This is why you're still haunted by The Lord of the Rings ✨ 💔

[@olivia.grace.cook.]

Friends, I can't thank you enough for all the love you’ve shown this video. I feel so overwhelmed in the best possible way. 💛 Thank you for all the beautiful thoughts, insights, and stories you've shared in the comments. I hope you’re as encouraged as I am to find that we're not alone in this love of Story and this shared longing for Heaven. Here’s to the stories that take us further up and further in! ✨ 💕 Olivia

[@johnnyjet3.1412]

So Live It. I’m currently building a gypsy vardo for my 25th Burning Man - last years Mudpocalypse’ made it a grand adventure. A boat ride does it if you built the boat - which I have also done.

[@project.family4]

This video is a great treatise on fantasy and the deeper purpose behind the role of a "sub-creator" to quote Tolkien. I'm reading LOTR to my boys now and it's creating opportunities to discuss some of these deep issues. Keep up the great work sister!

[@sweetspirit444]

@@johnnyjet3.1412I’ve always wanted to go to burning man

[@kimmypfeiffer9130]

you don't need those kinds of people in your life or their negativity lol

[@Serai3]

For me, it's the redwood forests of California. I've never felt such a sense of home as I did the first time I woke in a friend's home after a midnight arrival and saw those woods in the early morning fog. My heart broke open in a way I never thought or knew was possible. Those woods are my White Shore - the place my soul will go when this world shivers and falls away.

[@DN-cf5rz]

The worst part about reading great fantasy books is never being able to read them for the first time again.

[@MagusMarquillin]

The surprise of not knowing what you've discovered is special, but It's a fair trade off for being able to read them deeper and more keenly on each return, for the truly great stories have no expirations...just exhalations.

[@scuzifly]

Sometimes if I leave a big enough gap between rereads, I have forgotten almost everything so it feels more like a first read in which the blurb gave away too much of the storyline, but the journey is still just as fantastic.

[@Peter-ri9ie]

This is so true.

[@KipIngram]

Indeed. Reading them again is nice too, and can evoke some of the same feelings. But nothing ever rivals that first magical read. The stuff that Olivia is talking about I tend to get on re-reads too.

[@marasidhe321]

That is so true!

[@copiouscopium9687]

LotR and Narnia shaped me more than most people ever have. The impact of men and women who I’ll never meet, and yet have undoubtedly saved me so many times.

[@lahannah1224]

If those shaped you imagine what the bible will do when you read it. The word of God is the most powerful above any novel.

[@Charlotte.M.S]

@@lahannah1224😂😂😂

[@Rrrrrrrehaaaw]

@@lahannah1224 The Bible literally does the opposite for me, ngl. It does not describe a world I'm longing for, nor a God I want to meet. It's a very cruel book in a lot of ways, even if you ignore the outright cruelties of the Old Testament. Now, Jesus? He had the right idea. If the Bible was the teachings of Jesus I'd be onboard, but it is, unfortunately, mostly the teachings of Paul. I think that's one of the great tragedies of mankind.

[@angustheterrible3149]

​​@@lahannah1224 The mythology in the Bible can be an interesting read for those so inclined, but the beliefs that stem from the Bible are among the cruelest deceptions to ever plague mankind. So much death, war, and suffering has come of the Bible and similar religious texts. The same can't be said for other fantasy stories that people find comfort in.

[@user-im7eh4dc3w]

​@@Charlotte.M.SLotr has many stories inspired by the bible, just with a different name.

[@achantus1]

Homesick? Yes, that is actually a brilliant description of the feeling.

[@achantus1]

And I would like to add that reading LotR when I was 16 changed my life. In many ways it made me the person I am today. I'm 59 now.

[@henrysmom1742]

Unhappy childhood with crazy family and little hope Id escape it. Introduced to LOTR at age 13 by another "misfit". I can honestly tell you that that book saved my life. I saw through it that there was a hidden battle of good versus evil and that good wins in the end, albeit at a very high cost. Now at age 65, I am an incessant reader, lots of fiction, classics and fantasy but other than the Bible, no book has influenced me like it has. I still read it every couple of years and watch the extended version of the films at least once or twice a year. Your video is honestly one of the best things Ive ever seen on YT or anywhere. You captured EXACTLY how I feel. Thank you!

[@user-xv2jh3qh7j]

I agree 100%

[@blitz8425]

It's that sense of the welsh word "hiraeth." The sense of longing for a home or place that no longer exists, or perhaps never did. I feel it every time i watch or read Lord of the Rings.

[@MissPurbeck]

Exactly that.

[@WM-tl7zw]

That place profoundly does exist. Its heaven. Lewis and Tolkein I have no doubt would agree with me.

[@blitz8425]

@@WM-tl7zw Lewis would. Tolkien wouldn't. Tolkien was explicitly trying to evoke the sense, longing for a place that is long gone.

[@Pretty_Fly_White_Guy]

The English word is nostalgia

[@blitz8425]

@@Pretty_Fly_White_Guy nostalgia does not mean the same thing as hiraeth.

[@user-pz5pe9fp4o]

Just a reminder to everyone that Theoden doesn't ride his rohirrim to certain death out of hatred of the enemy, or love of war, or even a desire to save Gondor - ultimately he does it to keep a promise. Above all else, keep your promises.

[@katlamb4606]

I remember being a little girl, reading the Grimm fairytales and feeling the gnawing ache for another world.

[@olivia.grace.cook.]

I love this 💛

[@katlamb4606]

@@olivia.grace.cook. ❤

[@thestraightroad305]

I remember too! And the Andrew Lang Blue, Green, Red, and Brown Fairy Books! Reading at night under covers when I was supposed to be asleep. As clear as if it were last week…

[@melissaamyx2196]

I'm 60 now and still feel this! There is just something so deep that is missing in the "real" world...

[@alannothnagle]

@@melissaamyx2196 Same here! Perhaps if we could just figure out what this something actually is, we'd be a lot closer to finally finding it!

