Where, in modern literature, are bucolic country lanes transformed into the haunts of evil pursuers? Where could creaking, malevolent willows ensnare unwary hikers? Where might an ancient and broken sword, sheathed and hidden, be forged anew as the heralded weapon of a would-be king?
All this, and much, much more, is found within the pages of The Fellowship of the Ring, the first volume of the best-selling Lord of the Rings.
Perhaps you have already read, and re-read the full Lord of the Rings trilogy, and have an appetite for more insight. Perhaps you have seen the movie, and are among the curious.
Let the reader beware: this article is not intended to be a primer for The Lord of the Rings. There are numerous books of that nature on the market (and doubtless, new arrivals coming soon). Rather, these words serve as a brief introduction in understanding John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, the author, the mythmaker, and his values.
The Lord of the Rings (LOTR) has enjoyed periods of vast popularity since it's initial publication in the 1950s. That popularity, especially swelling in the 1960s and 1970s on the strength of paperback editions, and the ensuing sense of celebrity, mystified the author. This is part of a fascinating "oddness" that surrounds the trilogy, it's creator, and it's enduring impact upon readers.
The Man: John Ronald Ruel Tolkien
An initial impression of J.R.R. Tolkien, for a young reader, might be that he had a lot of initials in his name. Perhaps this is a first glimpse of the oddness, the apparent distance between Tolkien and the majority of readers who have encountered his work.
The author was very attached to his childhood memories, and his view of 'Englishness". He passionately loved the West Midland countryside of his youth. It is easily concluded that he modeled the Shire as an idealized form of "his England."
Tolkien was fond of "plain food", and disliked Continental cuisine and it's impact on English tastes. He mourned the loss of a simpler, agrarian society and regretted the noise and fume of industrialization. His love of tree and wood is prominent in his literature, though he was not a particularly avid outdoorsman. Tolkien did eventually abandon the use of his automobile, preferring to bicycle his way to errands and his academic schedule in Oxford.
Tolkien was, foremostly, an English professor. At Oxford, Tolkien was a brilliant if distracted philologist. He mastered the dusty languages of his trade, as professor of Anglo-Saxon. He delighted in language. He published scholarly works of translation, and assiduously reworked his many and popular lectures.
He might have made an even deeper mark in his teaching and research, but for his distracted fascination with yet another myth. Beneath the veneer of a talented, yet seemingly ordinary middle-class university professor lurked an extraordinarily brilliant, creative mind.
The Making of the Myth
Tolkien's masterful creation, his long labor of love, stemmed first from his fascination with linguistics. There is the matter of his invented languages: Tolkien had been at them for years, and began to create a history for them and peoples to speak them.
As he crafted, revised, and polished these "made up" languages, Tolkien began to form a mythical setting for them. It was during convalescence from WWI service in France, in 1917, that he first weaved this original saga of myth. It may seem an odd way to create a masterful work of literature. It was uniquely his way, and would occupy him until his death in 1973.
Tolkien spun a massive and complicated epic myth: tales of the Silmarilli, three great gems owned by noble elves and stolen by an evil being, Morgoth. These tales are found in the long unpublished Silmarillion.
Experimenting as an author, he penned an adventure starring a little creature called a hobbit, located in Middle Earth, a land occupied by elves, dwarves, men, and other creatures. This tale skirted the margins of the greater myth.
It was, of course, The Hobbit, published in 1937. The book was well received in Britain and America as a remarkable children's story. Indeed, The Hobbit hints at the deeper, powerful forces of Tolkien's myth, while masquerading as children's literature.
In response, the publisher pushed for more "hobbit" material for eager readers. The busy professor, however, was well on his way to something much larger and more epic, a book that would carry The Hobbit back to the majesty of the unfinished Silmarillion.
Thirteen years in the writing, sometimes untouched for months, in spare hours grudged from grading exams, preparing lectures, and scholarly translation and writing, the able professor painstakingly penned and typed the 71 chapters and appendices we know as The Lord of the Rings.
He did not write in leisure, and he did not write in complete isolation. As noted above, Tolkien wrote his fiction when many other duties were completed, a few hours snatched by day or often late at night.
He also had an audience. Initially, he had created The Hobbit as entertainment for his children. There were also interested adults. A significant friendship had developed with a colleague at Oxford, C.S. Lewis.
Drawn together in their love of literature and an appreciation of Norse mythology (what Lewis called "Northernness"), these two Oxford dons were strikingly different. Tolkien was a Roman Catholic, and Lewis a son of a Northern Ireland Protestant. Lewis was (initially) struggling over agnosticism, Tolkien a devout Christian. Tolkien had married young and Lewis was a long-time bachelor. Lewis was on the "literature" side of the faculty, and Tolkien on the "language" side.
With the typical "clubbiness" of men of their generation, and Great War veterans, they were drawn together with other men over the love of good beer, good talk, and, in this case, reading and writing-their craft. Soon they were exchanging manuscripts and offering friendly critiques of each other's poetry. Tolkien eventually read aloud sections of The Silmarillion to Lewis, who encouraged him greatly. Later, Tolkien said:
"He was for long my only audience. Only from him did I ever get the idea that my 'stuff' could be more than a private hobby." (1)
As years passed, Tolkien's audience did widen. A number of friends began to gather alongside Lewis and Tolkien as a loose literary circle (known as the Inklings). Portions of unpublished works were read and discussed. In the 1930's and 1940's, the group heard from The Hobbit and then LOTR prior to their publications. Lewis also read from his works, the Chronicles of Narnia, and his "space trilogy". (2) Rich reading, indeed!
Continue >> The Meaning behind the myth>> 1.2
Copyright WSN Press, Campus Crusade for Christ, Inc., 1997-2001. Used by permission of WSN Press and Campus Crusade for Christ. All rights reserved. WSN Press, Campus Crusade for Christ--2500, 100 Lake Hart Dr., Orlando, FL 32832 USA.
