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August 31, 2006
Frodo's Ringbearer Sonnets
Well, with the first of these image modifications, I run across the problem of copyright again. I will settle for just saying that the image of Frodo is from a Lord of the Rings movie poster, the text is mine. The second image and text are all mine. If you prefer poetry straight, the sonnets by themselves are printed below. Melkor is the angelic spirit that rebelled against Iluvatar, of whom Sauron is only a servant.
The first poem is an imagined part of the conversation that Bilbo had with Frodo as he gave him the sword Sting and the mithril coat in Rivendell, when he also famously, and rather startlingly in the movie, flipped out.
The second poem is an imagined conversation between Galadriel and Frodo as they meet to go to the Grey Havens in the newly redeemed shire at the end of the Return of the King.
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My dear Frodo, I did not ever dream
To be my heir would mean so dark a road.
But adventures are never as they seem
In tales, wholly self-chosen. The load
Unsought is given, then sealed in our choosing.
But with the load the Unseen Giver also gives
Graces and Beauty to soothe the losing
Of homely things. So take now as you leave
Fair Mithril for without, and for within
Fair memories of sunlit days and friends,
Of glorious Elder Days, of Elves and Men
In darkness fighting for a brighter End.
Despair not. Whisper with your final breath,
If Night falls, Gilthoniel, A! Elbereth!
F R O D O
Dear Elf-friend we meet well under these trees
That bloom in part because of sorrow borne
By you and of the love and toil of he
Who, tender, bore you up, who soon will mourn
That you cannot savor the fruits of joy
Which bloom in field and hearth since Elven-home
Has stretched to bless the Shire. For pain alloys
Each joy you feel vicariously alone.
But know your pain has brought you close to me.
You feel the holy ache we feel who knew
Undying Light beyond the Sundering Seas.
You will be healed. The root of Melkor’s fall
Will die and Iluvatar be All in All.
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Bilbo's Ringbearer Sonnets
The imagined monologues in these sonnets both take place in Rivendell. And, hence, the picture above, which is actually J. R. R. Tolkien's own version in pen and ink and watercolor. I should say watercolour. It is definitely very stylized, but I like it. Oh, "Iluvatar" is from The Silmarillion, a book detailing the early history of Middle Earth. It is the name of God.
Addendum
Elbereth is one of the names of Varda who is spouse of one of the Valar, or spirits through whom Iluvatar creaes and upholds the world. She functions as analogue to the Virgin Mary and is revered by the Elves.
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Gandalf to Bilbo as the Fellowship Leaves
My dear Bilbo, you know it must be so;
The burden has moved on. It came to you
For one purpose alone, for him to go,
Full-knowing of the Dark he must walk through,
To give it up into the Cracks of Doom.
For you it was a treasure far too great.
And taken once again it would consume
You from within. And even now it waits,
Subdued within these holy walls, to rise
Again and chain the neck on which it hangs,
And drag it to the Dark where its lord lies.
Your task must be to wait, not hear the clang
Of swords, but help to bear the pangs of fear,
To plead the Grace of Elbereth be near.
________________________
Elrond to Bilbo as They Leave for the Grey Havens
Dear, faithful tenant of my homely house,
Who melds the joys of Shire and Elven-home,
The time has come. The secret power aroused
Through you was raised ever to be cast down.
But its failing also begins the end
Of all things, foul or fair, wrought by the Rings
Of Power. This home I made to blend
The Good of Middle Earth with holy things
Must also pass. So, Ringfinder, now come
And taste the Joy for which we long have ached.
The homely joys we leave, as such, are done,
But, I perceive, Iluvatar shall take
Up each reflected image of His face
And make anew a joyous, homely place.
________________________
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August 28, 2006
Smeagol
The following is a blog repeat for a slow blog week, but hopefully it will be new to some of you all. It is part of a larger sonnet cycle dedicated to the Ringbearers in the Lord of the Rings.
