I loved this thread so much that I couldn't bare it dying. I had nothing to say until now, since I'm visiting the boyfriend and my books are all 500 miles away.
I remember a post on tumblr talking about how Tolkien would always stop and gaze at the flowers and trees on his walk. This annoyed those around him because he stopped for too long! It got me thinking about the botanical gardens in Oxford that Tolkien liked to go to so much. When Lauri and I were in Britain, we went there and made a point to sit under Tolkien's favourite tree. I can see that his love of nature in all forms has impacted his works. I was never one to really know the names of flowers, not from disinterest of course, but I did learn some new names of plants from LotR. I now smile every time I see a camellia plant in the store and was delighted to discover that the scientific name for the tea plant is Camellia sinensis. It always reminds me of hobbits. I also have a fondness for lobelia plants now because of Lobelia Sackville-Baggins.
Oh, I think I've rambled a bit on this post. I guess what I was trying to get at was that I am inspired by Tolkien's love of all things botanical and the descriptions of landscapes and flowers were what really drew me into the books as a whole.
__________________
The Party Doesn't Start Until You're Dead.
|