Service and Sacrifice, a Somber Reflection: Tolkien Reading Day 2024

The Battle of Sudden Flame, by Alan Lee

You smug-faced crowds with kindling eye
Who cheer when soldier lads march by,
Sneak home and pray you’ll never know
The hell where youth and laughter go.

From “Suicide in the Trenches”, by Siegfried Sassoon

Service and self-sacrifice are honorable qualities that many strive to have. Tolkien’s works are full of characters who display such noble traits in various capacities, withstanding storms and tribulations for the sake of higher goals or others. However, the more grounded qualities of his works also reflect the bitter realities: that service and sacrifice sometimes did not lead to fulfilling conclusion.

The bitter honesty in Siegfried Sassoon’s poems, quoted in various academic works related to Tolkien, seems to reflect a meaningful term that Tolkien put in his wartime letter to one of his friends, G. B. Smith, about the death of their best friend Robert Gilson in the World War One front: “…something has gone crack.” (Letter 5, 12 August 1916). An interesting choice of phrase, which sounds like a mixture of uncertainty and faint understanding at the same time.

This was also the time when the soldiers of the Great War started to criticize, scoff at, and even demonize “war-time propaganda and its consumers.” (Garth, 2003). The soldiers, many of them young and eager to defend their country in the spirit of heroism, service, and sacrifice, were hit by the realities of it all: horrifying deaths, merciless destructions of human bodies and spirits, the realities of the trenches, the false promises of propaganda, and the fact that their friends died while those who profited from the war (or celebrated it in jingoist spirit) got to live in comfort and safety.

The Silmarillion, The Hobbit, and The Lord of the Rings are not lacking of characters showing admirable acts of sacrifice and heroism. Frodo dan Sam are often cited as fine examples of these ideas, with Sam showing an extra layer of humility in his demonstration of humble service and sacrifice that ask no praises. However, as fantasy works created during an uncertain, dispirited age, we could see the way Tolkien inserted elements of nuance that showed the realities behind what it means to “serve”, “sacrifice”, and “become a hero” in these stories.

Interestingly, similar ideas emerged from another side of the globe during similar timeframe. As an Indonesian, hearing the words “sacrifice” and “service” immediately brought me to two notable works of literature and cinema created during similarly precarious age: Bukan Pasar Malam (It’s Not an All Night Fair, 1951) by Pramoedya Ananta Toer, and Lewat Djam Malam (After the Curfew, 1954) by Usmar Ismail. Two works that forced the audience at that time to reexamine their imagination of nationalism and heroism, and what many of the country’s youths experienced after the battles and the effects on their psyche.

In This Journey, Always Have Humility: Tolkien Reading Day 2023 (1)

The Cottage of Lost Play, by Armani Warrington

In The Cottage of Lost Play, the first chapter of The Book of Lost Tales part one, we met Eriol, a great mariner who traveled to the Elvish Isle of Tol Eressëa and gathered tales and history of its inhabitants. When he was looking for a lodging, he saw a peculiar house built on a cliffside, a tiny house called Cottage of the Lost Play. When he wondered how he could enter, the house seemed to perceive his mind, and said,

“Small is the dwelling, but smaller still are they that dwell here-for all who enter must be very small indeed, or of their own good wish become as very little folk even as they stand upon the threshold.”

Eriol responded by expressing his wish to experience the kindness of Lindo and Vairë, the hosts of the cottage, and humbly wishing to be small enough to walk past the door. His wish was granted as the house suddenly grew into great spaciousness, and he experienced more joy in the house than in his wanderings around the island (which had been joyful enough on their own). His humility and willingness to make himself smaller, not his physical prowess, were the ones that allowed him to enter this magical cottage.

Sorrowful Love, Hopeful Love (Tolkien Reading Day 2022)

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“For long years he (Amroth) had loved her, and taken no wife, since she would not wed with him. She loved him indeed, for he was beautiful even for one of the Eldar, and valiant and wise; but she was of the Silvan elves, and regretted the incoming of the Elves from the West, who (as she said) brought wars and destroyed the peace of old. She would speak only the Silvan tongue, even after it had fallen into disuse among the folk of Lorien; and she dwelt alone beside the falls of the river Nimrodel to which she gave her name.”

Unfinished Tales Part 2, Ch. 4: The History of Galadriel and Celeborn and of Amroth King of Lorien

Great love stories are tinged with sorrow. That’s one thing to notice when you read about the stories of lovers in Middle-earth legendarium. Even the legendary love tales, like between Beren and Lúthien, have this bittersweet quality that seeps into your heart, long after the story is supposed to end at the blissful “happily ever after”. Dig deeper into Tolkien’s “love stories”, and you will see characters languishing because of the lack of love, displaying the twisted form of “love”, or losing their loved ones. Many couples had their love unrequited, nipped at the bud, turned sour, or doomed.

Niphredil, Snowdrops: the Blooms of Courage and Hope

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The grass was studded with small golden flowers…. Among them, nodding on slender stalks, were other flowers, white and palest green: they glimmered as a mist amid the rich hue of the grass…. “Behold! You are come to Cerin Amroth…. Here ever bloom the winter flowers in the unfading grass: the yellow elanor, and the pale niphredil.”

