Avalon Mentors
By William J Lasseter
"The righteous flourish like the palm tree,
and grow like a cedar in Lebanon." - Psalm 91
"Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding.
Exalt her, and she shall promote thee: she shall bring thee to honour, when thou dost embrace her."
- Proverbs 4:7-8
Helping educators through discussion, insight, reviews, and ideas.
Avalon MentorsJun 09, 2022
Now our charms are all overthrown
Good Hobbit Morning Episode XVIII, chapter 18, "The Last Stage"
The conclusion of the novel and of this series. Why a stage? Is it actors we are? Or is this stages as in "egg stage; larval stage; chrysalis stage; imago stage"? Journeys home - the nature of "home" - where is that place, anyway?
"Not in entire forgetfulness,
And not in utter nakedness,
But trailing clouds of glory do we come
From God, who is our home..."
Perhaps he is correct.
Were all the adventures in order to get there? Were all the prophecies for the sole benefit of getting us there? "Surely you don’t disbelieve the prophecies, because you had a hand in bringing them about yourself? You don’t really suppose, do you, that all your adventures and escapes were managed by mere luck, just for your sole benefit?" Perhaps we don't. Perhaps we have to remember that they were for other reasons to. And if the way to get home is to remember that we are a very fine person, but "are only quite a little fellow in a wide world after all!" then perhaps that is for the best.
The Scholastic Collapse (part 2)
So what exactly was the debate between the Nominalists and the Realists?
Who were the Nominalists and the Realists?
What exactly happened in 1277?
Why should you care?
"Scholasticism" by Rickaby - https://www.amazon.com/Scholasticism-Joseph-Rickaby/dp/1477478930/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3NMXKW8058BV2&keywords=scholasticism+rickaby&qid=1674010821&qu=eyJxc2MiOiIwLjAwIiwicXNhIjoiMC4wMCIsInFzcCI6IjAuMDAifQ%3D%3D&sprefix=scholasticism+rickaby%2Caps%2C108&sr=8-1
"Scholasticism" by Pieper - https://www.amazon.com/Scholasticism-Personalities-Problems-Medieval-Philosophy/dp/1587317508/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1TK6OON4F3CQO&keywords=scholasticism+pieper&qid=1674010886&sprefix=scholasticism+pieper%2Caps%2C92&sr=8-1
"Sacred Geometry" by Lawlor - https://www.amazon.com/Sacred-Geometry-Philosophy-Practice-Imagination/dp/0500810303/ref=sr_1_1?crid=JF7QFXEIVY0H&keywords=sacred+geometry+lawlor&qid=1674010920&sprefix=sacred+geometry+lawlor%2Caps%2C101&sr=8-1
The Scholastic Collapse (part 1)
What happened in the 13th century philosophical world that radically changed the nature of Western European culture (hint we are still dealing with it today)?
What did these people believe about the nature of mathematics (and why should you care)?
Who was Joseph Pieper (and for that matter Romano Guardini) (and why should you read both of them)?
"Scholasticism" by Pieper: https://www.amazon.com/Scholasticism-Personalities-Problems-Medieval-Philosophy/dp/1587317508/ref=sr_1_11?crid=3SRLJVZDEV80P&keywords=scholasticism&qid=1674002053&sprefix=scholastici%2Caps%2C517&sr=8-11
"The End of the Modern World" by Guardini: https://www.amazon.com/End-Modern-World-Romano-Guardini/dp/1882926587/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1CB78O0A5D8UL&keywords=the+end+of+the+modern+world&qid=1674002090&sprefix=the+end+of+the+modern+worl%2Caps%2C133&sr=8-1
"Everything that rises must converge" by Flannery O'Connor (a reading)
Mary Flannery O'Connor (March 25, 1925 – August 3, 1964) was an American novelist, short story writer and essayist. She wrote two novels and 31 short stories, as well as a number of reviews and commentaries.
Writing to a friend in the mid-1950s, O'Connor noted that we live in an age in which "the moral sense has been bred out of certain sections of the population, like the wings have been bred off certain chickens to produce more white meat on them....This is a Generation of wingless chickens, which I suppose is what Nietzsche meant when he said God was dead." In such a situation, she felt, subtlety could not work: "you have to make your vision apparent by shock---to the hard of hearing you shout, and for the almost blind you draw large and startling figures."
Everything That Rises Must Converge is the main story in a collection of short stories written by Flannery O'Connor during the final decade of her life. The collection was published posthumously in 1965 and contains an introduction by Robert Fitzgerald.
The short story that lends its name to the 1965 short story collection was first published in the 1961 issue of New World Writing. The story won O'Connor her second O. Henry Award in 1963.
Fathers and Sons - a reflection on Shakespeare's "Hamlet"
Read the play. Is it about nominalism vs. realism? Is it about fathers & sons? Is it Shakespeare's love letter to his own son, Hamnet?
"Hament died when he was eleven years old, in August 1596, due to unknown causes., It’s thought that he possibly died from the bubonic plague that killed around one-third of all children below the age of twelve in Elizabethan England."
https://nosweatshakespeare.com/resources/family/hamnet-shakespeare/
The name Hamlet occurs in the form Amleth in a 13th-century book of Danish History written by Saxo Grammaticus, popularised by François de Belleforest as L'histoire tragique d'Hamlet, and appearing in the English translation as "Hamblet". The story of Amleth is assumed to originate in Old Norse or Icelandic poetry from several centuries earlier. Saxo has it as Amlethus, the Latin form of the old Jutish Amlethæ. In terms of etymology the Old Icelandic name Amlóði comes from the Icelandic noun amlóði, meaning ‘fool,’ suggestive of the way that Hamlet acts in the play. Later these names were incorporated into Irish as Amlodhe. As phonetic laws took their course the name’s spelling changed eventually leaving it as Amlaidhe. This Irish name was given to a hero in a common folk story. The root of this name is ‘furious, raging, wild’.
