There is something very hopeful about Leaf by Niggle. Very ordinary in his failings, Niggle is nevertheless entirely redeemed. Not by great deeds, but by little self-improvements. No Damascene conversion, no great heroic sacrifice, but small unremarkable deeds done quietly and done well. It feels a very achievable view of salvation. I wish this story was better known.
I loved this GNG, the story has long been a favourite. I have a copy of Tree and Leaf, which contains first the essay on færIe and then Leaf by Niggle. To me a part of the point is that in his world the only thing left by Niggle is his leaf, which grew into a tree, then a landscape in the same way that, “ The tale grew in the telling.” Almost as if he is saying, what I have left you,( the legendarium) is but a fragment of a poorly imagined detail, dare to imagine some of the greatness of which it is a reflection for yourselves. The way he works in the themes of sacrifice and service into a charmingly parochial setting, make the tale enthralling and avoid the danger of it becoming a boring sermon. Thank you.
This is about as close as Tolkien ever came to writing a Dostojevskij novel. As a Catholic I also cannot help but comment that this story more or less falls so perfectly into church teaching that it really ought to be considered providential.
A Catholic friend pointed out to me that the line about Niggle's subjective sense of time in the hospital is an in-group reference to Catholic explanations of earlier Catholic doctrines about length of time spent in purgatory. ("How could medieval popes claim to be able to reduce someone's sentence in purgatory by exactly so many years?" "Well, it has to do with the person's subjective sense of time, not real clock time.")
@@larrykuenning5754 I was once told the story (of which I don't recall the exact details) of an old man nearing the end of his life and suffering from a very painful illness. One night an angel came while he was praying, saying that the Virgin had heard his prayers and that he would be offered a choice: go to purgatory for one year and be saved, or live on earth for three more years and go straight to heaven. The old man, feeling the pain of his illness and reasoning that one year was shorter than three, chose purgatory, and an angel then appeared to take him there. Having delivered the man into purgatory, the angel turned around to leave, when the man cried out, asking why he had not been let out yet. The angel said that he had only been in purgatory for three days, to which the man exclaimed that he had not been in purgatory for three days, but three years! The angel then explained that it was not the case, but that it was the pain of his sins that caused him to think he had suffered for far longer than he really had. The old man then asked if he could instead live out his remaining three years of life on earth, to which the angel assented. The old man then became a hermit and brought many people to the salvation before he died three years later to the day.
I read the Hobbit in 1966 and the Lord of the Rings immediately after. Thirsting for more Tolkien I came upon the Lost Tales and fell, feet first, into Leaf by Niggle. The story is short but the reading of it is quite long. Understanding it at age 18 was really impossible. However from that day until today I have never met anyone who read it.
I enjoyed it superficially as a youngster, but I gotta say, rereading it a few years later on gives a very different, arguably more compelling, impression.
"What he really wanted was for someone to say 'why WOULDN'T your great artistry and skill be sufficient to reverse the horrific suffering that otherwise will be your family's only legacy? Don't worry about it (or about what Elrond and Galadriel say)!' " 🥲
I am very happy to listen to your thoughts about my favorite bit of Tolkien’s writing. I’ve always felt this short tale wrapped about me like a comforting blanket, and I read it each year’s Midsummer.
It offers an idea of cooperation and shared vision and labor that's as idealized as you could wish, yet still seems so *possible* and attainable. A very consoling work, especially with all the High Dooms and unguessable anguish we're usually dealing with in Tolkien. I really enjoyed this one!
Makes me think about, in contrast, Feanor, who worked on the Silmarils alone without collaborating or sharing with anyone else, and then, of course, refused to share their light to save the two trees.
Hmm … years of feeling pushed and pulled by responsibilities you feel peeved at, with receding motivation to focus on your passion … then a transition and you only have yourself to rely on to structure your day … that sounds familiar. Oh! I get it! Retirement! 😊 In truth, I get a different “moral” on re-reading Leaf by Niggle than I used to. My current interpretation doesn’t assign a moral plus or minus to the infatuation with the leaf, even if that was Tolkien’s intention. Rather, it was a phase in the character’s evolving relationship with painting. And it wasn’t necessarily tightly enmeshed with his relationship with the world. Until he worked his way through that phase, I really don’t think he would have (sub)created satisfactorily, regardless of his relationship with his work and social duties.
