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This episode is sponsored [br]by the Manhattan Rare Book Company.

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In 1954, J.R.R. Tolkien was 62 years old,

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and had just spent the last 16 years[br]working industriously on a book.

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It was now time[br]to release it into the world,

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and he was very nervous.

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And he should have been,

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because no one had seen anything[br]quite like "The Lord of the Rings" before.

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It was a huge risk for the publishers

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who were convinced [br]that it wouldn't sell many copies.

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Who was the audience for this strange book

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filled with unfamiliar and unpronouncable[br]names of people and places?

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Was it a children's book[br]like "The Hobbit"?

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It certainly had wizards[br]and strange creatures,

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and it was also an epic adventure[br]of some kind.

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It was also very, very, long.

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Three volumes in fact,

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and several appendices.

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But no, it was neither a children's book[br]or an adult novel.

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Tolkien wrote to his publisher[br]at the time:

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"My work has escaped from my control[br]and I have produced a monster,

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"an immensely long, complex,

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"rather bitter, and rather[br]terrifying romance,

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"quite unfit for children [br](if fit for anybody)..."

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"I now wonder whether[br]many beyond my friends [...],

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"would read anything so long."

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"We can only imagine [br]what was at stake for Tolkien.

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If the first volume wasn't a success,

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what would happen to the other two volumes

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which he had spent [br]the best part of 16 years writing?

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In the early 1930s, when Tolkien[br]was a professor of anglo-saxon at Oxford,

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he was grading papers when he noticed

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that one of the candidates[br]had left a blank sheet of paper.

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"Nothing to read. So I scribbled on it[br]I can't think why:

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"In a hole in the ground[br]there lived a Hobbit"

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And so, the Hobbits were born.

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The Hobbit can broadly be considered[br]a prequel to The Lord of the Rings.

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It introduces Tolkien's world [br]of Middle Earth.

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The world of Hobbits, wizards, [br]dwarves, and elves.

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But it is a much different book,

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with a different intended audience.

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Upon publication, [br]Tolkien''s friend C.S. Lewis

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compared "The Hobbit" to such classics

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as "Alice in Wonderland" [br]and "The Wind in the Willows",

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and like those works[br]it has often been considered

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a children's fantasy book

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written primarily[br]for children or adolescents,

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but enjoyed by adults as well.

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"The Hobbit" was a huge success

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and only a few weeks [br]after its publication,

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Tolkien met [br]with his publisher Stanley Unwin,

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to discuss a sequel.

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The writer expressed his desire to publish

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a long, detailed, mythological work

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about Middle Earth, called the Silmarillion.

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But Unwin insisted that[br]what the public really wanted,

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was more stories about the Hobbits.

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He wanted The Hobbit 2.

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Tolkien and Unwin had variations[br]of this debate

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for the entire 16 years Tolkien[br]was working on his next book.

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Ultimately the Lord of the Rings

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succeeded in developing[br]Tolkien's Middle Earth,

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without losing [br]the narrative appeal of "The Hobbit".

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The result was not so much a sequel [br]but a much more complex, adult work.

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In the process Tolkien had invented[br]a whole new genre - the fantasy novel.

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"I am in fact a Hobbit (in all but size).

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I like gardens, trees[br]and unmechanised farmlands,

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"I smoke a pipe, [br]and like good plain food."

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"- J.R.R. Tolkien

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Tolkien in his later years professed[br]to love the simple life,

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much like his beloved[br]Hobbits in the Shire.

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This desire for peace, security, [br]and companionship, however

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was likely the result of his upbringing[br]and young adulthood,

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which was anything[br]but peaceful and secure.

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This quintessentially English Professor

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was born John Ronald Reuel Tolkien [br]in Bloemfontein,

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in what is now South Africa, in 1892.

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In 1895 Tolkien, his mother, [br]and his infant brother, Hillary,

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went to England for a visit[br]to his mother's family,

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who like her were British.

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But soon after their arrival, [br]his father died in Bloemfontein,

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of rheumatic fever,

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leaving the family [br]with very little inheritance.

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The family stayed in Britain, [br]where she had the support of her family,

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and moved to the small village of Sarehole

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just outside the industrial city[br]of Birmingham.

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Although they didn't have much money,

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Tolkien became captivated[br]with his environment.

