This is why you're still haunted by The Lord of the Rings ✨ 💔
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- Опубліковано 6 сер 2024
- Have you ever finished a really good book and felt suddenly homesick for a world that doesn’t even exist?
Fantasy is often dismissed as "childish" and "escapist," but growing up, I held a secret belief that fantasy novels like Lord of the Rings, Narnia, or Harry Potter were tapping into something profoundly important about the world. There is a siren song in these powerful stories, an ache that beckons us beyond the borders of this world.
But what is it that's calling to us, exactly?
(This video is an adapted version of a talk I gave in June, when I graduated from the Pacific University MFA program. I would like to hereby note that yes, I cried in the making of this video. Many times. Because LotR is JUST. THAT. GOOD.)
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↠ CHAPTERS ↞
0:00 - what’s the point of fantasy?
2:19 - a universal ache
3:42 - the secret thread in everything you love
7:02 - a desire for another world
8:28 - why I hid my love of fantasy
9:20 - is fantasy an ‘inferior’ form of literature?
10:18 - how lord of the rings opens the imagination
12:24 - eucatastrophe: the truest trait of fantasy
13:28 - how Tolkien redefines heroism
14:53 - how fantasy tackles the big questions
15:42 - fantasy’s greatest gift
16:25 - tldr: why we need fantasy
17:04 - what do we do with this homeward ache?
17:40 - a parting encouragement from Samwise Gamgee
18:23 - parting words from me & a question for you
↠ SOURCES ↞
• C.S. Lewis: “The Weight of Glory,” “Mere Christianity”, and “The Problem of Pain.”
• J.R.R. Tolkien: “On Fairy-Stories”
• All movie clips are from THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING (2001), THE TWO TOWERS (2002), THE RETURN OF THE KING (2003), and THE LION, THE WITCH, AND THE WARDROBE (2005).
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↠ ABOUT ME ↞
If you’re new here, hi! 👋I’m Olivia, a twenty-something writer living on the central coast of California. After receiving my Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing, I’m currently revising draft 5 of my high fantasy novel, which is going by the alias Project Amaranth.
This UA-cam channel is a cozy corner of the internet where I share about all things books, creativity, travel, and life design. By documenting my writing journey and sharing about the stories I love, my goal is to inspire and encourage you on your creative journey. Thanks for stopping by! ☀️
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Friends, I can't thank you enough for all the love you’ve shown this video. I feel so overwhelmed in the best possible way. 💛
Thank you for all the beautiful thoughts, insights, and stories you've shared in the comments. I hope you’re as encouraged as I am to find that we're not alone in this love of Story and this shared longing for Heaven.
Here’s to the stories that take us further up and further in! ✨
💕 Olivia
So Live It. I’m currently building a gypsy vardo for my 25th Burning Man - last years Mudpocalypse’ made it a grand adventure.
A boat ride does it if you built the boat - which I have also done.
The worst part about reading great fantasy books is never being able to read them for the first time again.
The surprise of not knowing what you've discovered is special, but It's a fair trade off for being able to read them deeper and more keenly on each return, for the truly great stories have no expirations...just exhalations.
Sometimes if I leave a big enough gap between rereads, I have forgotten almost everything so it feels more like a first read in which the blurb gave away too much of the storyline, but the journey is still just as fantastic.
This is so true.
LotR and Narnia shaped me more than most people ever have. The impact of men and women who I’ll never meet, and yet have undoubtedly saved me so many times.
If those shaped you imagine what the bible will do when you read it. The word of God is the most powerful above any novel.
@@lahannah1224😂😂😂
It's that sense of the welsh word "hilraeth." The sense of longing for a home or place that no longer exists, or perhaps never did. I feel it every time i watch or read Lord of the Rings.
Exactly that.
That place profoundly does exist. Its heaven. Lewis and Tolkein I have no doubt would agree with me.
@@WM-tl7zw Lewis would. Tolkien wouldn't. Tolkien was explicitly trying to evoke the sense, longing for a place that is long gone.
I remember being a little girl, reading the Grimm fairytales and feeling the gnawing ache for another world.
I love this 💛
@@olivia.grace.cook. ❤
I remember too! And the Andrew Lang Blue, Green, Red, and Brown Fairy Books! Reading at night under covers when I was supposed to be asleep.
As clear as if it were last week…
I'm 60 now and still feel this! There is just something so deep that is missing in the "real" world...
@@melissaamyx2196 Same here! Perhaps if we could just figure out what this something actually is, we'd be a lot closer to finally finding it!
My sister and I used to try and find words to describe this when we were little. When we read about c.s. Lewis and his brother making stories together and talking about this feeling it ignited such a feeling of kindship.