[@cynthiastinson7059]

I turn to Lord of the Rings when I find myself engaged in spiritual warfare. There are so many poignant moments and acts of heroism. It encourages me greatly. Thanks for identifying this latent sense of longing. The fact that so many people have responded similarly is also very encouraging.

[@Novastar.SaberCombat]

"Reflect upon the Past. Embrace your Present. Orchestrate our Futures." --Artemis (DD3) 🐲✨🐲✨🐲✨

[@Izabela-ek5nh]

Same....

[@deirdrelewis1454]

You have made us for yourself O Lord and our heart is restless until it rests in you…St Augustine. You’ve hit the nail on the head. And Lord of the Rings is the finest book written in the English language, which becomes the greatest movie ever made!

[@light-keeper580]

I swear, this is the video the KZbin was made for. This is the best conversation I ever had. I'm inspired not only for writing, but for living itself. Your words are my glimpse of heaven for today. Thank you so much.

[@avengingangel7929]

This comment is amazing!!!

[@sherrifjenkins9229]

No KZbin video has ever made me tear up. Not much does. But somehow, it seems I’m not as dead inside as I believed myself to be, because this… this is special. Thank you miss.

[@sorelyanlie2784]

My sister and I used to try and find words to describe this when we were little. When we read about c.s. Lewis and his brother making stories together and talking about this feeling it ignited such a feeling of kindship. The first few years of being a mom I kind of lost touch with the feeling and then one day my husband, in an attempt to console me from some thing or other (can’t remember what I was particularly sad over at the time) bought the extended editions of lotr to watch together when my youngest was about a week or so old, and the feeling hit me full force. It’s such a an oddly painful feeling, but so strangely desirable at the same time. I stills don’t think any word out there quite describes it, but to me it is the evidence that we are created for something more. It is one symptom of the God-sized hole in our hearts.

[@olivia.grace.cook.]

Yes! Beautifully said. ✨

[@cls96]

I too lost touch with this feeling (and I think my spiritual gifts too) when I became a mom. I've also realized that my dad (who was a science fiction addict and music lover as a youth, yet was the most dry, serious, critical person I've ever met when I was growing up) had a similar experience when he became a dad. My current hypothesis for this is that when my dad and I took on the responsibility of raising children in this world, we relied/rely too much on our own hard work and ability to make it happen, instead of relying on God. Another fictional author quote i heard that's been a part of this hypothesis is from S.D. Smith: "I am also learning how impossible it is for me to adequately protect and provide for those I love. I am learning more that Christ is our Protector and Provider and I'm called to be a servant to my family with the gifts and capacities I have, and I am profoundly limited. So, I must, as a habit, turn to God and turn over to Him the anxieties that threaten to wreck me every day. His strength is made perfect in my weakness. " (Again, I HEARD this so I'm not quoting his punctuation, just his words). So, basically I've made myself and my own efforts an idol without even knowing it -- self-idolatry. And all idols let us down and lead to heartbreak. I've also noticed that I spend less time listening to music and reading than before I became a parent. I'm sure that too has contributed to feeling the grind without the joy. I still believe and have hope for the world to come, but I don't FEEL that in the present world. Disciplining children should be as much of a joy as leading someone to Christ, but I've made it MY responsibility instead of the HS's.

[@sorelyanlie2784]

Oh, that is very eloquently said. I had never truly considered before that my feeling that i must be the one to provide the proper outcome for my children home is a form of idolatry. I have often realized that I am to quick to commit the sin of anxiety or worry, but yes, never thought it all the way through like that. I always worry that i must have idolized creativity and that is why it hurt so badly to give it up, but then at the same time feel like I only exercising the skills that are most difficult for me and never the ones in which feel God has given me a natural inclination. It’s very startling in the severity of the sin, but I so appreciate you saying that. I’ll be praying for you and me both that we learn to trust God to do his work work better than we ever could.

[@LioraSorrel]

@@cls96wonderfully expressed! Thanks for that. Wish I could save it to read when I’m feeling a bit trodden.

[@maryanderson866]

It's called the haunting. The ache for something we somehow can't reach but not sure what it is. It's Eternity placed in man and a Sacred Romance of longing for God. We fleetingly glimpse it thru profound beauty, nature, beautiful music, an excellent book. It's God's calling to us. Nothing can truly satisfy this melancholy except God. And we can never fully reach Him on this Earth. St Paul says The Holy Spirit that gives us a small glimpse.

[@user-xv2jh3qh7j]

This is beautiful, and absolutely right.

[@belladonnatook8851]

​@@user-xv2jh3qh7jThere are no "absolutes", neither in this world nor the next (because we know it not in this realm). If we, as humanity could learn this, I think our world, our very existence, might be in a much healthier place.

[@basilgoldswain1744]

CS Lewis called that feeling “joy”

[@doomhippie6673]

I know EXACTLY the feeling you describe - I read the Lord of the Rings in German when I was 10 and the first time in English when I was 12. And I must have read it about 50 times by now - and still have this feeling of longing and actually having lost something once I finished the book.

[@olivia.grace.cook.]

You've read it 50 times, in multiple languages?! My friend, YOU bow to no one!

[@suzannelevy9094]

I have never finished reading Lord of the Rings because I could not bear to no longer have it in my life . I have always left it unfinished I wanted that beauty with me every day ❤

[@CNBlaze-qj7fg]

You said it. This video is exactly why writing fantasy has stuck with me through brain injury and resulting heartaches/self-disgust. Many of those painful realities were fleeting, but the love of Wonder has never faded. Excellently presented!

[@rogerhuggettjr.7675]

I remember a pastor say that God wouldn't give birds a desire to fly south if there was no south to go to. We desire a better world, because we are created for one. That's why fantasy resonates.

[@bethanywoodward7614]

YES.

[@rickbethwhite3479]

"It is the doom of men that they will harken to the voice of the sea, and it will awaken in them a longing for they know not what." J.R.R. Tolkien

[@riverbeee9643]

I read the last paragraphs of the Chronicles of Narnia series in the Last Battle first before the rest. This was when I was a teen and a new Christian. It spoke of what you speak here, of another world, better than Narnia and our world. I've been aching since.

