Tolkien and Lewis Saw This Sunrise

I’m in Oxford for a day for the nineteenth Oxford Patristics Conference. I'll read a short paper on Augustine in an hour. This morning I was up early enough to explore a bit.

It's my second OPC. Last time I explored north a bit, got a glimpse of the room in the pub where the Inklings met, and walked past Tolkien’s church. This time I went south. I don’t want to see the place where they did their best work this time. This time, I want to see some of the same beauty that renewed and inspired them to do that work.

The geography must have changed some these last decades. But Christ Church Meadow has been around for awhile, and there’s no question Tolkien and Lewis enjoyed a sunrise over it.

A little further on, the southbound path follows the River Cherwell until it meets the Thames. I’m pretty sure this path has changed a lot since Lewis and Tolkien walked here, but there’s no way they never followed some path along the Cherwell. They saw the same riverbank.

Perhaps they saw a younger version of this venerable tree.

No doubt they looked at the ducks.

Somewhere in England, there must be a forest that inspired Fangorn, or a riverside willow that inspired Old Man Willow. I don't know where to find them.

The road goes ever on and on, but like a weary Hobbit, I can’t follow forever. On the way back to the hotel for a (first and only, but still very good) breakfast, I wonder if the ducks know that the morning is beautiful.