Macbeth Act I, scene 3 - Concerning witches
Much thanks to Neil Oliver for his recent youtube video on witches and the hunt for witches. This discussion is about the mania that swept through England in the 15th, 16th, and 17th century. How does collective madness occur? How does Shakespeare mollify that madness? Could Shakespeare be suggesting that our own actions and choices, not witchcraft or fate, determine our lives?
As Banquo says to Macbeth;
oftentimes, to win us to our harm,
The instruments of darkness tell us truths,
Win us with honest trifles, to betray's
In deepest consequence.
or as Cassius says to Brutus in "Julius Caesar"
Men at some time are masters of their fates:
The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars,
But in ourselves
Amazons “Rings of Power” vs Tolkien’s Legendarium
King Crimson & the artistic response
Christian Friendship
A talk I delivered to the young adults at Holy Family Parish. We discussed Filia vs. Agape, the role of Koinonia, and why it is important for Christians to befriend the downtrodden and miserable (b/c most of us are downtrodden and miserable).
For more on friendship (and Christian Friendship) I highly recommend:
Aristotle: Nichomachean Ethics
Cicero: de Amicitia
C.S.Lewis: The Four Loves
Good Hobbit Morning Episode XVII, chapter 17, "The Clouds Burst"
In which we talk about war, man's propensity toward war, the war in our hearts, and how wonderful Gandalf (Gandr) is.
“Hate and Suffering” - Luke 14:26
Good Hobbit Morning Episode XVI, chapter 16, "A Thief in the Night"
In which our heroes discuss Bilbo's maturation, Thorin's insanity & whether the Arkenstone is really the last of the three Silmarils. Could Bilbo be holding both the Ring of Power and the Last Silmaril at the same time? Minds will be blown.
Good Hobbit Morning Ep. XV, Chapter 15 "The Gathering of the Clouds"
All about crows - and ravens - and crows vs. Ravens. With a bit of Odin thrown in there and some reflections on the nature of the novel.
Good Hobbit Morning Episode XIV, chapter 14 "Fire & Water"
The killing of the dragon, Smaug (and all that that entails)! Have you ever noticed that the killing of Smaug (seen here in Tolkien's own pencil sketch) looks a heck of a lot like Led Zeppelin's iconic "Icarus" logo? What's up with that? Here Dr. Cameron and I discuss the nature of the dragon, the cosmogonic elements of fire and water, and the difference between a Master (of Laketown) and a King (Bard) - b/c there is definitely a difference.
Good Hobbit Morning Episode XIII, chapter 13 "Not at Home"
In which Dr. Cameron and I address the issue of the dragon again; the Fay world; and not laughing at live dragons. Something screwy happens at some point in the video and we become a comic book. Artwork/Myth/Imagination as central to humanity • Gorecki “Symphony of Sorrowful Songs” • Artwork as discovery not mere creation The Ring in relation to the Dragon • Gyges’ Ring • The realm of shadows (thaumatapoioi) The Dragon as a creature of despair The 6 Sins against the Holy Spirit
Good Hobbit Morning Episode XII, Chapter 12, "Inside Information"
In which Dr. Cameron Thompson and I finally meet the dragon ... and he is us.
Good Hobbit Morning, Ep. 11, "On the Doorstep"
Dr. Thompson and I discuss the 11th chapter of Tolkien's great novel, "The Hobbit".
Good Hobbit Morning Episode 10, chapter X, "A Warm Welcome"
In which our hosts discuss songs, The Master and a city on stilts.
Good Hobbit Morning (with Dr. Cameron Thompson) ep. VIII, chapter 8 "Flies and Spiders"
In which Dr. Cameron Thompson & I discuss spiders (not flies), mirk, white deer and being caught in a net (and how, with a little luck, to perhaps be disengannoed therefrom). There are some funny outtakes at the end and perhaps some wisdom as well.
"Flies & Spiders" chapter 8 in the Hobbit
The escape from the webs of the spiders is reminiscent of the escape from sin and slavery that we all long for.
Surely he will save you from the fowler’s snare and from the deadly pestilence. - Psalm 91:3
Perhaps that white deer is sent partly as a sign of the glory in the midst of the darkness (like the candle returning to the church at the Easter Vigil); perhaps it is sent to increase the desire for freedom, light, and cleanness - a hunger transcending the hunger of the belly that drives them off the path. Shooting at the gift, then, is like the Mariner in Coleridge's poem shooting at the albatross, isn't it? The result is a tremendous weight around the neck of the Mariner, like the penitential weight Robert DeNiro's character bears in "The Mission", or like Bombur sleeping through the rest of the journey. Surviving that weight, enduring the dark mirk of the soul, seems to create in Bilbo a resilient defiance that transforms him and grants him the strength not only to fight the arachnoid demons of darkness but to lead the dwarves through Mirkwood and beyond.
Good Hobbit Morning (with Dr. Cameron Thompson) ep. VII, chapter 7 "Queer Lodgings"
The one where we discuss Beorn & berzerkers & eagles & Russian novels and what a queer thing man is, what a queer thing language is, and what one has to do with the other. And also totemistic bear spirits.