[@emilyboyer9211]

Definitely have the aching like I was part of the battles

[@skylarburton1046]

You got me crying in a burger joint! Narnia and LOTR always get me misty eyed. They give us brief glimpses of a goodness that is waiting for us on the other side of the veil. You've made a new subscriber out of me.

[@olivia.grace.cook.]

Haha, I love this! Thank you Skylar! 💛

[@daffodilssnapdragons6388]

Me too, I'm sitting here in tears. ❤

[@KimberLefaye]

I cried too. It's such a touching thing to realize you are not alone in this desperate feeling of need for something you can't quite define but desire in the deepest part of your soul.

[@user-xv2jh3qh7j]

Same!!

[@voiceinthenoise3357]

For me it's the intrinsic connection between fantasy/fairy tales and nature: I escaped into Skyrim, finding sanctuary in its vertiginous, icy wilds where life could lose my trail when I turned a corner, autumn was an amber valley the other side of high, cold peaks, caves kept secrets worth the descent into darkness, and I wandered starlit paths carved out by the wind. The ethereal tones and elemental melodies of Enya gave sound to music I'd been hearing in my heart for years. I started reading The Lord of the Rings and watched Fellowship in autumn, when the wilderness creeps back into the world and sadness stops hiding, where letting go is a breathtaking show and even ugliness can be beautiful when it is honest. Suddenly, crumbling stone walls marked the borders of the Shire, roots creeping across the path were Entish toes stretching, while fallen leaves laid to rest the fading grace of Lothlorien, asleep until some final, forever spring. A curse of blindness had begun to lift; nature was appearing to my blighted eyes as more than just a picturesque dead-end, biology to be understood so that we could control or exploit it. There were voices I'd mistaken for the aimless breeze that heeded hearing. My feet in a stream felt the pull of the sea. We miss so much in our modern lives; restless, rootless and disenchanted, whether we are aware or not of the cause for this absence. Someone may pass the native wildflowers in my front lawn on their walk to work, and briefly feel more optimistic about the day without even realising why, because they never knew what they were missing until it grew out of gaps they never noticed. There is a fundamental relationship between untouched, ancient places and a rhythm that runs deep, a pulse that does not pause, only slows in a silent spring. Like seeds under snow that does not melt, buried beneath the ever falling ash of industry, a heartbeat quietens before quickening in the presence of one who remembers it. It springs not from spells but deep within the earth; a clear, tinkling stream freshly risen from elevated ground, bordered by dew-glossed stone and mossy banks bright as emerald snow, seems enchanted not because a unicorn once drank from it, but because it is so vulnerable and unspoiled; water worthy of a being whose tears wash away the stains of pain and corruption. These places - like the ever shrinking fragments of temperate rainforest in western UK - are increasingly rare, so seem like they're from a fairytale because they may as well be. If we continue on our current course, these relics will recede into memory and sink into myth. Tarmac and concrete are newly solidified magma, still molten in their youthful core, and have no memory of the far-reaching past that shows in the wounds and weathered scars upon the surface of older stone. There are so many people out there who feel like they're missing something from Middle-earth, when the piece that fits the hole in their life is right here on this earth, if they look. If they trust. There are lovers of fantasy and fairytales who have a patchy, barren lawn for a garden, unaware that they could have a fairytale land on their doorstep by simply planting or allowing to self-seed nature-friendly, native trees and flowers, and watch the wildlife come. Elven-eared red squirrels bound across spongy, mounded ground like pixies wearing fur coats, while goldcrests flit through thickets like fairies too shy to show themselves. Magic isn't some elusive, ephemeral power separate from the world, but possibility in motion outside our control, the simple transformations that seem like miracles; an egg into a winged song, a caterpillar charmed by moonlight into a moth, a shrivelled seed in the desert revived by rain, conjuring new growth out of dust. Enchantment is a spark igniting gas in a bog, a chemical luminescence called will-o'-the-wisp beckoning ahead under air stirred by your approach. I used to feel so adrift, treading water too deep to know, scrambling for any purchase to distract me from drowning in doubt, but in nature nothing is untethered because everything is connected to something else - even clouds bloom above the ocean, dropping seeds that grow rivers out of rock far from any shore. To discover our place as giver and receiver in its harmonious, interconnected system is the cure. We could have Eden on earth, or something close. Magic is real because we miss it. Without nature, like Tolkien's elves we fade with the waning of the world: "The limit of their lives is the life of Arda and they say that ere Arda ends the Eldalie on earth will have become as spirits invisible to mortal eyes."

[@aliciarodriguez6611]

I really appreciate the beauty and intelligence of your response, I am grateful to be able to read this.❤

[@belladonnatook8851]

Your response/comment is reflective of a wonderfully rich inner world. Beautiful! I pray you never lose this. ❤

[@Amz11_13]

This is by far, one of the best videos i have watched on youtube in a very long time. I was enthralled and hung onto every word you said. Much like the stories you talk about in this video, i feel like you took me through a story of your own. I felt that familiar ache as you spoke. What an odd and sad and beautiful phenomena so present throughout humanity and yet one we understand very little. Fantasy is by far my favorite genre of them all. Thank you so much for this video ❤

[@olivia.grace.cook.]

You are so welcome, my friend. Thank you for saying this. 💛

[@joymiller9668]

I agree with you about The Hope in the LOTR. And others. It's why I feel like game of thrones falls soo short of other fantasy stories. When hope is ripped out from under you it's just emptiness. Again this is why everyone lost interest in the Walking dead. In a good story/fantasy you must have Hope and a little bit of wish fulfillment. Your real life is where more often than not wish fulfillment never happens, so a fantasy story is where a reader goes to hide and have fulfillment and hope in it. That's why the Lord of the Rings is the best! That's why everyone loves Harry Potter despite some story inconsistencies. They give you Hope that Good will Conquer Evil and maybe some of your favorite Characters will make it out the other side having learned and changed them for the better.