The main thing I feel whenever I read this is pity for Tolkien. It really reads to me like him making the grimmest of self-assessments, which is so striking since he's someone whose work I admire so, so much. I suppose, since I don't believe in an afterlife where our failings can be addressed and corrected, that the hope that comes through in the end doesn't resound quite the same way for me. Although I do feel it to an extent too.
I totally buy Tolkien's story that 'Niggle' is dream literature. Weirdly I have life experience of hearing other people's dreams, from being a care worker on early calls. Dreams often, perhaps most often, are anxiety dreams. This one was apparently triggered by a female neighbour's assault on a tree he liked to view from his bedroom window. Call Dr Freud! Anyway the metaphors and references are not far to seek: Bunyan -- the wicket gate, the Delectable Mountains Sigurd's saga, the bitter draught brewed by Gudrun's mother Purgatory, self-explanatory The journey, Death And Tis distance lends enchantment to the view And robes the mountain in its azure hue -- Thomas Campbell, 'The Pleasures of Hope' (1799)
I'd actually rather call it a kind of distant relation of medieval visionary literature, given the extremely religious undertones of the story and the fact that in many ways Niggle is narrowly speaking a projection of Tolkien himself.
thank you so much for this! I have a group of Tolkien friends who haven't been able to get a hold of a copy of the book. Hopefully this video will wet their appetite.
@@GirlNextGondor There are stand alone copies. I just will not loan mine. I make Smaug look diplomatic when it comes to my late father's Tolkien collection.
Thank you so much for diving deep into this beloved story from my childhood. When I first read it, I was so young that the death and purgatory metaphor was mostly lost on me and it's been so long since I've read it that your analysis kind of blew my mind a little. I have to confess that originally I didn't enjoy it as much as his other works, preferring Farmer Giles of Ham that came in the same small paperback as I was much more interested in the fantastic aspects of Tolkien's work. As I've matured, his themes of sacrifice and ephemeral beauty stuck with me and shaped me into a better person than I would have otherwise been. Happy Barad-dur Down Day everyone!
Great stuff as always! This piece is an amazing foil to another excellent video essay: Jacob Geller’s Art for No One. The headline subject is a gated sculpture named City out in the desert, which can only be seen by lottery and not photographed by guests. The artist did not want it to be open to the public at all. Tolkien’s ideas about this issue are really inspiring, and I hadn’t read this one. Thanks for bringing it to us.
I haven't watched the whole thing yet but I checked out the first 10 minutes and... wow, I can't decide if it's fundamentally antiTolkien or if it's a brilliant example of Adventures in Radical Subcreation. By limiting visitors and not allowing photographs, you're compelling those who *do* see it to undertake their own effort at subcreating, be that a description or a sketch or whatever - so the message being conveyed experientially by the artist, is the experience of making the art. Trippy....
Idk why but I always imagined this story as a Beatrix Potter esque story with talking animals. I always pictured Niggle as a frog walking on two feet wearing a coat a scarf and an Irish cap
How nice to see someone finally do something from outside of the legendariun. I hope doing this one will inspire you to do more videos on Tolkien’s other works. And you did a really nice job on selecting art work for this video as well. Thank you 🙏🙏🙏🦢🐉
So glad you enjoyed it! As strongly as Tolkien is associated with his Middle-earth writings, it was really fun to look at the other pieces he produced -- particularly since this one was published during his lifetime, unlike, say, the Silmarillion, which is arguably better known today!
I think this was also Melkor’s problem, he wanted to create and direct the music of the Ainur to himself only. He wanted to dominate, not cooperate, and acted as a selfish artist where Eru’s creations encouraged the cooperation of all the Ainur. Ironically Melkor’s entire purpose was to cooperate in the act of creation and enhance the “artistic works” that each Ainur contributed to the music
I know this does not relate to Leaf by Niggle but this is a topic I’ve encountered that seemingly everyone (whom I’ve come across) that brings it up does not seem to know what to make of it. That being the dancing bears of Numenor and a potential connection with Beorn and the bears that visit him. I’m curious as to what your thoughts may be.
