WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.140 Welcome to the Deep Dive, where we take these 00:00:02.140 --> 00:00:05.559 huge stacks of sources, articles, research, complex 00:00:05.559 --> 00:00:08.160 histories, and we boil them all down into the 00:00:08.160 --> 00:00:10.859 most essential, usable knowledge for you. And 00:00:10.859 --> 00:00:14.060 today, we are really opening the archives on 00:00:14.060 --> 00:00:16.660 a man that I think most people know as the father 00:00:16.660 --> 00:00:20.239 of modern fantasy. Right. But his life story 00:00:20.239 --> 00:00:22.239 is just so much more compelling than just, you 00:00:22.239 --> 00:00:25.079 know, being a successful author. We are talking 00:00:25.079 --> 00:00:28.519 about... John Ronald Ruel Tolkien. And I think 00:00:28.519 --> 00:00:30.179 it's crucial right from the start that when you 00:00:30.179 --> 00:00:32.640 approach Tolkien, you remember you're dealing 00:00:32.640 --> 00:00:35.799 with a figure whose genius wasn't just imaginative. 00:00:35.920 --> 00:00:39.380 It was intensely academic. Yes. His fictional 00:00:39.380 --> 00:00:42.039 universe, his legendarium. It wasn't just built 00:00:42.039 --> 00:00:45.979 on whimsy or arbitrary decisions. It was forged 00:00:45.979 --> 00:00:48.079 in the fires of high level scholarship. Exactly. 00:00:48.810 --> 00:00:50.670 We all know the storyteller, the master of Middle 00:00:50.670 --> 00:00:52.670 Earth, but the sources, they just hammer this 00:00:52.670 --> 00:00:54.829 home again and again. Tolkien was, first and 00:00:54.829 --> 00:00:57.030 foremost, a professional academic. I mean, we're 00:00:57.030 --> 00:00:58.530 talking about some of the most prestigious positions 00:00:58.530 --> 00:01:00.750 at the University of Oxford. Right. He held the, 00:01:00.789 --> 00:01:03.289 what was it, the Rawlinson and Bosworth Professorship 00:01:03.289 --> 00:01:06.370 of Anglo -Saxon? That's the one. From 1925 to 00:01:06.370 --> 00:01:10.650 1945. And then, after that, he became the Merton 00:01:10.650 --> 00:01:12.629 Professor of English Language and Literature 00:01:12.629 --> 00:01:16.250 all the way up to 1959. That is a towering, serious 00:01:16.250 --> 00:01:18.890 pedigree. It's not the background of a simple 00:01:18.890 --> 00:01:21.670 fantasy writer. And that really is the scaffolding 00:01:21.670 --> 00:01:24.569 for this entire deep dive. Our mission here is 00:01:24.569 --> 00:01:27.790 to connect that scholarly pursuit. specifically 00:01:27.790 --> 00:01:30.290 philology you know the deep study of language 00:01:30.290 --> 00:01:33.049 in its historical context and connect that directly 00:01:33.049 --> 00:01:36.549 to his well his turbulent personal history his 00:01:36.549 --> 00:01:39.290 experiences as a soldier in world war one his 00:01:39.290 --> 00:01:42.189 profound sense of loss his deep catholic faith 00:01:42.189 --> 00:01:44.469 these weren't just background details yeah they 00:01:44.469 --> 00:01:45.790 were the ingredients they were the essential 00:01:45.790 --> 00:01:48.329 thematic components that shaped middle earth 00:01:48.329 --> 00:01:50.769 and gave it that enduring weight and morality 00:01:50.769 --> 00:01:53.450 that we all feel when we read it So we're really 00:01:53.450 --> 00:01:55.950 uncovering the foundational philosophy of a world, 00:01:55.989 --> 00:01:58.969 not just reading a biography. Exactly. And understand 00:01:58.969 --> 00:02:00.230 that philosophy. We have started at the beginning. 