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He would later say:

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"It was a kind of lost paradise.

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"There was an old mill that really[br]did grind corn with two millers,

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"a great big pond with swans on it,

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"a sandpit, a wonderful dell with flowers,

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"a few old-fashioned village houses

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"and, further away,[br]a stream with another mill..."

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The village scenery would Inspire the Shire.

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But it was just outside[br]the major industrial city of Birmingham

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which was expanding rapidly

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and in the process absorbing[br]the surrounding villages.

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"I was brought up in considerable poverty,

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"but I was happy running about[br]in that country.

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"I took the idea of the Hobbits[br]from the village people and children...

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"The Hobbits are just what I should like[br]to have been but never was...

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"an entirely unmilitary people

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"who always came up[br]to scratch in a clinch...

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"Behind all thi Hobbit stuff[br]lay a sense of insecurity.

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"I always knew it would go - and it did."

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The theme of the destruction[br]of idilic countryside

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would fill his literature.

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Tolkien's mother Mabel was the primary[br]influence on his early life.

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In 1900 when Tolkien was 8,

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Mabel converted to Catholicism.

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Her family, who were Methodist, [br]disapproved.

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Her father disowned her,

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and her brother-in-law,[br]who had been assisting her financially,

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withdrew his support.

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It was a spectacular fall from grace,

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a theme we often find in Tolkien's books.

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She homeschooled him[br]until the age of eight,

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encouraging him to read widely,

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and introducing him to the works[br]of George McDonald and Andrew Lang,

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early developers of fantasy literature.

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In 1904 however, when a Tolkien was 12,

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Mabel died of diabetes,

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hastened, Tolkien later believed,

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by persecution for her faith,

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leaving her two sons orphaned [br]with bleak prospects.

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He took refuge in language, [br]learning Chaucer's Middle English,

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the old norse of the Viking sagas,

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the old English of Beowulf,

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and even reviving long dead languages

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and inventing languages of his own.

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"I first began seriously inventing languages...

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"about when I was 13 or 14,[br]and I've never stopped really."

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School was a haven for Tolkien.

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He first attended [br]King Edward's School in Birmingham,

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and it was here crucially, that he formed[br]his first literary group

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the "Tea club and Barovian Society",

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four friends who played rugby together,

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and talked about Norse mythology,

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while drinking tea[br]and inventing languages.

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Groups like this were important to Tolkien

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a fatherless boy, and now an orphan.

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And it was the first[br]of many literary groups

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that Tolkien would form[br]- a fellowship of sorts.

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Even this early on, he was obsessed[br]with myths, legends, and folklore,

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and concerned with creating [br]a British mythology.

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He won a scholarship[br]to Exeter college, Oxford,

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and unsurprisingly he showed[br]a special aptitude for languages,

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Old and Middle English, [br]Old Norse, and Gothic in particular.

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Graduating in 1915 with a degree[br]in English language and literature,

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with First Class honours.

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And it is these studies that will lead

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to the creation of a series[br]of languages in Lord of the Rings

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which are among the most fully developed[br]fictional languages in literature.

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But 1915 could only mean one thing...war.

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And almost immediately after graduation

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he was commissioned[br]into the Lancashire Fusiliers.

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"The Lord of the Rings" is[br]at its most basic level, a hero's quest.

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But the hero in this case[br]is not someone strong and fierce

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like Odysseus, Beowulf, or Aeneas,

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but the Hobbit Frodo Baggins,

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a diminutive creature who, at his core,[br]like other Hobbits,

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wishes to be left alone [br]to enjoy peace, good food and fellowship,

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in his homeland the Shire.

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Frodo has no special abilities,

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and is extraordinary, only in his courage,[br]loyalty, and incorruptibility.

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And the quest of Frodo and his companions[br]is most unusual.

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Instead of trying to gain power,

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they are dedicated to the destruction[br]of the one thing, a magical ring,

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that would give them great power.

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In fact, the quest succeeds,

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because the idea[br]that someone would forego power

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and intentionally destroy the most[br]coveted possession in their world,

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is a thought that is impossible[br]for their enemy Sauron to anticipate,

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or even to contemplate.

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Tolkien was an academic deeply steeped[br]in the tradition of the Epic,

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but he also knew [br]how to subvert those traditions,

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to create a new kind of Epic,

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that address the fears[br]and concerns of his generation

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- the generation of World War One.