Did Tolkien read Dostoevsky? The protagonist in Dostoevsky's “The Double” is a fellow named Golyadkin (Голядкин); a neurotic individual on the verge of a nervous breakdown who has conversations with himself very similar to Gollum/Smeagol in Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings". Coincidence? Golyadkin debaters with himself,
Everything, apparently, and even nature itself, seemed up in arms against Mr. Golyadkin; but he was still on his legs and unconquered; he felt that he was unconquered. He was ready to struggle. he rubbed his hands with such feeling and such energy when he recovered from his first amazement that it could be deduced from his very air that he would not give in. yet the danger was imminent; it was evident; Mr. Golyadkin felt it; but how to grapple with it, with this danger? - that was the question. the thought even flashed through Mr. Golyadkin's mind for a moment, "After all, why not leave it so, simply give up? Why, what is it? Why, it's nothing. I'll keep apart as though it were not I," thought Mr. Golyadkin. "I'll let it all pass; it's not I, and that's all about it; he's separate too, maybe he'll give it up too; he'll hang about, the rascal, he'll hang about. He'll come back and give it up again. Than's how it will be! I'll take it meekly. And, indeed, where is the danger? Come, what danger is there? I should like any one to tell me where the danger lies in this business. It is a trivial affair. An everyday affair. . . ."
Tolkien's Library: An Annotated Checklist by Oronzo Cilli might give answer to this if the good professor had the Russian novel on his shelf (either in Russian or in translation as Tolkien new the Slavic language well).
More likely, though is that It is from Old Norse.
In The Annotated Hobbit with annotations by Douglas Anderson, Anderson claims that Gollum is from the Old Norse gull meaning Gold, and an inflected form of this is gollum meaning; gold, treasure or something precious. In the oldest manuscripts it is spelled goll. One inflected form would be gollum, 'gold, treasure, something precious.' It can also mean 'ring,' as is found in the compound word fingr-gull, 'finger-ring.'"
As for Beorn, Tolkien's original name for this character was “Medwed” (Russian/Slavic: “medved” = “bear”) - which indicates Tolkien knew Slavic.
So the question is still up for debate: did Tolkien read Dostoevsky?
Brightburn and the problem of unlimited power
A review of the Movie "Brightburn" and an examination of the nature of power. The question of whether absolute power necessarily corrupts absolutely was addressed by Plato in his 4th century BC work "The Republic".
Michael Daugherty's "Bizarro"
Good Hobbit Morning (with Dr. Cameron Thompson) ep. VI, chapter 6 "Out of the Frying Pan Into the Fire"
In which our hosts follow the little hero as he narrowly escapes being scorched by heoruweargs and goblins, only to be carried aloft to dizzying heights by fiercesome eagles.
The antipathy toward wolves seems to go deep into human consciousness, and when we read a passage such as this from 19th century author, Willa Cather, we can understand why:
A black drove came up over the hill behind the wedding party. The wolves ran like streaks of shadow; they looked no bigger than dogs, but there were hundreds of them.
Something happened to the hindmost sledge: the driver lost control—he was probably very drunk—the horses left the road, the sledge was caught in a clump of trees, and overturned. The occupants rolled out over the snow, and the fleetest of the wolves sprang upon them. The shrieks that followed made everybody sober. The drivers stood up and lashed their horses. The groom had the best team and his sledge was lightest—all the others carried from six to a dozen people.
Another driver lost control. The screams of the horses were more terrible to hear than the cries of the men and women. Nothing seemed to check the wolves. It was hard to tell what was happening in the rear; the people who were falling behind shrieked as piteously as those who were already lost. The little bride hid her face on the groom’s shoulder and sobbed. Pavel sat still and watched his horses. The road was clear and white, and the groom’s three blacks went like the wind. It was only necessary to be calm and to guide them carefully.
At length, as they breasted a long hill, Peter rose cautiously and looked back. ‘There are only three sledges left,’ he whispered.
‘And the wolves?’ Pavel asked.
‘Enough! Enough for all of us.’
- Chapter VIII of "My Antonia" by Willa Cather
As for eagles, Tennyson wrote,
He clasps the crag with crooked hands;
Close to the sun in lonely lands,
Ringed with the azure world, he stands.
The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls;
He watches from his mountain walls,
And like a thunderbolt he falls.
Eagles have always been a symbol of power, nobility, far-seeing wisdom, and the courage to act. They here constitute the escapism from certain peril which we are offered by Divine Providence. Some might call the literature that professes a Providential God "escapist" - but of such escapist literature Professor Tolkien wrote
“Why should a man be scorned, if, finding himself in prison, he tries to get out and go home? Or if, when he cannot do so, he thinks and talks about other topics than jailers and prison-walls? The world outside has not become less real because the prisoner cannot see it. In using Escape in this way the critics have chosen the wrong word, and, what is more, they are confusing, not always by sincere error, the Escape of the Prisoner with the Flight of the Deserter. just so a Party-spokesman might have labeled departure from the misery of the Fuhrer's or any other Reich and even criticism of it as treachery .... Not only do they confound the escape of the prisoner with the flight of the deserter; but they would seem to prefer the acquiescence of the "quisling" to the resistance of the patriot.”
Good Hobbit Morning (with Dr. Cameron Thompson) ep. IV, chapter 4 "Over Hill and Under Hill"
Good Hobbit Morning (with Dr. Cameron Thompson) ep. V, chapter 5 "Riddles in the Dark"
Our heroes delve deep under the earth and confront the Gollum of the second self.
The big question to ask in Tolkien's works is
WHAT IS THE RING?
Well, it is like
- the Ouroboros
- the SAMPO in Kalevala (w/Vainamoinen)
- the ring imagery in Nibelung
- the Gyges’ Ring story in Plato’s “Republic”
We know that it is
- Golden (like a mini sun)
- Continuous (like the Ouroboros)
- a Treasure that Makes one invisible
- fits on the finger (not the neck or chest like a hauberk)
- formed by The Dark Lord Sauron (deception is involved & power)
Is it then
- Related to Time?