[@alannothnagle]

If a story doesn't provide the reader with hope, I really don't see the point of it. "Just give up" isn't a message I want to waste any time reading about.

[@Novastar.SaberCombat]

Funny that you mention hope. The characters of my series have a term for it: "Eyayeli". Hard to explain. But anyone who reads or follows the hexalogy would understand. Triumph over Tragedy, no matter how difficult the losses are. It's embodied in full almost from the very first chapter in book one. 🐲✨🐲✨🐲✨ "Courage is tempered by equivalent mastery over fear..." --DD3 🐲✨🐲✨🐲✨

[@WinstonSmithGPT]

@@alannothnagleBecause you didn’t read the rest of the message: “Just give up and *submit.*”

[@shemsguellouz4654]

This video brought me to tears :') As a life-long fantasy reader (and writer), I've always felt that longing for something I can't quite name. You described the feeling perfectly. Also, thank you for this love letter to the Lord of the Rings! 💗

[@olivia.grace.cook.]

Thank you, Shems! I was crying right along with you. 🥲 What an incredible, incredible story. 💕

[@auntlynnonline6206]

My dearest Olivia, I have just found your channel today by way of a very fortuitous accident. Thank you for such an insightful video. My first conscious memory of experiencing that longing was while reading Sir Thomas Mallory's Arthurian legends. I was only eight or nine, but my heart broke when I realized the stories were over. I could have lived inside the pages of that book forever. I am a self-proclaimed 'Nerd of The Rings.' (I am now 62 years old.) People often ask me 'What is inscribed on your wedding band?' I always deliver with as much mischief and drama as I can muster in my best female Gandalf voice: "One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them. One Ring to bring them all, and in the darkness bind them!" I always wear The One Ring to remind me of my favorite questions, 'What is the right thing to do now?', 'What would Frodo do?' and 'What would Jesus do?' I implore all of my younger friends to NEVER apologize for nurturing the archetypes that live inside of you. The world is changing. I have been watching the build-up to this moment for a very long time. We will all be challenged soon in ways we never imagined before. Will you be able to destroy The Ring when it is asked of you?

[@katlamb4606]

Nostalgic for a place and time I've never been to...that should be my middle name. What a beautiful video!❤

[@olivia.grace.cook.]

I'm so glad it resonated with you! Thank you, Kat! 💕

[@katlamb4606]

@@olivia.grace.cook. you deserve it my dear.

[@jammydodger222Xxd]

I love how even though Tolkien didn't like allegory, his faith still shines through so strongly in his stories. We truly were made for a greater world than this. A world which Jesus shall bring about when He returns. One might even call it, the return of the king... On a side note: When Aragorn and the other royal characters bow to the hobbits it always reminds me of these verses. Luke 9:46-48 "An argument arose among them as to which of them was the greatest. But Jesus, knowing the reasoning of their hearts, took a child and put him by his side and said to them, “Whoever receives this child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me receives him who sent me. *For he who is least among you all is the one who is great* .”

[@cls96]

"...almost in tears" 😂😂😂 I bawled like a baby when I finished The Chronicles of Narnia at age 12, and Harry Potter at age 18. 😅 ...homesick for weeks afterwards in both cases. I have the same feeling of joy when I'm being used by God to extend His Kingdom and the same feeling of homesickness when I come back from a mission trip... BUT it isn't a longing for the country I'm returning from... it's a longing to be used by God again, be outside my comfort zone, completely relying on Him again. It's a longing to be part of the Global Church again, see it working in person, see God's global/historical work in-person.

[@LailaDragoness]

I wish I could upvote this video a thousand times. I couldn't agree more with everything you said. And it feels so good hearing you say those things and reading the comments from people who share your (and my) thoughts, emotions and experiences about this specific topic. So often in my everyday life, I feel like the only other person who understands and shares all of this is my husband. But everybody else reacts to those thoughts like we'd just declared the sky had turned green. A real-world place where I remember experiencing this homeward ache very strongly, was during a vacation in the Canadian Rocky Mountans 12 years ago, especially on a certain lookout spot next to Lake Agnes. But I regularly experience it during that short time each year when summer turns into autumn, usually in late September. And during that time, I feel it strongest in the late afternoon/early evening, when the sun is already low in the sky. There's just something special about the light and the atmosphere during those times.

[@deborahdanhauer8525]

LOTR and fantasy has been my mainstay against the darkness my whole life. I remember being thankful that I had lived long enough to see those movies made.🤗❤️🐝

[@heathengypsy]

oh girl you just earned yourself a subscriber, not only did everything you say resonate with me but if felt like you were talking about me personally with how you described the way you feel about these books. For me they were more than stories, they were a home that was just beyond my reach but somehow still always there.

[@Wereallmadheredowntherabbithol]

Thank you for making this. It cut very close to things I've always felt but could never explain to anyone. I tear or two were shed while listening. I'm nearly 40 and I believe I'll probably always feel this way.

[@olivia.grace.cook.]

💛

[@marcusappelberg369]

You exprrssed this feeling that I have felt for so long very well!

[@flameofthewest6196]

Whenever I feel overwhelmed in this life, I reread the last paragraph of Lord of the Rings and Lewis The Last Battle. As an adult, I reread those every year, and that will be one thing that I will miss when I'm not on this planet anymore. ❤❤❤

[@Laurapoet33]

This was so beautiful ✨ Thank you so much for sharing! For me, that ache is found on sweltering summer evenings, when the air smells like jasmine and the sun has already set but the sky is still filled with light. I'm definitely going to go read some of CS Lewis's essay now - those quotes you shared were incredible!

[@olivia.grace.cook.]

