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This episode is sponsored 
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
working industriously on a book.

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It was now time
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
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 
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 unpronounceable
names of people and places?

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

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It certainly had wizards
and strange creatures,

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and it was also an epic adventure
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
or an adult novel.

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Tolkien wrote to his publisher
at the time:

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

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"an immensely long, complex,

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"rather bitter, and rather
terrifying romance,

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"quite unfit for children 
(if fit for anybody)..."

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

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"would read anything so long."

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"We can only imagine 
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 
the best part of 16 years writing?

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In the early 1930s, when Tolkien
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
had left a blank sheet of paper.

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

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"In a hole in the ground
there lived a Hobbit"

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And so, the Hobbits were born.

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

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It introduces Tolkien's world 
of Middle Earth.

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The world of Hobbits, wizards, 
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, 
Tolkien''s friend C.S. Lewis

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compared "The Hobbit" to such classics

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as "Alice in Wonderland" 
and "The Wind in the Willows",

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and like those works
it has often been considered

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a children's fantasy book

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written primarily
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 
after its publication,

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Tolkien met 
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
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
of this debate

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

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Ultimately the Lord of the Rings

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succeeded in developing
Tolkien's Middle Earth,

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without losing 
the narrative appeal of "The Hobbit".

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

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In the process Tolkien had invented
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
and unmechanized farmlands,

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

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"- J.R.R. Tolkien

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

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much like his beloved
Hobbits in the Shire.

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This desire for peace, security, 
and companionship, however

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was likely the result of his upbringing
and young adulthood,

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which was anything
but peaceful and secure.

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This quintessentially English Professor

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was born John Ronald Reuel Tolkien 
in Bloemfontein,

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in what is now South Africa, in 1892.

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In 1895 Tolkien, his mother, 
and his infant brother, Hillary,

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

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who like her were British.

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But soon after their arrival, 
his father died in Bloemfontein,

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of rheumatic fever,

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leaving the family 
with very little inheritance.

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The family stayed in Britain, 
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
of Birmingham.

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Although they didn't have much money,

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Tolkien became captivated
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
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 villages houses

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"and, further away,
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
the major industrial city of Birmingham

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which was expanding rapidly

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and in the process absorbing
the surrounding villages.

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"I was brought up in considerable poverty,

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"but I was happy running about
in that country.

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

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

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"an entirely unmilitary people

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"who always came up
to scratch in a clinch...

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"Behind all this Hobbit stuff
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
of idyllic countryside

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would fill his literature.

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Tolkien's mother Mabel was the primary
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, 
disapproved.

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Her father disowned her,

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and her brother-in-law,
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
until the age of eight,

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encouraging him to read widely,

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and introducing him to the works
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 
with bleak prospects.

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He took refuge in language, 
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,
and I've never stopped really."

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School was a haven for Tolkien.

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He first attended 
King Edward's School in Birmingham,

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

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the "Tea club and Burrovian 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
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
of many literary groups

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that Tolkien would form
- a fellowship of sorts.

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

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and concerned with creating 
a British mythology.

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He won a scholarship
to Exeter college, Oxford,

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and unsurprisingly he showed
a special aptitude for languages,

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Old and Middle English, 
Old Norse, and Gothic in particular.

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Graduating in 1915 with a degree
in English language and literature,

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with First Class honors.

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And it is these studies that will lead

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to the creation of a series
of languages in Lord of the Rings

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which are among the most fully developed
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
into the Lancashire Fusiliers.

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

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But the hero in this case
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,
like other Hobbits,

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wishes to be left alone 
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,
loyalty, and incorruptibility.

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

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Instead of trying to gain power,

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they are dedicated to the destruction
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
that someone would forego power

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and intentionally destroy the most
coveted possession in their world,

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

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or even to contemplate.

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

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but he also knew 
how to subvert those traditions,

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to create a new kind of Epic,

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that address the fears
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
permeates "The Lord of the Rings",

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through death and loss, 
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
in the battle of the Somme,

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one of the most horrific battles
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 
killed or injured,

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scarring the Earth in one
of the most deadliest battles

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in human history.

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

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

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In some sense he was lucky

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to have contracted 
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 
"The Fall of Gondolin",

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a story published after his death,

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of a cataclysmic battle featuring orcs,
dragons, and bullfrogs,

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and notably his first work
to feature "Middle Earth".

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"They walked slowly, stooping, 
keeping close in line,

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following attentively
every move that Gollum made.

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

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"among which it grew
more and more difficult,

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"to find the firmer places
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
in the water', he said with horror.

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" 'Dead faces!' "

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Although Tolkien here is describing
the outskirts of Mordor

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in his fictional Middle Earth,

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it is not hard to imagine this 
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 
on horseback with cavalries,

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but it is the beginning 
of mechaniZed warfare.

