While replying, just now, to Freda's comment on yesterday's post, I was reminded of a passage on the beauty of words which appears in Humphrey Carpenter's J. R. R. Tolkien: A Biography
When the undergraduate Tolkien, on the advice of his tutor (the awe-inspiring Joe Wright), took up the study of medieval Welsh, "he was not disappointed; indeed he was confirmed in all his expectations of beauty. Beauty: that was what pleased him in Welsh; the appearance and sound of the words almost irrespective of their meaning. He once said: 'Most English-speaking people, for instance, will admit that cellar door is "beautiful", especially if dissociated from its sense (and its spelling). More beautiful than, say, sky, and far more beautiful than beautiful. Well then, in Welsh for me cellar doors are extraordinarily frequent."
Beyond the rose in yesterday's picture, and again shown above is our cellar door; thanks to Tolkien's words I now see it in a new light ....
