Left: a lamp in the Cathedral Close at St Davids, Pembrokeshire, Wales, UK. The reflection makes me think of Narnia and Mr Tumnus. Galumphing: the title alone is a curious one, and it comes from
The Jabberwocky poem by Lewis Carroll. It is the 'other' Lewis (C.S. Lewis), however, who features most prominently in this blog, along with a few others such as Tolkien, Homer and Shakespeare!
The blog belongs to Jeremy W. Johnston, a teacher of English and Classical Studies (two of the three subjects I trained to teach as part of my Exeter PGCE back in the 1980s).
On the subject of Tolkien, you might like to take a look at the blog entry for 18 August, entitled
The Annotated Hobbit. I was particularly drawn to the words of Horace on the subject of reading and re-reading. If I really like a book, I like to read and re-read it. Do you?
Johnston highlights an interesting point about the etymology of Bilbo's name. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis and Lewis Carroll were all masters when it came to making up names for their characters. How often do we attempt to create new words? In my craft class last week, I tried to think of a term I could use to describe my new technique of turning a photograph into an abstract greeting card design. I am not quite there yet ...
Johnston mentions Homer, and I was reminded of how much I fell in love with the tale of Odysseus as a result of a child's version of
The Odyssey. Perhaps that was why I went on to read Classical Studies for my degree. You might be interested to read
an article by
By George Elliott Clarke about the universality of the Homeric themes in the
Chronicle Herald.