- A metaphor for Seeing behind the curtain?
- An image of the artistic ability?
- Something that binds together?
Perhaps an answer can be approached by asking
What is The World of Gollum?
· It is like the world of Grendel’s dam in Beowulf
· Which itself is based on the mythical world of Midgard and Yggdrasil the World Tree in Norse mythology
https://www.worldhistory.org/article/1305/nine-realms-of-norse-cosmology/
https://theheart756621753.files.wordpress.com/2018/10/the-9-worlds-in-mythology.jpg
What is the Character of Gollum?- He is “The Swallower”
- His name reflects The Kabbalistic “golem” of Prague
o https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golem
- He is a miniature of Sauron
What is the nature of the Riddle Game?
- It is Time honored
- Rooted in Norse culture
o https://medium.com/@erin.nord87/the-influence-of-norse-mythology-in-riddles-in-the-dark-19acb167b47b
- Strategic
- An existential test
- Even the Question mark is a riddle; a dragon
What is The escape (the “birthday”) - from danger and from this world?
- Ring signifies a “seeing differently”
- “Born again” – “Bless us and splash us”
Great good brought about after but there is the risk of the Shadow self taking over (the dragon; Sauron)
Good Hobbit Morning (with Dr. Cameron Thompson) - chapter 3: "A Short Rest"
The nature of DREAD in the works of Tolkien; the nature of elves; maps and their usage and moon letters ("what are moon letters?")
Fear (along with anger and love) is one of the deepest human emotions. In his article at Electric Lit, “The Literature of Dread”, John Broening distinguishes between Dread (or Terror), Horror, and Revulsion.
Dread = fear of the imminent, of the inevitable. The unseen thing. Terror. The feeling of apprehension at the possibility of something frightening.
Horror = the shock and repulsion of seeing the frightening thing
Revulsion = the gross out factor accompanying fear
Like Walker Percy, Tolkien seems to have used dread (caurë in Quenyan elvish) to awaken the "un-placed self" to its existential predicament in the modern world. The moments of quiet calm and beauty (like the "last homely house" of Rivendell) are always surrounded by this unseen danger into which each of us must venture if the quest of life is to continue.
"Dread has come upon you all. The goblins who claim for the treasure comes from the North! Behold! They ride on Wolves!”
- Gandalf
Good Hobbit Morning (with Dr. Cameron Thompson) - chapter 2: "Roast Mutton"
Dr. Thompson joins me again to discuss the novel,"The Hobbit" by JRR Tolkien. We continue the journey to chapter 2, "Roast Mutton", and when we get to the end we will stop.
In this episode Bilbo runs out in the morning without a pocket handkerchief, meets some big ugly trolls, and gets a new sword.
"The Hobbit" was written by Tolkien in 1937 for his children, though he began the work after finding a blank page in a composition book while he was grading student compositions. There began history when the philologist, amazed & relieved at seeing the blank page, wrote the immortal words, "In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit". Received with almost unanimously favorable reviews (among the fans were CS Lewis & WH Auden), the novel was translated into several other languages from English and eventually adapted for stage, screen, radio, board games, and video games. It was the precursor to the later novel by Tolkien, "The Lord of the Rings" and still remains one of the most endearing novels of the 20th (and 21st) century.
Good Hobbit Morning (with Dr. Cameron Thompson) - chapter 1: "An Unexpected Party"
Dr. Thompson joins me again to discuss the novel,"The Hobbit" by JRR Tolkien. We begin at the beginning, chapter 1, and when we get to the end we will stop.
In a hole in the ground is where it all begins - when suddenly BOOM! Dwarves. But "no thank you, we don't care for adventures around here," says our little hero, and so the journey to free the long enchanted gold almost ends where it begins. Thank goodness he is more of a burglar than a grocer.
"The Hobbit" was written by Tolkien in 1937 for his children, though he began the work after finding a blank page in a composition book while he was grading student compositions. There began history when the philologist, amazed & relieved at seeing the blank page, wrote the immortal words, "In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit". Received with almost unanimously favorable reviews (among the fans were CS Lewis & WH Auden), the novel was translated into several other languages from English and eventually adapted for stage, screen, radio, board games, and video games. It was the precursor to the later novel by Tolkien, "The Lord of the Rings" and still remains one of the most endearing novels of the 20th (and 21st) century.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hobbit
"When it comes to controlling human beings there is no better instrument than lies. Because, you see, humans live by beliefs. And beliefs can be manipulated. The power to manipulate beliefs is the only thing that counts. ... Only the right name gives beings and things their reality. A wrong name makes everything unreal. That's what lies do.” - Michael Ende, The Neverending Story
“…but nasturtians was deliberate and represented a final triumph over the high-handed printers. They had corrected his English without reference to him and he had been put to the trouble of proving to the chief proof-reader his own ignorance and rebuking him for his impertinence. He had dug in about nasturtians, which he had always said. It was an Anglicization after the "Indian Cress" was naturalized in the 18th century. Tolkien had consulted the college gardener: "What do you call these things?" "Tropaeolum, sir." "But when just talking to the dons?" "I says nasturtians, sir." "Not nasturtium?" "No, sir; that’s watercress." - Tolkien, letter 148
The crisis of the Chryses.