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Characters in "The Lord of the Rings"

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describe being watched 
by mysterious figures flying overhead,

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and in 1914, airplanes on both sides 
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
into a major force,

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and by the end of that war

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it was obvious that airplanes
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 
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 
when tanks were first used,

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

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in "The Lord of the Rings",

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one of his most powerful weapons
were the tanks of Middle Earth

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- the "Olyphants".

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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
"The Lord of the Rings"

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at the outbreak
of the II World War, late 1937.

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So the world was once again
on the precipice of war.

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Tolkien denied
it was an allegory of any kind

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00:12:49,868 --> 00:12:51,298
in the forward to the book,

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

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00:12:56,098 --> 00:12:59,178
The writing of the novel began
during the rise of Hitler,

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and continued during the darkest days
of World War II,

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when all hopes of a peaceful 
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
and Nazi victory.

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00:13:12,041 --> 00:13:15,091
"If you really come down
to any 'large' story

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

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00:13:19,924 --> 00:13:25,345
"stories - human stories - are practically
always about one thing: death."

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00:13:26,953 --> 00:13:30,261
The I World War almost certainly
had more influence on Tolkien,

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

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00:13:32,945 --> 00:13:35,197
of post-World War II literature,

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that includes "The Lord of the Flies", 
"1984", and "Animal Farm",

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

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and deal with the question
of good and evil.

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"Sauron was become now
a sorcerer of dreadful power,

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00:13:53,961 --> 00:13:56,540
"master of shadows and of phantoms,

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"foul in wisdom, cruel in strength,

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"misshaping what he touched,
twisting what he ruled."

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00:14:03,553 --> 00:14:05,143
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
and world domination.

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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,
side with Sauron,

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adding to the hopelessness
of the good-hearted.

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The fate of the world
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
getting in the wrong hands.

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00:14:32,046 --> 00:14:34,939
Crucially, the ring 
is not just about power,

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it is about what we do with power

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00:14:37,730 --> 00:14:39,414
and how it can corrupt us,

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and how that corruption
can be addictive

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leading to the eventual loss 
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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00:14:52,154 --> 00:14:56,555
at the outbreak, during, 
and at the conclusion of World War II.

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The horrific evils of the 20th century
were just around the corner.

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Despite the horrors
Tolkien witness firsthand,

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"The Lord of the Rings" is not,
as you might expect, explicitly anti-war.

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Tolkien may describe battles, 
almost poetically,

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and place an emphasis 
on heroism in combat,

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00:15:19,066 --> 00:15:22,573
but for a man who spent his life
studying traditional myths and legends,

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often involving war,

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00:15:24,089 --> 00:15:26,635
he understood that nobility often means

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that we need to take up 
arms for a "just" cause.

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00:15:29,863 --> 00:15:31,862
The Lord of the Rings is, in fact,

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a book about 
the "unfortunate necessity" of war

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00:15:35,531 --> 00:15:38,486
- when it is a just war - against evil.

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00:15:38,846 --> 00:15:41,480
But crucially, Tolkien also understood

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that there was good and evil
on both sides of war,

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00:15:44,477 --> 00:15:46,483
an unpopular sentiment in a time

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when those boundaries
were being blurred beyond recognition.

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00:15:49,873 --> 00:15:53,321
He was outspoken against bombing campaigns
on German cities,

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00:15:53,361 --> 00:15:56,049
and even used 
a quote from "The Lord of the Rings",

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in a letter to his son
about the campaigns:

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00:15:58,708 --> 00:16:01,486
"You can't fight the enemy
with his own ring

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00:16:01,555 --> 00:16:04,102
without turning into an enemy".

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00:16:04,882 --> 00:16:07,887
He knew, as the characters
of the fellowship do,

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00:16:07,887 --> 00:16:10,157
that just because one fights for good,

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it doesn't make one immune
to the power of evil

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00:16:12,952 --> 00:16:15,004
- to the power of the ring.

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00:16:15,084 --> 00:16:17,905
The Fellowship must resist
the temptation of the ring,

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as we must resist
using evil to fight evil.

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00:16:22,961 --> 00:16:26,181
Tolkien understood 
that bravery is a complex notion,

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00:16:26,191 --> 00:16:28,540
for while battles swarm around him

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00:16:28,550 --> 00:16:32,925
it is our little hobbit Frodo who succeeds
on his journey by avoiding war.

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00:16:33,175 --> 00:16:36,612
But even he is not immune
to war's effects and trauma.

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00:16:36,702 --> 00:16:39,678
When the war is over
and he is returning to the Shire,

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00:16:39,698 --> 00:16:41,800
Frodo confesses to Gandalf,

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00:16:41,830 --> 00:16:44,270
in one of the most poignant
passages in the book,

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that he is in pain,

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00:16:45,618 --> 00:16:48,301
as so many shellshocked men
of the trenches were.