Also, I'm sharing your reflections (this video) via a copied link to a number of my friends on Facebook and Messenger, today. Maybe, you'll get some new fans. 🙂
Honestly, I had trouble with Leaf by Niggle. Something about it bothers me. I felt like I was stuck in some loser's dystopian Purgatory. It has the creepy elements of Miyazaki's Neko Bus in My Neighbor Totoro and the train in Spirited Away. That eery feeling of death and being ushered into a spiritually uncomfortable place. Also, the various characters were to me seem to be playing their part to give Niggle a chance to change his ways within the Purgatory world so that he can move on to heaven. The characters in the town felt like judges to me, ones who will determine whether Niggle "passed the test," to use the words of Galadriel, or if he must continue staying in this twisted version of Groundhog Day. Reading it once is enough for me. Sorry Professor! Purgatory is a Catholic belief, but I don't believe in it.
@@GirlNextGondor BTW, the reason I dislike the idea of Purgatory is it goes against everything the New Testament stands for: Salvation is a GIFT through faith in Jesus Christ. We can't earn it.😁✝️👍
I'm a writer and I want to quote Tolkien in my book, and it would be fair use but I'm still afraid of the Tolkien estate's lawyers. How do youtubers like yourself get to quote copyrighted material (hell, even Tolkien's name is copyrighted) and not get sued? Is the estate more reasonable than I expected?
Obligatory not-a-lawyer this-is-no-legal-advice, but I think a lot of 'copyright' boils down to how people are *allowed* to use certain pieces of intellectual property. If I were slapping the trademark JRRT monogram on the cover of my book to make it seem like it was somehow associated directly with Tolkien, that would obviously be a problem. Reading out or reproducing long passages of his writing with minimal commentary would be a grey zone depending on the context. But as far as I know, no amount of copyright can keep people from *discussing* an author and his work.
I have to disagree on one point: no true artist, be they painter, poet or novelist, allows themselves to be swayed or guided by what other people think. You either have to be true to your own vision, your inspiration, or hang it up. It's not worth doing. Although there's also the issue of clarity: are your skills up to communicating what you want to communicate, in a way that others, at least attentive and receptive others, can understand? There are artists who miss the mark here, or who are deliberately obscure, using only those images and references that only they can relate to, that nobody else can, or is even supposed to. That's a failure of art. But I don't see Tolkien or his uncharitable self-characature "Niggle" in that way. It's more a case of compulsive, detail-obsessed perfectionism, compounded by a case of Catholic guilt: purgatory, judgment, punishment, etc. It still doesn't kill the story, or the Tree. Eventually he gains the wider perspective, with the help of others, and seeing through the eyes of Heaven. The wider perspective that's the real point of the story, and of the labor he put into it. And that's something that communicates quite powerfully.
I'm really glad you brought this up, because I felt that there was some tension in the story between Niggle's artistic vision, which several times is mentioned to be 'peculiar' or unique to him alone, and the emphasis placed on the value of helping others and accepting their help in turn (if only in some abstract idealized world.) A repeated idea in the story is that everyone around Niggle fails to see, not just the beauty of *his* painting, but also the point of painting/creating at all - and if Niggle had listened to them, he would never have done *any* work on the Tree, which would have been a net loss to everyone. So in that sense his stubborn individualism is portrayed as *vital,* even though it also seems to be the root of some of Niggle's other problems. By describing art as a service to others, I didn't want to suggest the artist should violate their integrity or vision in hopes of gaining favor or appeasing others' tastes - Tolkien, at least, would vehemently disagree with that! But as you point out, artistic success rests on effectively communicating something of the artist's vision to some kind of receptive audience (even a vanishingly small one) - and generally, artists only bother to communicate ideas/impressions they find valuable in some way - making effective artistic expression kind of like 'giving' or sharing something with someone who can't necessarily return the favor in kind. As you said, in the story, Niggle's failure to realize this at first seems to be less a 'skill issue' and more a failure of attitude/perspective (both his own and that of those around him). The degree to which moral culpability can be assigned to questions of perspective, and just *what* the correct perspective is, may be where the Catholic guilt comes in....