Thought Bites - Clovis and the Norse Heroic Ideal
In his essay "BEOWULF: THE MONSTERS AND THE CRITICS" (1936), J.R.R. TOLKIEN wrote that
"In the epoch of Beowulf (produced between 975 and 1025) a Heroic Age more wild and primitive than that of Greece is brought into touch with Christendom, with the Sermon on the Mount, with Catholic theology and ideas of Heaven and Hell."
This "fusion-point of imagination", as Tolkien calls it, which united the Norse heroic ideal with the Christian idea of sainthood found its inception in the baptism of Clovis I in 506.
And yet the ideals of the Norse hero and the Christian saint are NOT the same. While Christianity acknowledges the violence of the world it suggests that one must return violence with love, greed with poverty, power with humility. Christians were, from early on, encouraged to "turn the other cheek," "sell all they have and give it to the poor," "take up their cross" and follow Christ who, himself, "suffered death, even death on the cross" as Paul wrote.
The Norse idea is framed by the knowledge of Ragnarok, or the "inevitable overthrow in Time." Yet in the face of known defeat the warrior professes "the exaltation of undefeated will", an "indomitability" of spirit, "man at war with the hostile world." Those forces opposed to the gods, therefore, "are identified with the foes of God. Grendel and the dragon are constantly referred to in language which is meant to recall the powers of darkness with which Christian men felt themselves to be encompassed. They are the 'inmates of Hell', 'adversaries of God', 'offspring of Cain', 'enemies of mankind'," as R.W. Chambers wrote.
When these two ideals of heroism were united, says Tolkien, "The monsters remained the enemies of mankind, the infantry of the old war, and became inevitably the enemies of the one God, ece Dryhten, the eternal Captain of the new. Even so the vision of the war changes."
Clovis was baptized on Christmas Day in 508. The adoption by Clovis of Catholicism led to widespread conversion among the Frankish peoples; to religious unification across what is now modern-day France, the Low Countries and Germany; three centuries later, to Charlemagne's alliance with the Bishop of Rome; and in the middle of the 10th century under Otto I the Great, to the consequent birth of the early Holy Roman Empire.
Consequently the fusion of the Norse heroic ideal with Christian Sainthood became the image of European heroism culminating in the sine qua non of Saint Louis, the struggle with Islam, and the framing of much of European culture leading up even into our own era.
Morimur (Bach's Partita in D minor for solo violin)
A commentary on the human artistic endeavor. Helga Thoene proposes in her essay that Johann Sebastian Bach embedded into the ciaccona (Partita in D minor for solo violin (BWV 1004) numerous mathematical and musical references making the work a memorial, or trombeau, to his deceased wife, Maria Barbara Bach, who died in 1720.
Check out a recording of the Partita here
The album Morimur by the Hilliard Ensemble can be found here
More about the research by Thoene can be found here, here, and here.
Let's Do Lunch: Raymond Riethmeier
In this episode of Let’s Do Lunch I have a discussion with Mr Raymond Riethmeier.
I had the pleasure of meeting Ray when I worked with his incomparably talented wife at a local parochial school in Minnesota. Ray is a man of many talents; he is on the board of the Sherlock Holmes Society “The Norwegian Explorers”, is vice president of the “Friends of Sherlock Holmes” and was recently inducted into “The Baker Street Irregulars” out of New York. He contributes to various fiction collections and worked on a publication about the character, The Shadow. Ray and I share a common love of movies, comic books, collectibles, and prog rock. In this episode we discuss the history of comic books, the turn that comics took in the 1980s, and the future of comics as contributing to a vision of heroism and nobility in our culture.
- What is the value of comics as a medium?
- Why do people appreciate comics, superheroes, and the accompanying movies so much?
- What is the future of this distinctly American art form?
All this and more can be found in this episode of Let’s Do Lunch with Avalon Mentors podcast.
Let's Do Lunch: Dr. Cameron Thompson (round 3)
In this episode of Let’s Do Lunch I have a discussion w/Dr. Cameron Thompson.
I had the pleasure of meeting Dr. Cameron when we taught together at a local classical school here in Minnesota. He is an anthropologist & teacher steeped in literature, philosophy, history & theology. We discuss
· the current situation in America from an outside perspective;
· The Benedict Option and how it prompted his family to move to Italy to create an authentic life for the future
· And how we all might attempt to craft a hopeful way forward in our troubled world.
All this and more can be found in this episode of Let’s Do Lunch on Avalon Mentors podcast.
Dr. Thompson's podcast is
You can also find his observations and ideas at the website
or at his professional website
Saint Benedict of Nursia (c. 2 March 480 – c. 21 March 547 AD) wrote "The Rule of Saint Benedict" in 516 which became the standard rule for monasticism in Europe. It is the basis for Alisdair MacIntyre's proposal in "After Virtue" that came to be referred to as "The Benedict Option".
The Return of the King and the Eucatastrophe
This episode is a discussion of Tolkien's third book in the Lord of the Rings series, “The Return of the King.”
The episode introduces Tolkien’s concept of The EUCATASTROPHE as an embracing of suffering. We also discuss the nature of kingship especially as it involves this embracing of suffering & the confrontation with nothingness.
How is The One Ring an escape from suffering?
How might mythology offer us a response to the temptation of the Ring of Power?
And why was Tolkien so adamantly opposed to C.S.Lewis’ statement that myths are “lies breathed through silver”?
Myths, Lewis once told Tolkien, were "lies and therefore worthless, even though breathed through silver."
"No," Tolkien replied. "They are not lies."
THE EUCATASTROPHE
Tolkien invented the word EUCATASTROPHE to describe the workings of grace in life (and in mythology). It is taken from Greek ευ- "good" and καταστροφή "destruction".
