There is probably already a topic about this, but I couldn't find it. Anyhow, I just wanted to start up a discussion on this, something I read in a Tolkien biography.

One time, Tolkien commented blithely to his father (he was about five, maybe six) that he had a nightmare that visisted him almost every night. His father asked him what it was, and the boy told him.

He dreamed that he stood at the edge of the world overlooking the sea, and as he watched, the sea frothed and tossed and gathered in upon itself in a great darkness until it loomed up in a huge wave, as tall as a mountain, crested with purple foam at the very top. He watches it come hurtling down upon a green land below him, drowning everything in sight, until at last it reaches him.

He, of course, describes it better but my books are two stories above my head and I don't feel like hiking up to get them at the moment. =) The point is, it's horrifically terrifying. He would wake up believing he was drowning.

Now, Daddy Tolkien listened to this dream very quietly and when he was finished sat and thought a while. At last, he told his little boy that he had that exact same dream. The green land before him, the purple foam...yes.

And, what's more, Daddy Tolkien knew that his father before him had also had this particular dream. Well, at the time, little Tollers thought that was awesome...if a bit scary.

Then, one time years later, Tolkien woke up in the night to the sound of someone moving around downstairs. He went down to find all the lights on in his study and his son, Christopher, sitting in his chair. He asked him if he had had a bad dream. Yes, Christopher replied, he had. It was about a big ocean wave.

One more thing, Tolkien wrote his dream into The Silmarillion (The Akallebeth, or "the down fall" also known as "the drowning of Numenor.") He then gave it to Faramir in LotR.

Oh, and more rather amusing thingy...when Tolkien had asked his son if he had had a bad dream, he was already on his way back upstairs. When Christopher replied that it was about "a big ocean wave" his father froze in mid step. They stayed up for most of the remainder of the night, Tolkien telling stories to Christopher about Numenor after having cross questioned him about the details of his son's dream.

Odd, huh? *fascinated*

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i'd read about tolkien's dream and how christopher had it too, but i didn't know that tolkien's father etc also had it. that makes it even stranger.

i find it absolutely fascinating and i love tolkien's theory that the memory was inherited from an ancestor who survived the sinking of atlantis. how cool would it be if that really was true?!

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Yeah, I've always thought that is really awesome. An inherited dream. Very cool, really.

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Very cool. It would be interesting to study the possibility of inheriting a dream...a good science research project.

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Oh wow, I hadn't heard of this before! *jumps up and down, excited about learning something new about Tolkien*

That's really neat... amazing, really. I wonder what it was that gave each of them that dream...

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I know! I think though, that the Tolkien's were wired a bit different than us; their imaginations were much more vast and they used a greater part of their brain than the avage human. Perhaps this could account for the strange occurence...?

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"The piano is able to communicate the subtlest universal truths by means of wood, metal and vibrating air."

I remember reading about his dream. I didn't know his father also had it, but then again its plausible.

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I'd never heard anything like this before! It's.... fascinating, in a word. The unexplained always seems to be, but seriously, that's so weird! I wonder if there has been any research on inherited dreams, what other people have had them, and what is the deeper meaning behind this dream. Could they be seeing the end of the world or something? Clearly a dream such as this has some deep, powerful meaning to it.

Thanks very much for sharing Fencing Maiden. The way you told the story amused me. I don't think it matters at all that you didn't consult your books.

way cool.... When I remember what I dream, I never have the same dream more than once.

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That really is amazing that all three of them had that dream isn't it? That is just so weird I can't think of anyreason that all of them should have it.

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So much happened before Dorothy dropped in.

Wow, that is so neat! How the dream was passed down...and then he wrote it into his story!

Interesting theory, the memory of an ancestor who survived the sinking of Atlantis..

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that is way cool! and queer too. where did you find out about this? a biography? it's very strange the dream passed on generations

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I revisited AU on Jan 14th after an almost 10-year break! The nostalgia..!