From 'The Man In The Moon Came Down Too Soon'
Quote:
"At plenilune in his argent moon
in his heart he longed for Fire:
Not the limpid lights of wan selenites;
for red was his desire,
For crimson and rose and ember-glows,
for flame with burning tongue,
For the scarlet skies in a swift sunrise
when a stormy day is young."
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Plenilune???
Quote:
Definition: The full moon or the time of a full moon.
In a letter to his aunt in 1961, J R R Tolkien wrote of this word that it was beautiful even before it was understood, that he wished he could have the pleasure of meeting it for the first time again, and that “Surely the first meeting should be in a living context, and not in a dictionary.”
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Thanks to the Professor, my introduction to this beautiful word WAS in a living context! And I love it!
("Novilune", in case you are curious, means New Moon. But that one came from dictionaryland.....)
What precious words have you joyfully discovered from Tolkien's "Living Contexts"?