I'm really sorry but what does this have to do with LotR or the Silmarillion? Don't get me wrong, I'm a fan of your work and I don't use this word lightly. I just find this video extremely jarring...
Well, it embodied Tolkien's doubts about whether he would ever finish Lord of the Rings in his lifetime. He explains this somewhere, maybe in one of his letters or maybe in the introduction to the volume Tree and Leaf (being away from home I can't look it up).
That's fair -- I do think a lot of fans of Middle-earth will enjoy hearing a little about other pieces by the same author, but of course not everyone will be interested in every Tolkien-related topic. I'm glad you've been enjoying the LotR/Silmarillion-specific videos, and I'm certainly planning to continue posting videos on those topics!
It is called "Tolkien Reading Day." Anything Tolkien should be okay today. Lexi is just taking one video off from the Legendarium. She'll be back to the grind shortly.😁👍
Well, it is Tolkien Reading Day, not Legendarium Reading day: but I found it applied very much to Tolkien’s relationship with his work, both the official one and the neverending effort to shape the Silmarillion.
Wow this is such a gift 🧝♀️🧝♀️. Literally Tolkien would be very grateful for Lexi for really honouring his work🥰🥰 n all your fans too 🤩🧡🧡 I always look up to your videos n this channel 🥰🥰🙏 because you do the most justice to the nuances of his work n add your own appendices in line with them. It’s mingling of 2 authors together. The churning point which is the most resonant. 🥰🥰 As Sam says Great stories never end. 🍀🍀🍀
Oh my gosh such a thoughtful and insightful explanation of a story I had a hard time understanding. Now I'm trying to imagine what my purgatorial stay would require aka what do I need to start working on now? The insight that art must be rightly ordered and in service to others was 🤌🔥
Happy 7024 fall of sauron day everybody
🌋 🥳
@@GirlNextGondor
The volcano was a nice touch.😁👍
There is something very hopeful about Leaf by Niggle. Very ordinary in his failings, Niggle is nevertheless entirely redeemed. Not by great deeds, but by little self-improvements. No Damascene conversion, no great heroic sacrifice, but small unremarkable deeds done quietly and done well. It feels a very achievable view of salvation. I wish this story was better known.
Well put!
Babe, wake up! She's going to get all metaphysical about artistic endeavor!
Me: it's a 10-page short story with patent symbolism, how deep can it go?
(Three days and nine emotional breakdowns later): ...oh.
I loved this GNG, the story has long been a favourite. I have a copy of Tree and Leaf, which contains first the essay on færIe and then Leaf by Niggle. To me a part of the point is that in his world the only thing left by Niggle is his leaf, which grew into a tree, then a landscape in the same way that, “ The tale grew in the telling.” Almost as if he is saying, what I have left you,( the legendarium) is but a fragment of a poorly imagined detail, dare to imagine some of the greatness of which it is a reflection for yourselves. The way he works in the themes of sacrifice and service into a charmingly parochial setting, make the tale enthralling and avoid the danger of it becoming a boring sermon. Thank you.
Tolkien Reading Day and Pancake Day are surely the finest holidays ever to emanate from the British Isles. Thank you, Lexi!
This is about as close as Tolkien ever came to writing a Dostojevskij novel.
As a Catholic I also cannot help but comment that this story more or less falls so perfectly into church teaching that it really ought to be considered providential.
A Catholic friend pointed out to me that the line about Niggle's subjective sense of time in the hospital is an in-group reference to Catholic explanations of earlier Catholic doctrines about length of time spent in purgatory. ("How could medieval popes claim to be able to reduce someone's sentence in purgatory by exactly so many years?" "Well, it has to do with the person's subjective sense of time, not real clock time.")
I love how it deals with potentially very abstract topics in a concretely imagined way 🥰
@@larrykuenning5754 I was once told the story (of which I don't recall the exact details) of an old man nearing the end of his life and suffering from a very painful illness. One night an angel came while he was praying, saying that the Virgin had heard his prayers and that he would be offered a choice: go to purgatory for one year and be saved, or live on earth for three more years and go straight to heaven.
