Happy New Year, everyone! January 3 was J.R.R. Tolkien’s birthday. If you haven’t already, raise your glass in a toast to the Professor! And don’t forget to sit under a tree in celebration of Tolkien’s abiding love for nature. 🌲 💚
“War must be, while we defend our lives against a destroyer who would devour all; but I do not love the bright sword for its sharpness, nor the arrow for its swiftness, nor the warrior for his glory. I love only that which they defend.”
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The Toast
After Bilbo left the Shire on his eleventy-first birthday in The Lord of the Rings, Frodo toasted his uncle’s birthday each year on 22 September.
J.R.R. Tolkien was born in Bloemfontein on 3 January 1892, and we invite you to celebrate the birthday of this much loved author by raising a glass at 9pm your local time.
The toast is simply:
The Professor!
All you need to do is stand, raise a glass of your choice of drink (not necessarily alcoholic), and say the words “The Professor” before taking a sip (or swig, if that’s more appropriate for your drink). Sit and enjoy the rest of your drink.
I realized it’s Tolkien’s birthday today(!), so I’m sharing an excerpt from one of his very first publications featured in Oxford Poetry 1915. The full poem is out of copyright and can be read on the Internet Archive. I’ll provide the full link below. In a complete coincidence, this poem also features goblins like the other excerpt I posted earlier this morning. It is titled “Goblin Feet” and the whole thing is short, but truly delightful.
I am off down the road
Where the fairy lanterns glowed
And the little pretty flittermice are flying:
A slender band of grey
It runs creepily away
And the hedges and the grasses are a-sighing.
The air is full of wings,
And of blundering beetle-things
That warn you with their whirring and their humming.