The Notion Club Papers

"I know, I know," said Lowdham loudly and angrily. "It's a shame! Norman Keeps is a very decent chap, and would rather learn truth than lies. But Zigur pays special attention to the type. Curse him!"

Conversation stopped, and there was a silence. Ramer and Guildford exchanged glances. Dolbear opened his eyes quietly without moving his head.

"Zigur?" said Jeremy, looking at Lowdham. "Zigur? Who is he?"

"No idea, no idea!" said Lowdham. "Is this a new game, Jerry? Owlamoo, who's he?" He strode to the window and flung it open.

The early summer night was still and glimmering, warmer than usual for the time of year. Lowdham leant out, and we turned and stared at his back. The large window looked west, and the two towers of All Souls' stuck up like dim horns against the stars.

Suddenly Lowdham spoke in a change voice, clear and ominous, words in an unknown tongue; and then turning fiercely upon us he cried aloud:

"Behold the Eagles of the Lords of the West! They are coming over Numenor!"

********

First of all, I did NOT write the amazing selection above, it is the work of the incredible master JRR Tolkien, writer of the Lord of the Rings amd several other works.

This is a selection from an unpublished work of his called the Notion Club Papers, a story about some professors in Oxford who slowly begin to get strange visions of the past. It was meant as a 'time-travel' novel to work with Lewis' space-travel trilogy. He eventually gave it up and wrote LOTR instead, to the world's everlasting gratitude. The two stories are actually connected, as the Eagles of the West are all in the LOTR, and Aragon is a member of the Numenorean race, who used to live on the island of Numenor (duh), until Zigur-Sauron-corrupted it and convinced them to attack the Lords of the West, who then drowned the island. This story was Tolkien's first try at getting out his version of the Atlantis legend.

If you've read it (which I doubt, I found it in a book of notes that his son had collected), you know it goes a little slow, but there's a FABULOUS amount of history and philosophy behind everything that happens.

Anyway. I thought it was an awesome story, and I made this a long time back, like three or five years ago, before I'd heard of Sin City, (though I HAD heard of Pleasantville.) I shouldn't post something so old, but I figure you guys deserve something after a week, and life is too busy to draw right now.

Wow that took a long time. Hope you like.

EDIT: People seemed to like this one so I posted a few that came before

Prev Pic: Lowdhawm and the Camera [link]