, Alice in Wonderland and The Lord of the Rings
, Alice in Wonderland and The Lord of the Rings[from Looking-Glass House, after reading Jabberwocky]
"It seems very pretty, but it's rather hard to understand. Somehow it seems to fill my head with ideas - only I don't exactly know what they are!..."
[book I; Three is Company. Frodo and co. hear horses on the road, and hide]
The singing drew nearer. One clear voice rose now above the others. It was singing in the fair elven-tongue, of which Frodo knew only a little, and the others knew nothing. Yet the sound blending with the melody seemed to shape itself in their thoughts into words which they only partly understood.
What follows represents - not what he read, only the impression it made upon me. The poem seemed in a language I have never before heard, which yet I could understand perfectly, although I could not write the words, or give their meaning save in poor approximation.
I'm realising that this is no coincidence. George MacDonald read the first draft of Alice to his children, and encouraged Lewis Carroll to publish it. Tolkien was brought up on both these authors.
(The best book on programming for the layman is Alice in Wonderland; but that's because it's the best book on anything for the layman.)