The first few years of being a mom I kind of lost touch with the feeling and then one day my husband, in an attempt to console me from some thing or other (can’t remember what I was particularly sad over at the time) bought the extended editions of lotr to watch together when my youngest was about a week or so old, and the feeling hit me full force. It’s such a an oddly painful feeling, but so strangely desirable at the same time. I stills don’t think any word out there quite describes it, but to me it is the evidence that we are created for something more. It is one symptom of the God-sized hole in our hearts.
Yes! Beautifully said. ✨
I swear, this is the video the UA-cam was made for.
This is the best conversation I ever had.
I'm inspired not only for writing, but for living itself.
Your words are my glimpse of heaven for today.
Thank you so much.
CS Lewis called that feeling “joy”
I know EXACTLY the feeling you describe - I read the Lord of the Rings in German when I was 10 and the first time in English when I was 12. And I must have read it about 50 times by now - and still have this feeling of longing and actually having lost something once I finished the book.
You've read it 50 times, in multiple languages?! My friend, YOU bow to no one!
Unhappy childhood with crazy family and little hope Id escape it. Introduced to LOTR at age 13 by another "misfit". I can honestly tell you that that book saved my life. I saw through it that there was a hidden battle of good versus evil and that good wins in the end, albeit at a very high cost. Now at age 65, I am an incessant reader, lots of fiction, classics and fantasy but other than the Bible, no book has influenced me like it has. I still read it every couple of years and watch the extended version of the films at least once or twice a year. Your video is honestly one of the best things Ive ever seen on YT or anywhere. You captured EXACTLY how I feel. Thank you!
You got me crying in a burger joint! Narnia and LOTR always get me misty eyed. They give us brief glimpses of a goodness that is waiting for us on the other side of the veil. You've made a new subscriber out of me.
Haha, I love this! Thank you Skylar! 💛
Me too, I'm sitting here in tears. ❤
I cried too. It's such a touching thing to realize you are not alone in this desperate feeling of need for something you can't quite define but desire in the deepest part of your soul.
I read the last paragraphs of the Chronicles of Narnia series in the Last Battle first before the rest. This was when I was a teen and a new Christian. It spoke of what you speak here, of another world, better than Narnia and our world. I've been aching since.
Definitely have the aching like I was part of the battles
Nostalgic for a place and time I've never been to...that should be my middle name. What a beautiful video!❤
I'm so glad it resonated with you! Thank you, Kat! 💕
@@olivia.grace.cook. you deserve it my dear.
This video brought me to tears :') As a life-long fantasy reader (and writer), I've always felt that longing for something I can't quite name. You described the feeling perfectly. Also, thank you for this love letter to the Lord of the Rings! 💗
Thank you, Shems! I was crying right along with you. 🥲 What an incredible, incredible story. 💕
You exprrssed this feeling that I have felt for so long very well!
You're a member of the Church. We always find each other. Such a beautiful video.
This is by far, one of the best videos i have watched on youtube in a very long time. I was enthralled and hung onto every word you said. Much like the stories you talk about in this video, i feel like you took me through a story of your own. I felt that familiar ache as you spoke. What an odd and sad and beautiful phenomena so present throughout humanity and yet one we understand very little. Fantasy is by far my favorite genre of them all. Thank you so much for this video ❤
You are so welcome, my friend. Thank you for saying this. 💛
Thank you for making this. It cut very close to things I've always felt but could never explain to anyone. I tear or two were shed while listening. I'm nearly 40 and I believe I'll probably always feel this way.
💛
There are three experiences i have had this year that have had massively lasting impacts on me so far. I saw Wicked in the same theatre i first saw it when i was 10, I saw the Eras Tour live with two friends, and I saw the LOTR filns in the cinema. They say you cant buy happiness, but just the memory of those events has already helped me through some very tough times. It strikes me how, even after hearing the music, seeing the clips, seeing the films dozens of times, seeing something live, woth other people makes it a completely new experience. Please go support theatres and cinemas whenever you can, it will be worth it.
Yes!!! Thank you for sharing this. 💛 I'm so glad you brought up The Eras Tour, because it evoked that transcendent feeling for me, and the same sorrow/longing when it was over! As you said, there is something magical in the experience of seeing art live, with other people.
This was so beautiful ✨ Thank you so much for sharing! For me, that ache is found on sweltering summer evenings, when the air smells like jasmine and the sun has already set but the sky is still filled with light. I'm definitely going to go read some of CS Lewis's essay now - those quotes you shared were incredible!
Thank you, Laura! I love this description; I can feel that summer evening as if I'm standing there with you. 🥹
And yes, C.S. Lewis is brilliant! He's such an articulate writer. The search for this longing is threaded throughout his work, but his essay "The Weight of Glory" is a great place to start! 💛
I clicked this random video because... It seemed like it was talking about fantasy. Now, my eyes are wet!!!