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00:16:51,912 --> 00:16:56,344
" 'Alas! there are some wounds that cannot
be wholly cured', said Gandalf.

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00:16:56,474 --> 00:16:59,285
" 'I fear it may be so with mine',
said Frodo.

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00:16:59,294 --> 00:17:01,177
"There is no real going back.

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00:17:01,177 --> 00:17:04,134
"Though I may come to the Shire,
it will not seem the same;

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00:17:04,184 --> 00:17:06,575
"for I shall not be the same."

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00:17:06,616 --> 00:17:09,642
"I am wounded with knife, sting and tooth

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00:17:09,722 --> 00:17:11,006
"and a long burden.

329
00:17:11,006 --> 00:17:13,082
" 'Where shall I find rest?'

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00:17:13,092 --> 00:17:15,139
"Gandalf did not answer."

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00:17:16,330 --> 00:17:19,608
After World War I, and certainly
during World War II,

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00:17:19,608 --> 00:17:22,747
artists and writers had to wrestle
with a new reality:

333
00:17:23,507 --> 00:17:26,769
"How to present life
in the aftermath of such horrors?"

334
00:17:26,819 --> 00:17:30,510
"Were the old stories of heroism
even relevant anymore?"

335
00:17:31,190 --> 00:17:33,520
Tolkien, through his fictional world,

336
00:17:33,530 --> 00:17:36,874
has reinvented the heroic epic
for our times.

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00:17:37,112 --> 00:17:41,734
Giving us a fresh and more ambiguous
perspective on modern warfare,

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00:17:41,774 --> 00:17:44,130
through the realm of fantasy.

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00:17:44,340 --> 00:17:46,209
You may get all the heroics,

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00:17:46,233 --> 00:17:50,260
but there are also points when
his greatest heroes are full of fear

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00:17:53,994 --> 00:17:57,516
Reducing "The Lord of the Rings" 
to a heroic quest or a war narrative,

342
00:17:57,546 --> 00:18:00,476
is convenient and an aid 
to our understanding,

343
00:18:00,476 --> 00:18:02,995
but ultimately 
does disservice to the book.

344
00:18:03,025 --> 00:18:05,695
It more likely
just exposes our difficulties

345
00:18:05,745 --> 00:18:09,366
in identifying exactly
what this strange work is.

346
00:18:09,891 --> 00:18:11,579
"If you want my opinion,

347
00:18:11,579 --> 00:18:14,698
"a part of the 'fascination'
of 'The Lord of the Rings"

348
00:18:14,708 --> 00:18:18,121
"consists in the vistas
of yet more legend and history,

349
00:18:18,161 --> 00:18:21,135
"to which this work does not contain
a full clue..." - Tolkien

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00:18:22,148 --> 00:18:25,883
The action of the book takes place
over a relatively short period of time,

351
00:18:25,943 --> 00:18:27,987
but throughout "The Lord of the Rings",

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00:18:27,987 --> 00:18:30,410
we hear tales and legends about the past,

353
00:18:30,410 --> 00:18:32,822
often stretching back thousands of years.

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00:18:32,942 --> 00:18:34,957
Tolkien hasn't just written a story,

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00:18:34,957 --> 00:18:36,915
but has given us the impression

356
00:18:36,915 --> 00:18:39,379
that we are witnessing a series of events,

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00:18:39,419 --> 00:18:42,947
inside an entire history
that exists outside of the books.

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00:18:43,207 --> 00:18:45,261
Although he is just one writer,

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he has created an entire mythology

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00:18:47,349 --> 00:18:50,773
comparable to traditional
cultural mythologies.

361
00:18:50,893 --> 00:18:53,296
"Bowen: And you took 14 years
to make this story.

362
00:18:53,306 --> 00:18:54,557
"Tolkien: Quite so, yeah.

363
00:18:54,557 --> 00:18:57,266
"I took 14 years and not 
for the general thing it is now

364
00:18:57,266 --> 00:19:02,872
"but for finding time schemes
and getting everything right and so on.

365
00:19:03,399 --> 00:19:05,605
Documenting the history of Middle Earth,

366
00:19:05,605 --> 00:19:07,851
was a lifelong project of Tolkien.

367
00:19:07,861 --> 00:19:10,567
In his letters, notes
and unpublished works

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00:19:10,567 --> 00:19:13,134
he filled in details of this mythology,

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00:19:13,134 --> 00:19:15,580
complete with elaborate genealogies,

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00:19:15,600 --> 00:19:17,553
and geographical details.

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00:19:17,973 --> 00:19:20,101
Tolkien had the genius to make it sound

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00:19:20,121 --> 00:19:22,785
like it was a "real history" 
he was exploring,

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00:19:22,785 --> 00:19:26,672
as if he was just "researching" it
and reporting it to us.

