WEBVTT

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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.

NOTE Paragraph

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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.

NOTE Paragraph

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In fact, the quest succeeds,

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because the idea
that someone would forego power

NOTE Paragraph

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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;

NOTE Paragraph

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

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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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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.

00:13:50.455 --> 00:13:53.951
"Sauron was become now
a sorcerer of dreadful power,

00:13:53.961 --> 00:13:56.540
"master of shadows and of phantoms,

00:13:56.570 --> 00:13:59.192
"foul in wisdom, cruel in strength,

00:13:59.222 --> 00:14:02.663
"misshaping what he touched,
twisting what he ruled."

00:14:03.553 --> 00:14:05.143
In "The Lord of the Rings"

00:14:05.143 --> 00:14:07.961
there is the rise of an evil force Sauron,

00:14:07.981 --> 00:14:09.621
who is not unlike Hitler

00:14:09.641 --> 00:14:12.127
in his desire for power
and world domination.

00:14:12.537 --> 00:14:14.628
Just like countries during the war,

00:14:14.648 --> 00:14:16.373
some societies in the book,

00:14:16.373 --> 00:14:19.721
whether out of self-interest or fear,
side with Sauron,

00:14:19.761 --> 00:14:22.840
adding to the hopelessness
of the good-hearted.

00:14:22.890 --> 00:14:25.889
The fate of the world
is at stake in both worlds,

00:14:25.909 --> 00:14:27.862
and the outcome hinges on a race

00:14:27.862 --> 00:14:30.912
to prevent ultimate power
getting in the wrong hands.

00:14:32.046 --> 00:14:34.939
Crucially, the ring 
is not just about power,

00:14:34.969 --> 00:14:37.720
it is about what we do with power

00:14:37.730 --> 00:14:39.414
and how it can corrupt us,

00:14:39.414 --> 00:14:41.504
and how that corruption
can be addictive

00:14:41.504 --> 00:14:44.151
leading to the eventual loss 
of your Humanity,

00:14:44.151 --> 00:14:46.788
as the evil within you is exposed,

00:14:46.798 --> 00:14:49.381
absorbing all morals.

00:14:49.431 --> 00:14:52.077
The very things that were being discussed

00:14:52.154 --> 00:14:56.555
at the outbreak, during, 
and at the conclusion of World War II.

00:14:56.765 --> 00:15:01.247
The horrific evils of the 20th century
were just around the corner.

00:15:05.459 --> 00:15:08.180
Despite the horrors
Tolkien witness firsthand,

00:15:08.200 --> 00:15:12.736
"The Lord of the Rings" is not,
as you might expect, explicitly anti-war.

00:15:13.103 --> 00:15:16.245
Tolkien may describe battles, 
almost poetically,

00:15:16.295 --> 00:15:19.046
and place an emphasis 
on heroism in combat,

00:15:19.066 --> 00:15:22.573
but for a man who spent his life
studying traditional myths and legends,

00:15:22.573 --> 00:15:24.065
often involving war,

00:15:24.089 --> 00:15:26.635
he understood that nobility often means

00:15:26.975 --> 00:15:29.863
that we need to take up 
arms for a "just" cause.

00:15:29.863 --> 00:15:31.862
The Lord of the Rings is, in fact,

00:15:31.862 --> 00:15:35.501
a book about 
the "unfortunate necessity" of war

00:15:35.531 --> 00:15:38.486
- when it is a just war - against evil.

00:15:38.846 --> 00:15:41.480
But crucially, Tolkien also understood

00:15:41.510 --> 00:15:44.417
that there was good and evil
on both sides of war,

00:15:44.477 --> 00:15:46.483
an unpopular sentiment in a time

00:15:46.483 --> 00:15:49.810
when those boundaries
were being blurred beyond recognition.

00:15:49.873 --> 00:15:53.321
He was outspoken against bombing campaigns
on German cities,

00:15:53.361 --> 00:15:56.049
and even used 
a quote from "The Lord of the Rings",

00:15:56.110 --> 00:15:58.468
in a letter to his son
about the campaigns:

00:15:58.708 --> 00:16:01.486
"You can't fight the enemy
with his own ring

00:16:01.555 --> 00:16:04.102
without turning into an enemy".