The sounds and colors from the Shire are the same sounds and colors i think to remember loving so much when i was a kid, and used to visit my grand aunt's town. Her house, all those evenings i used to contemplate there, walking to the near parks, and under the trees. It had something beautiful every season of the year. And Christmas is not the same since my family stopped going to her house for it.
That’s my trascendental place. I need to visit it as soon as i can. She won’t be there (like many of my beloved ones) but i think i'll be at home there. REALLY at home.
Beautiful video. Thanks for sharing.
I turn to Lord of the Rings when I find myself engaged in spiritual warfare. There are so many poignant moments and acts of heroism. It encourages me greatly. Thanks for identifying this latent sense of longing. The fact that so many people have responded similarly is also very encouraging.
Homesick? Yes, that is actually a brilliant description of the feeling.
And I would like to add that reading LotR when I was 16 changed my life. In many ways it made me the person I am today. I'm 59 now.
This is the most inspiring video I've seen in years. Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts in such a beautiful way and for adressing that feeling of intense longing and yearning ..I've known it all my life.
Wow, thank you for saying this! 💛
LOTR and Nicelle Nicolas from ST have shaped my life. I had no good adults in my life, so Elrond and Ulhura were my role models. I still wish i could live in Rivendell.
this made me cry so much; so beautifully put together!!
I can remember the feeling you speak of well, though watching this video made me realize it has been years and years since I felt it. I don't know if it's just a result of getting older, but I find it harder to get lost in books like that now. I miss it.
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader will forever live in my heart. Oh to meet Reepicheep! To sail toward the setting sun, to search for the lost lords. This book lives in me--always will. All seven chronicles feel like home.
I feel this every time I listen to the soundtrack for the original movie Conan the Barbarian.
I am taken to places I've never been and miss terribly.
Wow. This brought me to tears. I always cry at narnia and LOTR, but your analysis is just as moving as the stories themselves…
Just a reminder to everyone that Theoden doesn't ride his rohirrim to certain death out of hatred of the enemy, or love of war, or even a desire to save Gondor - ultimately he does it to keep a promise. Above all else, keep your promises.
It's called the haunting. The ache for something we somehow can't reach but not sure what it is. It's Eternity placed in man and a Sacred Romance of longing for God. We fleetingly glimpse it thru profound beauty, nature, beautiful music, an excellent book. It's God's calling to us. Nothing can truly satisfy this melancholy except God. And we can never fully reach Him on this Earth. St Paul says The Holy Spirit that gives us a small glimpse.
this video understood my soul like nothing else before
Omg this captured my feelings PERFECTLY. I’ve always felt this way but never knew how to express it. LoTR and HP are like this for me. I can remember my mom reading Sorcerer’s Stone to me and my brother at bed time (I was 6 when the first movie came out) and then getting to go see it in theaters.
LoTR came out in December and seeing The Fellowship of The Ring in theaters knocked me off my feet and took the wind out of me. It was like nothing I’d ever seen before. It was both the strangest and most magnificent movie then and still is now. Both those series are my favorite books and films. Whenever i watch them again, all these years later, I still get those feelings. It’s like being sad because you lost something but also too overjoyed for words. Every December around Christmas time I try to watch all 3 films because it takes me back to the early 2000s and gives me those warm feelings again.
Especially these days. The world is so dark and hard to understand and it only seems to be getting darker by the day. Watching the HP and LoTR movies and rereading HP, takes me back to a better time when I didn’t have so many things on my mind and the world didn’t seem as terrible or hopeless. It makes me feel hopeful and gives me an escape from the daily grind and sludge of the news and just day to day life. It brings back those feelings of seeing them for the very first time and feeling like anything was possible and that there was something more, an extra layer to the world. They were dark movies for sure but so full of hope and possibility, just like you said. And the cast of both film series only made the experience better. For me rewatching them makes me feel like a kid again in the best possible way ❤
Great job on this video, you captured those feelings perfectly and definitely took me back. You have a new subscriber!
You have made us for yourself O Lord and our heart is restless until it rests in you…St Augustine. You’ve hit the nail on the head. And Lord of the Rings is the finest book written in the English language, which becomes the greatest movie ever made!
You’re so relaxing to listen to! Great video! That ache happens when we let the modern world suffocate our true world. Fantasies help to re-align us to that true & ideal place.
From one fantasy writer to another., one closer to the end of life than the beginning to one much younger....good job on this post, and hang on to your high hope of writing stories that help others live in hope of life.
You had to make me cry by putting all these emotional scenes after eachother, hadnt you?
Sorry not sorry 🥹
If it makes you feel any better I also 100% cried in the filming and editing of this video. Many many times.