374
00:19:26,767 --> 00:19:29,473
There had been fantasy books
before Tolkien,

375
00:19:29,503 --> 00:19:32,531
but never had there been 
such successful "world building",

376
00:19:32,551 --> 00:19:35,725
with such a serious tone 
and seismic events.

377
00:19:40,914 --> 00:19:43,937
"What I'm doing now, 
is to try and write in Elvish.

378
00:19:43,937 --> 00:19:46,682
"but mt writing
is very inferior to the Elves

379
00:19:46,682 --> 00:19:49,412
Their standard meeting when greeting:

380
00:19:49,477 --> 00:19:51,772
"A star shines upon our meeting"

381
00:19:52,617 --> 00:19:54,598
From 1924 to 1945,

382
00:19:54,598 --> 00:19:57,922
Tolkien was the professor 
of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford,

383
00:19:57,922 --> 00:20:00,769
and even after
the huge success of "The Hobbit"

384
00:20:00,779 --> 00:20:02,519
and "The Lord of the Rings"

385
00:20:02,519 --> 00:20:06,169
he continued to teach at Oxford, 
until his retirement in 1959.

386
00:20:06,259 --> 00:20:09,269
He developed 
15 different dialects for Elvish

387
00:20:09,319 --> 00:20:11,589
for "The Hobbit" 
and "The Lord of the Rings",

388
00:20:11,589 --> 00:20:13,839
and as a soldier during World War I,

389
00:20:13,869 --> 00:20:17,389
Tolkien even developed a secret code
to communicate with his wife.

390
00:20:17,449 --> 00:20:20,671
For Tolkien, language
is where it all begins.

391
00:20:21,391 --> 00:20:24,117
"The invention of languages
is the foundation...

392
00:20:24,127 --> 00:20:27,323
"To me a name comes first
and the story follows."

393
00:20:28,353 --> 00:20:32,630
He believed that the nature of a society
was Inseparable from its language.

394
00:20:32,786 --> 00:20:36,122
To understand a people, 
you must understand the language.

395
00:20:36,462 --> 00:20:40,272
The sounds, syntax, and expressions
can all evoke a mood

396
00:20:40,272 --> 00:20:43,054
and reveal the values of a people.

397
00:20:43,124 --> 00:20:46,965
And Tolkien has given 
all of his fictional races in the book,

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00:20:47,035 --> 00:20:49,285
not only their own complex history,

399
00:20:49,285 --> 00:20:52,075
but also, their own fully 
developed language,

400
00:20:52,105 --> 00:20:54,850
with its own alphabet, 
expressions, and sounds.

401
00:20:55,070 --> 00:20:57,661
It is a remarkable encyclopedic feat

402
00:20:57,721 --> 00:21:01,047
that fleshes out 
even the most minor characters.

403
00:21:01,627 --> 00:21:05,515
At one point, Frodo hears
the elves singing in the forest.

404
00:21:32,174 --> 00:21:35,398
It is part of a poem
from "The Lord of the Rings" in Elvish,

405
00:21:35,428 --> 00:21:39,070
which some have likened 
to a Roman Catholic Marian hymn.

406
00:21:39,122 --> 00:21:41,608
The sounds are flowing and musical,

407
00:21:41,678 --> 00:21:43,521
reflecting how the elves speak,

408
00:21:43,531 --> 00:21:47,138
underscoring their reverence 
for grace, beauty and nature.

409
00:21:47,688 --> 00:21:51,687
The dwarves however speak 
the more direct language of "Kazul",

410
00:21:51,707 --> 00:21:55,457
reflecting their emphasis
on craftsmanship and precision.

411
00:21:55,542 --> 00:21:58,849
The language of the hobbits
is filled with colloquialisms,

412
00:21:58,849 --> 00:22:02,283
and expressions centered around
the simple pleasures of life.

413
00:22:02,303 --> 00:22:05,975
The orcs have a savage and gutural tongue

414
00:22:05,995 --> 00:22:08,404
that exposes their brutality.

415
00:22:08,421 --> 00:22:12,665
Even among the races of man, 
Tolkien uses distinguishing styles.

416
00:22:13,385 --> 00:22:15,786
The Rohirrim, pepper their language

417
00:22:15,786 --> 00:22:18,387
with references
to horsemanship and warfare,

418
00:22:18,387 --> 00:22:22,083
while those from Gondor speak
with a more formal and elevated style,

419
00:22:22,133 --> 00:22:25,376
emphasizing their nobility 
and ancient heritage.

420
00:22:31,966 --> 00:22:36,298
Passages in invented languages
help create an immersive experience

421
00:22:36,328 --> 00:22:39,049
and are critical 
to Tolkien's world building.

422
00:22:39,089 --> 00:22:43,132
We become convinced that we are learning
about a time, different from our own,

423
00:22:43,214 --> 00:22:46,322
from a historical world 
that really did exist.