00:16:04.882 --> 00:16:07.887
He knew, as the characters
of the fellowship do,

00:16:07.887 --> 00:16:10.157
that just because one fights for good,

00:16:10.157 --> 00:16:12.932
it doesn't make one immune
to the power of evil

00:16:12.952 --> 00:16:15.004
- to the power of the ring.

00:16:15.084 --> 00:16:17.905
The Fellowship must resist
the temptation of the ring,

00:16:17.915 --> 00:16:21.016
as we must resist
using evil to fight evil.

00:16:22.961 --> 00:16:26.181
Tolkien understood 
that bravery is a complex notion,

00:16:26.191 --> 00:16:28.540
for while battles swarm around him

00:16:28.550 --> 00:16:32.925
it is our little hobbit Frodo who succeeds
on his journey by avoiding war.

00:16:33.175 --> 00:16:36.612
But even he is not immune
to war's effects and trauma.

00:16:36.702 --> 00:16:39.678
When the war is over
and he is returning to the Shire,

00:16:39.698 --> 00:16:41.800
Frodo confesses to Gandalf,

00:16:41.830 --> 00:16:44.270
in one of the most poignant
passages in the book,

00:16:44.270 --> 00:16:45.586
that he is in pain,

00:16:45.618 --> 00:16:48.301
as so many shellshocked men
of the trenches were.

00:16:51.912 --> 00:16:56.344
" 'Alas! there are some wounds that cannot
be wholly cured', said Gandalf.

00:16:56.474 --> 00:16:59.285
" 'I fear it may be so with mine',
said Frodo.

00:16:59.294 --> 00:17:01.177
"There is no real going back.

00:17:01.177 --> 00:17:04.134
"Though I may come to the Shire,
it will not seem the same;

00:17:04.184 --> 00:17:06.575
"for I shall not be the same."

00:17:06.616 --> 00:17:09.642
"I am wounded with knife, sting and tooth

00:17:09.722 --> 00:17:11.006
"and a long burden.

00:17:11.006 --> 00:17:13.082
" 'Where shall I find rest?'

00:17:13.092 --> 00:17:15.139
"Gandalf did not answer."

00:17:16.330 --> 00:17:19.608
After World War I, and certainly
during World War II,

00:17:19.608 --> 00:17:22.747
artists and writers had to wrestle
with a new reality:

00:17:23.507 --> 00:17:26.769
"How to present life
in the aftermath of such horrors?"

00:17:26.819 --> 00:17:30.510
"Were the old stories of heroism
even relevant anymore?"

00:17:31.190 --> 00:17:33.520
Tolkien, through his fictional world,

00:17:33.530 --> 00:17:36.874
has reinvented the heroic epic
for our times.

00:17:37.112 --> 00:17:41.734
Giving us a fresh and more ambiguous
perspective on modern warfare,

00:17:41.774 --> 00:17:44.130
through the realm of fantasy.

00:17:44.340 --> 00:17:46.209
You may get all the heroics,

00:17:46.233 --> 00:17:50.260
but there are also points when
his greatest heroes are full of fear

00:17:53.994 --> 00:17:57.516
Reducing "The Lord of the Rings" 
to a heroic quest or a war narrative,

00:17:57.546 --> 00:18:00.476
is convenient and an aid 
to our understanding,

00:18:00.476 --> 00:18:02.995
but ultimately 
does disservice to the book.

00:18:03.025 --> 00:18:05.695
It more likely
just exposes our difficulties

00:18:05.745 --> 00:18:09.366
in identifying exactly
what this strange work is.

00:18:09.891 --> 00:18:11.579
"If you want my opinion,

NOTE Paragraph

00:18:11.579 --> 00:18:14.698
"a part of the 'fascination'
of 'The Lord of the Rings"

NOTE Paragraph

00:18:14.708 --> 00:18:18.121
"consists in the vistas
of yet more legend and history,

00:18:18.161 --> 00:18:21.135
"to which this work does not contain
a full clue..." - Tolkien

00:18:22.148 --> 00:18:25.883
The action of the book takes place
over a relatively short period of time,

00:18:25.943 --> 00:18:27.987
but throughout "The Lord of the Rings",

00:18:27.987 --> 00:18:30.410
we hear tales and legends about the past,

00:18:30.410 --> 00:18:32.822
often stretching back thousands of years.

