Reverend Dr. Malcolm Guite

So the first thing you'd be missing is the language itself. But the second thing you'd be missing, which is much more important in a way, is your own imagination, your internal imagery. In a way, when you open a book and you see all the little blank You know, you can open a chapter called Lothlorien and you can see all these little bits of ink and patterns arranged. That's not Lothlorien.

That's just the Lothlorien starter kit. He gives you certain words about the trees, about how Frodo felt as they crossed the river into that realm. He'd crossed a bridge in time. But what he's doing is evoking something in you. And, you know, great as Peter Jackson is, he's giving you his personal Peter Jackson director's cut.

That's just the Lothlorien starter kit. He gives you certain words about the trees, about how Frodo felt as they crossed the river into that realm. He'd crossed a bridge in time. But what he's doing is evoking something in you. And, you know, great as Peter Jackson is, he's giving you his personal Peter Jackson director's cut.

That's just the Lothlorien starter kit. He gives you certain words about the trees, about how Frodo felt as they crossed the river into that realm. He'd crossed a bridge in time. But what he's doing is evoking something in you. And, you know, great as Peter Jackson is, he's giving you his personal Peter Jackson director's cut.

But your internal imagining of that book might be even better than Jackson. And even if it isn't, it's yours. I think, you know, when you imagine your Gandalf or your Elrond, or much, much more importantly, not only your Sam and your Frodo, but also the darker characters, your idea of who Saruman is or even Sauron himself,

But your internal imagining of that book might be even better than Jackson. And even if it isn't, it's yours. I think, you know, when you imagine your Gandalf or your Elrond, or much, much more importantly, not only your Sam and your Frodo, but also the darker characters, your idea of who Saruman is or even Sauron himself,

But your internal imagining of that book might be even better than Jackson. And even if it isn't, it's yours. I think, you know, when you imagine your Gandalf or your Elrond, or much, much more importantly, not only your Sam and your Frodo, but also the darker characters, your idea of who Saruman is or even Sauron himself,

What you're doing is you're drawing on deeper, deeper images from inside yourself about good or evil, about a true path or a false one. And in a sense, it's much better to draw them up from within than to have them projected from without.

What you're doing is you're drawing on deeper, deeper images from inside yourself about good or evil, about a true path or a false one. And in a sense, it's much better to draw them up from within than to have them projected from without.

What you're doing is you're drawing on deeper, deeper images from inside yourself about good or evil, about a true path or a false one. And in a sense, it's much better to draw them up from within than to have them projected from without.

Yeah, well, I mean, he almost certainly started the first imaginings of that whole realm of Middle Earth and beyond it. the lands beyond the Sundering Seas and so on, while he was a young man on the Western Front. I mean, he and C.S. Lewis were both young officers on the Western Front. The attrition rate was absolutely terrible. We're incredibly lucky that both of them survived.

Yeah, well, I mean, he almost certainly started the first imaginings of that whole realm of Middle Earth and beyond it. the lands beyond the Sundering Seas and so on, while he was a young man on the Western Front. I mean, he and C.S. Lewis were both young officers on the Western Front. The attrition rate was absolutely terrible. We're incredibly lucky that both of them survived.

Yeah, well, I mean, he almost certainly started the first imaginings of that whole realm of Middle Earth and beyond it. the lands beyond the Sundering Seas and so on, while he was a young man on the Western Front. I mean, he and C.S. Lewis were both young officers on the Western Front. The attrition rate was absolutely terrible. We're incredibly lucky that both of them survived.

And indeed, of course, Lewis was wounded. Now, one of the things that happened after that, if you look at some of the other writers... who came out of that, the great war poets like Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen. They felt that the very idea of noble heroism, of chivalry, of the noble warrior had been blown to bits on the Western front.

And indeed, of course, Lewis was wounded. Now, one of the things that happened after that, if you look at some of the other writers... who came out of that, the great war poets like Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen. They felt that the very idea of noble heroism, of chivalry, of the noble warrior had been blown to bits on the Western front.

And indeed, of course, Lewis was wounded. Now, one of the things that happened after that, if you look at some of the other writers... who came out of that, the great war poets like Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen. They felt that the very idea of noble heroism, of chivalry, of the noble warrior had been blown to bits on the Western front.

Wilfred Owen came and wrote a very famous poem called Dulce et decorum est, which is a Latin thing, Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori, it is sweet and proper to die for your country. And he wrote a pretty savagely ironic poem about that. And you can forgive him for doing so, given the kind of industrialization of carnage.

Wilfred Owen came and wrote a very famous poem called Dulce et decorum est, which is a Latin thing, Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori, it is sweet and proper to die for your country. And he wrote a pretty savagely ironic poem about that. And you can forgive him for doing so, given the kind of industrialization of carnage.

Wilfred Owen came and wrote a very famous poem called Dulce et decorum est, which is a Latin thing, Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori, it is sweet and proper to die for your country. And he wrote a pretty savagely ironic poem about that. And you can forgive him for doing so, given the kind of industrialization of carnage.

But, and this is a really significant but, and that course became the mainstream of, you know, modernist culture, the Siegfried Sassoons and the Wilfred Owens of this world. But Lewis and Tolkien saw just as much hideous action on the Western Front, but they came out and wrote stories in which it was still possible to have heroic courage.