All right, at the end of a lovely weekend it came the time for me at last to crown it by opening this book. As Kristine Larsen's essay is the first one, and I had no preference as to jump to any other at the moment, it was naturally the one that I have read. And I must only second the things
FJ says about it.
Aside from the generally appealing topic concerning Ainulindalė and then Narnia (which is, to note, generally far more distant and less familiar to me than Tolkien), the author introduces some interesting insights to the field of our "real world" astronomy where they could be related or compared to these writers' mythologies. Myself, sharing the "amateur astronomer" interest with the Prof
, found those really, let's say, heartwarming to read, nourishing exactly this kind of scientific curiosity I possess. The essay connects the perfectly scientific approach with Tolkien/Lewis' works and it can be well seen that Kristine Larsen is an astronomy scholar herself; however, in the writing she is certainly not treading any obscure grounds unintelligible to a common mortal. I have been sort of thinking whether people like me might not be exactly the "best type of audience" for her essay, i.e. people with "hobby" interest in astrophysics as well as ancient mythologies and Tolkien/Lewis. But I think even any average Tolkien/Lewis "scholar" will find this essay very interesting - even if he or she didn't have any interest in the scientific aspects of our universe.
Last thing to mention, at least what caught my interest, are a few pieces that Kristine Larsen uses as reference and which I'd like to get my hands on (that of B.L.Eden, especially). In either case, given my current studies in the course labeled "Myths and Music", I think this book came just at the right time for me, both as a motivation, companion and even as a possible source of even deeper reflection on the subject
I guess I just have to reserve a good space in my weekly schedule fo reading further, if it stays so interesting...