The old man, feeling the pain of his illness and reasoning that one year was shorter than three, chose purgatory, and an angel then appeared to take him there. Having delivered the man into purgatory, the angel turned around to leave, when the man cried out, asking why he had not been let out yet. The angel said that he had only been in purgatory for three days, to which the man exclaimed that he had not been in purgatory for three days, but three years! The angel then explained that it was not the case, but that it was the pain of his sins that caused him to think he had suffered for far longer than he really had. The old man then asked if he could instead live out his remaining three years of life on earth, to which the angel assented. The old man then became a hermit and brought many people to the salvation before he died three years later to the day.
Happy Tolkien Day, everyone!
📖it's always a good day to read some Tolkien!
I read the Hobbit in 1966 and the Lord of the Rings immediately after. Thirsting for more Tolkien I came upon the Lost Tales and fell, feet first, into Leaf by Niggle. The story is short but the reading of it is quite long. Understanding it at age 18 was really impossible. However from that day until today I have never met anyone who read it.
I enjoyed it superficially as a youngster, but I gotta say, rereading it a few years later on gives a very different, arguably more compelling, impression.
@@GirlNextGondor Indubitably.
Try the Roverandom if you haven't already. Thats one of my favorites. Its basically lord of the rings with puppies mermaids and moonmen.
I burst into giggles when I met the Annatar egg.
"What he really wanted was for someone to say 'why WOULDN'T your great artistry and skill be sufficient to reverse the horrific suffering that otherwise will be your family's only legacy? Don't worry about it (or about what Elrond and Galadriel say)!' " 🥲
A nearly prescient work by a man whose own unfinished works would cone into greater fruition only after his death. Thank you, professor Tolkien.
This story is in many ways a hard lesson... but one I need.
I am very happy to listen to your thoughts about my favorite bit of Tolkien’s writing. I’ve always felt this short tale wrapped about me like a comforting blanket, and I read it each year’s Midsummer.
It offers an idea of cooperation and shared vision and labor that's as idealized as you could wish, yet still seems so *possible* and attainable. A very consoling work, especially with all the High Dooms and unguessable anguish we're usually dealing with in Tolkien. I really enjoyed this one!
Makes me think about, in contrast, Feanor, who worked on the Silmarils alone without collaborating or sharing with anyone else, and then, of course, refused to share their light to save the two trees.
Bless the cadence and timbre of your voice, your erudition and verbiage, your love of Tolkien lore, and your insight!!
Thanks for covering Leaf by Niggle. I have become very fond of this story over the past few years.
One of Tokien's stories I hadn't read yet, thank you for the dee dive!
Great pick for this year’s theme!
Thank you! It was an idea from one of my subscribers, and I thought it was an awesome fit.
Hmm … years of feeling pushed and pulled by responsibilities you feel peeved at, with receding motivation to focus on your passion … then a transition and you only have yourself to rely on to structure your day … that sounds familiar. Oh! I get it! Retirement! 😊
In truth, I get a different “moral” on re-reading Leaf by Niggle than I used to. My current interpretation doesn’t assign a moral plus or minus to the infatuation with the leaf, even if that was Tolkien’s intention. Rather, it was a phase in the character’s evolving relationship with painting. And it wasn’t necessarily tightly enmeshed with his relationship with the world. Until he worked his way through that phase, I really don’t think he would have (sub)created satisfactorily, regardless of his relationship with his work and social duties.
The main thing I feel whenever I read this is pity for Tolkien. It really reads to me like him making the grimmest of self-assessments, which is so striking since he's someone whose work I admire so, so much.
I suppose, since I don't believe in an afterlife where our failings can be addressed and corrected, that the hope that comes through in the end doesn't resound quite the same way for me. Although I do feel it to an extent too.
