On August 24th, for the eleventh session of the Big Read, Tom Hillman presented, “Precious Illusions” as The Two Towers, chapters 1 to 5, were covered.
Tom is the author of Pity, Power, and Tolkien’s Ring: To Rule the Fate of Many. He is also working on a new book focused on the early legendarium in the years 1916 to 1937.
During his presentation he asked the reader to consider what was real and what was an illusion using examples such as the bodies in the dead marches and the boat of Faramir. The question was not even so much as did they see it, but what did they see? Did they believe they saw the thing or was the thing really there? Either way they ‘saw’ it.
He also addressed the challenge of applying contemporary meaning to how words were used in Tolkien’s time and how Tolkien used words for their early meaning in contrast to even his own time yielding a double meaning at times.
The presentation was recorded, but Tom was in attendance and took questions. After his Q&A I did not stay for the break-outs, but there were about 40 people in attendance throughout.
Questions included how the illusions related to specific characters and there was a question related to the Ring and Frodo in which Tom explained he felt the Ring had more of a ‘gravitational’ effect in that it drew the wearer more than a figure whispering in the character’s ear encouraging an action.