424
00:22:46,432 --> 00:22:48,504
Tolkien felt so strongly

425
00:22:48,504 --> 00:22:51,181
about the centrality
of language to his work,

426
00:22:51,181 --> 00:22:53,598
that he once commented
he would have preferred

427
00:22:53,598 --> 00:22:56,902
to have written "The Lord of the Rings"
entirely in Elvish,

428
00:22:56,922 --> 00:22:59,493
but ultimately left in only as much

429
00:22:59,543 --> 00:23:02,539
as he thought his readers would endure.

430
00:23:02,689 --> 00:23:05,357
Because of Tolkien, invented languages

431
00:23:05,407 --> 00:23:08,156
have now become standard
in fantasy epics,

432
00:23:08,156 --> 00:23:12,306
most recently seen in modern versions
of "Dune" and "Game of Thrones".

433
00:23:16,771 --> 00:23:19,261
This chapter, comes 
at the end of the book

434
00:23:19,261 --> 00:23:21,840
and doesn't feature in many of the films.

435
00:23:21,860 --> 00:23:24,434
But is an integral chapter
when looking at Tolkien.

436
00:23:24,464 --> 00:23:27,766
It is a deeply pessimistic look
at what happens

437
00:23:27,766 --> 00:23:31,766
when our returning heroes, 
the hobbits, go back to their Shire,

438
00:23:31,796 --> 00:23:34,156
this bastion of middle England,

439
00:23:34,236 --> 00:23:36,316
these idyllic agricultural spaces,

440
00:23:36,386 --> 00:23:39,151
to find that everything has changed.

441
00:23:40,893 --> 00:23:44,121
Industry is now polluting
their once pure rivers,

442
00:23:44,186 --> 00:23:48,133
and the Shire is now, 
in effect, a police state.

443
00:23:49,733 --> 00:23:52,367
"It was one of the saddest hours
in their lives.

444
00:23:52,477 --> 00:23:54,944
"The great chimney rose up before them.

445
00:23:54,994 --> 00:23:57,812
"and as they drew near 
the old village across the water,

446
00:23:57,832 --> 00:24:00,111
"through rows of new mean houses

447
00:24:00,151 --> 00:24:01,981
"along each side of the road,

448
00:24:02,011 --> 00:24:03,509
"they saw the new mill

449
00:24:03,539 --> 00:24:06,273
"in all its frowning and dirty ugliness:

450
00:24:06,343 --> 00:24:09,089
"a great brick building
straddling the stream

451
00:24:09,099 --> 00:24:12,528
"which it fouled
with a steaming and stinking outflow.

452
00:24:13,217 --> 00:24:17,815
"All along the Bywater Rod 
every tree had been felled."

453
00:24:18,626 --> 00:24:21,005
This is a classic idea
of the homecoming hero

454
00:24:21,035 --> 00:24:22,864
facing further obstacles,

455
00:24:22,904 --> 00:24:25,203
that we can find in Homer's Odyssey

456
00:24:25,203 --> 00:24:27,385
amongst other "quest literature".

457
00:24:27,575 --> 00:24:31,438
The Shire is now run by Ruffians 
with a dictator-like chief

458
00:24:31,518 --> 00:24:34,425
whose gatherers count, 
keep track of productivity,

459
00:24:34,515 --> 00:24:36,696
and enforce endless rules.

460
00:24:36,836 --> 00:24:38,636
The Hobbit's inns are closed

461
00:24:38,636 --> 00:24:41,120
because the chief disapproves of beer

462
00:24:41,150 --> 00:24:45,562
and beautiful old dwellings are demolished
to create ugly new ones

463
00:24:45,751 --> 00:24:48,499
- surely a reference
to the desperately needed

464
00:24:48,559 --> 00:24:51,508
new social housing post-World War II.

465
00:24:51,698 --> 00:24:53,727
And there are hundreds of "shiriffs",

466
00:24:53,737 --> 00:24:55,862
a kind of Hobbit police force,

467
00:24:55,872 --> 00:24:58,864
who drag anyone who stands up
for their rights to prison.

468
00:24:59,154 --> 00:25:02,265
We can go back to Tolkien's
experiences in World War I,

469
00:25:02,325 --> 00:25:06,031
when returning veterans were promised 
a new life fit for heroes,

470
00:25:06,321 --> 00:25:10,487
but in fact, return to unemployment, 
continuing poverty,

471
00:25:10,527 --> 00:25:13,400
homelessness - and even worse -

472
00:25:13,420 --> 00:25:15,748
the wholesale destruction
of their way of life.

473
00:25:15,778 --> 00:25:17,961
It was a betrayal.

