicionalista and Partido carlista. Dynastically, I'd agree with Partido carlista that Charles Hugh hadn't forfeited his birthright by Communism, liking certain parts of Titoism (and not the repressive stuff in the department of education) is no such crime. On the other hand the Partido is somewhat gay liberal. On the first hand again, the psychiatric repression against gays under Franco was a bad move.

Friday, 20 September 2024

Why "Labyrinth"?

Φιλολoγικά/Philologica: Suppose ONE Single work by GKC had Inspired Lord of the Rings ...? · New blog on the kid: Why "Labyrinth"?

Some flippant guy may pretend David Bowie wanted to cosplay as an actor.

There is something else to it. I saw a video which complained that Labyrinth was basically just yucky, a fifteen year old girl being the object (more than half of the time) of sexual attentions from either David Bowie, sorry, Jareth, or less reputable and delicate males clearly older than herself.

Perhaps there was some point in that. I recall that as the magic spells were spelled out as saying, if she had lost her purity, she would have forgotten about her brother whom she wanted to save, and so, she would have betrayed. I recall rooting for her to keep her purity. In the eighties, this was a time period in which the élite wanted to sensitise people against paedophilia. And perhaps this was the way to do it. Show a peach with a worm in it. Show a fifteen year old pulled between a real duty to care for a brother and a so fake attraction to the lure of sexual maturity in men and sexual pleasures waiting around the corner, never directly imagined, but never quite forgotten.

Make the public squirm at every second when she grows closer to falling for Jareth, make the public cheer when she recalls her purity.

The result of the campaign has ultimately been the opposite of saving brothers. So many fifteen year old girls are now deprived of the right to marry (as happened in France 2006) or to marry next year (as happened in England and Wales following suit after Scotland). Girls are being told it's quite OK to train for motherhood in babysitting, but not OK to actually become mothers. Someone quite as deadly as Jareth is hinted at being, but lots less charming was waiting for babies that were made when mothers that age showed by becoming mothers that they didn't get the memo.

But the film was an actual work of beauty, a real piece of art. Not just because of Jennifer Connelly, but because of the actual story. What inspired it, on the plane of story, as distinct from one very probable message in the context of the age?

We should be startled if we were quietly reading a prosaic modern novel, and somewhere in the middle it turned without warning into a fairy tale. We should be surprised if one of the spinsters in Cranford, after tidily sweeping the room with a broom, were to fly away on a broomstick. Our attention would be arrested if one of Jane Austen's young ladies who had just met a dragoon were to walk a little further and meet a dragon. Yet something very like this extraordinary transition takes place in British history at the end of the purely Roman period. We have to do with rational and almost mechanical accounts of encampment and engineering, of a busy bureaucracy and occasional frontier wars, quite modern in their efficiency and inefficiency; and then all of a sudden we are reading of wandering bells and wizard lances, of wars against men as tall as trees or as short as toadstools. The soldier of civilization is no longer fighting with Goths but with goblins; the land becomes a labyrinth of faërie towns unknown to history; and scholars can suggest but cannot explain how a Roman ruler or a Welsh chieftain towers up in the twilight as the awful and unbegotten Arthur.

This could have been to Labyrinth what the following may have been to The Lord of the Rings:

As we crossed a tilt of the torn heath I saw suddenly between myself and the moon a black shapeless pile higher than a house. The atmosphere was so intense that I really thought of a pile of dead Danes, with some phantom conqueror on the top of it. Fortunately I was crossing these wastes with a friend who knew more history than I; and he told me that this was a barrow older than Alfred, older than the Romans, older perhaps than the Britons; and no man knew whether it was a wall or a trophy or a tomb. Ethandune is still a drifting name; but it gave me a queer emotion to think that, sword in hand, as the Danes poured with the torrents of their blood down to Chippenham, the great king may have lifted up his head and looked at that oppressive shape, suggestive of something and yet suggestive of nothing; may have looked at it as we did, and understood it as little as we.

This also was by Chesterton, it was from the essay Ethandune.

Borrowing from Chesterton is no shame. He made a rich production and he was also able to live off it. But it would perhaps have been better if Sarah had been able to marry someone when returning to the human world, it is a little bleak to imagine the soldier of civilisation who fights goblins (and not goth chicks!) basically fighting to prolong celibacy while already by nature of marriageable age.

And it is perhaps not the utterly best taste to get her exposed to guys she absolutely couldn't marry, since that was not their game, even if it was only for the imagination. On the other hand, for Hollywood, this may have been a very healthy cautionary tale. But that may say more of Hollywood than of the ultimate impact of the film. Can it be redeemed? Perhaps yes.

Hans Georg Lundahl
Paris
Vigil of St. Matthew
20.IX.2024

Vigilia sancti Matthaei, Apostoli et Evangelistae.

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