00:18:32.942 --> 00:18:34.957
Tolkien hasn't just written a story,

00:18:34.957 --> 00:18:36.915
but has given us the impression

00:18:36.915 --> 00:18:39.379
that we are witnessing a series of events,

00:18:39.419 --> 00:18:42.947
inside an entire history
that exists outside of the books.

00:18:43.207 --> 00:18:45.261
Although he is just one writer,

00:18:45.261 --> 00:18:47.349
he has created an entire mythology

00:18:47.349 --> 00:18:50.773
comparable to traditional
cultural mythologies.

NOTE Paragraph

00:18:50.893 --> 00:18:53.296
"Bowen: And you took 14 years
to make this story.

00:18:53.306 --> 00:18:54.557
"Tolkien: Quite so, yeah.

00:18:54.557 --> 00:18:57.266
"I took 14 years and not 
for the general thing it is now

00:18:57.266 --> 00:19:02.872
"but for finding time schemes
and getting everything right and so on.

00:19:03.399 --> 00:19:05.605
Documenting the history of Middle Earth,

00:19:05.605 --> 00:19:07.851
was a lifelong project of Tolkien.

00:19:07.861 --> 00:19:10.567
In his letters, notes
and unpublished works

NOTE Paragraph

00:19:10.567 --> 00:19:13.134
he filled in details of this mythology,

00:19:13.134 --> 00:19:15.580
complete with elaborate genealogies,

00:19:15.600 --> 00:19:17.553
and geographical details.

00:19:17.973 --> 00:19:20.101
Tolkien had the genius to make it sound

00:19:20.121 --> 00:19:22.785
like it was a "real history" 
he was exploring,

00:19:22.785 --> 00:19:26.672
as if he was just "researching" it
and reporting it to us.

00:19:26.767 --> 00:19:29.473
There had been fantasy books
before Tolkien,

00:19:29.503 --> 00:19:32.531
but never had there been 
such successful "world building",

00:19:32.551 --> 00:19:35.725
with such a serious tone 
and seismic events.

00:19:40.914 --> 00:19:43.937
"What I'm doing now, 
is to try and write in Elvish.

00:19:43.937 --> 00:19:46.682
"but mt writing
is very inferior to the Elves

00:19:46.682 --> 00:19:49.412
Their standard meeting when greeting:

00:19:49.477 --> 00:19:51.772
"A star shines upon our meeting"

00:19:52.617 --> 00:19:54.598
From 1924 to 1945,

00:19:54.598 --> 00:19:57.922
Tolkien was the professor 
of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford,

00:19:57.922 --> 00:20:00.769
and even after
the huge success of "The Hobbit"

00:20:00.779 --> 00:20:02.519
and "The Lord of the Rings"

00:20:02.519 --> 00:20:06.169
he continued to teach at Oxford, 
until his retirement in 1959.

00:20:06.259 --> 00:20:09.269
He developed 
15 different dialects for Elvish

NOTE Paragraph

00:20:09.319 --> 00:20:11.589
for "The Hobbit" 
and "The Lord of the Rings",

00:20:11.589 --> 00:20:13.839
and as a soldier during World War I,

00:20:13.869 --> 00:20:17.389
Tolkien even developed a secret code
to communicate with his wife.

00:20:17.449 --> 00:20:20.671
For Tolkien, language
is where it all begins.

00:20:21.391 --> 00:20:24.117
"The invention of languages
is the foundation...

00:20:24.127 --> 00:20:27.323
"To me a name comes first
and the story follows."

00:20:28.353 --> 00:20:32.630
He believed that the nature of a society
was Inseparable from its language.

00:20:32.786 --> 00:20:36.122
To understand a people, 
you must understand the language.

00:20:36.462 --> 00:20:40.272
The sounds, syntax, and expressions
can all evoke a mood

00:20:40.272 --> 00:20:43.054
and reveal the values of a people.