Thank you, Laura! I love this description; I can feel that summer evening as if I'm standing there with you. 🥹 And yes, C.S. Lewis is brilliant! He's such an articulate writer. The search for this longing is threaded throughout his work, but his essay "The Weight of Glory" is a great place to start! 💛

[@milward4563]

There are three experiences i have had this year that have had massively lasting impacts on me so far. I saw Wicked in the same theatre i first saw it when i was 10, I saw the Eras Tour live with two friends, and I saw the LOTR filns in the cinema. They say you cant buy happiness, but just the memory of those events has already helped me through some very tough times. It strikes me how, even after hearing the music, seeing the clips, seeing the films dozens of times, seeing something live, woth other people makes it a completely new experience. Please go support theatres and cinemas whenever you can, it will be worth it.

[@olivia.grace.cook.]

Yes!!! Thank you for sharing this. 💛 I'm so glad you brought up The Eras Tour, because it evoked that transcendent feeling for me, and the same sorrow/longing when it was over! As you said, there is something magical in the experience of seeing art live, with other people.

[@mpgibson6342]

A very important video and one of the best I have seen regarding fantasy literature. I am 69, and this video addresses a major theme and thread winding through my entire life - the knowledge of and longing for that good and magical realm which is just out of reach. I started reading the Chronicles of Narnia at the age of 8, the LOTR at the age of 15, and I have never been the same since. In this dark world, I believe (as Sam does) that we have to believe in good and strive for it. I too am a writer, and can identify with the idea that fantasy is usually considered to be outside the canon of "serious writing". As Tolkien and Lewis understood, nothing could be farther from the truth. Our hearts need good stories that don't shrink from evil but show the triumph of good. Thank you for a thoughtful discussion of this very important topic. 🧚‍♂💚

[@dragonartz3207]

As me and my friends have realized: “The best books hurt you. They rip out your heart and then hand it right back.”

[@nickigreenwood]

There’s a truth in fantasy that’s somehow more pure and easier to see than reality. Yes, we have friendship and loyalty and grace and honor, but fantasy brings these to the forefront in a way our world can’t. That’s why we love it and why it keeps bringing us back.

[@LioraSorrel]

As I watched this video I couldn’t help myself but cry. I’m from Brazil and the word *Saudade* invokes a deep sigh, that comes from deep within the soul, for something you deeply desire but don’t know what is. As a Christian this feeling of longing and aching for something I don’t know, always brings me closer to God. I am 100% convinced that the thing that we do long for even without even knowing, is God. The beauty of Him, his unmatched creativity & the complete fulfilment He brings. All beauty that surrounds us - from a lovely song, to the voice that sings it, from a work of art to the hands that painted it, from the colours of the sunset to the mind that seeks to replicate it - all the beauty, art, song, fantasy, creativity & inspiration come from God. We long for Him, we long for His presence and for a deep, real connection with Him. “He has placed eternity in our hearts”.

[@Yesica1993]

Amen! So beautifully expressed.

[@user-xv2jh3qh7j]

I love this. You are completely right. ❤

[@RemnusTheophilus]

Beautiful. One of the best explanations I’ve heard in my 50 years of homesickness for a place I’ve never been. “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind conceived what God has in store for those who love Him.”

[@jodiz5901]

This analysis was amazing. Tolkien, Lewis and, you all describe the longing our souls have for God. I never thought of fantasy embodying that longing before.

[@juanjosesegura4585]

I can fully relate. And I will share a little tip here: I long especially for Tolkien works and not only read them over and over, what I have done is read them in 4 different languages as a way to, somehow, feel them for the first time again with each new language. You know the story already, but reading it in a different language opens a new way of experiencing it. Of course I revisit it more often in English and in my mother tongue, but from time to time, I read it on a different one. The book I have read more times must be "The hound of the Baskervilles" by Conan Doyle, this one I have in 6 languages, and also 4 comic book adaptations... when I fell like going to it again, I pick the language and the media I feel like using that day.

[@pedrokozlakowski6440]

I feel a very strong connection with the movies' soundtrack, they evoke this kind of feeling, some sort of nostalgia mixed with melancholy. Thanks for sharing your insights and helping us to understand this feeling a little bit better.

[@breeinatree4811]

LOTR and Nicelle Nicolas from ST have shaped my life. I had no good adults in my life, so Elrond and Ulhura were my role models. I still wish i could live in Rivendell.

[@user-xv2jh3qh7j]

Rivendell is a dream...😍

[@breeinatree4811]

@@user-xv2jh3qh7j then it's a good dream. 🥰

[@SharonPadget]

I always thought that Sam was the real hero of Lord Of The Rings. Frodo only made it because of Sam’s unwavering loyalty and devotion. In spite of all they went through, Sam’s core personality and simple values never changed. Even though he was an acknowledged hero he was able to put that acclaim behind him and contentedly return to his former life. That’s the make of a real hero.

[@Doubleranged1]

You had to make me cry by putting all these emotional scenes after eachother, hadnt you?

[@olivia.grace.cook.]

Sorry not sorry 🥹 If it makes you feel any better I also 100% cried in the filming and editing of this video. Many many times.

[@elle7198]

Me too!! 🥹

[@COG-rb1rp]

This is the most inspiring video I've seen in years. Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts in such a beautiful way and for adressing that feeling of intense longing and yearning ..I've known it all my life.

[@olivia.grace.cook.]

Wow, thank you for saying this! 💛

[@crumbsintopebbles]

I have often felt a deep despise towards my childhood self, seeing her as cringey and stupid. Then again, there was something so earnest and hopeful about her that has a value of its own. As I've grown up, that element of who I am has been hidden away and sometimes even suppressed, but I think Fantasy (books, movies, even songs) has a way of reaching it. Now I understand the reason I loved fairies as a kid. I understand everything, and it makes me cry.

[@kimmyk3640]

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader will forever live in my heart. Oh to meet Reepicheep! To sail toward the setting sun, to search for the lost lords. This book lives in me--always will. All seven chronicles feel like home.

[@user-vw7od6no9b]

this video moved me to tears. Thank you for so eloquently describing this feeling. For me it is seeing mossy lush forests, mist in the redwoods, river canyons, listening to Aurora’s music, white rabbits, and especially anything fae related. I am always searching for that one mystical fairy movie or book that perfectly hits the spot, but have yet to find it. Sometimes I settle for Tinkerbell, which still does the trick but is so far off. Perhaps I will write my own world someday…. Again, thank you for this video. I am certain it has moved countless people.