I totally buy Tolkien's story that 'Niggle' is dream literature. Weirdly I have life experience of hearing other people's dreams, from being a care worker on early calls. Dreams often, perhaps most often, are anxiety dreams. This one was apparently triggered by a female neighbour's assault on a tree he liked to view from his bedroom window. Call Dr Freud! Anyway the metaphors and references are not far to seek:
Bunyan -- the wicket gate, the Delectable Mountains
Sigurd's saga, the bitter draught brewed by Gudrun's mother
Purgatory, self-explanatory
The journey, Death
And
Tis distance lends enchantment to the view
And robes the mountain in its azure hue
-- Thomas Campbell, 'The Pleasures of Hope' (1799)
I'd actually rather call it a kind of distant relation of medieval visionary literature, given the extremely religious undertones of the story and the fact that in many ways Niggle is narrowly speaking a projection of Tolkien himself.
thank you so much for this!
I have a group of Tolkien friends who haven't been able to get a hold of a copy of the book. Hopefully this video will wet their appetite.
Good luck! Finding it in a collection like Tales from the Perilous Realm might be easier?...
@@GirlNextGondor There are stand alone copies. I just will not loan mine.
I make Smaug look diplomatic when it comes to my late father's Tolkien collection.
I read this story a couple of times when I was a child. I should have gone back to it much earlier as an adult. Thank you for making this video essay.
Happy Tolkien Reading Day everyone! For some weeks now I'm reading FOTR to a friend and of course we met today to continue.
Wow, this allegory is highly applicable to my life!
Happy Tolkien Reading Day!!! Nice video! :D
Happy tolkien reading day
I'm sp glad you did this. I love 'Leaf By Niggle'
It was a really fun topic, glad you enjoyed!
Dang, wow. Well that's given me a lot to think about.
I'd read it before but it really hit me this time around 😬 time to amend my life, as the poets say...
"Leaf by Niggle" has always been one of my favourite tales, so thank you for bringing it to life again on Tolkien Reading Day. 😎😎❤❤👍👍
Thank you so much for diving deep into this beloved story from my childhood. When I first read it, I was so young that the death and purgatory metaphor was mostly lost on me and it's been so long since I've read it that your analysis kind of blew my mind a little. I have to confess that originally I didn't enjoy it as much as his other works, preferring Farmer Giles of Ham that came in the same small paperback as I was much more interested in the fantastic aspects of Tolkien's work. As I've matured, his themes of sacrifice and ephemeral beauty stuck with me and shaped me into a better person than I would have otherwise been. Happy Barad-dur Down Day everyone!
Nice post.😁👍
Thank you, Lexi! Happy Tolkien Reading Day to all and God bless!
Great stuff as always! This piece is an amazing foil to another excellent video essay: Jacob Geller’s Art for No One. The headline subject is a gated sculpture named City out in the desert, which can only be seen by lottery and not photographed by guests. The artist did not want it to be open to the public at all. Tolkien’s ideas about this issue are really inspiring, and I hadn’t read this one. Thanks for bringing it to us.
I haven't watched the whole thing yet but I checked out the first 10 minutes and... wow, I can't decide if it's fundamentally antiTolkien or if it's a brilliant example of Adventures in Radical Subcreation. By limiting visitors and not allowing photographs, you're compelling those who *do* see it to undertake their own effort at subcreating, be that a description or a sketch or whatever - so the message being conveyed experientially by the artist, is the experience of making the art. Trippy....
I've heard more than one author declare that they feel guilty every moment they aren't writing
Leaf by WHA- oh oh okay
Was praying no one would misread or mishear it 😆
Happy Tolkien Reading Day! Wonderful video!
Thanks lexi .. i feel like reading the chapter ( the steward and the king ) a great chapter..
Second thoughts. The siege of gondar.
Happy Tolkien Reading Day to the greatest of Tolkien's Readers! Hope you're well and great topic, as always.
Thanks for hosting, guys, and a Happy Tolkien Reading Day to you!
@@GirlNextGondor It was our pleasure, X)
I love this story, but it really hits me where I live. 🍃
Wowww two videos so close together! Thank you!
This was perceptive and good. Thanks for this, and for all the past content and conversation.
Thank you so much!! 🥰
this is one of my all time favorite tolkien stories. thanks
Glad you enjoyed it!
Idk why but I always imagined this story as a Beatrix Potter esque story with talking animals. I always pictured Niggle as a frog walking on two feet wearing a coat a scarf and an Irish cap
I have to go read this for myself now!
Introverted sensing vs Extroverted Intuition.
