How the Silmarillion inspired a book of Bible Stories
Once upon a (student) time I got a copy of Tolkien’s
The Silmarillion for Christmas. I
took it back to college with me as term began, and rationed myself to reading
one chapter a day—kind of like rationing chocolate to two pieces a day (which I
also did), and cake to one slice. It was hard to read so slowly though. I really
loved the book and was hooked right from the first tale—the Music of the Ainur.
What a wonderful “creation” story! What a haunting blend of weighty prose,
musical language, and thrilling fantasy. “Never since have the Ainur made music
like to this music,” the author writes, “though it has been said that a greater
still shall be made before Iluvatar by the choirs of Ainur and the Children of
Iluvatar after the end of days.” The words begged to be sounded aloud, and the
press of eternal meaning bore into me. But I was a mathematician, studying the
logic of number systems and the vagaries of function and form. I was already a
“mongrel Christian mathematician” though, so Tolkien’s Biblical hints dug deep.
I went to Christian Union meetings, represented the Catholic Chaplaincy, and
wondered—oh heresy of heresies—why didn't God use interesting authors like
Tolkien to write the scriptures?
I was kind of an accidental mathematician really.
When it came to a choice between studying mathematics or writing, I chose math
because at least when you're right you're right and no-one’s going to tell you
you're not good enough. In contrast my son, when faced with the identical
choice, plumped for writing because those who judge words can only give
opinions; they can't definitively declare your answer’s wrong.
So what’s an accidental mathematician, with a love
of writing, a sudden total addiction to Tolkien (especially The Silmarillion), and a deep Christian
faith to do? In my case, dreaming was way easier than doing, so I dreamed a set
of Bible stories, written so kids (and teens, and students too) might actually
want to read them, written to be fun and spoken aloud and shared, and going all
the way from creation to revelation—from that first music of Tolkien’s Ainur
until the end of days. Then I got a job and wrote computer programs, got
married and had kids, got another job and broke computer programs, became
infinitely more mongrel, learned tons of stuff about the Bible and Biblical
times, lost my job… and then I started writing those stories I'd dreamed of
long ago.
The kids are grown, and one of them even writes. So now the Bible, science and history feed my muse, Tolkien and faith inspire my
intent, and the Five-Minute Bible StoryTM Series keeps growing, though Creation to Revelation’s already taking six books with Bethlehem’s Baby’s recent release, and many more in the works.
Meanwhile I still love The Silmarillion best of all my Tolkien books. I just found it
again while tidying up the shelves, so please excuse me while I curl up and
read.
Thank you so much for welcoming me to your blog,
Anita.
Links:
Find Bethlehem’s Baby at: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00EY172MA/
More of the Five-Minute Bible StoryTM
Series on the publisher’s website: http://capearagopress.com/Five-Minute.html
Connect with Sheila at:
Sheila Deeth: http://about.me/SheilaDeeth
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sheila.deeth
Twitter: https://twitter.com/sheiladeeth
2 comments:
Thank you so much Anita. It's always a pleasure to be one of your guests.
And it's a pleasure to have you stop by.
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