Tea at Trianon: How Tolkien Teaches Us to Fight Our Dragons

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Wednesday, June 7, 2023

How Tolkien Teaches Us to Fight Our Dragons

From Aleteia:

Then we compared Bilbo killing the spider to Bard the Bowman killing Smaug later in the book. Both characters triumph over fear to do the hard but right thing, and this defeat of evil emboldens them to do greater good. Finally, I asked the kids, “How can you fight your dragons, or your spiders, like Bilbo and Bard? What would it look like to kill the dragons in your own life?”
Their answers were so thoughtful! One kid said he would fight against his “dragon” of anger and a bad temper. Another would fight the “dragon” of not wanting to listen to her parents. Each child came up with a “dragon” they wanted to fight, and it was inspiring to hear their resolutions. So if you’re looking for a little inspiration today, I want to share Tolkien’s wisdom with you. Doing hard things, even when they scare us, makes us feel more confident and comfortable in our skin. We all have our dragons to fight, so let’s face them with courage and perseverance like Bilbo Baggins and his comrades. (Read more.)