Me too!! 🥹
This is always how I've felt about Tolkien and a few other fantasy works but I've never known how to express the movement and depth of my experiences to other people, or how they've shaped me and my philosophies. This makes me feel seen and helps me appreciate the genre even more. Thank you for this video.
You're so welcome, Azriel! I'm glad it resonated with you. You're not alone. 💛
I agree with you about The Hope in the LOTR. And others. It's why I feel like game of thrones falls soo short of other fantasy stories. When hope is ripped out from under you it's just emptiness. Again this is why everyone lost interest in the Walking dead. In a good story/fantasy you must have Hope and a little bit of wish fulfillment. Your real life is where more often than not wish fulfillment never happens, so a fantasy story is where a reader goes to hide and have fulfillment and hope in it. That's why the Lord of the Rings is the best! That's why everyone loves Harry Potter despite some story inconsistencies. They give you Hope that Good will Conquer Evil and maybe some of your favorite Characters will make it out the other side having learned and changed them for the better.
If a story doesn't provide the reader with hope, I really don't see the point of it. "Just give up" isn't a message I want to waste any time reading about.
I stumbled onto your channel and this video. I immediately identified with your description of this ache for a place I've never really been. I am in my 50s and several things will bring this feeling to the surface for me.... LOTR, Harry Potter, Star Wars, as well as traditional Irish music and traditional music from other places. Excellent video and overall description of a topic I have heard nobody else talk about.
Wait, the movies were re-released?! NOBODY TELLS ME ANYTHING!
13:19 As you were reading this quote and I was following along on the screen, my heart did skip a beat as I saw those beloved scenes again, and I was actually tearing up. How perfect.
What we long for... is Jesus. It is He who made us, and for whom we were made.
This was so beautiful, thank you.
I can fully relate. And I will share a little tip here:
I long especially for Tolkien works and not only read them over and over, what I have done is read them in 4 different languages as a way to, somehow, feel them for the first time again with each new language. You know the story already, but reading it in a different language opens a new way of experiencing it. Of course I revisit it more often in English and in my mother tongue, but from time to time, I read it on a different one.
The book I have read more times must be "The hound of the Baskervilles" by Conan Doyle, this one I have in 6 languages, and also 4 comic book adaptations... when I fell like going to it again, I pick the language and the media I feel like using that day.
No UA-cam video has ever made me tear up. Not much does. But somehow, it seems I’m not as dead inside as I believed myself to be, because this… this is special. Thank you miss.
What a unique and special topic. Something I’ve always felt, and not been able to put into words. ❤ Thank you.
🥹 Your beautiful video has me in tears this morning in the best kind of way. I feel the need to rewatch, ponder, and journal all that you've shared. Thank you! 🫰🏼
I am literally crying right now😢 how beautiful thank you❤
I love the German word 'schadenfreude' sadness/gladness. It captures that feeling you are describing, that ache, but yet looking forward .
Hi Olivia,
I've just watched your video, and I wanted to reach out to express my heartfelt gratitude. Your message truly captivated me from start to finish. The wisdom and passion that shines through your words is truly inspiring.
I deeply appreciate the insights you've shared and the films you've mentioned. Your ability to convey so much meaning in a single video is remarkable. Your reminder that we are "made for more" and that we transcend our physical existence resonates strongly with me.
Your emphasis on the abundance of good in the world is uplifting, and I agree that we can find so much of that goodness in our everyday lives if we look for it. Thank you for being a part of that goodness - you've certainly brightened my day and expanded my perspective.
Your work is making a positive impact, and I'm truly grateful to have discovered it today.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts and inspiration with the world.
Thank you for making this video. I've often felt this feeling of longing before mostly from reading fairytales and listening to certain fantasy or Enya songs. Because of this I am known as a very nostalgic person but in my head I've known that it was more than just nostalgia in fact I attributed it to memories of Heaven and a longing to be there again. You described perfectly what I have felt and why I think I've felt it and I definitely agree that there is inherent good in this world put there by God and that we can recognize those things because we are His children and we belong with Him. ❤
You phrased this so beautifully, thank you! 💛
Thank you for eloquently putting into words all that I feel about fantasy and fairy tales. My new motto as a writer will now be, “There’s some good in this world, Mr Frodo, and it’s worth writing for!”
Wonderul essay. I too have always felt like no other fantasy story has matched LOTR. The concept that part of that feeling is a longing for something that speaks to us, but is just out of reach, seems surprisingly correct.
In my 20s, I desperately was searching for a career path, wondering what that would look like. Asking advice from a friend recently completing her Master’s degree, she confidently expressed that she knew that I knew myself what the correct path would be. That information was somewhere within me. That thought resonated with me. I didn’t need to ask others what my path was, but it was something I needed to discover within myself.
