The words of J.R.R. Tolkien however, has shaped my identity in ways I'm probably not even aware of.
Now I understand the the Lord of the Rings movies are not older than I am. But the scenes I chose to use in this video are scenes that most of the dialogue is almost word for word from the text I've chosen to poach from. I loved Tolkien the moment I read the Hobbit in the 6th grade, and quickly devoured the Lord of the Rings trilogy. The movies came out just after I finished reading it for the first time and I was enthralled by the Middle-Earth that was portrayed on screen.
I had dabbled in writing my entire life, and really enjoyed telling stories. But the criticism of many teachers often discouraged me from pursuing a path in writing. It wasn't until I flipped through the appendices of the Lord of the Rings book, and came to The Tale of Aragorn and Arwen.
But the point of this entire video is to combine two of my favorite loves from growing up (reading the Lord of the Rings, and listening to my Dad's music), into something that was the same if not similar. I chose Stairway to Heaven because this is my Dad's favorite song ever. Growing up in my house, music was very important to us, and my Dad's love of music made us eager to develop tastes of our own.
In Jenkin's How Text's Become Real, he says "The reader takes neither the position of the author, nor an author's position. He invents in the texts something different than what they intended." My love of Lord of the Rings did this for me when it came to Stairway to Heaven. Now it can be argued that this song is about Lord of the Rings since Led Zeppelin references Gollum and Mordor in their song Ramble On, but my imagining of what Robert Plant might have been referring to when writing this song most likely far exceeds any intentions he had. But nevertheless, growing up while obsessively studying Tolkien's prose, I couldn't help but see his world when listening to Led Zeppelin.
The reason why I chose these two texts, is because my entire artistic focus, came about from the combination of my love of music, and my love of prose. I don't just listen to classic rock anymore, in fact I found a little niche of music that absolutely inspires me creatively, every time I listen to music, ideas for novels and other projects I'm working on flow through me.
I am a writer. I'm not a successful author yet, but it is very much a part of my identity that I am a writer. To say that Tolkien shaped the kind of person I am would be a bit of an understatement. I probably know more about the history of Middle-Earth than I do about the history of my religion.
Music is so important to me in my artwork. And my artwork is everything about who I am, and so we see a portrayal of two things that have very much shaped my life, in a way that I created. My writing is much like this. There will always be themes and characters in my books that will resonate with those familiar with Tolkien, some of them are intentional, while others are subconscious.
But, without further ado, here is the video I created:
Fun fact, the theme that I most wanted to portray in this video, stems from the fact that the Elvish version of Heaven is in the West. It is often said that if an Elf looks upon the Western sea or hears the Gulls call, they will not be able to resist the call of the Undying Lands. So it was very important to me when portraying Aragorn and Arwen's story, that as Elrond is telling her what her fate is, the moment of Aragorn's death matches up with this particular lyric:
There's a feeling I get when I look to the West, and my spirit is crying for leaving.
Some dude from Washington State uploaded a PDF version of the tale. Definitely illegal, but for those without a handy copy of The Lord of the Rings, I highly recommend you click the link and give it a read. It's only a few pages, and has some of the most beautiful prose I've ever read. It will also help in the understanding of the context and themes of the video.
Here's the link:
http://depts.washington.edu/uwch/documents/articles/Aragorn%20and%20Arwen.pdf
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