Tolkien and Dark Shadows Musings

Greetings from Wotan! Wotan has not sent Hugin and Muin out lately as he has been locked in his fortress of Valhalla researching and studying.

Wotan is very excited to have officially started a Phd research project around the Early Literary and Linguistic Works of J.R.R. Tolkien (1908-early 1920's) and is even triply excited to be working with one of the leading Tolkien visionaries and academics - Dr Dimitra Fimi - through Cardiff Metropolitan University. Wotan is working towards the final research proposal which is due in April and then a full 3-6 years of glorious Tolkienian research (and lots of talk and trying out at ideas at this summer's Return of the Ring Tolkien conference)

Wotan is also in the middle of an excellent online class through Signum University/Mythgard University on J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis taught by the excellent Tolkien Professor himself, Professor Corey Olsen's (whose upcoming Exploring the Hobbit book is a must pre-order!). This is a brilliant class where we have compared and contrasted the works of Lewis and Tolkien and we have some exciting upcoming classes including a look at Leaf by Niggle,Athrabeth Finrod ah Andreth, Till We Have Faces, The Notion Club papers, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader and Smith of Wooten Major. There is great work afoot at Signum University/Mythgard Institute and the upcoming summer classes include one on beginners Latin and, be still my heart, Dr Verlyn Flieger teaching a course on Arthurian Literature (which yours truly will probably be virtually attending tuxedo-clad after many excellent evenings at Glyndebourne where Wotan toils.

Also on the Dr. Verlyn Flieger front - joy and exultation her new book Green Sun and Faerie is now available and I have been devouring every chapter which includes some excellent new writing by Dr. Flieger on Tolkien and the Kalevala based on the work she has done on Tolkien's early Kullervo story and Tolkien's 1914-15 talk on The Kalevala.

It is brilliant to have this volume on Tolkien by Dr. Flieger and it stands next to Tom Shippey's Roots and Branches - now one hopes Dr Michael Drout would write a similar volume. A must read

Switching gears - the other excitement for Wotan has been the coming of the new Dark Shadows film in May. But even before this and perhaps even more exciting for Wotan has been the publishing of a new book on Dark Shadows -

The Return to Collinwood by Kathryn Leigh Scott (who played Maggie Evans and Josette Du Pres (among others) in the original Dark Shadows TV show - appearing in over 600 of the 1,222 episodes) and Jim Pearson. I highly recommend this book to any lover of Dark Shadows. There are some great insights into the coming movies and the recollections of Kathryn Leigh Scott and Lara Parker (Angelique) are brilliant and add some interesting info to how this 1,225 episode fantasy/sci-fi/gothic soap opera was flamed as well as the two movies (and I eagerly awaiting the reedited cut of Night of Dark Shadows with the cut scenes put back). good chapters on the revival series as well and he current audio dramas through Big Finish Productions.

Having the book signed by Kathryn Leigh Scott herself makes it one of my treasured Dark Shadow possessions which will never leave me for all eternity and I decided to join the signed picture she sent me with another of my treasured Dark Shadows items which will be familiar to all fans of the show!

Finally there is the upcoming big budget blockbuster Dark Shadows movie starting Johnny Depp as Barnabas and Helena Bonham Carter as Dr. Julia Hoffman directed by Timothy Burton. Wotan is hopeful about this film - the trailer is exciting and yes I think there it is a bit of tongue in cheek treatment of the story (set in the hippie lava lamp strewn days of 1972), But Depp is a great fan of Dark Shadows so I am sure it has been done with care - and it will be fun to watch for the original Dark Shadows cast members (including the first and best Barnabas of all times Jonathan Frid) in the Dark Shadows town ball party scene). Trailer below!

So that is it from Wotan for now - Wotan returns to the Halls of Asgard to consult my friend Erda the green headed torso on the early lexicons of Tolkien - but he will stay in touch and send Hugin and Munin out for news of the many worlds!

Lebe wohl for now!

Karmic Washing Machine?

I have been intrigued by the subject of a recently read very interesting and well written book - Parsifal as the Fifth Act of the Ring by Paul Schofield (a Wagnerian Scholar and a former Zen Buddhist) ever since my teens when I read in an introduction to an English translation of The Ring that Wagner considered Parsifal to be the fifth concluding act of The Ring cycle. Schofield takes this as a starting point and quotes several key references from Wagner's letters and prose writings and also masterfully combines into the hyopthesis Wagner's interest and desire to incorporate his study of Buddhism and Eastern thinking into his works even drafting in 1856 Die Sieger (The Victors) an opera about the Buddha. There is some also really good background on the sources of the Ring, Parsifal and he Holy Grail (which Wagner said in his 1849 essay The Wibelungs - The World History as Told Through Myth - ultimately came from the hoard of the Nieblung). Schofield focuses on three characters from the Ring - Wotan, Brunnhilde and Siegfried and demonstrates how the "wheel of karma" starts by Wotan profaning nature by breaking a branch from the world ash tree (the true beginning of the Ring) and starting a cycle of deceit, envy and greed that can only be "redeemed" by a cycle of karmic washing (Erlosung) that involves rebirth from The Ring to Parsifal where ultimate redemption is acheived through learning compassion "mitlied." A very interesting theory - at times I felt the author creates this structure and then attempts to fit into his scheme the different characters (and there are some contradictions - first Schofield says that Wotan perceieves his first act of contrition by renouncing any further attempt after Die Walkure to get The Ring back - but then we see Wotan as the Wanderer skulking around in Siegfried dropping hints to get Siegfried to get the Ring. The Brunnhilde/Kundry theory works philologically with one of Kundry's names being Gundryggia (Gunn meaning "strife" or "battle" is one of Wotan's key Valkyrie and Schofield has an interesting link with one of the other name's Klingsor called Kundry - Herodias - linking it to a poem by the Henrich Heine called "Atta Troll" (1847) where Herodias who demanded the head of John the Baptist is doomed to ride in the wild hunt of Odin continuing to kiss the dead head of John the Baptist till doomsday (and lets not forget that naff movie from the 80's where Demi Moore was forced to wander the world and be constantly reincarnated because she laughed at Christ on the cross - when I saw that movie, in my youth, I yelled out in the movie house - she's Kundry!!!) but i digress....

I was not conviced by Schofield's comment that Brunnhilde left the Ring world with bad karma because she plotted the death of Siegfried and needed to go through "the karmic washing machine (my term)" to eventually wind up as Kundry who still serves evil (Klingsor the karmic embodiement of Alberich) and Amfortas (the karmic embodiement of Wotan) and needs ultimate redemption through Parsifal (the karmic embodiement of Siegfried).

Interesting, and got me thinking - Schofield is a former Zen buddhist and the lae chapters have a somewhat preachy attitude to how we should apply this "karmic cleansing" in our lives (and a couple of references to less than academic works like Baigent and Lincoln's Holy Blood/Holy Grail and Gardener's The Line of the Grail Kings) - but worth the read for Wagner lovers!!!