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War of one kind or another[br]permeates "The Lord of the Rings",

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through death and loss, [br]through notions of power,

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through camaraderie in deathly times,

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and eventually through disappointment.

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Tolkien took part[br]in the battle of the Somme,

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one of the most horrific battles[br]of the 20th century.

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Over 3 million men fought in the battle,

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which saw over a million [br]killed or injured,

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scarring the Earth in one[br]of the most deadliest battles

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in human history.

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He saw many of his school friends[br]die in the fighting,

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and by 1918, he said that he had lost[br]all but one of his closest friends.

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In some sense he was lucky

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to have contracted [br]a severe case of trench fever

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near the end of the battle of the Somme,

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and sent back to England to recover.

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While convalescing in army barracks,

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with the war very much fresh in his mind,

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Tolkien put to paper much of the story

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that would later become [br]"The Fall of Gondolin",

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a story published after his death,

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of a cataclysmic battle featuring orcs,[br]dragons, and bullrogs,

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and notably his first work[br]to feature "Middle Earth".

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"They walked slowly, stooping, [br]keeping close in line,

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following attentively[br]every move that Gollum made.

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"The fens grew more wet, opening[br]into wide stagnant meres.

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"among which it grew[br]more and more difficult,

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"to find the firmer places[br]where feet could tread

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"without sinking into gurgling mud...

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"Wrenching his hands out of the bog,

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"he sprang back with a cry.

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" 'There are dead things, dead faces[br]in the water', he said with horror.

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" 'Dead faces!' "

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Although Tolkien here is describing[br]the outskirts of Mordor

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in his fictional Middle Earth,

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it is not hard to imagine this [br]as a description of Tolkien's experience

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during the battle of the Somme.

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The I World War begins as a battle [br]on horseback with cavalries,

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but it is the beginning [br]of mechanised warfare.

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Characters in "The Lord of the Rings"

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describe being watched [br]by mysterious figures flying overhead,

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and in 1914, airplanes on both sides [br]were first used for reconnaissance,

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flying deep behind enemy lines.

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Over the course of the war,

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aviation developed significantly[br]into a major force,

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and by the end of that war

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it was obvious that airplanes[br]were the weapon of the future.

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"Then Frodo and Sam staring at the sky...

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"saw it come: a small cloud [br]flying from the accursed hills,

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"a black shadow loosed from Mordor;

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"a vast shape winged and ominous."

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"It scudded across the moon,

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"and with a deadly cry went westward,

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"outrunning the wind in its fell speed."

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He is at the Somme [br]when tanks were first used,

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and although Orcs make up the bulk[br]of Sauron's Army

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in "The Lord of the Rings",

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one of his most powerful weapons[br]were the tanks of Middle Earth

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- the "Oliphaunts".

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Newsreel: "A state of war once more exists

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between Great Britain and Germany"

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Tolkien began writing[br]"The Lord of the Rings"

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at the outbreak[br]of the II World War, late 1937.

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So the world was once again[br]on the precipice of war.

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Tolkien denied[br]it was an allegory of any kind

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in the forward to the book,

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but also admitted that an author[br]is influenced by his experiences.

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The writing of the novel began[br]during the rise of Hitler,

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and continued during the darkest days[br]of World War II,

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when all hopes of a peaceful [br]New World Order had vanished,

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especially for someone living in England

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and in constant fear of air raids[br]and Nazi victory.

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"If you really come down[br]to any 'large' story

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"that interests people - that can hold[br]their attention for a considerable time

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"stories - human stories - are practically[br]always about one thing: death."

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The I World War almost certainly[br]had more influence on Tolkien,

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but "The Lord of the Rings" [br]can also be considered part

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of post-World War II literature,

0:13:35.197,0:13:39.633
that includes "The Lord of the Flies", [br]"1984", and "Animal Farm",

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books that were marked [br]by their author's wartime experiences,

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and deal with the question[br]of good and evil.

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"Sauron was become now[br]a sorcerer of dreadful power,

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"master of shadows and of phantoms,

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"foul in wisdom, cruel in strength,

0:13:59.222,0:14:02.663
"misshaping what he touched,[br]twisting what he ruled."

