The Grip of Grace: God’s Hand in the Lord of the Rings

As a Christian who has both read and watched Lord of the Rings for years, I thought there was not much of its deeper meaning left for me to discover. How wrong I was! Brent King takes a classic we all know well and revisits it, bit by bit, uncovering things of value and eternal [...]

Fictional Forests: The Real-Life Inspirations

“Beyond the Wild Wood comes the wild world,” said the Rat. “And that’s something that doesn’t matter, either to you or to me. I’ve never been there, and I’m never going, nor you either, if you’ve got any sense at all.” ― Kenneth Grahame The Wild Wood Kenneth Grahame’s Wind in the Willows was inspired [...]

Fictional Forests: Why They Enchant Us

“Only with a leaf can I talk of the forest.” ― Visar Zhiti Forests, in literature, can mean many, many things. Adventure, escape, danger, evil, magic, temptation, mystery, freedom, death, life, or shelter. Depending on the story, the setting, the characters, the author, or even the reader’s interpretation – a wood can be seen in [...]

Names of Strength and Whimsy in Literature

While researching names for my next book, I began thinking of all the names I've always loved from my favorite stories. What makes a good name, exactly? Does it need to have a certain sound? A particular meaning? A "feel" to it - happy, solemn, playful or fateful? I came up with a list of several [...]

Death Means Life

Harry Potter is struck down by his archenemy, visits the in-between, and makes the choice to return and finish what needs to be done – that is, conquer evil in the form of Lord Voldemort, thus saving not only the wizarding world, but the world entire. Death, for Harry, meant life. Gandalf the Grey is [...]

The Birth of the Hobbit

The word Hobbit was soon to be as much a magical word for Professor Tolkien as Hocus-Pocus was for any fairy-tale magician. In fact, Hobbit was the most important single word that ever inspired him to invent a story. (David Day, The Hobbit Companion) Hob. A short enough word, simple and unsuspicious. Is this how [...]

A Few Things About Dragons

“Never laugh at live dragons.” ― J.R.R. Tolkien   “Fairy tales do not give the child his first idea of bogey. What fairy tales give the child is his first clear idea of the possible defeat of bogey. The baby has known the dragon intimately ever since he had an imagination. What the fairy tale [...]

Pictures of the World Through the Wardrobe

I am a huge believer in the capability of art to take us into other worlds. In fact, it’s much the same way I feel about books. And when the two are brought together – a book and the artwork that represents it – the cosmos can utterly explode! Okay, well, they do for me, [...]