urthonamag

Tolkien’s alternative ending

The Lord of the Rings – alternative ending The existing ending of Tolkien’s masterpiece is neither sad nor happy. Elegiac is perhaps the best description. Frodo, Gandalf and Galadriel depart over the Western seas towards Valinor, the blessed realm of the gods. Sam Gamgee, however, returns to the Shire to begin along and happy lifeContinue reading “Tolkien’s alternative ending”

Issue 37 ‘Dharma of Fantasy’ out soon

The Dharma of Fantasy Our issue on fantasy literature, issue 37, is almost ready to be printed! There will be amazing articles on : * Addiction and renunciation in The Lord of the Rings by Dayajava * The Oxford Inklings and the quest for mythic renewal by Ratnagarbha * Finding love, patience & forgiveness throughContinue reading “Issue 37 ‘Dharma of Fantasy’ out soon”

Naming the wind

With great power comes great responsibility Some of the greatest modern fantasy novel series are unfinished. The Game of Thrones series by George Martin has five novels published, the final two have been awaited eagerly since 2011. Similarly for Patrick Rothfuss’ unfinished Kingkiller trilogy. Here at Urthona we cannot speed up these authors but weContinue reading “Naming the wind”

Your editor VS AI

Ratnagarbha verses AI! So I am working to some translations of Petrarch sonnets. I did some in blank verse but I aspire to do 14 of them in rhyme. Here is my attempt at the first in his famous sequence to the mysterious Laura. For fun I asked google’s Gemini to have a go. ItContinue reading “Your editor VS AI”

Coleridge & the Landscape of Vision

Coleridge and the landscape of vision A psycho-geographical essay by Ratnagarbha The Quantocks in Somerset saw one of the greatest years of creativity in the history of English poetry when the Wordsworths lived at Alfoxton Park (which is now a Buddhist retreat centre that runs retreats on mindfulness, communication and creativity) and Coleridge was livingContinue reading “Coleridge & the Landscape of Vision”

Dhammapada – choral

Ronald Corp has written a magical sacred choral setting of the Dhammapada The Dhammapada is one of the most sacred texts of Buddhism, it contains pithy sayings of Gautama the Buddha. Composer Ronald Corp has written a wonderful sacred choral setting of some verses from the Dhammapada. Not himself a Buddhist Corp was clearly deeplyContinue reading “Dhammapada – choral”

The forgotten Inkling & the Buddha

The Inklings, that informal but highly influential Oxford literary group, has had many books written about it. These days it is fairly well known that as well as J. R. R. Tolkien & C. S. Lewis it contained such luminous figures as linguistic philosopher Owen Barfield and the poet and arthurian visionary Charles Williams. EasilyContinue reading “The forgotten Inkling & the Buddha”

The Alchemical Island

A new book of strange and marvellous poems from Ananda / Stephen Parr The Alchemical Island: Poems 2106 – 2017 pb, 250 pp, £12 – to order email the poet on moon@wolfatthedoor.org Ananda (Stephen Parr) has brought out another poetry collection, his first since the 2015 collection The Paths Between. The Alchemical Island says onContinue reading “The Alchemical Island”

Editor’s photo gallery

A new online gallery of my landscape photography is now live. Also includes geopoetic blog posts / photo essays geopoeticblog.wordpress.com/

Tolkien and Buddhism

TOLKIEN AND BUDDHISM Has this topic been explored yet by anyone? Urthona will be doing so in our next issue (summer 2024). Meanwhile here is an article that opens up many interesting parallels with Tolkien and western estotericism. Many Buddhists I imagine would focus more on Tolkien’s moral vision, but there is much to thinkContinue reading “Tolkien and Buddhism”