The dream this time concerns the works of J.R.R. Tolkien. This dream is a weird combination of my waking job and the private aspirations of my unconscious, I think. I am again at the store doing inventory, however, this time it is not food or merchandise I am managing, but the loose leaf sheets of a manuscript, by the famous fantasy author, J.R.R. Tolkien. These loose pages are from a collection of unpublished Middle-earth stories by Tolkien. The pages have been delivered to the store on a pallet, that is four foot high and, as so often happens at work, the pallet has been tipped over, and the pages have been scattered everywhere.
My near impossible task, this night, is to put the pages back in correct order so that the book can go to the print shop. A retail store is a rather an odd place for a book to get published. This would never happen in the waking world. What a huge responsibility for a humble stock person to have had placed upon his shoulders! This is something, if anyone in charge would have given any serious thought to it, would not have been allowed it to happen. The consequences could be tragic if anything untoward should happen to this important literary work. Tolkien's fans would be devastated.
Yet, here I am, in this dream trying to cope with the insane proposition presented to me. I will set about to try and put humpty dumpty back together again. I carefully pick up pages and I speed read through them, and I attempt to match them up in proper order, one at a time. It is a laborious process and my goal is to try, and have it done before sunrise. My work is cut out for me and I try very hard to give it the due diligence this project richly deserves.
After some time I develop a strategy. I notice that Tolkien has divided his book into four segments. The four segments are essentially four stand alone works that all tie together into one larger narrative. Tolkien used this technique when he wrote, "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy. Groups of characters are off on different sets of adventures simultaneously. My job is made much easier as I can organize the pages into four stacks. There are four stories and thus I have four stacks. Now, I have a plan that I can move forward with. I wake up before I get to see an outcome to my labours. I do not know if I ever finish the task. Considering the sheer volume of what I had to contend with it seems reasonable to presume I did not get it done by morning. I could imagine, that somewhere off in the dream universe, I am still reading and collating all those pages for months on end.
When Tolkien had died in 1973 his son Christopher published the balance of his father's extensive notes and unpublished manuscripts, some of which was incomplete. Christopher had to get creative to complete some of the unfinished works. Tolkien's body of work includes The Silmarillon, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings these altogether form a connected body of tales, poems, songs, fictional histories, invented languages all about a fantasy world called Middle-earth.
I read these books as a teenager and enjoyed them very much. I have seen the Peter Jackson movies. The second movie of the new Hobbit trilogy is in theatres now. I wish that I had the time and money to go see it. I know my unconscious wants to go see it badly and this may be why I had this dream. My unconscious desires have bubbled up in my dreams.
What a fantasy, on my part, to dream of having such a huge never before seen, or published manuscript by the great Tolkien, and having it all to myself to read and devour. Legions of Tolkien fans would be so envious! The great science fiction author Jules Verne left an unpublished novel in bank vault that got published a hundred years after his death. Who knows? Maybe Tolkien did a similar thing? Well, we can always fantasize!
I have had this dream fantasy of how the Middle-earth series could be given new life and extended. Tolkien it has been said wished that younger authors would have taken up his body of work and add to his legacy. Although, my idea would not appeal to the purist of his work. My concept would take Middle-earth in a science fiction and fantasy direction. I would have some of survivors of Tolkien's island of Numenor, a Middle-earth version of the tale of Atlantis, escape the deluge in spaceships. These survivors return to Middle-earth many generations after the events of The Lord of the Rings. Middle-earth has changed greatly. The elves and humans have interbred and have become one race. The few orcs and goblins left are in hiding, and the hobbits, and dwarfs have been reduced to a handful of survivors. Their numbers having been greatly reduced by disease.
In my story two Numenorean scientists discover an artefact that was once owned by Sauron. It looks like a Tibetan vajra. In Buddhism it is a symbolic ritual object that embodies the properties of the diamond and lightening. A vajra typically is a short rod with two points. This vajra, however, is different it has three points. This object has the spiritual power to transform Middle-earth into a healed healthy paradise or a god awful hell. It depends on the moral character of the person, or persons, who are using it. Three pointed vajra is an allusion to the Christian trinity. Our two scientists get into a dispute on what to do with the object. It will take a Christ like figure again to resolve this conflict, and save the peoples of Middle-earth.
My story would take the Middle-earth series in a direction like the Darkover series by Marion Zimmer Bradley. That series was a combination of classic fantasy and science fiction. It would be safe to assume the Tolkien diehards would hate this concept. Myself, I think it would make for an interesting and refreshingly different take on the Middle-earth universe. People would either love it or hate. I think most of the Tolkien fans would want my head on a platter! Despite that I think it would be a fun concept.
My unconscious has some really fun ideas that are always percolating there. My dreams are often a window I can peek into and see what is going on there. It is like I have my own movie script writer or book author on call, and he is hard at work 24/7, while I go about my affairs in the waking world. This guy and I get to meet up in my dreams and he gets me up to speed on what he has been working on. What a weird and fantastic feeling that creates in me. Are we one person or two? I do not know. Are we all schizophrenic beings to some degree? I am reading, "Man and his Symbols" by Carl Jung and he discusses this aspect of the human psyche. People are often caught unaware of the actions and behaviours they are unconsciously doing. Jung says, "Thus, even in our day the unity of consciousness is still a doubtful affair; it can be easily disrupted...it is against this background that we must review the importance of dreams--those flimsy, evasive, unreliable, vague, and uncertain fantasies." Here, I believe, like Jung is where all the answers about the human condition and the universe lie. I am convinced the answers to all mysteries are all hiding there and that is why I explore the meanings of my dreams in these blogs.
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