Eala Earendal! engla beorhtast

Happiest of birthdays to the wonderful mcamy

I hope you had a great b-day and are not too shell shocked from the new job ;)

So I am just in awe. Again. I am reading Tolkien and the Great War: The Threshold of Middle Earth an excellently researched and respectful analysis of Tolkien's experiences in late school days and WW1 that inspired the creation of his mythology. It gives me shivers to read the early poems that have the hints of what is to come. And it mostly seems to spring from one line in an 8th century Anglo Saxon poet Cynewulf's work: Eala Earendal! engla beorhtast/ ofer middengeard monnum sended (Hail Earendal, brightest of angels,above the middle-earth sent unto men!) The name Earendal struck him in a way he couldn't explain, and he started researching and then creating backstory for the name. This was in 1914. After he'd been creating languages and then showing the evolution of the language after a few hundred years for fun. When he was 16 or so. Amazing.

Anyway, it's an amazing book and to see the growth and development of the stories he later wrote is fascinating. The author is John Garth and even though I am not finished, I already highly recommend it.