Today's Famous Birthday

[la_samtyr]

Today's honour goes to:



John Ronald Reuel Tolkien

He was an author, academic, and philologist. You just may have heard of him and his books: "The Hobbit", "The Lord of the Rings" and "The Silmarillion."

On a blank leaf I scrawled: 'In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.' I did not and do not know why.'
The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, No 163, to W.H. Auden, dated 1955

[We should all be so lucky as to scrawl something of the sort, and we are most fortunate that he *did* scrawl this little odd bit of writing, as it were.]

"I would draw some of the great tales in fullness,
and leave many only placed in the scheme, and sketched.
The cycles should be linked to a majestic whole,
and yet leave scope for other minds and hands,
wielding paint and music and drama..."-- J. R. R. Tolkien letter to Walt Whitman.

Now if that is not an invitation to "come and play", I don't know what is.

Comments

[anony-mouse19.livejournal.com]

omg that's totally an invitation!!i bet if he lived now Tolkien would be cool about fanfiction. :]
i loved that sentence he wrote on a leaf.

[samtyr.livejournal.com]

Oh yes, The Professor was a fascinating man. Which is probably why I freak out so when certain drek gets (aka 'Twi-Lite') published and other things have to stay on the sidelines.