Shortcuts Make Long Delays, but Vacations Make Longer Ones
Hi Tolkien Poppers!
I am sorry for the radio silence after an incredible Season 2 Finale of The Rings of Power—I was delayed.
The Friday after the premier of Episode 8, my wife and I left for a week-long trip to Italy. Obviously, I wasn’t visiting an old friend who mistook reason for madness and kept me prisoner in an ancient tower, but I did climb a multitude of ancient towers of my own accord. Here is a picture of my wife Kelly and I at the Tower of Pisa, my favorite tower of the trip:
Along with treading towers of the early and late medieval period, we spent many an hour at local cafes, bars, restaurants, and museums. My head is full of history of science, art, and politics; my stomach, full of cappuccino, cornetti, and gelato; and my heart, full of love for Kelly, adventure, and awe that the lasting art, science, and civics inspired in me. I truly felt I was treading a land surrounded by past civilizations that were built by giants.
While we traversed the diverse Italian landscape, a particular feeling of connection to Tolkien began to stir in me. Tolkien visited Italy with his daughter Priscilla from late July to mid-August in 1955. In letter to Christopher and Faith Tolkien dated August 15th, Tolkien conveyed his awe for Assisi, the High Mass he and Priscilla attended for the Feast of Santa Chiara, and expressed his favoritism towards Venice (Letters, 167). Now, we did not visit Venice on this trip. We could only fit so many spots in a week! But we did make a trip to Assisi and walk the entire city multiple times, stopping here and there in various basilicas, chapels, holy places, gardens, and shops. The Basilica of Santa Chiara, which houses her remains in a beautiful crypt below the church, is the first basilica that greets you as you enter the gates of Assisi. To have tread where both St. Clare (Chiara), St. Francis, and Tolkien have also tread—the same stones, same buildings, same landscape—fostered a mystical attachment to that place that has followed me home.
I hope to return to Italy again to visit places where I was unable to this time, such as Venice and Milan. To enter a land that has a visible ancient history that has experienced preservation is like entering the gates of Minas Tirith or passing into the realm of Rivendell, where portals into the secondary world of myth and history are more palpable to all those who wish to enter, receive, and give to that myth and history.
For now, I will have to reminisce and subject friends and family to horrible slideshows of our trip during the holidays.
This weekend is Theology Beer Camp in Denver, CO! I will be there at the Geek Stage with Dr. Craig Boyd talking some Tolkien and slinging back many, many pints with friends from around the U.S. and, possibly, the globe. So, there are some rumored plans for
and I to livestream our reactions and discussions for the Season 2 Finale of The Rings of Power at Beer Camp, so stay tuned for a link! It will also be another weekend of fun that will interrupt my writing schedule, so I hope that you will forgive me and wait in anticipation for my next post after Theology Beer Camp, where I will also surely be sharing pics and recap the Tolkien-related fun from the upcoming weekend along with other nerdy goodness!
This episode is brought to you by Elise Trudel Cedeño and Teaching with Magic, a podcast exploring the intersection of education, fantasy, and literacy. Elise explores the different ways that teachers in fiction and in the real world make magic for their students through interviews with scholars in various fields about important topics in education, and you'll get to be a part of an ongoing conversation about why the imagination matters. Find Teaching with Magic anywhere you get your podcasts and on YouTube. You can also join Teaching with Magic’s Patreon if you want to support the show and get some extra benefits: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=53024227
There is also a Tolkien Pop! library in the “about” section of the Tolkien Pop! Substack, where you can check out some of the books on Tolkien I have and am reading as well as those that I have reviewed. Checkout my library page here and see if anything strikes your fancy: https://tolkienpop.substack.com/about