00:20:43.124 --> 00:20:46.965
And Tolkien has given 
all of his fictional races in the book,

00:20:47.035 --> 00:20:49.285
not only their own complex history,

00:20:49.285 --> 00:20:52.075
but also, their own fully 
developed language,

00:20:52.105 --> 00:20:54.850
with its own alphabet, 
expressions, and sounds.

00:20:55.070 --> 00:20:57.661
It is a remarkable encyclopedic feat

00:20:57.721 --> 00:21:01.047
that fleshes out 
even the most minor characters.

00:21:01.627 --> 00:21:05.515
At one point, Frodo hears
the elves singing in the forest.

00:21:32.174 --> 00:21:35.398
It is part of a poem
from "The Lord of the Rings" in Elvish,

00:21:35.428 --> 00:21:39.070
which some have likened 
to a Roman Catholic Marian hymn.

00:21:39.122 --> 00:21:41.608
The sounds are flowing and musical,

00:21:41.678 --> 00:21:43.521
reflecting how the elves speak,

00:21:43.531 --> 00:21:47.138
underscoring their reverence 
for grace, beauty and nature.

00:21:47.688 --> 00:21:51.687
The dwarves however speak 
the more direct language of "Kazul",

00:21:51.707 --> 00:21:55.457
reflecting their emphasis
on craftsmanship and precision.

00:21:55.542 --> 00:21:58.849
The language of the hobbits
is filled with colloquialisms,

00:21:58.849 --> 00:22:02.283
and expressions centered around
the simple pleasures of life.

00:22:02.303 --> 00:22:05.975
The orcs have a savage and gutural tongue

00:22:05.995 --> 00:22:08.404
that exposes their brutality.

00:22:08.421 --> 00:22:12.665
Even among the races of man, 
Tolkien uses distinguishing styles.

00:22:13.385 --> 00:22:15.786
The Rohirrim, pepper their language

00:22:15.786 --> 00:22:18.387
with references
to horsemanship and warfare,

00:22:18.387 --> 00:22:22.083
while those from Gondor speak
with a more formal and elevated style,

00:22:22.133 --> 00:22:25.376
emphasizing their nobility 
and ancient heritage.

00:22:31.966 --> 00:22:36.298
Passages in invented languages
help create an immersive experience

00:22:36.328 --> 00:22:39.049
and are critical 
to Tolkien's world building.

00:22:39.089 --> 00:22:43.132
We become convinced that we are learning
about a time, different from our own,

00:22:43.214 --> 00:22:46.322
from a historical world 
that really did exist.

00:22:46.432 --> 00:22:48.504
Tolkien felt so strongly

00:22:48.504 --> 00:22:51.181
about the centrality
of language to his work,

00:22:51.181 --> 00:22:53.598
that he once commented
he would have preferred

00:22:53.598 --> 00:22:56.902
to have written "The Lord of the Rings"
entirely in Elvish,

00:22:56.922 --> 00:22:59.493
but ultimately left in only as much

00:22:59.543 --> 00:23:02.539
as he thought his readers would endure.

00:23:02.689 --> 00:23:05.357
Because of Tolkien, invented languages

00:23:05.407 --> 00:23:08.156
have now become standard
in fantasy epics,

00:23:08.156 --> 00:23:12.306
most recently seen in modern versions
of "Dune" and "Game of Thrones".

00:23:16.771 --> 00:23:19.261
This chapter, comes 
at the end of the book

00:23:19.261 --> 00:23:21.840
and doesn't feature in many of the films.

00:23:21.860 --> 00:23:24.434
But is an integral chapter
when looking at Tolkien.

00:23:24.464 --> 00:23:27.766
It is a deeply pessimistic look
at what happens

00:23:27.766 --> 00:23:31.766
when our returning heroes, 
the hobbits, go back to their Shire,

00:23:31.796 --> 00:23:34.156
this bastion of middle England,

00:23:34.236 --> 00:23:36.316
these idyllic agricultural spaces,

00:23:36.386 --> 00:23:39.151
to find that everything has changed.

00:23:40.893 --> 00:23:44.121
Industry is now polluting
their once pure rivers,

00:23:44.186 --> 00:23:48.133
and the Shire is now, 
in effect, a police state.

00:23:49.733 --> 00:23:52.367
"It was one of the saddest hours
in their lives.

