Premise: the writer has not read all of Tolkien, he knows the biography in depth, but he has not read it all. Not even half to tell the truth, not even a quarter.
And it must be said immediately, because the comments and assonances that can be found by those of you who are expert readers will only enrich this reflection.
On the other hand, however, the writer knows Umbria well and the pure Franciscan spirit, that profound faith that has those who travel around the world with an open heart.
A text like Between St. Francis and Tolkien. A spiritual reading of the Lord of the Rings, written by Father Guglielmo Spirito, a Franciscan priest of Argentine nationality, could not fail to intrigue us with the dose of practical spirituality it contains.
In both texts nature is everywhere and in the same way the trials and the support and the joy and the fears that characterize life. But let's get into the biography of Saint Francis and Tolkien.
John Reuel Tolkien was born in South Africa, in 1892, his father died when he was just 4 years old; after mourning, the family moved to Sarehole, a suburb near Birmingham.
In 1904 his mother also died and Tolkien was entrusted to Father Francis Xavier Morgan, who taught him Greek, Gothic, and ancient Finnish. And the young genius loves nature and of language invents one, which grows with him. The study of the classics is as rigorous as the guardian's gaze, which prevents him from dating the maiden of which Tolkien falls madly in love at the age of 18, Edith Brath.
In 1913 Tolkien, having gained his independence, joined the girl (he married her in 1916) and in 1914 obtained the title of Bachelor of Arts at Exeter College of Oxford . War breaks out, he is sent to fight, he falls ill shortly after and returns home. His four children are born and he is given the chair of English Language and Medieval Literature of Merton College .
The decade from 1920 to 1930 is prolific, his imagination flows into rivers of ink, stories destined for his children, mixed with legends and mythologies of his world.
The work as a professor continues and legend has it that when he was correcting his students' drawings, finding himself in front of a blank sheet, he was asked to write: "A hobbit lived in a hole in the ground." The book with the title "The Hobbit" sees the light in 1937 and is an immediate success.
We know something about the life of Francis in terms of popular dissemination, but for those wishing to learn more, we recommend a text by the great medieval historian Jacques Le Goff entitled Saint Francis of Assisi, published by Laterza. In the pages of this text Le Goff explains this man well lived " on the margins of the Church but without falling into heresy, rebel without nihilism ".
A man open to society, in contrast to the accumulation of earthly goods by the Church and the faithful. Gilbert K. Chesterton or Eloi Leclerc explains it well in Sapienza di un povero . Poverty as a basic rule of its order has to do with distance from attachment. "My tessssoro" by Gollum comes to mind, it comes to mind the thirst for having that touches everyone except Tom Bombadil, the only one to be able to move in the Old Forest without being overwhelmed by the will.
The presence of God for Francis is all in nature, a source of pure joy, of a sincere smile, as in the canticle of Brother Sun, in which all natural events and phenomena are seen and loved in their spontaneous and material beauty, even death " Sora our bodily death " .
The living nature in Tolkien comes to mind, the time when men did not feel themselves masters, they knew how to share and want the earth as if it were another great living being to learn from and nurture.
You may also be interested in reading Lucrezio and the nature of things
The cure, nature, St. Francis and Tolkien
The text of Father Guglielmo Spirito touches in person characters like Galadriel, Celeborn, moves around the charm of the character Tom Bombadil ( “Francesco d'Assisi is a kind of real, concrete version of what Tom's figure evokes in us. His way of relating to things and life is just what " ).
Beautiful chapter III, very close to the themes of our site, as we talk about natural care as a natural cure for the human being towards his fellow man. The relationship as a healing . The author examines the relationship between Faramir and Eowyn to talk about the possibility of a " relationship lived in mutual trust, in which the person can discover himself in order to reveal himself, in which communication becomes communion ".
And we go on because these words have to do with the possibility of living in a better, more natural way: " trust is expressed in patience (a" letting yourself be "done") or personal consideration for the rhythm of the other, in personal availability, in the offer of one's time and attention to the meeting ".
What does it mean to look out for the other person's personal mystery? How important it is to make time out of it in this contraction of intentions and shouts of crisis everywhere. The fragility and richness of the two characters is outlined. " Learn to know each other, welcome each other, learn to love each other and love their dynamisms before thinking they can love those around us ", writes Father Guglielmo Spirito.
And in explaining the splendid figure of the elegant Legolas, he describes the nostalgia for the sea, the call of the seagulls, the definition of the firm intention to carry out a mission. To have faith as not to fear surprises and what they carry with them, a message that goes beyond what the God is in which one believes in the superficial sense of the religion to which one adheres. The meaning is profound and has to do with the unknown.
To explain an elf and at the same time to speak of the Franciscan perspective the author reports the words of the Romanian Nicu Steinhardt : “ Question. Ask. Insist. Osa. Do not fear. Do not be afraid. Persist. Break through. Be vigilant. Be wise. Here are so many tips that show us clearly that we must not be stupid! The proof is the very fact that God is a hidden God, that we must find him, find out ; that we must decipher your world. We do not find the jelly made, nature is complicated and dialectical, we are asked to explain it beyond complications and dialectics; its meanings lie beyond immediate reality. "
Believe it or not in a source, it is good to remember that it is inside and not elsewhere. This is the big gap, this is what nature teaches us. The last chapter devoted to the figure of Galadriel in a specific sense and to Our Lady in a visceral, divine sense, in the sense of the Great Mother, is very dense . The Lady of Lorien, the Golden Wood, Queen helix of great beauty and wisdom. Beauty like majesty and simplicity. Majesty and simplicity, a direction that naturally belongs to nature. And to which we can be inspired.