I see a lot of that in LotR
Never thought of it that way but what an intriguing angle!
Wow, you're right! That's so cool! Maybe also Introverted Feeling vs Extraverted Thinking, and bridging the gap between ideals and practical action?
How nice to see someone finally do something from outside of the legendariun. I hope doing this one will inspire you to do more videos on Tolkien’s other works. And you did a really nice job on selecting art work for this video as well. Thank you 🙏🙏🙏🦢🐉
So glad you enjoyed it! As strongly as Tolkien is associated with his Middle-earth writings, it was really fun to look at the other pieces he produced -- particularly since this one was published during his lifetime, unlike, say, the Silmarillion, which is arguably better known today!
Happy Tolkien Reading Day! 😃
Thank-you, Lexi! I love this theme and your choice to expound upon it. 🙂
Hey Girl... Happy Tolkien reading day ❤
Happy Tolkien Reading Day!
Same to you! 🥳📖
Happy Tolkien Reading Day! Great topic!
I think this was also Melkor’s problem, he wanted to create and direct the music of the Ainur to himself only. He wanted to dominate, not cooperate, and acted as a selfish artist where Eru’s creations encouraged the cooperation of all the Ainur. Ironically Melkor’s entire purpose was to cooperate in the act of creation and enhance the “artistic works” that each Ainur contributed to the music
Thank you!
Really well done!
Nice work happy day thanks
Nice work!
Thanks!
I know this does not relate to Leaf by Niggle but this is a topic I’ve encountered that seemingly everyone (whom I’ve come across) that brings it up does not seem to know what to make of it. That being the dancing bears of Numenor and a potential connection with Beorn and the bears that visit him. I’m curious as to what your thoughts may be.
I will meditate on this... initially, I confess, I wondered if perhaps it just meant Tolkien liked bears 😅
Good video
Also, I'm sharing your reflections (this video) via a copied link to a number of my friends on Facebook and Messenger, today. Maybe, you'll get some new fans. 🙂
Hopefully, you won't lose any friends.😂
@@Enerdhil - HaHaHa....no chance of that, I'm sure. 🙂
Honestly, I had trouble with Leaf by Niggle. Something about it bothers me. I felt like I was stuck in some loser's dystopian Purgatory. It has the creepy elements of Miyazaki's Neko Bus in My Neighbor Totoro and the train in Spirited Away. That eery feeling of death and being ushered into a spiritually uncomfortable place. Also, the various characters were to me seem to be playing their part to give Niggle a chance to change his ways within the Purgatory world so that he can move on to heaven. The characters in the town felt like judges to me, ones who will determine whether Niggle "passed the test," to use the words of Galadriel, or if he must continue staying in this twisted version of Groundhog Day. Reading it once is enough for me. Sorry Professor!
Purgatory is a Catholic belief, but I don't believe in it.
You gave it a go 😆 surely the same man who liked to say that he found Shakespeare lacking, would not begrudge you your opinions!
@@GirlNextGondor
😂🤣😆🤣😂!!!!
It was very cathartic posting all that.😅
@@GirlNextGondor
BTW, the reason I dislike the idea of Purgatory is it goes against everything the New Testament stands for: Salvation is a GIFT through faith in Jesus Christ. We can't earn it.😁✝️👍
I'm a writer and I want to quote Tolkien in my book, and it would be fair use but I'm still afraid of the Tolkien estate's lawyers. How do youtubers like yourself get to quote copyrighted material (hell, even Tolkien's name is copyrighted) and not get sued? Is the estate more reasonable than I expected?
Obligatory not-a-lawyer this-is-no-legal-advice, but I think a lot of 'copyright' boils down to how people are *allowed* to use certain pieces of intellectual property. If I were slapping the trademark JRRT monogram on the cover of my book to make it seem like it was somehow associated directly with Tolkien, that would obviously be a problem. Reading out or reproducing long passages of his writing with minimal commentary would be a grey zone depending on the context. But as far as I know, no amount of copyright can keep people from *discussing* an author and his work.