00:23:52.477 --> 00:23:54.944
"The great chimney rose up before them.

00:23:54.994 --> 00:23:57.812
"and as they drew near 
the old village across the water,

00:23:57.832 --> 00:24:00.111
"through rows of new mean houses

00:24:00.151 --> 00:24:01.981
"along each side of the road,

00:24:02.011 --> 00:24:03.509
"they saw the new mill

NOTE Paragraph

00:24:03.539 --> 00:24:06.273
"in all its frowning and dirty ugliness:

00:24:06.343 --> 00:24:09.089
"a great brick building
straddling the stream

00:24:09.099 --> 00:24:12.528
"which it fouled
with a steaming and stinking outflow.

00:24:13.217 --> 00:24:17.815
"All along the Bywater Rod 
every tree had been felled."

00:24:18.626 --> 00:24:21.005
This is a classic idea
of the homecoming hero

00:24:21.035 --> 00:24:22.864
facing further obstacles,

00:24:22.904 --> 00:24:25.203
that we can find in Homer's Odyssey

00:24:25.203 --> 00:24:27.385
amongst other "quest literature".

00:24:27.575 --> 00:24:31.438
The Shire is now run by Ruffians 
with a dictator-like chief

00:24:31.518 --> 00:24:34.425
whose gatherers count, 
keep track of productivity,

00:24:34.515 --> 00:24:36.696
and enforce endless rules.

00:24:36.836 --> 00:24:38.636
The Hobbit's inns are closed

00:24:38.636 --> 00:24:41.120
because the chief disapproves of beer

00:24:41.150 --> 00:24:45.562
and beautiful old dwellings are demolished
to create ugly new ones

00:24:45.751 --> 00:24:48.499
- surely a reference
to the desperately needed

00:24:48.559 --> 00:24:51.508
new social housing post-World War II.

00:24:51.698 --> 00:24:53.727
And there are hundreds of "shiriffs",

00:24:53.737 --> 00:24:55.862
a kind of Hobbit police force,

00:24:55.872 --> 00:24:58.864
who drag anyone who stands up
for their rights to prison.

00:24:59.154 --> 00:25:02.265
We can go back to Tolkien's
experiences in World War I,

00:25:02.325 --> 00:25:06.031
when returning veterans were promised 
a new life fit for heroes,

00:25:06.321 --> 00:25:10.487
but in fact, return to unemployment, 
continuing poverty,

00:25:10.527 --> 00:25:13.400
homelessness - and even worse -

00:25:13.420 --> 00:25:15.748
the wholesale destruction
of their way of life.

00:25:15.778 --> 00:25:17.961
It was a betrayal.

00:25:18.043 --> 00:25:21.299
Tolkien was famously 
anti-industrialization,

00:25:21.319 --> 00:25:24.432
and politically conservative
when it came to "big government",

00:25:24.432 --> 00:25:26.823
and this can be seen as a veiled attack

00:25:26.863 --> 00:25:29.154
on the post-war Labor government,

00:25:29.244 --> 00:25:31.734
and what conservatives
saw as "interference",

00:25:31.774 --> 00:25:35.069
"regulation", and even 
"socialist ideology".

00:25:35.387 --> 00:25:39.540
At one point, the Hobbits discuss
the gathering of local farming produce,

00:25:39.600 --> 00:25:42.531
so, it can be "shared out equally",

00:25:42.571 --> 00:25:45.911
but this ideal never quite works
the way it should do.

00:25:46.182 --> 00:25:49.372
A scathing critique 
of socialist principles.

00:25:49.632 --> 00:25:51.851
The scouring of the Shire chapter

00:25:51.851 --> 00:25:54.558
was written after the end
of the II World War,

00:25:54.575 --> 00:25:57.525
and I think it's hard to deny
(although Tolkien did),

00:25:57.577 --> 00:26:00.878
that there is also an allegorical element 
to this chapter,

00:26:01.258 --> 00:26:04.164
with the Ruffians behavior
echoing the Nazis,

00:26:04.174 --> 00:26:08.406
in the way they used collaborators, 
informers, threats, torture,

00:26:08.502 --> 00:26:11.181
and the imprisoning
and killing of dissenters.

