If ever a writer had the gift of the Elf-minstrels it was J. R. R Tolkien. His astonishing ability to conjure up fantastic lands and the deeds done within them, rendering his world with such clarity and conviction that you can literally see events unfolding as you read.
These days the power of text to conjure images has been damaged by the relentless assault of visual material from cinema, television, and now streaming services which allow people to binge until their eyeballs hang out of their heads.
We used to be exhorted to stay a good distance away from the television, perhaps partly in the instinctive knowledge that our visual imagination can be damaged by a relentless stream of stronger and stronger images. And that's without considering video games, pornography, or the advent of VR which will exacerbate the damage done by both of those things.
Perhaps the best hope of fiction (and the rare minstrels who are its genuine practitioners) lies not in conjuring images, but in reaching deeply into hearts to sway them in the direction of Love, the deep yearning for which will fill our human chests long after any transitory image has flickered and burned itself out.
P. Julian
28 September 2018
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Here is the quote with some context:
"The next day at the hour of sunset Aragorn walked alone in the woods, and his heart was high within him; and he sang, for he was full of hope and the world was fair. And suddenly even as he sang he saw a maiden walking on a greensward among the white stems of the birches; and he halted amazed, thinking that he had strayed into a dream, or else that he had received the gift of the Elf-minstrels, who can make the things of which they sing appear before the eyes of those who listen.
For Aragorn had been singing a part of the Lay of Luthien which tells of the meeting of Luthien and Beren in the forest of Neldoreth. And behold! there Luthien walked before his eyes in Rivendell, clad in a mantle of silver and blue, fair as twilight in her Elven-home; her dark hair strayed in a sudden wind, and her brows were bound with gems like stars."
J. R. R Tolkien - The Lord of the Rings - Appendix A Part V - The Tale of Arwen and Aragorn
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