In Remembrance

We must not forget the fact that this depiction of Sigurd and Fafnir is on a gravestone. This suggests that the one for whom this gravestone was made, was put into relation with Sigurd – someone seen as valorous, as brave. We cannot know who this person was, only that people wanted him to be remembered.

Tolkien’s fiction is filled with death and ceremony concerning death – songs are sung in lament, last words are spoken.

Tolkien himself also wanted to be remembered in a specific way. On his and his wife Edith’s gravestone are written the names Beren and Lúthien. For more information, see https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/jrr-tolkiens-grave These are characters from Tolkien’s own fiction, two characters who were very much in love.

By bringing him and his wife into relation with these characters, the gravestone assures that Tolkien and his wife Edith will be remembered as a couple who loved each other, until the end.

Here we then have courage and strength, love and bonds – memorialised in death.

Whether you value one over the other, both are forever remembered, cast in stone: some courage and wisdom, fiction and reality, blended together in good measure.