By Alan Lee
Over at The Notion Club Papers blog, I discuss the September 1914 draft of JRR Tolkien's Earendil poem; which I regard as his first successful poem, and which also (and by no coincidence) is concerned with his powerful and astonishingly creative response to the Anglo-Saxon word "Earendil".
It was Tolkien's attempts to understand the meaning and context of this word, that first catalysed the vast mythology of his mature achievement.
When the Earendil poem was first written, this work of decades was yet latent and unmade - but, looking back, it seems that the insight of his verse hovers on the edge of the process: "as a ray of light leapt over the twilight brim".
No comments:
Post a Comment