portrait-photo

The Wunderkammer of the Mild Colonial Boy, Esq., a Reactionary Tory Gentleman, who armed only with a Steampowered Babbage Engine and Pure Intentions, wanders the Time Streams and Aetheric Plane gathering an Eccentric Hodgepodge of Curiousities, Frivolities, Whimsicalities and Nonsense.

Q. Why is your Tumblelog called "My Ear-Trumpet Has Been Struck by Lightning"?

A. Because "My Grandmother's Ear-Trumpet Has Been Struck by Lightning" wouldn't fit in the available space.

chicagopubliclibrary:

Previously-Unseen ‘The Hobbit’ Drawings By J.R.R Tolkien

From DesignTAXI:

To celebrate the 75th anniversary of The Hobbit, publishing house HarperCollins has produced a covetable collection of 110 original illustrations—’The Art of the Hobbit’—by J.R.R. Tolkien, of which two dozens have never been published before. 

These rare drawings—which range from pencil sketches and ink line drawings to watercolors—were uncovered at the writer’s archives at the Bodleian Library in Oxford and only recently digitized. 

While the published version of the children’s classic consisted only of 20 illustrations by its author, Tolkien had actually made more than a hundred pictures to help bring his legendary story to life. 

Click here to see more drawings! 

(via catharsisdiaries)

"For myself, I find I become less cynical rather than more—remembering my own sins and follies; and realize that men’s hearts are not often as bad as their acts, and very seldom as bad as their words."

— J.R.R. Tolkien (via emilierayne)

(via gloriesofthewest)

"A single dream is more powerful than a thousand realities."

— J.R.R. Tolkien (via bebemoon)

(Source: thisis-myurl, via perstephsanscouronne)

mediumaevum: The Road goes ever on and on Down from the door where it began. Now far ahead the Road has gone, And I must follow, if I can, Pursuing it with eager feet, Until it joins some larger way Where many paths and errands meet. And whither then? I cannot say. J.R.R. Tolkien image: Vasnetsov Viktor Mikhailovich, A Knight at the Crossroads, 1882

mediumaevum:

The Road goes ever on and on
Down from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone,
And I must follow, if I can,
Pursuing it with eager feet,
Until it joins some larger way
Where many paths and errands meet.
And whither then? I cannot say.

J.R.R. Tolkien

image: Vasnetsov Viktor Mikhailovich, A Knight at the Crossroads, 1882

"Fantasy is escapist, and that is its glory. If a soldier is imprisoned by the enemy, don’t we consider it his duty to escape?…If we value the freedom of mind and soul, if we’re partisans of liberty, then it’s our plain duty to escape, and to take as many people with us as we can!"

— J.R.R Tolkien (via starlightslk)
veareflejos: Three panels from “The Hound of Heaven: A Pictorial Sequence” painted by R.H. Ives Gammell, (1956). Inspired by Francis Thompson’s poem The Hound of Heaven, (1893). Unlike the artists of the Boston School, Gammell’s art dealt with the profoundest of human concerns—mankind’s constant preoccupation with the enigma of its condition and position in the cosmos, and with the mystery of the relation of our mind and imagination to powers and forces beyond us. The work that most personally expressed his own visionary experience and that represented twenty years of actual work and over forty years of contemplation, was his epic twenty-three painting sequence The Hound of Heaven, based on the poem by Francis Thompson, the English poet, an opium addict who became homeless on the streets of London and was taken care of by prostitutes. His poem describes how the grace of God in Jesus Christ came into his life; how God sought him out in his sin and misery. J.R.R. Tolkien, author of the Lord of the Rings said this about the poem: “The name is strange (The Hound of Heaven.) It startles one at first. It is so bold, so new, so fearless. It does not attract, rather the reverse. But when one reads the poem this strangeness disappears. The meaning is understood. As the hound follows the hare, never ceasing in its running, ever drawing nearer in the chase, with unhurrying and steady pace, so does God follow the fleeing soul by his divine grace. And though in sin or in human love, away from God it seeks to hide itself, divine grace follows after, unwearyingly follows ever after, till the soul feels its pressure forcing it to return to him alone in that never ending pursuit.” The 23 paintings themselves can be seen at the Maryhill Museum of Art, Goldendale, WA, USA or in Gammell’s book. 

veareflejos:

Three panels from “The Hound of Heaven: A Pictorial Sequence” painted by R.H. Ives Gammell, (1956). Inspired by Francis Thompson’s poem The Hound of Heaven, (1893).

Unlike the artists of the Boston School, Gammell’s art dealt with the profoundest of human concerns—mankind’s constant preoccupation with the enigma of its condition and position in the cosmos, and with the mystery of the relation of our mind and imagination to powers and forces beyond us. The work that most personally expressed his own visionary experience and that represented twenty years of actual work and over forty years of contemplation, was his epic twenty-three painting sequence The Hound of Heaven, based on the poem by Francis Thompson, the English poet, an opium addict who became homeless on the streets of London and was taken care of by prostitutes. His poem describes how the grace of God in Jesus Christ came into his life; how God sought him out in his sin and misery. J.R.R. Tolkien, author of the Lord of the Rings said this about the poem:

“The name is strange (The Hound of Heaven.) It startles one at first. It is so bold, so new, so fearless. It does not attract, rather the reverse. But when one reads the poem this strangeness disappears. The meaning is understood. As the hound follows the hare, never ceasing in its running, ever drawing nearer in the chase, with unhurrying and steady pace, so does God follow the fleeing soul by his divine grace. And though in sin or in human love, away from God it seeks to hide itself, divine grace follows after, unwearyingly follows ever after, till the soul feels its pressure forcing it to return to him alone in that never ending pursuit.”

The 23 paintings themselves can be seen at the Maryhill Museum of Art, Goldendale, WA, USA or in Gammell’s book. 

inlaterdays: Professor Tolkien, sir, if I had a hat, I would take it off to you.

inlaterdays:

Professor Tolkien, sir, if I had a hat, I would take it off to you.

(via peekadora)