00:02:00.329 --> 00:02:03.090 And surprisingly, for an icon of English literature, 00:02:03.510 --> 00:02:06.750 his origins were, well, anything but typically 00:02:06.750 --> 00:02:09.550 English. That's right. So we jump right into 00:02:09.550 --> 00:02:13.530 part one, the formative years. John Ronald Reuel 00:02:13.530 --> 00:02:18.590 Tolkien was born on January 3rd, 1892 in Bloemfontein. 00:02:18.629 --> 00:02:21.219 In what was then the Orange Free State. In South 00:02:21.219 --> 00:02:24.580 Africa. Correct. His father, Arthur Rule Tolkien, 00:02:24.819 --> 00:02:26.840 had moved there to take a position as a bank 00:02:26.840 --> 00:02:29.800 manager. But that chapter, that African chapter 00:02:29.800 --> 00:02:33.159 of his life, it was tragically brief. It led 00:02:33.159 --> 00:02:36.000 to a defining early loss for him. Very brief. 00:02:36.080 --> 00:02:38.360 When Ronald was just three years old, he traveled 00:02:38.360 --> 00:02:40.560 back to England with his mother, Mabel, and his 00:02:40.560 --> 00:02:42.659 younger brother, Hillary. It was only supposed 00:02:42.659 --> 00:02:44.759 to be a temporary visit. But his father never 00:02:44.759 --> 00:02:47.659 joined them. No. Arthur Tolkien died unexpectedly 00:02:47.659 --> 00:02:50.400 back in South Africa from acute rheumatic fever 00:02:50.400 --> 00:02:52.819 before he could get back to them. So suddenly, 00:02:53.039 --> 00:02:55.120 Mabel and the two little boys were basically 00:02:55.120 --> 00:02:57.400 stranded in England. And completely stripped 00:02:57.400 --> 00:02:59.620 of their financial security. Completely. Yeah. 00:02:59.699 --> 00:03:01.699 That immediately changed their entire trajectory. 00:03:02.060 --> 00:03:04.740 They eventually settled near Birmingham in King's 00:03:04.740 --> 00:03:06.800 Heath. And then, crucially, they moved to the 00:03:06.800 --> 00:03:09.659 rural Worcestershire village of Serhol. And this 00:03:09.659 --> 00:03:11.379 is where it all starts. This is where you can 00:03:11.379 --> 00:03:13.479 literally see the landscape of Middle Earth beginning 00:03:13.479 --> 00:03:16.280 to form. Sarehole was essential. I mean, we are 00:03:16.280 --> 00:03:18.659 talking about places like Sarehole Mill, Mosley 00:03:18.659 --> 00:03:21.319 Bog, the Clint and Licky Hills. These weren't 00:03:21.319 --> 00:03:23.439 just places he played as a kid. No, no. They 00:03:23.439 --> 00:03:26.360 are directly referenced and sort of stylized 00:03:26.360 --> 00:03:29.219 in his fiction. For instance, his Aunt Jane's 00:03:29.219 --> 00:03:32.400 farm. It was actually named Bag End. That's the 00:03:32.400 --> 00:03:35.379 ultimate example, isn't it? Reality just bleeding 00:03:35.379 --> 00:03:38.139 directly into fantasy. It's a remarkable detail, 00:03:38.360 --> 00:03:41.080 grounding maybe the most famous fictional home 00:03:41.080 --> 00:03:44.080 in the real world. It is. This physical landscape, 00:03:44.300 --> 00:03:47.620 this simple, idyllic English countryside would 00:03:47.620 --> 00:03:50.340 become the Shire. It becomes the place that is 00:03:50.340 --> 00:03:53.659 worth defending above all else. And it just underscores 00:03:53.659 --> 00:03:56.159 how deeply connected his imaginary world was 00:03:56.159 --> 00:03:58.159 to that physical nostalgia of his childhood. 