Tolkien writes in Letter 89,
"I coined the word 'eucatastrophe': the sudden happy turn in a story which pierces you with a joy that brings tears (which I argued it is the highest function of fairy-stories to produce). And I was there led to the view that it produces its peculiar effect because it is a sudden glimpse of Truth, your whole nature chained in material cause and effect, the chain of death, feels a sudden relief as if a major limb out of joint had suddenly snapped back. It perceives – if the story has literary 'truth' on the second plane (....) – that this is indeed how things really do work in the Great World for which our nature is made. And I concluded by saying that the Resurrection was the greatest 'eucatastrophe' possible in the greatest Fairy Story – and produces that essential emotion: Christian joy which produces tears because it is qualitatively so like sorrow, because it comes from those places where Joy and Sorrow are at one, reconciled, as selfishness and altruism are lost in Love."
Most commonly the Eucatastrophe is equated with felix culpa; or a happy fault (paradoxically) – a bringing good out of evil. But it is more than that. The word “Catastrophe” signifies a “sudden and widespread disaster”; from Grk kata (over) and strophe (turning). Most everyone would see catastrophe, esp. the catastrophes of failure and death, as insurmountable.
Tolkien held it as a great truth that our self-mastery, our Kingship comes from facing the Eucatastrophe, going through it, and eventually experiencing the joy of the Resurrection.
This echoes the ancient Greek phrase:
“Drasanta pathos; pathei mathos”
The experience brings suffering; the suffering brings wisdom.”
Only by embracing the suffering can we eventually come to the wisdom of knowing ourselves, and thus to the self-mastery of kingship.
The Two Towers: Tolkien, Duality, and the tendency toward deception
This is a recording of the fourth lecture in a five-part series on Tolkien.
In this episode we discuss Tolkien's knowledge of Sacred Geometry, the crisis posed by Scholasticism, the treachery of images (with a nod to Magritte), and how our tendency to think in duality has the propensity to lead us into deception - even deceiving ourselves.
There exists (even in Tolkien's mind) a bit of confusion about which towers the title of the work is referencing.
In a letter to Rayner Unwin (the publisher) from Aug 17, 1953 (Letters #140), Tolkien wrote:
"The Two Towers" gets as near as possible to finding a title to cover the widely divergent Books 3 and 4; and can be left ambiguous - it might refer to Isengard and Barad-dûr, or to Minas Tirith and Barad-dur; or Isengard and Cirith Ungol."
I opt for the relationship between Minas Tirith and Minas Morgul (Barad-dur).
Nota Bene: The poet and aesthetic philosopher Samuel Taylor Coleridge introduced the term "suspension of disbelief" in 1817 and suggested that if a writer could infuse a "human interest and a semblance of truth" into a fantastic tale, the reader would suspend judgement concerning the implausibility of the narrative.
Also, Plato uses the term "Thaumatapoioi" (wondrous creations, "shadow puppets") in his great dialogue, "The Republic". Tolkien's image of the Ring has much in common with Plato's Thaumatapoioi and with the Ring of Gyges which makes one invisible. For Plato, as for Tolkien, the images must lead us to see the really real, the Good, Illuvatar - but taken in themselves they are like Lothlorien in their beauty but must be allowed to fade away.
Lastly, wrt names in the novel - this from Behind the Name:
Frodo: Derived from Old English froda meaning "wise".
Samwise Gamgee: Means "simple, half wise" from Old English sam "half" and wis "wise".
Meriadoc (Merry): From an old Breton name composed of the elements mer "sea" and iatoc "forehead". Conan Meriadeg was the legendary founder of Brittany.
Peregrine (Pippin): From the Late Latin name Peregrinus, which meant "traveller". (Frankish name of unknown meaning. It possibly means "awe-inspiring" from Frankish bib- "to tremble". This was the name of three majordomos of Austrasia including Pépin III the Short, who became the first Carolingian king of the Franks. He was the father of Charlemagne.)
The Fellowship of the Ring; Isolation, Community, and the path toward Humanity
This episode is a discussion of Tolkien's first book in the Lord of the Rings series.
The episode gives a history of the text and introduces the literary concepts of The FOUR-FOLD METHOD OF EXEGESIS by Dante Alighieri & NATURAL & CONVENTIONAL SYMBOLISM. We also discuss further the nature of dragons & of the confrontation with nothingness. A brief reading period results in observations from participants leading finally into a discussion of The One Ring.
FOUR-FOLD METHOD OF EXEGESIS
Outlined by Dante Alighieri in his Letter to Cangrande the 4 levels trace their roots back to Jewish interpretation and perhaps further. Though they are normally done by a reader intuitively and automatically, it is helpful to interpret consciously using the method.
For me be able to present what I am going to say, you must know that the sense of this work is not simple, rather it may be called polysemantic, that is, of many senses; the first sense is that which comes from the letter, the second is that of that which is signified by the letter. And the first is called the literal, the second allegorical or moral or anagogical.
The levels consist of
1. Literal level
a. What do the words (litera) mean in the work?
2. Allegorical level 1 (Allegorical)
a. How do the images connect to other images in the text?
b. How do the images connect or make reference to images in other works?
3. Allegorical level 2 (Tropological / Moral)
a. What do the images mean for the human race?
b. What is the moral of the story? (i.e. “it is not good for men to be alone”)
4. Allegorical level 3 (Anagogical)
a. What do the images mean to me personally? (i.e. “this means X for the human race; I am a member of the human race; what does this mean in my life?”)