I have to disagree on one point: no true artist, be they painter, poet or novelist, allows themselves to be swayed or guided by what other people think. You either have to be true to your own vision, your inspiration, or hang it up. It's not worth doing. Although there's also the issue of clarity: are your skills up to communicating what you want to communicate, in a way that others, at least attentive and receptive others, can understand? There are artists who miss the mark here, or who are deliberately obscure, using only those images and references that only they can relate to, that nobody else can, or is even supposed to. That's a failure of art. But I don't see Tolkien or his uncharitable self-characature "Niggle" in that way. It's more a case of compulsive, detail-obsessed perfectionism, compounded by a case of Catholic guilt: purgatory, judgment, punishment, etc. It still doesn't kill the story, or the Tree. Eventually he gains the wider perspective, with the help of others, and seeing through the eyes of Heaven. The wider perspective that's the real point of the story, and of the labor he put into it. And that's something that communicates quite powerfully.
I'm really glad you brought this up, because I felt that there was some tension in the story between Niggle's artistic vision, which several times is mentioned to be 'peculiar' or unique to him alone, and the emphasis placed on the value of helping others and accepting their help in turn (if only in some abstract idealized world.) A repeated idea in the story is that everyone around Niggle fails to see, not just the beauty of *his* painting, but also the point of painting/creating at all - and if Niggle had listened to them, he would never have done *any* work on the Tree, which would have been a net loss to everyone. So in that sense his stubborn individualism is portrayed as *vital,* even though it also seems to be the root of some of Niggle's other problems.
By describing art as a service to others, I didn't want to suggest the artist should violate their integrity or vision in hopes of gaining favor or appeasing others' tastes - Tolkien, at least, would vehemently disagree with that! But as you point out, artistic success rests on effectively communicating something of the artist's vision to some kind of receptive audience (even a vanishingly small one) - and generally, artists only bother to communicate ideas/impressions they find valuable in some way - making effective artistic expression kind of like 'giving' or sharing something with someone who can't necessarily return the favor in kind. As you said, in the story, Niggle's failure to realize this at first seems to be less a 'skill issue' and more a failure of attitude/perspective (both his own and that of those around him).
The degree to which moral culpability can be assigned to questions of perspective, and just *what* the correct perspective is, may be where the Catholic guilt comes in....
I'm really sorry but what does this have to do with LotR or the Silmarillion? Don't get me wrong, I'm a fan of your work and I don't use this word lightly. I just find this video extremely jarring...
Well, it embodied Tolkien's doubts about whether he would ever finish Lord of the Rings in his lifetime. He explains this somewhere, maybe in one of his letters or maybe in the introduction to the volume Tree and Leaf (being away from home I can't look it up).
That's fair -- I do think a lot of fans of Middle-earth will enjoy hearing a little about other pieces by the same author, but of course not everyone will be interested in every Tolkien-related topic. I'm glad you've been enjoying the LotR/Silmarillion-specific videos, and I'm certainly planning to continue posting videos on those topics!
It is called "Tolkien Reading Day." Anything Tolkien should be okay today. Lexi is just taking one video off from the Legendarium. She'll be back to the grind shortly.😁👍
Well, it is Tolkien Reading Day, not Legendarium Reading day: but I found it applied very much to Tolkien’s relationship with his work, both the official one and the neverending effort to shape the Silmarillion.
What a pretty story I knew nothing about. 🥹
It's a very good, quick read -- and I found it really funny in places to boot 😅
Wow this is such a gift 🧝♀️🧝♀️. Literally Tolkien would be very grateful for Lexi for really honouring his work🥰🥰 n all your fans too 🤩🧡🧡 I always look up to your videos n this channel 🥰🥰🙏 because you do the most justice to the nuances of his work n add your own appendices in line with them. It’s mingling of 2 authors together. The churning point which is the most resonant. 🥰🥰 As Sam says Great stories never end. 🍀🍀🍀
Hooray for collaborative creation! Thank you so much for the kind words!
Oh my gosh such a thoughtful and insightful explanation of a story I had a hard time understanding. Now I'm trying to imagine what my purgatorial stay would require aka what do I need to start working on now? The insight that art must be rightly ordered and in service to others was 🤌🔥
Reading this story as a Diagnosed Flake was... a little too relatable? 😅