Inspiration for the Imagination

Oxford is full of images that I imagine inspired C.S. Lewis, Tolkien and J.K. Rowling, among others. Walking through simple, unassuming doors into a whole new world of a college makes me see how C.S. Lewis came up with the idea of walking through a simple wardrobe door into the world of Narnia.

It isn't much of a stretch to my imagination to think that some of the majestic trees around Oxford are wise old souls, or Ents, that could get up and walk, if they wanted to, as they do in Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings.

And the dining halls, great halls, passage ways, and student and professors wearing robes are pure Hogwarts. No stretch of the imagination there. 

“Still round the corner there may wait A new road or a secret gate And though I oft have passed them by A day will come at last when I Shall take the hidden paths that run West of the Moon, East of the Sun.” ― J.R.R. Tolkien

A whole new world lies behind the door

Wadham College

 

All Souls College

I'm always curious about what lies behind any old door

New College

St. Edmund Hall

Great old soul

Could be an Ent

Tree at Keble College

  

Christchurch Dining Hall

New College Dining Hall

Students wearing their robes