Leaf by Niggle

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Leaf, by Niggle belongs to the period 1938-39 when my father was beginning to write The Lord of the Rings. It was first published in The Dublin Review in 1945, and subsequently in a volume Tree and Leaf, in 1964, together with his essay On Fairy-stories and also, in the later edition of 1988, a hitherto unpublished poem, Mythopoeia. This edition includes a foreword by my brother Christopher where he includes a passage from my father’s Introductory Note to the original edition (1964). The Note gives one reason for considering this story as unique among his fictional works. Being a writer of immense imaginative vision and one who gave enormous attention to detail, writing for him was always a great labour and never accomplished without many versions and revisions. But with Leaf, by Niggle he tells us ‘It has not been changed since it reached manuscript form, very swiftly, one day when I awoke with it already in mind. One of its sources was a great-limbed poplar tree that I could see even lying in bed. It was suddenly lopped and mutilated by its owner, I do not know why’. The house where we were then living in Oxford at that time had an empty plot beside it cultivated as a vegetable garden and lined with trees. His bedroom had a window which faced on to the side overlooking this space, so it was a view constantly in sight. The story, Leaf by Niggle, was originally written by J. R. R. Tolkien in 1938-39 and first published in the Dublin Review in January 1945. It can be found, most notably, in tolkien's book titled " Tree and Leaf". This is notable because the book, consisting of a seminal essay by Tolkien called "On fairy-stories"and "Leaf by Niggle" as example, offers the underlying philosophy (Creation and Sub-Creation) of much of tolkien's fantastical writings. It can also be found in many other books where it is combined with other (short) stories and/or essays & poems by Tolkien. Niggle - An obsessive artist who needed to make a journey; Lived within a pleasant house miles away from town; Distracted constantly by interruptions; A distant friend fell ill; his neighbor pressed him for chores; He was constantly kept from niggling on every detail of his life's work. He was kindhearted, in a grumbling, reluctant kind of way. [4] Because of sin, we often experience our work as pointless, see it as our main source of identity and meaning, or make it into an idol. How can such a place of loss be redeemed? The Gospel and Work Shepherd - A man who lived as a shepherd within the Mountains just beyond the Edge of Niggle's Parish; Offered to be Niggle's guide to the mountains beyond and revealed to Parish that this was the land from Niggle's Picture.

There are several ways to approach “Leaf by Niggle” in a course like CCC. This became abundantly clear when I surveyed the room. Several students wanted to talk about the tension between competing goods. Niggle has a gift for painting, but he is constantly distracted by his needy neighbor Parish. Though Niggle often complains privately about assisting Parish, and sometimes he finds him to be an annoyance, he never ceases to help his neighbor. How do we balance our call to create–through art, writing, entrepreneurial innovation, scientific discovery, the cultivation of ideas, feats of engineering, sports or dance–with the everyday demands of service to others that might get in the way of our creative efforts? This question made for some good discussion.Before him stood the Tree, his Tree, finished. If you could say that of a Tree that was alive, its leaves open­ing, its branches growing and bending in the wind that Niggle had so often felt or guessed, and had so often failed to catch. He gazed at the Tree, and slowly he lifted his arms and opened them wide. We read “Leaf by Niggle” as part of our ongoing discussion of creation and its implications for the way we live as Christians. Tolkien’s short story is about the ongoing work of creation. As women and men created in the image of God we are called to participate in God’s creative work. In John Paul II’s encyclical Laborem Exercenshe called Christians to the work of “co-creation.” (Tolkien used the term “ sub-creation” to describe something similar). We can view Niggle’s painting as his imperfect attempt at co-creation. As inhabitants of a broken world scarred by sin, our efforts to create will always be imperfect. Our finest art cannot express all the beauty of God’s holiness. Throughout our discussion of “Leaf by Niggle” I tried to get students to put the story into conversation with Bruce Birch’s essay, “ In the Image of God.” Christina Scull and Wayne G. Hammond ( 2017), The J.R.R. Tolkien Companion and Guide (Revised and Expanded Edition): II. Reader's Guide, " Leaf by Niggle" pp. 658-9 Niggle walked about, but he was not merely potter­ing. He was looking round carefully. The Tree was finished, though not finished with—"Just the other way about to what it used to be,” he thought—but in the Forest there were a number of inconclusive regions, that still needed work and thought. Nothing needed altering any longer, nothing was wrong, as far as it had gone, but it needed continuing up to a definite point. Niggle saw the point precisely, in each case. These few hours Tolkien found the time to write down a little story which is an absolute pearl and one of my favourite Tolkien stories. Leaf by Niggle is very much an allegory of tolkien's own creative process, and, to an extent, of his own life. Although Tolkien activily defended against being allegorical. He admitted having been just that in Leaf by Niggle in a letter to Caroline Everett (24 June 1957):

I should say that, in addition to my tree-love (it was originally called The Tree), it arose from my own pre-occupation with the Lord of the Rings, the knowledge that it would be finished in great detail or not at all, and the fear (near certainty) that it would be 'not at all'. The war had arisen to darken all horizons. But no such analyses are a complete explanation even of a short story..."This is the thesis of Every Good Endeavor—that our work matters. It matters to God, it matters to the coming of the Kingdom, and it matters to the world now. What follows is a most thorough discussion on how work and faith are intertwined God’s Plan for Work In time, Niggle is paroled from the institution, and he is sent to a place "for a little gentle treatment". He discovers that this new place is the country of the tree and forest of his great painting. This place is the true realisation of his vision, not the flawed and incomplete version in his painting. As a Middle-earth aficionado, I have read J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit, Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion. While these books are creative and profound, my personal favorite Tolkien work [so far this may be subject to change!] does not take place in a mythic land or through the medium of an epic adventure tale. Instead, a short story published in 1945 wins my personal Pulitzer. Leaf by Niggle does not follow hobbits, elves, dwarves, or contain any sinister evil such as Sauron or Morgoth. Instead, the plots details of a simple painter’s journey in the afterlife. The short story begins by depicting Niggle, an artist, living in a society with little esteem for art. Niggle’s neighbor Parish, who is lame and has an ill wife, continually interrupts his work. Although Niggle views such disruptions as annoying, he still helps his neighbor due to his politeness. It’s difficult to capture here in this short review the excellent insights offered in Every Good Endeavor. The issue of faith and work is explored in such a knowledgeable, deeply-provoking, and Biblically grounded way—and is written in that engaging way we have come to expect from our friends at Redeemer Presbyterian Church. The depth of the text is one reason I am pleased to announce that we will be taking a closer look at this book in February 2013, in a month-long book discussion. It’s an important book to discuss. Because, as Tim Keller and Katherine Leary Alsdorf say: