Lord of the Ring and J.R.R. Tolkien

“All that is gold does not glitter, not all those who wander are lost; the old that is strong does not wither, deep roots are not reached by the frost. From the ashes a fire shall be woken, a light from the shadows shall spring; renenwed shall be blade that was broken, the crownless again shall be king.”

J.R.R. Tolkien Okay, so earlier I totally put that "Not all those who wander are lost" was said by Ralph Waldo Emerson. What was I thinking?? I knew it was J.R.R. Tolkien. I had just seen the quote on another friend's blog. Her name is Stephanie and she just left last week for a three month to however long backpacking trip around Europe. Of course, I had read the quote many other times in other places- blogs, bumper stickers, probably on a t-shirt..who knows really where all I've seen it. But, I'm going to stick by it as long as I'm a wanderer. Anyways, I googled this quote- to get the context of it. I would like to read more of where it came from- and that is the amazing book trilogy Lord of the Ring. I was just struck by how amazing the full quote is!!!! It is full of Christianity- all over it! I know that J.R.R. Tolkein was a very strong Christian man, and he was friends and ROOMMATES with C.S. Lewis in college! They both taught and lived in Oxford, England, where they hung out at this pub, Eagle and Child Pub. They sat at the same table every time and supposedly would discuss/debate theology, etc. :) Thus, where we get "Theology Pub" talks now that many churches are involved in..such a brilliant idea. Well, I just digressed a bit, but where I was going with all of this- is..J.R.R Tokein did a very good job of speaking relevant truth into his stories. This is easy to see in the whole concept of the ring choosing Frodo, when he didn't necessarily want to be chosen by it, and the struggles over good versus evil, and being tempted in the Garden to leave his ring and turn it over to that evil elf lady, Galadriel (am I right??). Anyways, there is pretty perfect imagery all over this story. I've only seen the movie, never read the books, but now I'm starting to want to read them just thinking back over the amazing story!!! :) And back to the QUOTE- the part that hit me the most: "Deep roots are not reached by the frost. From the ashes a fire shall be woken, A light from the shadows shall spring; Renewed shall be blade that was broken, The crownless shall again be King." WOW. That's all I can say..is WOW! I want to have all of these things- deep roots that cannot be reached by frost. I want God to help me to plant my roots deeper and deeper into fertile soil, where I can grow and be nourished. I want to overflow with His joy and grace. I want my ashes to be turned into a fire, a huge flame of passion. I want to be so consumed with passion and love for Him that I don't need anything else. I want the light to come out of the shadows- to radiate from them for everyone to see. And, most of all- I want to be renewed. I don't care so much about being a Queen or having a crown..but I want all those other things. :) Beautiful and simple. :) I love J.R.R. Tolkein! I'm totally reading these books! It's a trilogy though, so I'm sure it'll take a while..but I read the trilogy of Twilight books, and that was probably a complete waste of my time, haha..so, I should invest in good books, that have substance. :) WOW! Haha. That's it for now. I'm sure some LOTR fans will like this entry. ;) ~Peace, Love and Pistachios/Avocados