Smeagol a ringbearer? Well, yes and no. He physically bore the ring, but could not bear to resist the temptation it proffered, and so it enslaved him to his ultimate ruin. In my sonnet cycle, which needs revision to make it more accurate, each of the true ringbearers, Bilbo, Frodo, Samwise, have two sonnets, a "before" and "after" vis a vis the ring, if you will. I gave Smeagol/Gollum only one sonnet, because, of course, there was no "after" for him.
This sonnet is an imagined plea from either one of Smeagol's relatives shortly after he got the ring and began his murderous spiral towards damnation or a plea by Gandalf when he imprisoned Gollum for the good of Middle Earth, and it should be added for the good of Gollum. Admittedly, the language rather heavy-handedly makes connections to the Christian faith, but I do not think this is an unwarranted tack to take.
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August 23, 2006
New to the Blogroll. Drumroll please....
.....TSCHHHH!
Ok, that was meant to be the sound of a cymbal being hit.
This is all to celebrate the addition of two new blogs to my blogroll. The first is the final flatmate holdout to the blog world finally surrendering. Sweet Chicken! This is sure to be a delightful, punnerific blog. Stop in and say hello to Nathan.
Next is Transpacificism the blog of Travis Scott, who you may have seen emceeing Friday Nights at the Institute for the Francis Schaeffer Institute a few years ago. Make sure to check out Travis' articles on music, movies, and culture under the heading "Articles and Talks."
Enjoy.
Incidentlly the Francis Schaeffer Institute, as always, has a good line-up for this Fall.
Posted by jackdas at 4:13 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
August 18, 2006
Preview
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To Autumn
-by John Keats
I
Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,
Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;
Conspiring with him how to load and bless
With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run;
To bend with apples the moss'd cottage-trees,
And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;
To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells
With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,
And still more, later flowers for the bees,
Until they think warm days will never cease,
For Summer has o'er-brimm'd their clammy cells.
II
Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store?
Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find
Thee sitting careless on a granary floor,
Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind;
Or on a half-reap'd furrow sound asleep,
Drows'd with the fume of poppies, while thy hook
Spares the next swath and all its twined flowers:
And sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep
Steady thy laden head across a brook;
Or by a cyder-press, with patient look,
Thou watchest the last oozings hours by hours.
III
Where are the songs of Spring? Ay, where are they?
Think not of them, thou hast thy music too, -
While barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day,
And touch the stubble plains with rosy hue;
Then in a wailful choir the small gnats mourn
Among the river sallows, borne aloft
Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies;
And full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn;
Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft
The red-breast whistles from a garden-croft;
And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.
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My Comments on Comments by Gimli, or is it Treebeard
Here is a link to some remarkable comments by John Rhys-Davies relating the war against Islamic extremism and the Lord of the Rings. I am particularly pleased with my comment on this post, so I thought I would post a link to post and comments. Jump in if you like.
Or perhaps this is just a sneaky way to get you to check out my favorite film reviewer. No, I eschew sneakiness! Or am trying to more and more anyway.
Here is his movie review blog (Updated frequently).
Here is his main reviews page, which includes books and music. Jeffrey is a huge Sam Phillips and Over the Rhine fan.
And an article about him.
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August 14, 2006
Home
These are excerpts from a poem I once wrote:
home
is it where you hang your hat
or where your heart is...
i only know to travel is to yearn
and i am always travelling...
In reality, I do not travel literally much at all. I do yearn a lot for home, though. I am beginning to understand that while this yearning may be significantly met here on earth, I make the concept of home into an idol if I believe it can be fully met in any earthly context. This is a hard truth to learn and accept.
Nonetheless, after a very nice time in the home of my brother and sis-in-law with three wee ones, who at this moment as I write are nestled all snug, in comfort and the care of their parents, who in turn are nested in the care of the Parent of them all, it was good to get back to my home. More importantly it was good to realize that it is my home, and in just a few minutes I will go into my soon-to-be-unmessy room, turn out the light, and nestle all snug myself, in the palm of the same good hands.