I grew up watching birds. I love listening to bird song. I was working on a field project visiting a grassland bird nest I had found the week before. When I got to the nest, the eggs were crushed and scattered, the ground nest disturbed and pulled apart. I didn’t know what had happened, but got the impression that it had happened recently. Both parents were moving about the nest, giving alarm calls. Granted, they could have simply been upset that I was in the area, but that day, they seemed to be shouting, crying, and screaming very specifically about the lost nest and eggs. It opened my eyes to the complex world birds live in.
I’d like to think that we can eventually see, find, these compelling aspects of our self, or ‘soul’. Maybe some day.
This analysis was amazing. Tolkien, Lewis and, you all describe the longing our souls have for God. I never thought of fantasy embodying that longing before.
Beautiful.
It's all escapism for me, I have always loved that Tolkien quote about it.
But that Lewis quote was new for me, very well put!
I appreciate how fantasy is able to sometimes capture a feeling or idea more succinctly than ‘realistic’ fiction. I just read ‘The last incantation by Clark Ashton Smith, and it perfectly captured melancholy of not being able to have the same experience twice.
Sometimes realistic autobiography can do it.I remember reading James Thurber's short story about his family's experience with cars in the early 20th century. He and his brother played a trick on his father while driving and it was hilarious to him. I remember reading that and thinking, "I bet he would have loved to relive that again." And sure enough, a few sentences later, he writes (paraphrase), "If I could I would like to experience that again. I don't think I can now."
This video explains the feeling so well. I got very emotional watching this. I have experienced this feeling so strongly since I was a child. It probably peaked as a young adult but certainly comes back strongly with the right story or place. Reminds me of when I visited England for the first time last year after having read and watched so many stories my whole life that took place there. I got such a strong sense of coming home even though it was a place I had never been. The book Arena by Karen Hancock is a Christian allegory that helped me make sense of this feeling for the first time, particularly the idea that we might be in a training ground for our true home not of this world.
You have expressed a feeling I have been feeling alone, and i couldn't understand nor had a word to it, after watching movies that have given me that ache, I decided to put it into words, I am now writing my own fantasy story, inspired by authors like Tolkien and C.S. Lewis , I decided that since I couldn't fully describe what I was feeling I put it into my book. Because I wanted a story like Tolkien and C.S Lewis, but I wanted it to be my own. And after watching this video, it explained so much, especially about how we are made for a better world, I think the aching that we get from fantasy is because we are looking forward to heaven without realising it, because it can give so much more than this world.
How very odd and delightful to come across someone who responds the exact way I do to Lord of the Rings and other fantasy classics. I first read LOTR when I was 10 (58 years ago) and felt even then that sense of longing. I feel it still. You remind me that this is an essential part of who I am. Thank you for that and for the added confirmation that I’m not the only one.
I love how even though Tolkien didn't like allegory, his faith still shines through so strongly in his stories. We truly were made for a greater world than this. A world which Jesus shall bring about when He returns. One might even call it, the return of the king...
On a side note: When Aragorn and the other royal characters bow to the hobbits it always reminds me of these verses. Luke 9:46-48 "An argument arose among them as to which of them was the greatest. But Jesus, knowing the reasoning of their hearts, took a child and put him by his side and said to them, “Whoever receives this child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me receives him who sent me. *For he who is least among you all is the one who is great* .”
I often felt ashamed that I spent do much time thinking about Lord of the Rings as an adult and now I don't. It's not meant to be an allegory for life but it definately is. It's given my spirituality an outlet, watching how creative writers, film makers and actors interpret spirituality. I do however keep my thoughts to myself as it raises eyebrows. It's definately a deeply personal experience. I wish it was more widely spoken of. Thank you for sharing your thoughts. ❤
I have a strong feeling of longing or craving that fantasy stories created in me. I often would beg people to read me stories. Struggled to learn how to read and I remember the feeling of triumph when read the lord of the rings. I have often longed for people to make up stories with. The games I longed for the most were games of imagination. Even now as an adult I feel the call. One of my fantasies would be falling in love with a woman who I would right stores with. I often tell story's to my online friends and in a lot of ways that's what I most wanted them for.🙂
My new favorite UA-cam video. It brought me to tears.
Expertly expressed… brought me to tears.
Things I love that bought that ache for me are the show “crash landing on you”, books of love so strong like the ACOTAR, Narnia, being in the strong arms of my husband, and being near a body of water, also reading through Revelation and LOTR❤️❤️❤️
Thank you for such a beautiful tribute to a story I have always loved.
I'm crying. What a poignant video essay. Gives me a lot of "saudade", the Spanish word. 😢🎉
I LOVE THIS ! ❤️
You hit the nail on the head girl! Lol
I'm a bit of a writer, a lecturer, reader, fantasy enthusiast.
Pierres Anthony's novels were my first fantasy stories.