00:26:11.601 --> 00:26:14.385
At one point the "shiriff" Hobbit says:

00:26:14.415 --> 00:26:17.422
"I am sorry Mr. Mary, but we have orders".

00:26:17.642 --> 00:26:22.700
A chilling phrase that we will hear
time and again at the Nuremberg trials.

00:26:24.173 --> 00:26:26.800
These are all reflections 
which would have meant

00:26:26.870 --> 00:26:29.824
so much more to a British 
reader in the 1950s:

00:26:30.064 --> 00:26:33.112
The rapid pace of change
in terms of industrialization,

00:26:33.112 --> 00:26:35.018
devastation of the countryside,

00:26:35.018 --> 00:26:37.581
regulations of all kinds,

00:26:37.581 --> 00:26:41.310
government interference
and the advent of Big Brother.

00:26:41.752 --> 00:26:45.188
Yes, everything had changed
while the hobbits were away,

00:26:45.208 --> 00:26:48.228
but everything had changed
for the British too.

00:26:52.336 --> 00:26:56.515
This is one of the most complex and 
contentious issues surrounding Tolkien,

00:26:56.555 --> 00:26:59.544
a committed Catholic
in a Protestant country,

00:26:59.554 --> 00:27:01.609
and one who stated categorically

00:27:01.608 --> 00:27:04.706
that "The Lord of the Rings" 
was not a religious allegory.

00:27:04.776 --> 00:27:07.410
In many ways, it is a pagan book

00:27:07.470 --> 00:27:09.892
and draws on those sources
of the Norse myths

00:27:09.912 --> 00:27:11.758
- which are pre-Christian.

00:27:11.768 --> 00:27:15.069
There are no churches, 
no religion and no God

00:27:15.069 --> 00:27:17.124
in "The Lord of the Rings".

00:27:17.124 --> 00:27:20.536
And yet, when Tolkien was attacked 
upon publication,

00:27:20.576 --> 00:27:23.228
for the apparent lack 
of religion in the book,

00:27:23.228 --> 00:27:24.884
it was he confessed:

00:27:25.014 --> 00:27:27.560
"The only criticism that annoys me..."

00:27:27.620 --> 00:27:29.593
Tolkien is clear,

00:27:29.659 --> 00:27:31.482
that in such a pre-Christian world,

00:27:31.482 --> 00:27:33.168
it would have been in congruous

00:27:33.188 --> 00:27:35.794
to include any 
explicit references to Christianity,

00:27:35.846 --> 00:27:37.969
and yet, in a private letter,

00:27:37.969 --> 00:27:40.120
to the Catholic priest, 
Father Robert Murray,

00:27:40.140 --> 00:27:41.698
Tolkien explained:

00:27:41.728 --> 00:27:43.463
"The Lord of the Rings" is of course

00:27:43.463 --> 00:27:45.557
a fundamentally religious 
and Catholic work;

00:27:45.639 --> 00:27:47.102
unconsciously so at first,

00:27:47.152 --> 00:27:49.006
but consciously in the revision."

00:27:49.006 --> 00:27:51.532
That is why I have not put in
or have cut out,

00:27:51.532 --> 00:27:54.164
practically all references 
to anything like religion.

00:27:54.194 --> 00:27:57.084
to cults or practices 
in the imaginary world."

00:27:57.290 --> 00:28:01.630
"For the religious element is absorbed
into the story and the symbolism..."

00:28:02.666 --> 00:28:05.664
Much has been made
in Tolkien scholarship of this letter,

00:28:05.704 --> 00:28:09.379
for it seems to conflict with his other
more public statements.

00:28:09.477 --> 00:28:11.409
"People do not fully understand

00:28:11.439 --> 00:28:14.221
"the difference between
an allegory and an application.

00:28:14.273 --> 00:28:17.147
"But what does it actually mean
for a book to be religious,

00:28:17.157 --> 00:28:19.594
"or, in this case, a Catholic work?"

00:28:19.824 --> 00:28:22.273
Do we have to, as many have done,

00:28:22.293 --> 00:28:24.912
make the case for Frodo
as a Jesus figure?

00:28:24.952 --> 00:28:28.452
Or make direct parallels 
between Christianity and Middle Earth?