[@guidoivanmendez2354]

I clicked this random video because... It seemed like it was talking about fantasy. Now, my eyes are wet!!! The sounds and colors from the Shire are the same sounds and colors i think to remember loving so much when i was a kid, and used to visit my grand aunt's town. Her house, all those evenings i used to contemplate there, walking to the near parks, and under the trees. It had something beautiful every season of the year. And Christmas is not the same since my family stopped going to her house for it. That’s my trascendental place. I need to visit it as soon as i can. She won’t be there (like many of my beloved ones) but i think i'll be at home there. REALLY at home. Beautiful video. Thanks for sharing.

[@avengingangel7929]

I am speechless. This video had me in tears. No idea I needed this today! Thank you!

[@nancyvaughn4303]

My husband and I escape to Middle Earth in a marathon viewing of the extended versions at least once every three months. I read the Hobbit, the Trilogy and the Silmarillion every year. Nice to hear others are the same.

[@NatalieM123]

this made me cry so much; so beautifully put together!!

[@Ironfrenzy217]

The video was providential. I was struggling with defeatism and despair earlier today started to get over it and then nostalgic longing happened then I found this.

[@markd3250]

Really, really well done. If your thoughts, subject and presentation are any indication of what your books are going to be like, they're going to be well worth the reading. I have always felt like I don't fit into this world. I've never felt like I belonged anywhere really. I read lots of fantasy and science fiction when I was young, including the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings. At the time, I wanted to escape the life I was in which seemed so aimless, so I read to escape. I didn't actually want to be in those fantasy worlds, but reading about them, and especially the people gave me a way to experience something other than my life. Upon reflecting about what you were saying, and I can say I have absolutely felt that same homesickness, that same longing for something that I feel should be, but is out of reach, I think what's missing the most is the attitudes and behavior of people. I long for grand eloquence, elegance and grace, but combined with humbleness and a genuine eagerness for participation in the adventure of life. It's all about people really. Places can be created, built, decorated, but without people of the right attitude and behavior, it doesn't work. We have genetic memory, so I know that all the memories of every person I'm descended from are archived and compressed within me. This is why I believe I can sometimes experience a sudden feeling of nostalgia or longing for a place or something, even the image of a person that suddenly seems familiar, when I know I've personally never been in or seen any of those things. A winding country lane lined by low stone walls; a great tree by a stream with branches that overhang the stream and provide shade; a cozy cottage at night with a fire in the fireplace, walls lit by that warm golden light. The smell of coffee and fresh baked bread. Standing on the high edge of a great and wide green valley, with rivers and streams meandering through it; the sun setting in the west end of it, reflecting off the waters of the rivers and streams. Sometimes these fleeting images, memories of smells and sounds can almost bring me to tears. The silly thing is, I was born and raised in southern California, which is an environment as far from all these things as it could be. I didn't know much of anything about my father's side of the family, but years ago I started doing research once the internet became available, and I found out my great grandfather was from Edinburgh, Scotland. I'm only second generation American. I didn't know that. I watch videos now of Scotland, and there are moments when a scene, or view will appear, and the feeling of recognition is almost like an electric jolt. That can only be because it either matches, or is very close to an archived memory embedded within me from my family ancestors who were from there. None of this I knew when I was young and growing up. There's so much to know, so much to understand, yet I've reached the age where I realize it's important to choose what to learn. The knowledge of good and evil can be very seductive, especially if it teases mystery and things hidden. The only thing I really want to know now, to embrace and *know* it, as in I am it and it is me, is God's love. It's not just an emotion. The list of it's attributes are in 1st Corinthians chapter 13. Those attributes and qualities have no beginning or end, nor do they fade. They are timeless, and as they grow and develop, they gain in power and strength. All of it is within, yet they radiate outward from you as they become the foundation of your attitude. It is a place, and that place is the kingdom of God. From that place, that source, flows the qualities of attitude and behavior that I long for. And for it to be real in my life, I have to start with me; with seeking, planting and cultivating those qualities within me. I know I need help, and I've asked God to walk that path with me, and show me; teach me as we walk it together. It's the great journey, the two of us together, which you're probably recognizing as a core part of many, if not most fantasy novels. It sounds like a fantasy, but it isn't. It's actually real, and available to all who want it; we just have to choose it.

[@alannatruong6138]

This is beautiful! I write fantasy fiction, and you got straight to the root of why fantasy matters.

[@thescarlets78]

Apologies for the diary entry, but you have no idea how much I needed your message. I recently had a birthday that has left me nostalgic to the point of despair over the passage of time and a longing for the past that has been gnawing at me too much. I have felt so irrational and upset because I know that time is unattainable, but I miss it in my bones. Your assessment that it ultimately isn't a point in time, youth, or memories that I long for, but something greater. Thank you deeply for the peace and clarity that I could not find or put into words ♡

[@WadeWojcik]

"A slant of evening light". I immediately know what you mean, though it never occurred to me until watching this video. Wonderfully told. Bravo!

[@SolarLabyrinth]

I can remember the feeling you speak of well, though watching this video made me realize it has been years and years since I felt it. I don't know if it's just a result of getting older, but I find it harder to get lost in books like that now. I miss it.

[@EmeraldVideosNL]

The Lord of the Rings is definitely that for me. The books are dearest to my heart, but the final movie's ending gets me in tears every time. I experience that ache as well when I'm in nature, a summer evening when all goes silent and temperatures are down to a nice warmth, walking barefoor in a forest stream.

[@Octotype]

You made me cry like 3 times this video. I love The Lord of the Rings, and I love finding more reasons as to why that is, this homesick feeling has more meaning than I would've thought. Thanks for the great video

[@jacktough]

"You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.” -St. Augustine (Thank you for sharing of yourself with this presentation :)

[@mariahharris8503]

Throne of Glass and Circe have these effects on me. Even after multiple reads they are still so dear to me

[@shelfhelpgaming]

This was a wonderful video essay! There is a reason why Lord of the Rings is such a timeless classic. It's unfortunate that the modern world does not appreciate good works of Fantasy Literature anymore and labels it outdated and problematic. Thank you and God bless you for sharing your thoughts.

