Tolkien and Chamberlain: a tale of two legends

Howdy all. Check it out, I do blog after all! I’ve been reading some great books, so I thought I would take a few minutes to share some quotes from them. I am mostly doing this in response to a grump I had with my wife concerning how Facebook and The Reader’s Digest Condensed version of Facebook (AKA Twitter) is making us all into morons. (This, coming from the guy who frequently leaves facebook statuses like “I just picked my nose”).

1. The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrun, by JRR Tolkien.

This books is wonderful. I am really starting to like epic poetry. This year I also read Tolkien’s translation of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Dante’s Inferno, Beowulf, maybe one other one. Anyway, this story is Tolkien’s version of some Scandinavian myths. Reading it, I could see a lot of influence that these legends had on Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings. Here are some wonderful quotes:

“If in day of Doom

one deathless stands,

who death hath tasted

and dies no more,

the serpent-slayer,

seed of Odin,

then all shall not end,

nor Earth perish.

“On his head shall be helm,

in his hand lightening,

afire his spirit,

in his face splendour.

The Serpent shall shiver

and Surt waver,    (Note: Surt is the demon of fire)

the Wolf be vanquished

and the world rescued.”

That’s some good stuff right there. And the big epic battle at the end was amazing.

2. Bayonet! Forward: My Civil War Remembrances by Col. Joshua L. Chamberlain.

I got this book off of paperbackswap.com (for free!). It is a collection of writings by Chamberlain, one of my favorite historical figures, about his adventures and battles during the Civil War. He was a fantastic writer. This one I am reading more slowly, as I do have a lot of reading to do for school. But there are some great lines in his book, especially as he is contemplating death or the manly sacrifice the soldiers around him were giving. He came very close to going to seminary to study to be a priest or pastor or whatever they called them back then, and I would be interested in reading what kind of theology he had. Anyway, here is a passage from his chapter on Gettysburg, called “Through Blood and Fire at Gettysburg”. He is describing the pile of dead soldiers and the graves they were buried in. I only wish I could write with this much poetry:

“I sat there alone, on the storied crest, till the sun went down as it did before over the misty hills and the darkness crept up the slopes, till from all earthly sight I was buried as with those before. But oh, what radiant companionship rose around, what steadfast ranks of power, what bearing of heroic souls. Oh, the glory that beamed through those nights and days. Nobody will ever know it here! — I am sorry most of all for that. The proud young valor that rose above the mortal, and then at last was mortal after all; the chivalry of hand and heart that in other days and other lands would have sent their names ringing down in song and story!”

There are critics of Chamberlain who say that the stand he made on Little Round Top during the battle of Gettysburg was not as significant as some historians would make it. But I think those debunkers just try to destroy things that tend to be classified as “legends”. What he did was very brave, and it won him the Congressional Medal of Honor. They don’t just hand those things out,  you know.

So just a few good quotes to whet your literary appetites. Now, turn of facebook, run out to your nearest book store, and get a book. And read it. You might even enjoy it. It will be ok, trust me.