00:28:28.942 --> 00:28:31.802
Certainly, there are strong 
Christian elements throughout,

00:28:31.832 --> 00:28:33.999
most evident in the larger themes

00:28:34.039 --> 00:28:36.772
of the importance 
of sacrifice and selflessness,

00:28:36.782 --> 00:28:38.884
the focus on hope and redemption,

00:28:38.934 --> 00:28:41.844
the lure of temptations
and the existence of evil.

00:28:42.124 --> 00:28:44.258
These values and others however,

00:28:44.314 --> 00:28:48.112
also overlap with similar themes
in Pagan literature,

00:28:48.112 --> 00:28:49.564
or Norse myths,

00:28:49.564 --> 00:28:53.066
or countless other sources
Tolkien would have studied.

00:28:53.156 --> 00:28:55.834
Perhaps it is simply a case
that being a Catholic

00:28:55.907 --> 00:28:58.822
was an important part 
of Tolkien's identity,

00:28:58.822 --> 00:29:01.500
and his personal values,
fears and concerns

00:29:01.550 --> 00:29:04.762
would naturally be manifested in his work.

00:29:05.492 --> 00:29:07.938
"You are obliged, any author I imagine,

00:29:07.938 --> 00:29:13.284
"is obliged to call on his stock
- private stock.

00:29:18.445 --> 00:29:20.188
"I am dreading the publication

NOTE Paragraph

00:29:20.188 --> 00:29:22.930
"for it will be impossible
not to mind what is said.

00:29:22.970 --> 00:29:25.932
"I have exposed my heart
to be shot at."

00:29:26.504 --> 00:29:29.874
Tolkien wanted "The Lord of the Rings"
published in one huge volume,

00:29:29.887 --> 00:29:32.309
with the Silmarilion attached.

00:29:32.369 --> 00:29:33.960
But the publishers refused.

00:29:33.990 --> 00:29:36.205
And so, the book 
was split into three volumes,

00:29:36.215 --> 00:29:40.008
and published from 1954 to 1955.

00:29:40.428 --> 00:29:43.349
When it was finally issued
in its entirety,

00:29:43.359 --> 00:29:46.199
for the most part
the reviews were positive.

NOTE Paragraph

00:29:46.343 --> 00:29:47.936
"One reviewer once said,

00:29:47.956 --> 00:29:50.448
"this is a jolly book,
all the right boys come home

00:29:50.448 --> 00:29:52.495
" and everyone's always happy and glad...

00:29:52.495 --> 00:29:53.688
"It isn't true of course.

00:29:53.688 --> 00:29:55.211
"He can't have read the story.

00:29:55.240 --> 00:29:58.807
His good friend C.S. Lewis
wrote enthusiastically to Tolkien.

00:29:58.867 --> 00:30:00.221
"I congratulate you.

00:30:00.261 --> 00:30:03.255
"All the long years you have spent
on it are justified."

00:30:03.395 --> 00:30:05.549
And championed him in print.

00:30:05.763 --> 00:30:09.580
The poet W.H. Auden called it 
a masterpiece

00:30:10.272 --> 00:30:12.639
and in his review in the New York Times,

00:30:12.669 --> 00:30:15.783
compared it to Milton's "Paradise Lost".

00:30:15.853 --> 00:30:17.350
In "The Lord of the Rings",

00:30:17.360 --> 00:30:19.645
Tolkien takes Anglo-Saxon and Norse sagas,

00:30:19.645 --> 00:30:23.846
ancient Celtic poetry, Milton, 
Dickens, Browning, and more,

00:30:23.896 --> 00:30:26.048
to create his world

00:30:26.048 --> 00:30:29.336
- but his comparison with Milton
is an important one.

00:30:29.376 --> 00:30:33.445
Historically, great poets aspire
to write a national epic

00:30:33.505 --> 00:30:36.134
in imitation of Homer or Virgil.

00:30:36.194 --> 00:30:40.521
Milton famously tried to go beyond 
the boundaries of a national epic

00:30:40.531 --> 00:30:43.585
to explain the origins of all Humanity.

