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enluminure: angel and dragon

The image above is from cnrs.fr

go to Intro/1/ Epic heroes/2/ Medieval Mysteries/4/
A sense of justice/5/ Medieval Japan/6/

Here is an opportunity to talk about the important author Tolkien (1892-1973). Tolkien created a fascinating medieval type of world that you can find mostly in the Lord of the Rings, both books and movies.

Both books and movies have fans, so loads of books and memorabilia surround Tolkien. Most interestingly, the author was a linguist, so the languages he invented are "real": they have a grammar and vocabulary, not just gibberish thrown randomly at the reader. If you are a fan, you could read The Languages of Tolkien's Middle-Earth by Ruth S. Noel.

I admired his powerful books, but I stand against everything Tolkien thought was right, so you better find some real fan club such as this or the Tolkien society

If you like the genre, I strongly recommend Saga: A Novel of Medieval Iceland by Jeff Janoda. This is superbly dark.

I found no merit in any of Umberto Eco's books: the stuff was just pretentious enough to scare the critics. It is a pity, I had great hope. In my view, the author is himself a mediocre reader who throws names around but does not understand what he reads; it is easy for me to detect, because we are roughly the same age, and we have been exposed to the same literature. But even the pendulum's principle escapes him. However, The name of the rose made a good movie, with real medieval flavor.


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