00:03:58.360 --> 00:04:00.840 Absolutely. And speaking of childhood, our sources 00:04:00.840 --> 00:04:03.280 really stress the monumental role his mother, 00:04:03.479 --> 00:04:06.120 Mabel, played in his early education and, critically, 00:04:06.379 --> 00:04:08.599 his faith. She was a woman of fierce intellect, 00:04:08.719 --> 00:04:11.159 from what I've read. And dedication. She taught 00:04:11.159 --> 00:04:13.800 him entirely at home, and he was clearly a prodigious 00:04:13.800 --> 00:04:16.199 student, a precocious kid. He could read by age 00:04:16.199 --> 00:04:18.600 four, write fluently soon after. You got into 00:04:18.600 --> 00:04:21.240 languages early, right? Very early. She taught 00:04:21.240 --> 00:04:23.740 him the basics of Latin. He developed a strong 00:04:23.740 --> 00:04:26.459 interest in botany. And he even started inventing 00:04:26.459 --> 00:04:29.480 his own sort of private language games with his 00:04:29.480 --> 00:04:32.160 cousins before he was even 10. But the most significant, 00:04:32.319 --> 00:04:35.019 the most definitive aspect of Mabel's life, and 00:04:35.019 --> 00:04:37.639 therefore Ronald's, was her conversion to Roman 00:04:37.639 --> 00:04:40.759 Catholicism in 1900. And that was a seismic event 00:04:40.759 --> 00:04:43.800 in that rigid Protestant Edwardian society. It 00:04:43.800 --> 00:04:46.480 was a huge deal. Her wealthy Baptist family, 00:04:46.819 --> 00:04:50.000 they were outraged. They cut her off. Completely. 00:04:50.459 --> 00:04:53.360 They cut off all financial assistance. They basically 00:04:53.360 --> 00:04:56.220 chose their faith over their own kin. And this 00:04:56.220 --> 00:04:59.519 left the family in extreme poverty and, you know, 00:04:59.540 --> 00:05:02.350 social isolation. That sacrifice, both financial 00:05:02.350 --> 00:05:04.629 and social, must have taught the young Tolkien 00:05:04.629 --> 00:05:07.550 a very, very harsh lesson about conviction. I 00:05:07.550 --> 00:05:09.750 think it was pivotal. And then just four years 00:05:09.750 --> 00:05:12.490 later in 1904, Mabel died of acute diabetes. 00:05:12.569 --> 00:05:14.970 She was only 34. And this was decades before 00:05:14.970 --> 00:05:18.170 insulin. Decades. So she just survived as long 00:05:18.170 --> 00:05:20.370 as she could manage without treatment, all while 00:05:20.370 --> 00:05:22.490 struggling to raise her two boys and maintain 00:05:22.490 --> 00:05:25.089 her faith. It's no wonder Tolkien later referred 00:05:25.089 --> 00:05:27.910 to his mother as a martyr. A martyr for the faith 00:05:27.910 --> 00:05:30.910 that she instilled in him. Precisely. He wrote 00:05:30.910 --> 00:05:33.389 that she, and I'm quoting here, killed herself 00:05:33.389 --> 00:05:36.209 with labor and trouble to ensure us keeping the 00:05:36.209 --> 00:05:39.529 faith. This is the bedrock of his lifelong commitment. 00:05:39.750 --> 00:05:42.350 And his guardian, Father Francis Xavier Morgan, 00:05:42.550 --> 00:05:45.110 he reinforced that structure. He did. He was 00:05:45.110 --> 00:05:47.889 from the Birmingham Oratory, and he taught Tolkien 00:05:47.889 --> 00:05:51.319 about... Charity and forgiveness. So these themes, 00:05:51.560 --> 00:05:54.480 religious commitment, sacrifice, the profound 00:05:54.480 --> 00:05:57.660 moral stakes of life, they are just foundational 00:05:57.660 --> 00:06:00.459 to the adult Tolkien and really to the entire 00:06:00.459 --> 00:06:03.040 moral structure of Middle Earth. Now, before 00:06:03.040 --> 00:06:06.620 World War I casts its long shadow, we have to 00:06:06.620 --> 00:06:09.420 talk about his early romance. because it sounds 00:06:09.420 --> 00:06:11.019 like something straight out of one of his own 00:06:11.019 --> 00:06:13.220 epic tales. It