quote:

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"Are you a guide?" he asked. "Could you tell me the name of this country?"
"Don't you know?" said the man. "It is Niggle's Country. It is Niggle's Picture, or most of it: a little of it is now Parish's Garden."
"Niggle's Picture!" said Parish in astonishment. "Did you think of all this, Niggle? I never knew you were so clever. Why didn't you tell?"
"He tried to tell you long ago," said the man; "but you would not look. He had only got canvas and paint in those days, and you wanted to mend your roof with them. This is what you and your wife used to call Niggle's Nonsense, or that Daubing."
"But it did not look like this then, not real," said Parish.
"No, it was only a glimpse then," said the man; "but you might have caught the glimpse, if you ever thought it worth while to try."
"I did not give you much chance," said Niggle. "I never tried to explain. I used to call you Old Earthgrubber."

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As I get older and (I hope) a little wiser, I'm realizing that finding a leaf by Niggle is a wonderful thing.

How do we go about seeing and drawing out the hidden beauty in people's secreat enthusiasms? For myself, I've been trying to learn how to just shut the heck up when someone is talking about or doing something they are really in to and I don't understand. Little by little I've been catching glimpses of wonderful paintings in things I used to just want to patch my roof with.

[ November 05, 2004, 02:04 PM: Message edited by: MrSquicky ]
 

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Posted by Dagonee (Member # 5818) on :
 
Leaf by Niggle is my absolute favorite work by Tolkien. It's absolutely wonderful. It's the only purposely allegorical work of his I'm aware of (although there are parts of other works that could be called allegorical).

It's poignant with so much meaning throughout. The part you highlighted is one of my favorite.

A great introduction to the doctirne of Purgatory for those unfamiliar with it, too.

Dagonee
 

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Posted by Lost Ashes (Member # 6745) on :
 
It is a dear work and appropriate in so many of life's endeavors.

Thanks for reminding me of it.
 

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Posted by cochick (Member # 6167) on :
 
Thats lovely - I'd not heard of Leaf by Niggle before but you've got me curious I think I'll look it up - might get it for my Dad for Christmas - he's a huge Tolkien fan.
 

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Posted by Dagonee (Member # 5818) on :
 
It's in a book called The Tolkien Reader with "Farmer Giles of Ham," a fabulously fun and funny fairy tale, "On Faerie Stories," a famous essay about myth, and some poems about Tom Bombadil.

Well worth owning.

Dagonee
 

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Posted by cochick (Member # 6167) on :
 
Thanks Dagonee - I had to wipe it off my screen real quick as my Dad walked in just as I'd called it up.
 

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