Ice and Elves

Lake Esau on Sunday afternoon, March 18th.

Lake Esau should be ice-free by the end of this week.  Open water started to appear over the weekend,  as the last of our snow disappeared.  If temperatures continue in the mid-60s, I expect the ice will soon be gone.

This is really very unusual.  State law requires that ice fishing shanties be removed by March 15th.  A few folks were out on the ice last week, but that left the less risk-tolerant residents shaking their heads.  In a normal year the ice would thin and then break up in the first half of April.  By late May, the traditional time to open Camp Chickagami (my Episcopal next door neighbor), Lake Esau's water would still be bracing — in some years cold enough to turn your legs blue.  But this year, the lake may be swimmable in mid-April.  All this makes me wonder if a sweltering summer is on its way!

Over the past few days I've been rereading J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings.  As noted in an earlier post, I first read this fantasy masterpiece in the late 1960s while a student at Denison.  Over the years I've thought about revisiting it, but other, mainly professional reading took priority.  Then, during my recent trip to Detroit, with a couple Barnes + Noble gift cards burning a hole in my pocket, I bought the 50th Anniversary edition and began renewing an old acquaintance.  Last night I finished the first section, The Fellowship of the Ring, and am now digging into The Two Towers.  I find hobbits and elves just as fascinating now as they were at age 22.

J.R.R. Tolkien in 1973

The Lord of the Rings, first issued in 1954-55 (in three volumes, although it is a single novel, not a trilogy), is the third best-selling novel in publishing history.  Over 150 million copies have been sold.  The publisher must have had reservations about how the book would be received, because Tolkien was offered no advance or royalties, but instead a substantial share of the profits, if any.  I expect the publisher came to regret this decision.  Tolkien retired from teaching in 1959.  By the early 1960s his novel was flying off bookstore shelves and the Oxford philologist was quickly becoming a cult hero, much to his chagrin.

Tolkien's style, which some early reviewers dismissed as "pedantic," is utterly charming.  And I love a book which sends me scurrying for my dictionary.  For example, along their way the Ring heros camp on a eyot — an island in a river.  I suppose the author could have had them camp at a Middle Earth version of Yogi Bear's Jellystone Park, but that would not have had the same literary or emotional weight. •••