J. R. R. Tolkien: The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, Book 2, Chapter 6: Lothlórien

Following the theme of Courage and Hope in Tolkien Reading Day 2021, I found myself reverting from the grand ideas, preferring to peer at the smaller, humbler things that are also parts of Middle-earth legendarium. Just like how the home-loving Hobbits turned into unexpected heroes in Tolkien’s stories, the presence of small, seemingly insignificant objects like flowers symbolized grander meaning than their humble appearances. One that received meaningful treatments in Middle-earth legendarium is niphredil, a small white flower that first grew in the magically hidden land of Doriath, and could be found among the golden trees of Lothlórien.

Mimpi dan Misteri Masa Silam dalam “The Lost Road”

Catatan: postingan ini dibuat untuk merayakan Tolkien Reading Day 2019, yang mengambil tema “misteri.” Baca juga postingan saya untuk TRD tahun 2018, 2017, 2016, dan 2015.

“C. S. Lewis dan aku melempar koin, dan dia kebagian tema perjalanan angkasa sementara aku perjalanan waktu. Aku mulai menulis buku (yang tak terselesaikan) di mana para karakterku melintasi waktu, hingga akhirnya mereka menyaksikan tenggelamnya Atlantis. Aku menyebutnya Numenór, Negeri di Barat.”

Itulah petikan surat J. R. R. Tolkien untuk Christopher Bretherton. Ditulis pada tanggal 16 Juli 1964, surat tersebut antara lain berisi ekspresi kesedihan Tolkien atas meninggalnya C. S. Lewis, penulis seri Narnia dan The Screwtape Letters, serta salah satu sahabat terdekatnya. Dalam surat tersebut, Tolkien menggambarkan “misi” iseng yang pernah dilakukannya bersama Lewis. Mereka ingin menulis kisah fiksi ilmiah, dan melempar koin untuk menentukan siapa menulis tema apa.

Belajar tentang Kehidupan dari Hobbit: Postingan Tolkien Reading Day 2018

Tulisan ini dibuat dalam rangka merayakan Tolkien Reading 2018, yang bertema Home and Hearth: the many ways of being a Hobbit. Jangan lupa baca postingan saya untuk tahun 2017, 2016, dan 2015.

One Morning, Long Ago, oleh Ted Nasmith 

“The Voyage of Éarendel the Evening Star,” Puisi yang Melahirkan Middle-earth

Tulisan ini dibuat dalam rangka Tolkien Reading Day tahun 2017 yang bertema “Poetry and Songs in Tolkien’s Fictions.”

Ada banyak hal yang terjadi pada tanggal 24 September 1914, dan kebanyakan berkaitan dengan Perang Dunia I. Angkatan Udara Prancis mendirikan skuadron Escadrille 31 di Longvic sebagai persiapan perang. Pasukan Rusia memulai 133 hari pengepungan di Przemyśl. Pasukan Jerman merebut Péronne. Pasukan Inggris tiba di Laoshun untuk membantu pasukan Jepang. Australia menduduki Kota Friedrich Wilhelm di New Guinea.

Dan di sebuah rumah pertanian di pedesaan Nottingham, seorang pemuda berusia 22 tahun menulis puisi berjudul The Voyage of Éarendel the Evening Star. 

Athrabeth Finrod ah Andreth: Apakah Mereka yang Ingin Abadi Paham Konsekuensinya?

Tanggal 25 Maret, para fans Tolkien di seluruh dunia merayakan Tolkien Reading Day. Saya sudah berpartisipasi tahun lalu dengan artikel bertema Persahabatan. Kini, temanya adalah Kehidupan, Kematian dan Keabadian (Life, Death and Immortality). Tidak ada yang lebih pas selain membahas tentang dialog filosofis antar Elf dan Manusia yang mendiskusikan ketiga hal tersebut. Sebagai pencipta Middle-earth, wajar jika Tolkien juga menginjak ranah pemikiran terkait perbedaan mendasar di antara Elf dan Manusia, sebagai ras yang “dibangkitkan” pertama kali dan selanjutnya.

Menyambut Tolkien Reading Day: Makna Persahabatan Legolas dan Gimli untuk Saya

I dedicate this article to my best friend, Octoryna. Thanks for putting up with me in all these years, and sorry for made you worried whenever I stepped into your house and almost broke something

Tolkien Reading Day jatuh setiap tanggal 25 Maret, dan tahun ini temanya adalah Persahabatan (Friendship). Jadi, untuk meramaikan hari istimewa ini, saya mau membuat artikel tentang pasangan sahabat favorit saya, Legolas dan Gimli. Ya, saya tahu persahabatan Frodo dan Sam adalah yang paling diingat dan berkesan kalau bicara soal persahabatan dalam legendarium Middle-earth, tapi kebiasaan buruk saya adalah menaruh perhatian berlebih terhadap karakter-karakter pendamping 🙂 Saya punya sentimen khusus terhadap persahabatan Legolas dan Gimli karena bukan sekadar persahabatan antar dua ras, namun juga punya makna simbolik yang menutup berbagai konflik yang telah terjadi antar kedua ras ini di Middle-earth.