I am always bittersweetly aching inside every time I am finished reading or watching my favorite stories.
I miss them, the characters, the worlds, and sometimes I just start it over because I can't bear to say "goodbye for now" lol.
I have also said things like "til next time my dears" as I turned it off or closed the book lol 😅
Bukowski said "drink from the well of yourself and begin again". (Rewrite?).
Hemingway said "I learned never to empty the well of my writing, but to always stop when there was still something there in the deep part of the well, and let it refill at night from the springs that fed it".
I feel those two phrases like they are resonate emotions, not but mere words.
I didn't have to "learn" the latter tho, I always was like that.
I am never emptied.
When I go completely senial, I bet I will speak in metaphors. Lol
I think and write in metaphors.
No one will know what I mean, except my son, he could always understand me lol. 😅
I feel comfort when I hear planes, lawn mowers, and trains in the near distance, and mourning doves and chimes.
And thunderstorms.
Those things make me sleepy.
Macro photography makes me feel how I felt as a child with the imagination of shrinking down to fit inside her dollhouse. 😅
And when sunlight crawls across a room, how raindrops falling down a window pane reflects the whole color spectrum, when the sunset steals the horizon while I'm driving into it, and in the crisp fresh fall air.
That's when I am almost sad, longing for a time and place I do not know.
It's some kind of nostalgia feeling I suppose, idk.
I can attribute the sounds and sights to childhood or adolescence but how I feel about my favorite stories ending, I can't put that into the right words.
People have told me I am a wordsmith and I should publish my writings, if none else, greeting cards, lol.
But I don't know how to convey my mind and soul.
All my rantings about my inner self, to read what I have tried to pen, reads as jibberish from a mad man lol
I clicked on this because of the title, but, you made me tear up a little bit, lol, in a good way.
Thank you for this break down explanation of the mysterious emotion invoked by good stories! 😊
It feels as though this world is the stage of the corrupted Middle Earth. And we all long to meet the gentle spirit and quiet courage of a Frodo and Sam.
I ended LOTR wanting to know those people myself.
Wanting to be immersed in the healed and beautiful land.
It’s because the authors created their own Heavens. Because we only know a broken earth, we all long to be in that beautiful Place.
Wonderfully spoken!
LOVE everything you said. When you have a lens of faith it unlocks so much of LOTR, Narnia, etc. I did what I could to similarly infuse subtlety of faith into my own fantasy novel and based on feedback those sections are the ones that resonate most deeply with my readers. Congrats on graduating your MFA!
I'd love to hear more essay-like videos like this on other stories that capture your imagination. Also, are you published? I'm curious to know more about your stories
Thank you so much! I'm excited to make more video essays like this in the future. 💛 As for your question, I'm currently working on a fantasy series. I'll be sharing more details about my book on this channel very soon! Thanks for asking!
This made me cry. The glimpse into another world we were actually made for. I don’t know if this was intentional or an amazing coincidence, but the first few notes of the shire music sound like the hymn “This is my father’s world”. Just thought I’d share.
Thank you for this. It resonated deeply with me. I've written about this to try to explain it (to myself) but you've expressed the feeling very eloquently. Great video and nicely authentic.
Thank you! I'm so glad you resonated with it. 💛
Whenever I feel overwhelmed in this life, I reread the last paragraph of Lord of the Rings and Lewis The Last Battle. As an adult, I reread those every year, and that will be one thing that I will miss when I'm not on this planet anymore. ❤❤❤
How I would love to give your presentation a hundred million 'likes'. Thank you, Dear Lady. Beautiful words... lovely, wonderful, encouraging message!
I always thought that Sam was the real hero of Lord Of The Rings. Frodo only made it because of Sam’s unwavering loyalty and devotion. In spite of all they went through, Sam’s core personality and simple values never changed. Even though he was an acknowledged hero he was able to put that acclaim behind him and contentedly return to his former life. That’s the make of a real hero.
Is it fantasy or mythology that taps into something deeper within us? I know this profound longing and have created a song about it which start "There's a hole in my heart, not a single one can heal. That hole is my " vacare Deo".. Many would say that it is the longing for the God/Goddess of our understanding. Thank you for this wonderful video. I love the way you shared what you have learned about this ineffable longing.
Thanks you so much for making this! What beautiful truths, I must say this made me tear up. The things unseen really are more important especially for those of us who have hope for the other side, who believe in God and his goodness. The return of the king. Thank God for fantasy! We were all made for more, we are just passing through.
Really, really well done. If your thoughts, subject and presentation are any indication of what your books are going to be like, they're going to be well worth the reading.
I have always felt like I don't fit into this world. I've never felt like I belonged anywhere really. I read lots of fantasy and science fiction when I was young, including the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings. At the time, I wanted to escape the life I was in which seemed so aimless, so I read to escape. I didn't actually want to be in those fantasy worlds, but reading about them, and especially the people gave me a way to experience something other than my life.