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Addendum
I dug up the poem from the post above, which was the ending to the long journey poem of which the first two bits appeared in Catapult not too long ago. This piece is about coming back to the U.S. after being away for a year. I have reworked it a little.
home
is it where you hang your hat
or where your heart is
or both?
what is this coming?
i do not know
feeling alien
amidst so much that is known
which pretends at newness
in these arms so long unknown
that i embrace in newness
of understanding
and finally
am i home?
i do not know
i only know
to travel is to yearn
and i am always traveling
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If Ever I Become a Member of Some Christian Vegan Association...
...here is some blackmail material.
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August 12, 2006
Vacaciones
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August 8, 2006
Wag the Dog
Today as I made my new blog banner, I wondered about the ethics of A) using someone else's art as a starting point for my banners, and B) manipulating that work i.e. taking out a bit that I don't want to use. Note the place in this banner just to the left of where the green and red meet at the bottom. You should see a little square patch. Is it any different if the art work is in the public domain or by a famous artist? Do I have any rights if I took the picture of the artwork? I don't really know the strict answer to these questions and don't feel the pressing need to find out, even though I am very careful about not illegally copying music. I suppose the salient point is whether I am robbing the artist of their livelihood or not.
I continue to be fascinated with the concept of digital manipulation and truth, however. Here is an earlier post on the topic.
And then today there is a story of a freelance photographer in Beirut who doctored (and rather badly at that) images of the war in Lebanon, including the one below and one of an F-16 dropping flares.
The accompanying video is even more interesting as it discusses potentially staged war footage in the same conflict and how this is a tactic that has been long used in wars to varying degrees. And it was bloggers who first pointed out the pictures to Reuters, who subsequently removed the entire catalog of the photographer from their files.
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August 7, 2006
A Piece from Brother Lloyd
Just a last week I said, "My boys don't blog no mo!" Not so. Lloyd has written a thoughtul reflection on Community, Death, and Caring. I commend it to you highly.
Drawing taken from here.
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"The frost, sometimes it makes the blade stick"
That is a line from a movie I forgot I rather like a lot and just got done watching. Sure it is largely just Braveheart (which I like to say that I will watch at the drop of a head) in sandals and togas and true it does have a rather disturbing brother/sister relationship plotline (though thankfully this is seen as abhorrent and not dwelt upon) and it does have a fair bit of blood, but I like it nonetheless. And even though it portrays a pagan conception of heaven, without any notion of going to see God almighty first and foremost, I like its focus on seeing loved ones again. And the cinematography and soundtrack really help in accentuating this, the soundtrack particularly. With these and its notions of honor and valor, it rather gets all my emotions going.
Also immediately after watching this in the cinema and even now I think Connie Nielsen would have made a wonderful Jadis, aka the White Witch, for the Narnia movie. I think she would have been better than Tilda Swinton. Connie is rather lovely in this movie, but she is also tall and imperious and I think she could pull off the severe/beautiful evil look that Jadis is meant to have.
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August 3, 2006
Upon Making Falafel-Three Sonnets-An Experiment in Researched Poetry
Like a hundred other things, I came late
To falafel, like modern Hebrews did
In that great breathing in to forge a state,
Fast taking them up, as if in a bid
For credibility, hoping chick peas
And spice and bread might feed a dream, a wish
To be at home, at peace, within the East,
Make memories of borscht, geflite fish.
So they learned from brother Mizrahim,
More distantly from Arab brother foes,
The tricks to soak and mash and fry, to thin
With lemons tahini sauce. Oh, if woes
Could be forgotten over meals, I know
The wonder of falafel might make it so.
________________
I have not had to soak and mash, a mix
Makes short work of tasks that once took a day.
I wonder whether I will ever fix
My hours to learn from process, to be paid
With well-won satisfaction and with taste
Of long ages. But even now as I
Lift up my knife to dice with worried haste
I taste a piece of cucumber and sigh.
