April 26 Good Morning!

.

.
By some curious chance one morning long ago in the quiet of the world, when there was less noise and more green, and the hobbits were still numerous and prosperous, and Bilbo Baggins was standing at his door after breakfast smoking an enormous long wooden pipe that reached nearly down to his woolly toes (neatly brushed) - Gandalf came by.


"Good Morning!" said Bilbo, and he meant it. The sun was shining, and the grass was very green. But Gandalf looked at him from under long bushy eyebrows that stuck out further than the brim of his shady hat.

"What do you mean?" he said. "Do you wish me a good morning, or mean that it is a good morning whether I want it or not; or that you feel good this morning; or that it is a morning to be good on?"

"All of them at once," said Bilbo.

It's Gandalf-Visits-the-Shire Day!

Be on the lookout for unexpected visitors who might send you on an adventure - and be careful to whom you say, "I beg your pardon"! And be double-careful of whom you invite for tea!

Enjoy your adventures!
.

.


Oops!
In my previous post, I mistakenly attributed the painting of Gandalf in the woods to Ted Nasmith (it's been corrected).

So, here is a detail of a rather stern Gandalf, painted by Ted Nasmith. No doubt this is what Gandalf looks like when he corrects your mistakes!

One Week Before An Unexpected Party...

.
Probably one of my all-time favorite paintings of Gandalf, by the amazing Roger Garland. Just a short rest in the woods before bringing about the greatest adventure a hobbit and thirteen dwarves ever had. And it's a great companion to Der Berggeist...

The Origin of Gandalf?

.

Humphrey Carpenter in his 1977 biography relates that Tolkien owned a postcard entitled Der Berggeist (German: "the mountain spirit"), and on the paper cover in which he kept it, he wrote "the origin of Gandalf". The postcard reproduces a painting of a bearded figure, sitting on a rock under a pine tree in a mountainous setting. He wears a wide-brimmed round hat and a long red cloak, and a white fawn is nuzzling his upturned hands.

Carpenter said that Tolkien recalled buying the postcard during his holiday in Switzerland in 1911. Manfred Zimmerman, however, discovered that the painting was by German artist Josef Madlener and dates to the mid–1920s. Carpenter acknowledged that Tolkien was probably mistaken about the origin of the postcard.

Link.

.

How It All Began

.

.