Upon reflecting about what you were saying, and I can say I have absolutely felt that same homesickness, that same longing for something that I feel should be, but is out of reach, I think what's missing the most is the attitudes and behavior of people. I long for grand eloquence, elegance and grace, but combined with humbleness and a genuine eagerness for participation in the adventure of life. It's all about people really. Places can be created, built, decorated, but without people of the right attitude and behavior, it doesn't work.
We have genetic memory, so I know that all the memories of every person I'm descended from are archived and compressed within me. This is why I believe I can sometimes experience a sudden feeling of nostalgia or longing for a place or something, even the image of a person that suddenly seems familiar, when I know I've personally never been in or seen any of those things. A winding country lane lined by low stone walls; a great tree by a stream with branches that overhang the stream and provide shade; a cozy cottage at night with a fire in the fireplace, walls lit by that warm golden light. The smell of coffee and fresh baked bread. Standing on the high edge of a great and wide green valley, with rivers and streams meandering through it; the sun setting in the west end of it, reflecting off the waters of the rivers and streams.
Sometimes these fleeting images, memories of smells and sounds can almost bring me to tears. The silly thing is, I was born and raised in southern California, which is an environment as far from all these things as it could be. I didn't know much of anything about my father's side of the family, but years ago I started doing research once the internet became available, and I found out my great grandfather was from Edinburgh, Scotland. I'm only second generation American. I didn't know that. I watch videos now of Scotland, and there are moments when a scene, or view will appear, and the feeling of recognition is almost like an electric jolt. That can only be because it either matches, or is very close to an archived memory embedded within me from my family ancestors who were from there. None of this I knew when I was young and growing up.
There's so much to know, so much to understand, yet I've reached the age where I realize it's important to choose what to learn. The knowledge of good and evil can be very seductive, especially if it teases mystery and things hidden. The only thing I really want to know now, to embrace and *know* it, as in I am it and it is me, is God's love. It's not just an emotion. The list of it's attributes are in 1st Corinthians chapter 13. Those attributes and qualities have no beginning or end, nor do they fade. They are timeless, and as they grow and develop, they gain in power and strength. All of it is within, yet they radiate outward from you as they become the foundation of your attitude. It is a place, and that place is the kingdom of God. From that place, that source, flows the qualities of attitude and behavior that I long for. And for it to be real in my life, I have to start with me; with seeking, planting and cultivating those qualities within me. I know I need help, and I've asked God to walk that path with me, and show me; teach me as we walk it together. It's the great journey, the two of us together, which you're probably recognizing as a core part of many, if not most fantasy novels. It sounds like a fantasy, but it isn't. It's actually real, and available to all who want it; we just have to choose it.
Everything you said, said so Beautifully, rings 💍 so true!
This is so beautiful, I loved every word she spoke, and I know too that there is so much truth in what she says. From the time I was a child I would read fairy tales to my sisters at bedtime. I was very fortunate to receive some beautiful books at Christmas time, they were fairytale books but opened my mind to things beyond my imagination. Thank you so much for your beautiful talk, with appreciation. ❤😊
So lovely how you put it. Since you mentioned the series The Chronicles of Narnia, I know you will recall that sense of peace that is the promise of the last volume. I periodically reread all of my favourite fantasy - Tolkien, Narnia, but also John Crowley's Little, Big, and the marvelous utopian fantasy Islandia (from which I have my UA-cam name) written by Austin Tappan Wright. As Scotland struggles to become free, I have recently wondered whether it is the modern-world of Islandia. I am currently reading a new series which I am really enjoying - The Ballad of Sir Benfro by James Oswald. Thank you for introducing me to Mary Oliver's quotations.
You point out the world behind the world which great fantasy (fairy stories) calls us to, and you point out the gleams of that world that shine through the here and now. The TS Eliot quote hints at the reality that the latter is the very thing that may prepare us for the former. The journey of learning to cling to, and to love those gleams of celestial brilliance glinting through the seams of this world, allowing them to infuse us, nourish us, and transform us, might be the very thing that will one day make us able to live in the world behind the world. For what could be worse than to arrive in Faerie one day, and find that you do not belong, that it had never become your home, because you had never really longed for it.
Consider the parable of the wedding feast in Matthew 22.
You are absolutely a kindred spirit. I'll be rewatching and sharing. You have so thoroughly and perfectly encapsulated my thoughts on not only fantasy but on what I refer to as the finer things in life. Which is why this side of heaven the perfect day for me will always be grabbing an epic fantasy book, with a hot cup of coffee or tea, next to a window, while listening to a beautiful classical composition or movie soundtrack by the likes of someone like Thomas Newman. And it's true, we are all yearning for another world, the new earth awaits all who believe. Good stuff.