474
00:25:18,043 --> 00:25:21,299
Tolkien was famously 
anti-industrialization,

475
00:25:21,319 --> 00:25:24,432
and politically conservative
when it came to "big government",

476
00:25:24,432 --> 00:25:26,823
and this can be seen as a veiled attack

477
00:25:26,863 --> 00:25:29,154
on the post-war Labor government,

478
00:25:29,244 --> 00:25:31,734
and what conservatives
saw as "interference",

479
00:25:31,774 --> 00:25:35,069
"regulation", and even 
"socialist ideology".

480
00:25:35,387 --> 00:25:39,540
At one point, the Hobbits discuss
the gathering of local farming produce,

481
00:25:39,600 --> 00:25:42,531
so, it can be "shared out equally",

482
00:25:42,571 --> 00:25:45,911
but this ideal never quite works
the way it should do.

483
00:25:46,182 --> 00:25:49,372
A scathing critique 
of socialist principles.

484
00:25:49,632 --> 00:25:51,851
The scouring of the Shire chapter

485
00:25:51,851 --> 00:25:54,558
was written after the end
of the II World War,

486
00:25:54,575 --> 00:25:57,525
and I think it's hard to deny
(although Tolkien did),

487
00:25:57,577 --> 00:26:00,878
that there is also an allegorical element 
to this chapter,

488
00:26:01,258 --> 00:26:04,164
with the Ruffians behavior
echoing the Nazis,

489
00:26:04,174 --> 00:26:08,406
in the way they used collaborators, 
informers, threats, torture,

490
00:26:08,502 --> 00:26:11,181
and the imprisoning
and killing of dissenters.

491
00:26:11,601 --> 00:26:14,385
At one point the "shiriff" Hobbit says:

492
00:26:14,415 --> 00:26:17,422
"I am sorry Mr. Mary, but we have orders".

493
00:26:17,642 --> 00:26:22,700
A chilling phrase that we will hear
time and again at the Nuremberg trials.

494
00:26:24,173 --> 00:26:26,800
These are all reflections 
which would have meant

495
00:26:26,870 --> 00:26:29,824
so much more to a British 
reader in the 1950s:

496
00:26:30,064 --> 00:26:33,112
The rapid pace of change
in terms of industrialization,

497
00:26:33,112 --> 00:26:35,018
devastation of the countryside,

498
00:26:35,018 --> 00:26:37,581
regulations of all kinds,

499
00:26:37,581 --> 00:26:41,310
government interference
and the advent of Big Brother.

500
00:26:41,752 --> 00:26:45,188
Yes, everything had changed
while the hobbits were away,

501
00:26:45,208 --> 00:26:48,228
but everything had changed
for the British too.

502
00:26:52,336 --> 00:26:56,515
This is one of the most complex and 
contentious issues surrounding Tolkien,

503
00:26:56,555 --> 00:26:59,544
a committed Catholic
in a Protestant country,

504
00:26:59,554 --> 00:27:01,609
and one who stated categorically

505
00:27:01,608 --> 00:27:04,706
that "The Lord of the Rings" 
was not a religious allegory.

506
00:27:04,776 --> 00:27:07,410
In many ways, it is a pagan book

507
00:27:07,470 --> 00:27:09,892
and draws on those sources
of the Norse myths

508
00:27:09,912 --> 00:27:11,758
- which are pre-Christian.

509
00:27:11,768 --> 00:27:15,069
There are no churches, 
no religion and no God

510
00:27:15,069 --> 00:27:17,124
in "The Lord of the Rings".

511
00:27:17,124 --> 00:27:20,536
And yet, when Tolkien was attacked 
upon publication,

512
00:27:20,576 --> 00:27:23,228
for the apparent lack 
of religion in the book,

513
00:27:23,228 --> 00:27:24,884
it was he confessed:

514
00:27:25,014 --> 00:27:27,560
"The only criticism that annoys me..."

515
00:27:27,620 --> 00:27:29,593
Tolkien is clear,

516
00:27:29,659 --> 00:27:31,482
that in such a pre-Christian world,

517
00:27:31,482 --> 00:27:33,168
it would have been in congruous

518
00:27:33,188 --> 00:27:35,794
to include any 
explicit references to Christianity,

519
00:27:35,846 --> 00:27:37,969
and yet, in a private letter,

520
00:27:37,969 --> 00:27:40,120
to the Catholic priest, 
Father Robert Murray,

521
00:27:40,140 --> 00:27:41,698
Tolkien explained:

522
00:27:41,728 --> 00:27:43,463
"The Lord of the Rings" is of course

523
00:27:43,463 --> 00:27:45,557
a fundamentally religious 
and Catholic work;

524
00:27:45,639 --> 00:27:47,102
unconsciously so at first,

525
00:27:47,152 --> 00:27:49,006
but consciously in the revision."

526
00:27:49,006 --> 00:27:51,532
That is why I have not put in
or have cut out,

527
00:27:51,532 --> 00:27:54,164
practically all references 
to anything like religion.

528
00:27:54,194 --> 00:27:57,084
to cults or practices 
in the imaginary world."