00:30:43.745 --> 00:30:46.433
Many have argued 
that "The Lord of the Rings"

00:30:46.453 --> 00:30:49.512
is a national epic for England or Europe.

00:30:49.542 --> 00:30:53.247
In general Tolkien was never
as explicit as Milton in his motives,

00:30:53.417 --> 00:30:58.140
but admitted he was inspired
by Finland's national epic the Kalevala,

00:30:58.754 --> 00:31:01.649
and throughout his life
insisted that Middle Earth

00:31:01.659 --> 00:31:03.723
was not an imaginary world,

00:31:03.723 --> 00:31:08.046
but rather an imaginary historical moment
in our very real world.

00:31:11.820 --> 00:31:14.585
Tolkien's new genre - "heroic fantasy",

00:31:14.615 --> 00:31:17.258
"epic fantasy", "world-building fiction"

00:31:17.258 --> 00:31:19.244
- whatever we choose to call it -

00:31:19.304 --> 00:31:21.302
is now a huge part of our culture,

00:31:21.332 --> 00:31:25.276
and has inspired an entire industry
of movies, books, and games,

00:31:25.276 --> 00:31:28.108
centered around epic quests in new worlds.

00:31:28.557 --> 00:31:31.755
Without Tolkien, 
would we even have Star Wars?

00:31:31.806 --> 00:31:34.090
Game of Thrones? Harry Potter?

00:31:34.140 --> 00:31:38.583
Or games like Dungeons and Dragons, 
World of Warcraft, Magic: The Gathering?

00:31:39.767 --> 00:31:42.156
Tolkien was a giant of literature

00:31:42.156 --> 00:31:44.431
who created a world so fully formed,

00:31:44.461 --> 00:31:47.008
so complex and so enigmatic

00:31:47.038 --> 00:31:49.886
that we forget that the creation
of Middle Earth

00:31:49.886 --> 00:31:53.182
changed the entire literary landscape.

00:31:54.292 --> 00:31:57.095
"Of course, "The Lord of the Rings" 
does not belong to me.

00:31:57.105 --> 00:31:58.582
"It has been brought forth

00:31:58.628 --> 00:32:01.141
"and must now go its appointed way
in the world,

00:32:01.141 --> 00:32:03.904
"though naturally, I take
a deep interest in its fortunes,

NOTE Paragraph

00:32:03.938 --> 00:32:05.842
"as a parent would of a child."

00:32:05.923 --> 00:32:08.382
"I am comforted to know 
that is has good friends

00:32:08.412 --> 00:32:11.082
"to defend it against
the malice of its enemies."

00:32:18.740 --> 00:32:20.315
And now for a quick ad.

00:32:20.385 --> 00:32:22.585
The Manhattan Rare Book Company

00:32:22.585 --> 00:32:25.971
specializes in fine books, manuscripts, 
art, and photography.

00:32:26.011 --> 00:32:29.019
They offer only items 
that have been carefully selected

00:32:29.049 --> 00:32:32.333
to meet their high standards 
of quality and importance.

00:32:32.333 --> 00:32:34.295
At the moment, Manhattan Rare Books

00:32:34.295 --> 00:32:37.402
is featuring a number of items
by J.R.R. Tolkien,

00:32:37.432 --> 00:32:40.255
including two letters written by Tolkien,

00:32:40.255 --> 00:32:43.156
introducing "The Lord of the Rings"
to a fan of "The Hobbit"

00:32:43.176 --> 00:32:45.902
- and a highly important
Tolkien manuscript,

00:32:45.932 --> 00:32:49.575
complete with a beautiful
hand drawn genealogical chart.

00:32:49.625 --> 00:32:53.746
Details and images can be found
at Manhattanrarebooks.com.

00:32:54.166 --> 00:32:57.947
Please feel free to contact them
to discuss your collecting interests,

00:32:57.997 --> 00:33:00.352
whether you are looking
for a specific book,

00:33:00.352 --> 00:33:01.907
manuscript, or photograph,

00:33:01.957 --> 00:33:04.492
or have more general questions
concerning collecting,

00:33:04.492 --> 00:33:07.130
they will be happy
to provide their assistance.

00:33:07.160 --> 00:33:08.968
Thanks for listening.

00:33:09.433 --> 00:33:12.103