really does. His courtship with 00:06:13.220 --> 00:06:15.920 Edith Mary Bratt, their story is legendary. He 00:06:15.920 --> 00:06:18.480 met her when he was just 16. In 1908. She was 00:06:18.480 --> 00:06:19.980 three years older than him, and they were both 00:06:19.980 --> 00:06:21.639 orphans living in the same boarding house in 00:06:21.639 --> 00:06:23.939 Edgbaston. They fell into this deep, intense 00:06:23.939 --> 00:06:26.579 bond very quickly. And they were kind of mischievous 00:06:26.579 --> 00:06:28.680 together, weren't they? Oh, yeah. They had these 00:06:28.680 --> 00:06:30.660 rebellious little antics, like throwing sugar 00:06:30.660 --> 00:06:32.920 lumps into the hats of people passing by from 00:06:32.920 --> 00:06:35.639 a tier room balcony. Just kids in love. They 00:06:35.639 --> 00:06:37.860 were inseparable. But then came the roadblock. 00:06:38.300 --> 00:06:41.139 Father Morgan intervened. He did. Father Morgan 00:06:41.139 --> 00:06:43.120 was very concerned about the intensity of the 00:06:43.120 --> 00:06:45.040 relationship, especially with an older Protestant 00:06:45.040 --> 00:06:47.560 woman. He was worried it was distracting Tolkien 00:06:47.560 --> 00:06:49.420 from his studies. Right. He thought it was why 00:06:49.420 --> 00:06:51.860 Tolkien muffed his scholarship exams for Oxford. 00:06:52.100 --> 00:06:54.819 Exactly. So the injunction was severe. Morgan 00:06:54.819 --> 00:06:57.399 strictly prohibited Tolkien from meeting, talking 00:06:57.399 --> 00:06:59.759 to, or even writing to Edith until he turned 00:06:59.759 --> 00:07:02.819 21. That is a five -year banishment from the 00:07:02.819 --> 00:07:05.500 person he loved most. And the sources make it 00:07:05.500 --> 00:07:08.100 clear that Tolkien, despite the emotional pain, 00:07:08.360 --> 00:07:11.319 he obeyed that injunction almost to the letter. 00:07:11.480 --> 00:07:13.779 It's a crucial insight into his character, that 00:07:13.779 --> 00:07:16.319 sense of duty. He honored the commitment. But 00:07:16.319 --> 00:07:19.240 the very moment he turned 21 on January 3rd, 00:07:19.240 --> 00:07:22.980 1913, he acted instantly. He wrote her a letter. 00:07:23.079 --> 00:07:25.180 A fervent letter declaring he'd never stopped 00:07:25.180 --> 00:07:27.259 loving her and proposing marriage. And the reply 00:07:27.259 --> 00:07:30.019 he got back must have been a shock. A huge shock. 00:07:30.319 --> 00:07:32.699 She replied that she had already accepted another 00:07:32.699 --> 00:07:35.480 man's proposal. She thought Tolkien had just 00:07:35.480 --> 00:07:38.019 forgotten her after five years of total silence. 00:07:38.759 --> 00:07:42.379 But he didn't give up. Not for a second. He got 00:07:42.379 --> 00:07:44.740 on a train to Cheltenham, where she was living, 00:07:44.899 --> 00:07:47.720 found her, and after this long, intense walk 00:07:47.720 --> 00:07:51.360 and talk, famously under a railway viaduct, a 00:07:51.360 --> 00:07:53.540 scene that just belongs in a movie. She agreed. 