And his heart was filled with longing
Added 2019-02-21 16:14:52 +0000 UTCI'm currently re-reading/listening to "Tolkien and the Great War" by John Garth, an absolutely thrilling account of Tolkien's literary development though the First World War and his brotherhood of friends, the TCBS (and I'm looking forward very much to the film coming out in May!)
Garth recounts how "The Fall of Gondolin" took shape while Tolkien was on sick-leave late in 1916, and quotes:
"He wandered till he came to the black cliffs by the sea and saw the ocean and its waves for the first time, and at that hour the sun sank beyond the rim of Earth far out to sea, and he stood on the cliff-top with outspread arms, and his heart was filled with a longing very great indeed."
Hearing these quotes juxtaposed with the biographical is both beautiful and enlightening, and very inspiring. Listening to this passage, I remembered being back in Cornwall in 2017 for the first time in over twenty years, just standing there high above the waves, spreading out my arms and closing my eyes. I've grown up on the North Sea, but the feelings and images that come to me when I read of the sea-longing in any Tolkienian book have nothing to do with that drab, dull and flat coast.
Just this morning, I felt slightly drained after my Silmarillion spree, and thought there was a bit of a lull coming... now it seems I'm back on track!
Comments
As I’ve started to learn to sail, I’ve appreciated Tolkien’s sea longing in a whole new way. I’m excited for this piece.
Gwendolyn
2019-02-24 13:54:41 +0000 UTCah yes, that's a book that misses in my collection ! Anyway, I'm also very curious about the movie, despite my suspicion (Yeah, I'm kinda fearful as well). And aaaah, the fall of Gondolin, the sea-longing, the travels of Tuor through Beleriand... so many beautiful scenes and emotions <3
Litsen
2019-02-21 19:38:41 +0000 UTCDefinitely need to go back to the great Garth before the film comes, I'm also looking forward to it, even though a lot of my fellow Tolkien fans are skeptical about it. Also, it makes me so happy to see another painting of my boy Tuor in your works. ^^
Laura Michel
2019-02-21 19:02:25 +0000 UTCI love the way this is looking! I am more of a mountain girl myself ;) but I lived by the Pacific for a couple of years and have learned to love the ocean/sea too. As for John Garth's book...excellent! I really enjoyed reading it :)
Sommer Sorenson
2019-02-21 17:06:01 +0000 UTCNo, I think that has a rather autobiographical reason - growing up in a run-down harbour town, all I associated with the sea were ramshackle buildings, rows and rows of cranes lining the shore, failing industries and sky-high unemployment rates. My parents, who remembered a slightly more glorious time, and my brother, who simply delighted in ramshackleness, often liked to go for walks on the dyke, but walks on the dyke couldn't lure me either - they meant wind and being dreary and miserable with cold and wet even in the summer! I spent most of my adolescent years nursing an anti-sea longing and left Bremerhaven as soon as I'd finished school, getting my university degree in Cologne. Maglor's sea-compulsion, being drawn to it against his will, sums me up far more than any sea-longing of Tuor's or Legolas's. (Legolas being my favourite character in the Lord of the Rings, I distinctly remember wondering what on earth was so great about the sea.)
Jenny Dolfen
2019-02-21 16:49:49 +0000 UTCBeautiful, Jenny. This scene would be well worth painting. The sea longing plays such an important role in the Silmarillion and the history of Numenor, but not so much in your paintings, at least as I remember.
Steven Tryon
2019-02-21 16:30:21 +0000 UTC
