The Old that is Strong

This blog (theoldthatisstrong.blogspot.com) gets its name from a poem by J.R.R. Tolkien (1889-1971).  Tolkien was a venerable professor at Oxford.  He loved words, and his profession was philology; he taught Anglo-Saxon and English literature.  In his free time, he wrote fantasy stories.  It was this avocation, or hobby, for which most know him today: The Lord of the Rings. In the stories, this poem was written by Bilbo.  The reader first encounters it in the tenth chapter of the first book, in a letter from Gandalf.  Here it is:

All that is gold does not glitter,

Not all those who wander are lost;

The old that is strong does not wither,

Deep roots are not reached by the frost.

From the ashes a fire shall be woken,

A light from the shadows shall spring;

Renewed shall be blade that was broken,

The crownless again shall be king.

The song concerns a key theme in Tolkien's mythology: the restoration of the hidden king (Aragorn or Strider) to his rightful throne.  Old, true words, prophesies, stories, and myths come true in the end...whether we hear them from storytellers, read them in books, or glean them from blogs.  That is why I chose that line, in hopes that through this course you might have a close encounter with "the old that is strong," even if from a new technology or in a novel format.

For fun, here is an early draft of the poem:

All that is gold does not glitter;

all that is long does not last;

All that is old does not wither;

not all that is over is past.

Not all that have fallen are vanquished;

a king may yet be without crown,

A blade that was broken be brandished;

and towers that were strong may fall down.