[@Yesica1993]

Wait, the movies were re-released?! NOBODY TELLS ME ANYTHING! 13:19 As you were reading this quote and I was following along on the screen, my heart did skip a beat as I saw those beloved scenes again, and I was actually tearing up. How perfect. What we long for... is Jesus. It is He who made us, and for whom we were made. This was so beautiful, thank you.

[@timgoodwin90]

I also rewatched the LOTR trilogy a month ago and haven't spent a spare minute not thinking about it. Thanks for articulating this feeling.

[@sparkalightnow]

This is a feeling I've been trying to describe to friends for a decade and half, and most had no idea what I was talking about. Thank you for putting into words. Watching this brought all my favorite all my favorite stories to mind, allowing me to relive them once again

[@asouthernmrs.3714]

Don’t mind me, I’m just crying into the sink while washing the dishes. Such a lovely video. Thank you for sharing!

[@mrwiggiewoo]

So well put I'm close to tears..I've always had curiosity and a love of learning since I was a child. ( I'm 67 now) . When I was very young I read fantasy and science fiction and really and loved getting lost in "other worlds" As I got older I started reading things that stimulated learning like science and biblical theology and psychology etcetera. Reading fantasy felt like a guilty pleasure at that time, something frivolous that I really shouldn't indulge in because there were so many other important ways to engage my mind. Well now I find myself re-indulging in all these wonderful fantasy stories complete with fairies and goblins and hobgoblins. These stories are universal and timeless. There are soul enriching and our souls crave the transcendent and supernatural elements of life. And here I find myself, unapologetically evangelizing to my family and friends to read Tolkien, Lewis and other fantasy literature! It's a necessity if we want to realize we don't have a flat, two dimensional existence. We can have whole and well rounded souls and intellects. Thank you for putting this forth- there's much in here that inspires me.❤

[@Yesica1993]

Amen, beautifully said!

[@Sunny910.]

It makes me happy and feel not so lonely to know that others have this feeling within them as well . There’s some good it this world and it’s worth fighting for and preserving.

[@user-yw8bb1zw2m]

“The land of lost content, I see it shining plain. The happy highways where we went and cannot come again “

[@silver9wolf6]

Oh my gosh, trying not to cry over here. Such beautiful, beautiful truths. This is why I love story. We were made for something more, and we long for it and search for it everyday. I love how you said, this is a reminder both of what we look forward to, but a reminder to see the pieces of heaven, fragmented as they may be here on earth, and find joy in them now as well ❤

[@watchingpilgrim8851]

I never thought someone could put into words what I felt when reading these stories and I've never heard anyone else talk about that mysterious "longing" for something that you can't explain. My clumsiest attempts to express it were always met with bewildered and sometimes scoffing reactions. It always made me feel alone yet not alone. Thank you for this video!

[@afternoonbears6989]

You’re so relaxing to listen to! Great video! That ache happens when we let the modern world suffocate our true world. Fantasies help to re-align us to that true & ideal place.

[@v1e1r1g1e1]

I think the word you're looking for is; 'Sehnsucht'. It is the calling of the spirit for the world for which we were always destined. To each of us comes an epiphany, and from that moment we live continuously in search for that greater power behind the moment; the Power that alone can - and will - fulfil that deepest sweetest, aching longing.

[@FairytaleDancer]

Thank you for making this video. I've often felt this feeling of longing before mostly from reading fairytales and listening to certain fantasy or Enya songs. Because of this I am known as a very nostalgic person but in my head I've known that it was more than just nostalgia in fact I attributed it to memories of Heaven and a longing to be there again. You described perfectly what I have felt and why I think I've felt it and I definitely agree that there is inherent good in this world put there by God and that we can recognize those things because we are His children and we belong with Him. ❤

[@olivia.grace.cook.]

You phrased this so beautifully, thank you! 💛

[@scottishguard]

I feel this every time I listen to the soundtrack for the original movie Conan the Barbarian. I am taken to places I've never been and miss terribly.

[@erikkvaloy]

Wow, what a video! I was moved to tears at multiple occasions. You're great at putting this into words!

[@saraferguson1156]

Omg this captured my feelings PERFECTLY. I’ve always felt this way but never knew how to express it. LoTR and HP are like this for me. I can remember my mom reading Sorcerer’s Stone to me and my brother at bed time (I was 6 when the first movie came out) and then getting to go see it in theaters. LoTR came out in December and seeing The Fellowship of The Ring in theaters knocked me off my feet and took the wind out of me. It was like nothing I’d ever seen before. It was both the strangest and most magnificent movie then and still is now. Both those series are my favorite books and films. Whenever i watch them again, all these years later, I still get those feelings. It’s like being sad because you lost something but also too overjoyed for words. Every December around Christmas time I try to watch all 3 films because it takes me back to the early 2000s and gives me those warm feelings again. Especially these days. The world is so dark and hard to understand and it only seems to be getting darker by the day. Watching the HP and LoTR movies and rereading HP, takes me back to a better time when I didn’t have so many things on my mind and the world didn’t seem as terrible or hopeless. It makes me feel hopeful and gives me an escape from the daily grind and sludge of the news and just day to day life. It brings back those feelings of seeing them for the very first time and feeling like anything was possible and that there was something more, an extra layer to the world. They were dark movies for sure but so full of hope and possibility, just like you said. And the cast of both film series only made the experience better. For me rewatching them makes me feel like a kid again in the best possible way ❤ Great job on this video, you captured those feelings perfectly and definitely took me back. You have a new subscriber!

[@Erowens98]

For me, the measure of a good book is when i finish it and feel "oh god, now what do i do with my empty life". The lord of the rings was the first book to do that to me. It left a hole when i finished it.