529
00:27:57,290 --> 00:28:01,630
"For the religious element is absorbed
into the story and the symbolism..."

530
00:28:02,666 --> 00:28:05,664
Much has been made
in Tolkien scholarship of this letter,

531
00:28:05,704 --> 00:28:09,379
for it seems to conflict with his other
more public statements.

532
00:28:09,477 --> 00:28:11,409
"People do not fully understand

533
00:28:11,439 --> 00:28:14,221
"the difference between
an allegory and an application.

534
00:28:14,273 --> 00:28:17,147
"But what does it actually mean
for a book to be religious,

535
00:28:17,157 --> 00:28:19,594
"or, in this case, a Catholic work?"

536
00:28:19,824 --> 00:28:22,273
Do we have to, as many have done,

537
00:28:22,293 --> 00:28:24,912
make the case for Frodo
as a Jesus figure?

538
00:28:24,952 --> 00:28:28,452
Or make direct parallels 
between Christianity and Middle Earth?

539
00:28:28,942 --> 00:28:31,802
Certainly, there are strong 
Christian elements throughout,

540
00:28:31,832 --> 00:28:33,999
most evident in the larger themes

541
00:28:34,039 --> 00:28:36,772
of the importance 
of sacrifice and selflessness,

542
00:28:36,782 --> 00:28:38,884
the focus on hope and redemption,

543
00:28:38,934 --> 00:28:41,844
the lure of temptations
and the existence of evil.

544
00:28:42,124 --> 00:28:44,258
These values and others however,

545
00:28:44,314 --> 00:28:48,112
also overlap with similar themes
in Pagan literature,

546
00:28:48,112 --> 00:28:49,564
or Norse myths,

547
00:28:49,564 --> 00:28:53,066
or countless other sources
Tolkien would have studied.

548
00:28:53,156 --> 00:28:55,834
Perhaps it is simply a case
that being a Catholic

549
00:28:55,907 --> 00:28:58,822
was an important part 
of Tolkien's identity,

550
00:28:58,822 --> 00:29:01,500
and his personal values,
fears and concerns

551
00:29:01,550 --> 00:29:04,762
would naturally be manifested in his work.

552
00:29:05,492 --> 00:29:07,938
"You are obliged, any author I imagine,

553
00:29:07,938 --> 00:29:13,284
"is obliged to call on his stock
- private stock.

554
00:29:18,445 --> 00:29:20,188
"I am dreading the publication

555
00:29:20,188 --> 00:29:22,930
"for it will be impossible
not to mind what is said.

556
00:29:22,970 --> 00:29:25,932
"I have exposed my heart
to be shot at."

557
00:29:26,504 --> 00:29:29,874
Tolkien wanted "The Lord of the Rings"
published in one huge volume,

558
00:29:29,887 --> 00:29:32,309
with the Silmarilion attached.

559
00:29:32,369 --> 00:29:33,960
But the publishers refused.

560
00:29:33,990 --> 00:29:36,205
And so, the book 
was split into three volumes,

561
00:29:36,215 --> 00:29:40,008
and published from 1954 to 1955.

562
00:29:40,428 --> 00:29:43,349
When it was finally issued
in its entirety,

563
00:29:43,359 --> 00:29:46,199
for the most part
the reviews were positive.

564
00:29:46,343 --> 00:29:47,936
"One reviewer once said,

565
00:29:47,956 --> 00:29:50,448
"this is a jolly book,
all the right boys come home

566
00:29:50,448 --> 00:29:52,495
" and everyone's always happy and glad...

567
00:29:52,495 --> 00:29:53,688
"It isn't true of course.

568
00:29:53,688 --> 00:29:55,211
"He can't have read the story.

569
00:29:55,240 --> 00:29:58,807
His good friend C.S. Lewis
wrote enthusiastically to Tolkien.

570
00:29:58,867 --> 00:30:00,221
"I congratulate you.

571
00:30:00,261 --> 00:30:03,255
"All the long years you have spent
on it are justified."

572
00:30:03,395 --> 00:30:05,549
And championed him in print.

573
00:30:05,763 --> 00:30:09,580
The poet W.H. Auden called it 
a masterpiece

574
00:30:10,272 --> 00:30:12,639
and in his review in the New York Times,

575
00:30:12,669 --> 00:30:15,783
compared it to Milton's "Paradise Lost".

576
00:30:15,853 --> 00:30:17,350
In "The Lord of the Rings",

577
00:30:17,360 --> 00:30:19,645
Tolkien takes Anglo-Saxon and Norse sagas,

578
00:30:19,645 --> 00:30:23,846
ancient Celtic poetry, Milton, 
Dickens, Browning, and more,

579
00:30:23,896 --> 00:30:26,048
to create his world

580
00:30:26,048 --> 00:30:29,336
- but his comparison with Milton
is an important one.