NATURAL & CONVENTIONAL SYMBOLISM
Natural Symbolism – greater of the two; symbol by its nature embodies that which it seeks to convey; symbol and meaning are inseparable and universal for all mankind.
i.e. water; darkness; the color red; the forest (primeval)
Conventional Symbolism – lesser of the two; symbol is agreed upon by a culture to represent something else; symbol and meaning are not intuitively connected; knowledge of culture is necessary to understand the symbol
i.e. A STOP sign; the letters that make up the word “STOP”; the edict against eating pork; a phrase such as “Talitha cumi” (Mark 5:41)
Seven Bridges Road
A recording of the Eagles song. Unlike the Dude, I do not hate the Eagles.
The Hobbit: The Dragon, the Ring and the Confrontation with Nothingness
This is a recording of one of the sessions on Tolkien held this summer, 2021. Of the topics considered, the nature of dragons is paramount. What is a dragon? Tolkien said
"I desired dragons with a profound desire. Of course, I in my timid body did not wish to have them in the neighborhood . . . . But the world that contained even the imagination of Fáfnir was richer and more beautiful, at whatever cost of peril.”
Tolkien's dragons are of the Western variety. Treasure hording, highly intelligent, they cannot ignore riddles but are inhuman in their destructive nature and tend to spread despair & half-truths through their greed and hatred.
The English word, "dragon", derives (via Middle English, Old French, and Latin) from Ancient Greek δράκων drákōn, "serpent, dragon", from δέρκομαι, "I see", ἒδρακον, "I saw", δἐδορκα, "I have seen" (in various senses); hence perhaps "sharp-sighted one"; or because a snake's eyes seem to be always open. The Greek word probably derives from an Indo-European base derk- meaning "to see"; the Sanskrit root dŗç- also means "to see".
Dragons, therefore, have to do with vision, insight, wisdom. They are "the final test of heroes" as professor Tolkien wrote. The encounter with a Western dragon poses a tremendous challenge but the reward for success, as Dr. Jordan Peterson points out, is riches beyond compare.
Bilbo, we find, encounters the dragon under Lonely Mountain, but not necessarily in the way we might expect. Listen in to found out.
Famous Western (European) Dragons
1. Mushkhushshu - Babylonian from Akkadian from Sumerian “MUŠ.ḪUS, 'reddish snake', sometimes also translated as 'fierce snake'. 'splendor serpent' (𒈲 MUŠ is the Sumerian term for 'serpent')
2. Tiamat “salt water” and Apsu “fresh water” vs. Marduk – Enuma Elish
3. “Dragon” (serpent) of Eden
4. The Dragon of Revelation
5. Python vs. Apollo
6. Hydra vs. Herakles
7. Ladon & the tree of the Hesperides (Herakles)
8. Nidoggr & Jormungandr; the middle child of Loki and the giantess Angrboða (Norse Mythology)
9. Fafnir the Dragon & Siegfried (Sigurd) – Volsunga saga
10. Beowulf dragon; referred to as draca and also as a wyrm (worm, or serpent). Its movements are denoted by the Anglo-Saxon verb bugan, "to bend"
11. St. George & the Dragon
12. Red and white dragons of Arthur; Arthur Pendragon = Welsh pen, "head, chief, top" and dragon, "dragon; warrior"
13. Errour & the Knight Redcrosse (1590 Edmund Spenser; “The Faerie Queen”)
Tolkien's Dragons
1. Chrysophylax (Farmer Giles of Ham)
2. Great White Dragon (Roverandom)
3. Glaurung – born by Morgoth, slain by Turin Turambar
4. Ancalagon the Black – born by Morgoth, slain by Earendil
5. Scatha the Worm – slain by Fram
6. The Fire Drake of Gondolin – participated in the fall of Gondolin
7. The Great Cold Drake – slew Dain I and forced dwarves eastward
8. Smaug the Terrible – infests Lonely Mountain, slain by Bard of Dale
9. Balrogs
The Silmarillion: Evil, Friendship, and the Power of Words
This episode is a recording of a talk I gave recently on JRR Tolkien's "Silmarillion". Begun even before the Great War, this work was considered by Tolkien to be the work the closest to his heart; his magnum opus. Yet the work wasn't even published until 1977, four years after Tolkien's death. Why is it a significant work? Would it be significant without the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings? What is Tolkien saying about the nature of evil? Hope? Friendship? and the power of words to convey a vision of the world?
The Oath of the Silmarils, as given in Morgoth's Ring:
“Be he foe or friend, be he foul or clean
Brood of Morgoth or bright Vala,
Elda or Maia or Aftercomer,
Man yet unborn upon Middle-earth,
Neither law, nor love, nor league of swords,
Dread nor danger, not Doom itself
Shall defend him from Fëanáro, and Fëanáro’s kin,
Whoso hideth or hoardeth, or in hand taketh,
Finding keepeth or afar casteth
A Silmaril. This swear we all…
Death we will deal him ere Day’s ending,
Woe unto world’s end! Our word hear thou,
Eru Allfather! To the everlasting
Darkness doom us if our deed faileth…
On the holy mountain hear in witness
and our vow remember,
Manwë and Varda!"
Thus spoke Maedhros and Maglor and Celegorm, Curufin and Caranthir, Amrod and Amras, princes of the Noldor; and many quailed to hear the dread words.
The inscription inside the Ring of Power:
"Three Rings for the Elven-kings under the sky,
Seven for the Dwarf-lords in their halls of stone,
Nine for Mortal Men doomed to die,
One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne
In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.
One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them,
One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them
In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie."
— The Lord of the Rings
Hail, Earendil!
The Silmarillion (with Dr. Helen Freeh)
In this episode I discuss with my sister, Dr. Helen Freeh, the nature of the great epic The Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien. Dr. Freeh illustrates how, amidst the numerous depressing works of the 20th century, Tolkien stands as a literary beacon of hope and a prophet of the coming age of struggle in the latter part of the century and the beginning of our own era.