[@carriehooper32]

This video explains the feeling so well. I got very emotional watching this. I have experienced this feeling so strongly since I was a child. It probably peaked as a young adult but certainly comes back strongly with the right story or place. Reminds me of when I visited England for the first time last year after having read and watched so many stories my whole life that took place there. I got such a strong sense of coming home even though it was a place I had never been. The book Arena by Karen Hancock is a Christian allegory that helped me make sense of this feeling for the first time, particularly the idea that we might be in a training ground for our true home not of this world.

[@robnorris8053]

Just stumbled upon your channel.. I feel as like a young child on a Christmas morning.. Your words and sentiments moved me in a way I've thought forgotten for lesser things in the drowning pool and doldrums of adulthood..Thank you.

[@garitboothe3413]

You're a member of the Church. We always find each other. Such a beautiful video.

[@Sc-eb3ds]

You have expressed a feeling I have been feeling alone, and i couldn't understand nor had a word to it, after watching movies that have given me that ache, I decided to put it into words, I am now writing my own fantasy story, inspired by authors like Tolkien and C.S. Lewis , I decided that since I couldn't fully describe what I was feeling I put it into my book. Because I wanted a story like Tolkien and C.S Lewis, but I wanted it to be my own. And after watching this video, it explained so much, especially about how we are made for a better world, I think the aching that we get from fantasy is because we are looking forward to heaven without realising it, because it can give so much more than this world.

[@andybarker8787]

Wow. Olivia this is a top tier video. Your production quality, content and delivery are first class. So well done. Thank you.

[@olivia.grace.cook.]

Thank you so much!

[@andybarker8787]

@@olivia.grace.cook. you’re most welcome.

[@ladysensei1487]

Whether it exists or not, when you miss something it is absent from you. So it doesn’t really matter that they were never real, in fact missing them makes it real because it’s indistinguishable from the very real feeling of loss.

[@onetruthonelove4608]

This is so beautiful, I loved every word she spoke, and I know too that there is so much truth in what she says. From the time I was a child I would read fairy tales to my sisters at bedtime. I was very fortunate to receive some beautiful books at Christmas time, they were fairytale books but opened my mind to things beyond my imagination. Thank you so much for your beautiful talk, with appreciation. ❤😊

[@romandembek1452]

Wow! This video was stunning and so beautifully composed! You spoke so clearly and eloquently of a subject I often ponder upon my completion of a novel; of a feeling that aches so vigorously and so resolutely and yet simultaneously fills one with an absolute, though bittersweet, joy. Now I long to begin Lord of the Rings, a longing that has been so long sustained, but I think will be soon disrupted by my irrevocable compulsion to read it, and this video’s propelling persuasive force. I love the quotes you have chosen and it encourages me to explore more of C.S Lewis’ oeuvre, outside of the magical Chronicles of Narnia series. I also love how you pointed the homeward ache of our souls, to heaven and the divine, admitting the beautiful idea of another realm, free from sin, where there will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain anymore, “for the former things have passed away”. Thank you.

[@olivia.grace.cook.]

Thank you, Roman! Beautifully said. I'm so glad you enjoyed the video. 💛

[@alannothnagle]

This is by far the most straightforward, thoughtful, and eloquent explanation of fantasy literature I've ever heard! Yes indeed, fantasy literature is all about longing, about the world we personally want to live in. I think that's why, during my childhood and youth in the midst of Midwestern mediocrity in the 70s, I wasn't a huge fan of any specific fantasy author - not even Tolkien, who was huge back then - but instead saw fantasy as an invitation to dream on my own. That's why I spent those years with endless world-building, down to the tiniest details, and also generated endless fairy tales, legends, and even a huge unfinished novel set in this world. In the process, I was telling myself about the moral and esthetic universe I wanted to inhabit and help create around me, and it does the same for all of us. Perhaps we need to reconnect with that divine gift of our imaginations!

[@steveblunden2295]

i have been thinking very much about this very "longing" recently. Your video and the argument undergirding it is absolutely spot on. Thank you ❤

[@victorialadybug1]

Thank you for such a beautiful tribute to a story I have always loved.

[@PopHorizonScanner]

Olivia, I just found this today. This is so very well expressed about a very deep topic! I'm one of many who feel as if 'Jack' and 'Tollers' are my dear friends, as I have loved their work all my adult life (I can hear Jack's brother Warnie, as he winks and informs his brother, "Here's yet another (pause) American who considers you as a friend.") Watching this video and reading the comments, I get a good feeling: one of knowing that I do have (to quote Anne Shirley) "kindred spirits" out there in a time of gathering darkness when the courage of Frodo and Sam is needed. THANK YOU!

[@janepope4216]

How very odd and delightful to come across someone who responds the exact way I do to Lord of the Rings and other fantasy classics. I first read LOTR when I was 10 (58 years ago) and felt even then that sense of longing. I feel it still. You remind me that this is an essential part of who I am. Thank you for that and for the added confirmation that I’m not the only one.

[@azriellee2013]

This is always how I've felt about Tolkien and a few other fantasy works but I've never known how to express the movement and depth of my experiences to other people, or how they've shaped me and my philosophies. This makes me feel seen and helps me appreciate the genre even more. Thank you for this video.

[@olivia.grace.cook.]

You're so welcome, Azriel! I'm glad it resonated with you. You're not alone. 💛

[@ismaelhurtado-y3c]

I feel this way watching many of the Ghibli movies.

[@JordanVanBuskirk-x3j]

What a truly wonderful video. Thank you so much 🙏🏼 Watching this was soul nourishment for me tonight. This indescribable feeling of longing you discuss is a beautiful mystery that connects us all - and whenever I reread Tolkien’s works it always feels like I’m bathing in it. I also tend to experience this feeling when I’m around mountain rivers or streams, or when I hear certain bird songs. Thanks again for sharing!

[@olivia.grace.cook.]

Thank you so much! 💛

[@emmalawler6471]

Amazing!!! You put to words that “feeling” we all were feeling! Thank you! So well done!