Feeling its coolness on my tongue, I dream
Of coolness only half-remembered now,
In evening, in a Garden, near a stream.
I wake, and read my box and wonder how
A food that's kosher, vegan, and halal
Could do anything but unite us all.
_________________
It is really not all that hard to see
As I strain grease from well-browned batter
Why it is that these bring delight and glee.
It's grease! It's batter! You see those matter
In culture after culture. Think funnel cake.
Think Najavo fry bread and pakoras.
They all take work, but aren't that hard to make
They're market treats that take on even more
Wonder when made at home and children press,
Impatient around their mothers, like pups
Outside Old South kitchens. I clean my mess
And think of harder things, of shattered cups
And shattered lives and dreams. It's hard to keep
My thoughts on falafel while Beirut weeps.
___________________________________________________
Some reference articles. Fascinating reading.
*A History of the Mideast in the Humble Chick Pea
*Israeli Cooking at Epicurious.com
*Falafel (Wikipedia)
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Addendum
The mother whom I hovered impatiently around while she baked has now been at home with Jesus twenty years to the day. I will post a picture tomorrow...
...here you go.
Norma Lee (Bodenbach) Das
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August 2, 2006
Movie Tag
I am sure there are many variations of these questions out there on the web, but here are some I came up with based on our recent questionaire on books that made the rounds. Enjoy! Plus, if you have more than one film in each category, no worries, list 'em.
1) What is a movie that changed the way you think and act? Or just got you thinking, if the first question is too intimidating.
This is a tough one. Who wrote these questions? The Mission.
2) It's a late autumn evening and rainy and cold? What do you have for dinner/snack? What movie do you pop in the DVD player?
I make some clam chowder with garlic and butter. Perhaps have some smoked oysters on toast. Some sweet milky tea and something sweet. Or just have some popcorny butter instead. Or pizza and coke. OK, Neil, enough with the food! For the movie, I think I have to pick one of the Austen movies. Pride and Prejudice (BBC), Sense and Sensibility, Persuasion, or Emma.
3) You are off to wee Himalayan hamlet for a year, your laptop hard drive can hold one film. What will it be?
Pride and Prejudice
4) What movie made you laugh the hardest? What movie made you cry?
*Not huge on comedies. The Princess Bride.
*Shadowlands made me cry. The Return of the King, I think. Well, at least the book does.
5) Favorite actor (female, male)?
*Emily Watson, Emma Thompson, Kirsten Dunst, Franka Potente
*Russel Crowe-Yeah he's a bad boy, but so cool in movies--"The frost, it makes the blade stick." Ethan Hawke.
6) What book or story would you like to see made into a film or what book do you love that could never be made into a film?
Perelandra by C. S. Lewis could never be made into film, not the least reason being because the main characters are naked for most of the novel, but also because I cannot imagine a filmmaker could portray goodness and innocence well. Evil is easy to portray. Pure goodness, I think, we have lost are ability to imagine, almost. Lewis does a pretty good job at it.
7) What is a movie that immediately after you watched it, you wish you hadn't?
*Ransom-bloody and vengeful
*Howard's End-the depressing conclusion of lives lived outside of moral strictures.
8) Do you read movie reviews? Before, after, never? Whose reviews do you find the best? Are you an analyzer?
Yes, and generally before seeing the movie. Sometimes this is to my detriment; often though it heightens and feeds my enjoyment. Jeffrey Overstreet. And, yup, I'm one of those.
9) What movie do you think is a must see, but that you can only recommend with caveats? What movie do you really like, but can only recommend with caveats?
*Magnolia
*The Boxer-Daniel Day Lewis, Emily Watson, bleak Irish weather, boxing--Alas, it features a lot of the Irish national word (hint it begins with an "f") and is really about adultery.
10) What movie do you most wish to share with your friends?
About a Boy
Now tag at least 5 people.
Heather
Claire newbie!
Heidi V.
Heidi H.
Tanya
Angela
Laura
No gentlemen? My boys don't blog no mo!
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