8 Comments
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Name's avatar

Blue is symbolic of high spirituality in Christianity. You’ll see it all over the orthodox iconography too.

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Joni's avatar

I love that you have incorporated art works with your words. Art communicates in its own way.

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Barbara keim's avatar

Where do you find these beautiful pictures?

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Robert Keim's avatar

A remarkable number of medieval and early-Renaissance manuscripts (Books of Hours, Bibles, missals, etc.) have survived in good condition, and many of them are filled with decorative and miniature artwork.

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A Catholic Pilgrim's avatar

Lovely, thanks!

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Robert Keim's avatar

You're welcome!

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The Rubric's avatar

Great read! Loved the inclusion of music and art. Do you think Tolkien drew inspiration from Lammas bread when creating the elven "lembas" bread? I'm not a linguist but those look and sound similar to me.

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Robert Keim's avatar

I'm glad you enjoyed it! According to The Peoples of Middle-Earth (written by J.R.R. Tolkien and edited by his son Christopher), "Lembas is the Sindarin name, and comes from the older form lenn-mbass 'journey-bread.'" The word Lammas originates in Old English hlafmæsse, meaning "bread mass," i.e., the festival day of (new) bread made from the grain harvest. So I wouldn't say that there's a close linguistic relationship, but it's reasonable to assume that a connection was present, at least subconsciously, in Tolkien's thoroughly linguistic (and extraordinarily creative) mind.

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