One ring to rule them all!
yohan300
Shipmate
When I was about 10 I remember fantasising about swapping the boring bibles in church for the Lord of the Rings.
Well, here's the Dean of Canterbury reading this during morning prayer:
Three Rings for the Elven-kings under the sky,
Seven for the Dwarf-lords in their halls of stone,
Nine for Mortal Men doomed to die,
One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne
In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.
One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them,
One Ring to bring them all, and in the darkness bind them,
In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.
https://youtu.be/kGZ54KPKmN8?t=1004
Has anyone else come across the use of LOTR during a service? This isn't just a passing mention, he even name checks the third Elf Lord, Círdan without batting an eyelid, something even I couldn't have done.
How about other fantasy literature? I imagine Narnia might get some mentions, but to be quoted so extensively?
Well, here's the Dean of Canterbury reading this during morning prayer:
Three Rings for the Elven-kings under the sky,
Seven for the Dwarf-lords in their halls of stone,
Nine for Mortal Men doomed to die,
One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne
In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.
One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them,
One Ring to bring them all, and in the darkness bind them,
In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.
https://youtu.be/kGZ54KPKmN8?t=1004
Has anyone else come across the use of LOTR during a service? This isn't just a passing mention, he even name checks the third Elf Lord, Círdan without batting an eyelid, something even I couldn't have done.
How about other fantasy literature? I imagine Narnia might get some mentions, but to be quoted so extensively?
Comments
Disappointingly he pronounced Círdan wrongly. Should have a hard C.
And this is why the Ship is so great.
I have no idea what the Dean would be on about
For whatever reason, possibly my insufficient theological education and reading, my brain short-circuits to Narnia allusions about half the time when I write a sermon.
My current priest is a Star Trek fan, so we've had a few Star Trek-themed sermons. Oh, and superheroes. Captain Marvel got referenced recently, and I'm pretty sure we had Spiderman at one point. And we had a visiting speaker reference Earthsea, although only briefly, and I think only a minority of the congregation recognized the reference.
Oh - Harry Potter has shown up a few times.
I think with any kind of literary / cultural reference, you need something that is familiar to most of your audience. In terms of fantasy, that probably pretty much limits you to LoTR, Narnia, and Potter, perhaps with Phillip Pullman in fourth place.
Speaking of which:
To the extent I’ve heard such cultural references in a sermon, which hasn’t been that often, I’ve probably heard more Star Wars references than all others combined. I think Pullman references would be completely lost on lots of congregations I know, me included. (As, to be honest, would be any but the most basic Star Trek references.)
I have to say, though, much as I love LOTR (and I do!), and much as I appreciate the remembrance of Tolkien on the anniversary of his death (I remember reading of his death in the newspaper), I really couldn’t figure out what the dean’s extensive discourse on LOTR had to do with Paul, or with anything else for that matter. It was almost like, “And speaking of Paul, here’s an interesting story about Middle Earth. . . . [10 minutes later] Sam was at the end of a long journey, and Paul is just starting his.”
That's always been my excuse!
Whilst on the subject of Star Trek , I always rather liked the chapel on Deep Space Nine, where the Bajorans held a sort of Vespers at about 5pm IIRC.
Quite an appealing 'Sacred Space', IMHO, but I can't at the moment find an online image (IYSWIM)
Is this what you were looking for: https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Bajoran_temple
I forgot that it was known as a 'temple', and it's certainly smaller than I remember...but lots of places for prayer, and lots of candles...on special occasions, anyway.