581
00:30:29,376 --> 00:30:33,445
Historically, great poets aspire
to write a national epic

582
00:30:33,505 --> 00:30:36,134
in imitation of Homer or Virgil.

583
00:30:36,194 --> 00:30:40,521
Milton famously tried to go beyond 
the boundaries of a national epic

584
00:30:40,531 --> 00:30:43,585
to explain the origins of all Humanity.

585
00:30:43,745 --> 00:30:46,433
Many have argued 
that "The Lord of the Rings"

586
00:30:46,453 --> 00:30:49,512
is a national epic for England or Europe.

587
00:30:49,542 --> 00:30:53,247
In general Tolkien was never
as explicit as Milton in his motives,

588
00:30:53,417 --> 00:30:58,140
but admitted he was inspired
by Finland's national epic the Kalevala,

589
00:30:58,754 --> 00:31:01,649
and throughout his life
insisted that Middle Earth

590
00:31:01,659 --> 00:31:03,723
was not an imaginary world,

591
00:31:03,723 --> 00:31:08,046
but rather an imaginary historical moment
in our very real world.

592
00:31:11,820 --> 00:31:14,585
Tolkien's new genre - "heroic fantasy",

593
00:31:14,615 --> 00:31:17,258
"epic fantasy", "world-building fiction"

594
00:31:17,258 --> 00:31:19,244
- whatever we choose to call it -

595
00:31:19,304 --> 00:31:21,302
is now a huge part of our culture,

596
00:31:21,332 --> 00:31:25,276
and has inspired an entire industry
of movies, books, and games,

597
00:31:25,276 --> 00:31:28,108
centered around epic quests in new worlds.

598
00:31:28,557 --> 00:31:31,755
Without Tolkien, 
would we even have Star Wars?

599
00:31:31,806 --> 00:31:34,090
Game of Thrones? Harry Potter?

600
00:31:34,140 --> 00:31:38,583
Or games like Dungeons and Dragons, 
World of Warcraft, Magic: The Gathering?

601
00:31:39,767 --> 00:31:42,156
Tolkien was a giant of literature

602
00:31:42,156 --> 00:31:44,431
who created a world so fully formed,

603
00:31:44,461 --> 00:31:47,008
so complex and so enigmatic

604
00:31:47,038 --> 00:31:49,886
that we forget that the creation
of Middle Earth

605
00:31:49,886 --> 00:31:53,182
changed the entire literary landscape.

606
00:31:54,292 --> 00:31:57,095
"Of course, "The Lord of the Rings" 
does not belong to me.

607
00:31:57,105 --> 00:31:58,582
"It has been brought forth

608
00:31:58,628 --> 00:32:01,141
"and must now go its appointed way
in the world,

609
00:32:01,141 --> 00:32:03,904
"though naturally, I take
a deep interest in its fortunes,

610
00:32:03,938 --> 00:32:05,842
"as a parent would of a child."

611
00:32:05,923 --> 00:32:08,382
"I am comforted to know 
that is has good friends

612
00:32:08,412 --> 00:32:11,082
"to defend it against
the malice of its enemies."

613
00:32:18,740 --> 00:32:20,315
And now for a quick ad.

614
00:32:20,385 --> 00:32:22,585
The Manhattan Rare Book Company

615
00:32:22,585 --> 00:32:25,971
specializes in fine books, manuscripts, 
art, and photography.

616
00:32:26,011 --> 00:32:29,019
They offer only items 
that have been carefully selected

617
00:32:29,049 --> 00:32:32,333
to meet their high standards 
of quality and importance.

618
00:32:32,333 --> 00:32:34,295
At the moment, Manhattan Rare Books

619
00:32:34,295 --> 00:32:37,402
is featuring a number of items
by J.R.R. Tolkien,

620
00:32:37,432 --> 00:32:40,255
including two letters written by Tolkien,

621
00:32:40,255 --> 00:32:43,156
introducing "The Lord of the Rings"
to a fan of "The Hobbit"

622
00:32:43,176 --> 00:32:45,902
- and a highly important
Tolkien manuscript,

623
00:32:45,932 --> 00:32:49,575
complete with a beautiful
hand drawn genealogical chart.

624
00:32:49,625 --> 00:32:53,746
Details and images can be found
at Manhattanrarebooks.com.

625
00:32:54,166 --> 00:32:57,947
Please feel free to contact them
to discuss your collecting interests,

626
00:32:57,997 --> 00:33:00,352
whether you are looking
for a specific book,

627
00:33:00,352 --> 00:33:01,907
manuscript, or photograph,

628
00:33:01,957 --> 00:33:04,492
or have more general questions
concerning collecting,

629
00:33:04,492 --> 00:33:07,130
they will be happy
to provide their assistance.

630
00:33:07,160 --> 00:33:08,968
Thanks for listening.

631
00:33:09,433 --> 00:33:12,103