A
time-honored Christian
tradition:
This collection of Marian poems honors the Blessed Virgin Mary's appearances at Guadalupe in Tepeyac, a poor area on the periphery of what today is known as Mexico City, Mexico...
In fact, speaking of Marian poetry, Tolkien did a little work in that vein (
as explained by
Stratford Caldecott, someone
who seems to be making a regular appearance on these e-pages):
...In Roman Catholic devotion and dogma, Mary, having been assumed into heaven at the end of her earthly life, has long been venerated as Queen of Heaven and “Star of the Sea.” We find this cosmic aspect of the Marian archetype expressed in the person of Galadriel’s own heavenly patroness, Elbereth, Queen of the Stars, who plays the role in Tolkien’s legendarium of transmitting light from the heavenly places. It is to Elbereth that the Elves sing the following invocation:
Snow-white! Snow-white! O Lady clear!
O Queen beyond the Western seas!
O light to us that wander here
Amid the world of woven trees!
O Elbereth! Gilthoniel!
We still remember, we who dwell
In this far land beneath the trees,
Thy Starlight on the Western seas.
Tolkien would have been familiar with one of the most popular Catholic hymns from his childhood, the tone and mood of which are markedly close to those of Tolkien’s song to Elbereth:22
Hail, Queen of Heaven, the ocean star,
Guide of the wand’rer here below:
Thrown on life’s surge, we claim thy care—
Save us from peril and from woe.
Mother of Christ, star of the sea,
Pray for the wanderer, pray for me...
2 comments:
An interesting use of the Guadalupe image here:
http://www.neilsoncarlin.com/shrine.html
See the Gianna Molla and Miguel Pro paintings.
Thanks--those are gorgeous!
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