Love it, thanks for sharing!
Thank you for this beautiful video and the great description of this feeling we are familiar with.
Oh my gosh, trying not to cry over here. Such beautiful, beautiful truths. This is why I love story. We were made for something more, and we long for it and search for it everyday. I love how you said, this is a reminder both of what we look forward to, but a reminder to see the pieces of heaven, fragmented as they may be here on earth, and find joy in them now as well ❤
Love the thumbnail. Surprised this doesnt have more views
Excellent video, wonderful taste. What I appreciate is depth of soul paired with a soothing voice. Most videos have the auditory appeal of a cat being strangled.
Well said, young lady. Well said.
A very moving talk... beautiful... thank you.
You're so welcome! 💛 Thank you for watching it.
Oh thank you! So its not just me! I find myself perpetually chasing this feeling through historical fiction such as Bernard Cornwell’s Saxon Chronicles, and strangely enough through dystopian or post apocalypse movies like Children of Men and The Road. There is something about this terrible longing that seems somehow akin to the feeling of deja vu, as if in some way we have touched beyond the veil enough to taste it, but not enough to see it clear.
So beautifully said! I look forward to reading your work! You nailed all my favorite scenes from LOTR.
I get this longing feeling more than most I believe. I get it from good stories like lord of the rings as well. Every time I’m driving home from a weekend at the cabin. I have this longing for heaven as well. I feel like this aching longing will be realized in the life to come.
This video made me cry, in the best possible way. I finally feel like I understand that incredibly powerful feeling. Thank you! 🥹💖
Only halfway through the video so far, but I love it. It's so strange that your video popped up - over the past few weeks, I've been gradually getting back into working on my own fantasy world, though I hadn't searched for any videos yet. So when this showed up, and given that I was certainly haunted by Lord of the Rings when I first read it - I remember staring at the last page because . . . it didn't make sense that the story had stopped? - I decided to take a chance. I'm glad I did. It's been very much worth it so far. Sometimes I think we need to be reminded of why we love fantasy in the first place, and I was glad that you carried through in your statements about that longing we all feel at some point in our lives.
I very much enjoy both C.S. Lewis and Tolkien's works, and have a recommendation for you - if you haven't already read the Inkheart series. It's different, not as grand as LotR but very much focused on the beauty of words - and I have heard that the fourth book is set to release in October. :)
Thank you for making this video. It beautifully describes what I have been feeling in special moments, watching films sometimes (the sunset scene in Star Wars gets it for me every time). Many thanks 🙏
Very insightful. Gave me fresh eyes for stories that have been part of my life for many years. Keep up the good work!
This is such a beautiful video. As a fan of LOTR my whole life it resonates heavily! All of my favorite fantasies give great signposts. Me and my wife sometimes watch the videos of the drones going through the land of the shire they made for the movie and it feels like peace. We also went to see the reshowing in theaters all 3 days. Thanks for this video.
Thank you! It's crazy beautiful to me how a story like LOTR brings us all together. I'm gonna go hunt down those drone videos of the Shire now. 🥹
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What a truly wonderful video. Thank you so much 🙏🏼 Watching this was soul nourishment for me tonight. This indescribable feeling of longing you discuss is a beautiful mystery that connects us all - and whenever I reread Tolkien’s works it always feels like I’m bathing in it. I also tend to experience this feeling when I’m around mountain rivers or streams, or when I hear certain bird songs. Thanks again for sharing!
Thank you so much! 💛
Lovely essay. You've pulled together many of the threads I've been chasing through two decades of writing fantasy. It's been a life-defining quest, so it's a bit astonishing to see someone so young grasp those threads and weave them so beautifully. Perhaps that's as it should be--the keen insight of youth (relatively; not to take anything away from your evident experience and acquired wisdom). Very glad I stumbled upon and watched. I'll be watching for your books!
This is wonderful, you explained things that I’ve felt for years and years but never had the words for, thank you for sharing
Thank you for being here. 💛 I'm so glad it resonated with you!
This is by far the most straightforward, thoughtful, and eloquent explanation of fantasy literature I've ever heard! Yes indeed, fantasy literature is all about longing, about the world we personally want to live in. I think that's why, during my childhood and youth in the midst of Midwestern mediocrity in the 70s, I wasn't a huge fan of any specific fantasy author - not even Tolkien, who was huge back then - but instead saw fantasy as an invitation to dream on my own. That's why I spent those years with endless world-building, down to the tiniest details, and also generated endless fairy tales, legends, and even a huge unfinished novel set in this world. In the process, I was telling myself about the moral and esthetic universe I wanted to inhabit and help create around me, and it does the same for all of us. Perhaps we need to reconnect with that divine gift of our imaginations!