Dr. Helen Freeh received her B.A. in Politics and Masters in American Studies from the University of Dallas. After working in the business world, she entered Baylor University’s graduate program and earned her Ph.D. in English, writing her dissertation on fate, providence and free will in Tolkien’s Middle-earth. She has worked at Baylor University Press, taught at Baylor University, McClennan County Community College, Hillsdale Academy and Hillsdale College where she met her husband, Dr. John Freeh. She is a contributor to Tolkien Among the Moderns, edited by Ralph Wood, an occasional contributor to The Catholic Thing, and a Senior Fellow at Albertus Magnus Institute. She and John are co-founders of Kateri College of the Liberal and Practical Art in Gallup, NM, and are traveling around the country in their missionary motor home, “Tekakwitha,” promoting and fundraising for the College while fulfilling their primary vocation of raising and educating their three children, Theresa, Joseph and John Paul.
We reference numerous works including Tolkien's Letters
#131 https://www.tolkienestate.com/en/writing/letters/letter-milton-waldman.html
and #186 https://clarifyingcatholicism.org/2020/10/27/tolkien-and-immortality/
as well as talking about Tolkien's own life and his time in the trenches including the loss of his friends, The Immortal Four.
Check out Dr. Freeh's newly minted college, Kateri college of the liberal and practical arts, here:
And her series of talks at Albertus Magnus Institute here:
& check out this great art of the Valar at Etsy:
https://i.etsystatic.com/11513997/r/il/f2d568/1507004795/il_794xN.1507004795_u9g5.jpg
https://www.etsy.com/listing/588711888/the-valar?gpla=1&gao=1&&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=shopping_us_b-art_and_collectibles-prints-giclee&utm_custom1=_k_Cj0KCQjw_8mHBhClARIsABfFgpjgrBV_jVI75clS_nsQoudh7ahBOzcjDbyNLfXtoQm9gI_tyaF4YmEaAt0jEALw_wcB_k_&utm_content=go_1844702583_72372896360_346428993098_pla-354814757658_c__588711888_12768591&utm_custom2=1844702583&gclid=Cj0KCQjw_8mHBhClARIsABfFgpjgrBV_jVI75clS_nsQoudh7ahBOzcjDbyNLfXtoQm9gI_tyaF4YmEaAt0jEALw_wcB
Revelation (Flannery O'Connor)
In this episode I read the short story "Revelation" by Flannery O'Connor which tells the tale of a self-satisfied woman who encounters a nasty shock forcing her to take stock of who she really is.
"Revelation" was written during the last year of the author's life, a time she knew she was dying from her fourteen-year battle with lupus. The work was first published in the Spring 1964 issue of The Sewanee Review. The author was notified shortly before her death in August 1964 that her work won the O. Henry Award first prize for 1965, and the story was subsequently reprinted in Prize Stories 1965: The O. Henry Awards published that year. It was her third O'Henry Award first prize.
O'Connor's Southern Gothic style of writing was an attempt to get through to the generally self-satisfied culture of the southern United States. O'Connor wrote in an essay that
“The novelist with Christian concerns will find in modern life distortions which are repugnant to him, and his problem will be to make these appear as distortions to an audience which is used to seeing them as natural; and he may well be forced to take ever more violent means to get his vision across to this hostile audience. When you can assume that your audience holds the same beliefs you do, you can relax a little and use more normal ways of talking to it; when you have to assume that it does not, then you have to make your vision apparent by shock -- to the hard of hearing you shout, and for the almost blind you draw large and startling figures.”
This deaf & blind tendency to feel "right with the LORD", however, seems to be an ubiquitous trait of humanity - the very definition of the first deadly sin, pride.
The tune referenced in "Revelation" is "You go to your church (and I'll go to mine)" written in 1931 by Philips H. Lord; recorded by Lulu Belle and Scotty in 1949, and by Bill Clifton & his Dixie Mountain Boys in 1959. The episode uses the Bill Clifton version. Here is the Bill Clifton recording of that tune:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MnXaub0tUHs
The tune is originally a positive affirmation that all Christians are doing "the work of the Lord" and should get along in spiritual harmony with each other despite ecumenical differences. I think O'Connor probably uses the tune ironically to symbolize the separation that we create between our (sanctified) self and the (perdition bound) other.
O'Connor also drew satirical comics and was from this visual medium that she probably gained her keen sense of observation that served her so well in writing.
https://www.themarysue.com/flannery-oconnors-comics/
Plato’s Republic book 1B
Discussion of Thrasymachus’ challenge to justice and Socrates answer.
What is wrong with the idea that "might makes right"? How is the definition of Justice as "the advantage of the strong" a flawed definition? How, moreover, is it a spiritual poison that causes death to the soul? How could Socrates, Plato, defeat such a seemingly damnable vision of the world?
Plato’s Republic book 1A
Discussing Plato’s Republic we get into the opening text discussing setting and character and how the conversation about justice commences.
"How can you persuade us," says Polemarchus, "if we refuse to listen?" Indeed, how can anyone be persuaded if they block out the images and arguments presented to them. As Glaucon says, "it is not possible" & thus he reveals the growing disease within his own heart that makes him an image of Eurydice whose imprisonment in the world of the dead must be cured by the Orphic mythopoesis of Plato through his character, Socrates. Thus begins the great discussion about the nature of Justice.
Plato’s Republic introduction
Slavery and the proper feeding of the soul
Blade runner and isolation
The covid perspective
Let's Do Lunch - Cameron Thompson Round 2
It's always such a pleasure