John Ronald Reuel Tolkien’s (1892-1973) greatest misgiving was that the English people — except for Beowulf and the legend of King Arthur, and unlike so many of the world’s peoples — lacked their own mythology. So in his writings (the best known being The Hobbit, the 3-volume Lord of the Rings, and Silmarillion), Tolkien set out to fashion a myth for his people, using Norse myths, Old English stories and his own rich imagination. What Tolkien never anticipated was that his Middle-earth transcends the English to be embraced and loved by all peoples and cultures of the world.
Despite his astonishing creativity, Tolkien insisted that only God creates. Whatever human beings fashion, therefore, is and can only be a sub- or secondary creation.
Below are breathtaking floral sub-creations: elaborate topiary projects done with live, blooming flowers of the Creator.
H/t FOTM’s swampygirl
~Eowyn