0:14:03.553,0:14:05.143
In "The Lord of the Rings"

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there is the rise of an evil force Sauron,

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who is not unlike Hitler

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in his desire for power[br]and world domination.

0:14:12.537,0:14:14.628
Just like countries during the war,

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some societies in the book,

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whether out of self-interest or fear,[br]side with Sauron,

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adding to the hopelessness[br]of the good-hearted.

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The fate of the world[br]is at stake in both worlds,

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and the outcome hinges on a race

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to prevent ultimate power[br]getting in the wrong hands.

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Crucially, the ring [br]is not just about power,

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it is about what we do with power

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and how it can corrupt us,

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and how that corruption[br]can be addictive

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leading to the eventual loss [br]of your Humanity,

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as the evil within you is exposed,

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absorbing all morals.

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The very things that were being discussed

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at the outbreak, during, and at the conclusion of World War II. [br]14:56[br]The horrific evils of the 20th century were just around the corner.[br]15:05[br]Despite the horrors Tolkien witness firsthand, the Lord of the Rings is not as you might expect explicitly anti-war. [br]15:13[br]Tolkien may describe battles, almost poetically, and place an emphasis on heroism in combat, but for a man [br]15:19[br]who spent his life studying traditional myths and legends, often involving War, he understood [br]15:24[br]that nobility often means that we need to take up arms for a "just" cause. The Lord of the Rings is [br]15:31[br]in fact, a book about the "unfortunate necessity" of War - when it is a just war - against evil. [br]15:38[br]But crucially, Tolkien also understood that there was good and evil on BOTH sides of War, an unpopular [br]15:45[br]sentiment in a time when those boundaries were being blurred beyond recognition. He was outspoken against bombing campaigns[br]15:52[br]on German cities, and even used a quote from The Lord of the Rings, in a letter to his son about the campaigns:[br]16:04[br]He knew, as the characters of the fellowship do, that just because one fights for good,[br]16:10[br]it doesn't make one immune to the power of evil - to the power of the Ring. The Fellowship [br]16:15[br]must resist the temptation of the ring, as we must resist using evil to fight evil. Tolkien understood [br]16:24[br]that bravery is a complex notion, for while battles swarm around him it is our little hobbit Frodo who [br]16:30[br]succeeds on his journey by avoiding War. But even he is not immune to War's effects and Trauma. [br]16:36[br]When the war is over and he is returning to the Shire, Frodo confesses to Gandalf, in one of [br]16:41[br]the most poignant passages in the book, that he is in pain, as so many shellshocked men of the trenches were.[br]17:16[br]After World War I, and certainly during World War II, artists and writers had to wrestle with a new reality:[br]17:23[br]"How to present life in the aftermath of such Horrors?", "Were the old stories of heroism even relevant anymore?"[br]17:31[br]Tolkien, through his fictional world, has reinvented the heroic epic for our times. Giving us a fresh and more ambiguous perspective[br]17:40[br]on Modern Warfare, through the realm of fantasy. You may get all the heroics, but there are also points when his greatest heroes are full of fear.[br]17:53[br]Reducing the Lord of the Rings to a heroic Quest or a war narrative, is convenient, and an an aid to our understanding, but ultimately [br]18:01[br]does disservice to the book. It more likely just exposes our difficulties in identifying exactly what this strange work is.[br]18:21[br]The action of the book takes place over a relatively short period of time, but throughout the Lord of the Rings, we hear tales and legends about the past, often stretching back thousands of [br]18:32[br]years. Tolkien hasn't just written a story, but has given us the impression that we are witnessing a [br]18:37[br]series of events, inside an entire history that exists outside of the books. Although he is just [br]18:44[br]one writer, he has created an entire mythology comparable to traditional cultural mythologies. [br]19:03[br]Documenting the history of Middle Earth, was a lifelong project of Tolkien's. In his letters, notes, and unpublished works [br]19:10[br]he filled in details of this mythology, complete with elaborate geneologies, and geographical details.[br]19:17[br]Tolkien had the genius to make it sound like it was a "real history" he was exploring, as if[br]19:23[br]he was just "researching" it and reporting it to us. There had been fantasy books before Tolkien,[br]19:29[br]but never had there been such successful "World building", with such a serious tone and seismic events[br]19:52[br]From 1924 to 1945, Tolkien was the professor of anglo-saxon at Oxford, and even after the huge success of The Hobbit