Man behind the Mythology

[Child of the 7th Age]

Master Fordim,

Thank you. The floor is yours.

I find some of Kilby's reflections on Tolkien quite intriguing. His book was published before the Letters and Carpenter's study, but it is filled with many allusions to the "Catholic" underpinning of LotR, or at least how Tolkien regarde that underpinning by 1966. At the time I read it, I found it these comments very suggestive, especially since no one had put these things in print before. A year or so later, when the Letters came out, there was a lot more of this type of thing revealed.

Please do check your box for two pms. I have a slightly different angle on "contrasistency" and wanted to check with you....

~Child/Cami

[Fordim Hedgethistle]

Me Bad. I could have sworn that “contrasistency” was a word of Tolkien’s own, but I was apparently wrong. Cami sent me the following via PM but I think it deserves to be posted here. It is from the Prologue to Kilby’s Tolkien and the Silmarillion:

I felt that Tolkien was like an iceberg, something to be reckoned with above water in both its brilliance and mass and yet with much more below the surface. In his presence one was aware of a single totality but equally aware at various levels of a kind of consistent inconsistency that was both native -- perhaps his genius-- and developed, almost deliberate, even enjoyed. The word, if there were one, might be "contrasistency." If my account of him is sketchy and is itself inconsistent, it has the virtue of reflecting my real impression of the man.

Blame my increasingly faulty (near-hallucinatory, as it turns out) imagination on my own definition of the term. As to the idea of being consistent “at the time of writing”…well, it’s not “constrasistency” but I’m still sure that I read that somewhere about Tolkien… Probably best to assume I got that wrong, too, however (until, that is, I can track down the source or somebody more learnéd than I does it for me *note to self: contact davem*

But on with the game!

What did Tolkien have in common with Ava Gardner? (Again, painfully easy, but I’m still reeling with shame.)

[Estelyn Telcontar]

Neither had heard of the other before! Tolkien wrote to his son Michael about their meeting in Letter 267, describing the film star as "a pleasant young woman", "well but quietly dressed, easy and agreeable", with whom he got on well. Professor Robert Graves introduced them to each other, and only when JRRT was told of her fame did he realize that "the press of pressmen and storm of flash-bulbs on the steps of the Schools were not directed at Graves (and cert. not at me) but at her..."

[Fordim Hedgethistle]

Thank you Esty for taking a few hours to get the answer this time!

That meeting is my single favourite anecdote about Professor Tolkien. I would give a lot to be able to go back and watch that moment unfold. The sight alone of Ava Gardner (*drool*) standing next to JRRT would be worth it! I wonder what on earth (or in Middle-Earth) they talked about??

At any event -- the floor, she is yours Estelyn.

[Estelyn Telcontar]

But what would I do with another floor, Fordim? I already have one! (Several, as a matter of fact... )

New question: One of the persons closely connected with Tolkien's literary career was knighted. Who was it?

[Fordim Hedgethistle]

His publisher -- Sir Stanley Unwin!

[Estelyn Telcontar]

An answer that's both fast and correct, Fordim - fitting to one who now has the fame of Frodo! Congratulations!