00:07:53.800 --> 00:07:56.060 She agreed to marry him and returned her engagement 00:07:56.060 --> 00:07:59.480 ring. What incredible resilience. But there was 00:07:59.480 --> 00:08:00.920 a condition for the marriage, wasn't there? One 00:08:00.920 --> 00:08:03.939 set by Tolkien. Yes. It was non -negotiable for 00:08:03.939 --> 00:08:06.220 him, rooted in the sacrifice his mother had made. 00:08:06.399 --> 00:08:08.879 Edith had to convert to Catholicism. Well, she 00:08:08.879 --> 00:08:11.339 did. Reluctantly. But yeah, she converted in 00:08:11.339 --> 00:08:14.459 January 1916. They were married that March. And 00:08:14.459 --> 00:08:16.639 that devotion, all those immense obstacles they 00:08:16.639 --> 00:08:19.800 overcame, that becomes the real life source material 00:08:19.800 --> 00:08:22.180 for the great elven mortal love story that forms 00:08:22.180 --> 00:08:25.220 the spine of his entire mythology. And just months 00:08:25.220 --> 00:08:27.000 after their wedding, the shadow of the First 00:08:27.000 --> 00:08:30.839 World War finally engulfs them. Yes. Tolkien 00:08:30.839 --> 00:08:33.620 finally enlists. And our sources do note his 00:08:33.620 --> 00:08:35.919 controversial decision to delay enlisting until 00:08:35.919 --> 00:08:38.580 he finished his degree. He endured a lot of public 00:08:38.580 --> 00:08:40.860 obloquy for that. Yeah, that was a tough position 00:08:40.860 --> 00:08:43.700 to be in. Extremely tough. He wrote in a letter 00:08:43.700 --> 00:08:47.159 much later that in those days chaps joined up 00:08:47.159 --> 00:08:50.519 or were scorned publicly. He saw delaying as 00:08:50.519 --> 00:08:52.559 the only way to secure his education and his 00:08:52.559 --> 00:08:55.419 future. He finished with first class honors in 00:08:55.419 --> 00:08:58.279 1915. and was quickly commissioned as a temporary 00:08:58.279 --> 00:09:00.600 second lieutenant. In the Lancashire Fusiliers. 00:09:00.720 --> 00:09:03.700 That's right. He trained for almost a year, and 00:09:03.700 --> 00:09:05.700 right before he's sent into the fray, you can 00:09:05.700 --> 00:09:09.580 see his anti -authoritarian philosophy really 00:09:09.580 --> 00:09:12.259 start to germinate. This is a remarkable foreshadowing 00:09:12.259 --> 00:09:14.460 of his fictional themes. It really is. He was 00:09:14.460 --> 00:09:16.500 commanding enlisted men who were predominantly 00:09:16.500 --> 00:09:18.700 working -class Tommies from Lancashire towns, 00:09:18.960 --> 00:09:21.379 and he felt this deep affinity for them, but 00:09:21.379 --> 00:09:23.940 military protocol strictly forbade officers from 00:09:23.940 --> 00:09:25.899 being friends with the other ranks. And he hated 00:09:25.899 --> 00:09:28.210 them. that. He chafed against that arbitrary 00:09:28.210 --> 00:09:30.990 hierarchy. He didn't just chafe. He rejected 00:09:30.990 --> 00:09:33.909 the whole premise of command. He lamented that, 00:09:34.009 --> 00:09:37.490 quote, the most improper job of any man is bossing 00:09:37.490 --> 00:09:40.389 other men. Wow. Not one in a million is fit for 00:09:40.389 --> 00:09:42.450 it, and least of all those who seek the opportunity. 00:09:43.110 --> 00:09:46.250 This profound skepticism of centralized power 00:09:46.250 --> 00:09:49.149 and the corrupting nature of authority was forged 00:09:49.149 --> 00:09:51.570 right before he was thrown into the crucible 00:09:51.570 --> 00:09:54.639 of the Somme. That sentiment, that distrust of 00:09:54.639 --> 00:09:57.840 the boss, is the moral DNA of his work. So he 00:09:57.840 --> 00:10:01.580 was posted to France in June 1916. Right, just 00:10:01.580 --> 00:10:03.679 in time to participate in some of the most horrific 00:10:03.679 --> 00:10:06.539 battles of the entire war. He joined the line 00:10:06.539 --> 00:10:09.320 near Amiens and took part in these savage grinding 00:10:09.320 --> 00:10:12.139 assaults on major German defenses. Like the Schwab 00:10:12.139 --> 00:10:13.779 and Redoubt and the Leipzig Sailing? Exactly. 00:10:13.960 --> 00:10:15.960 He was a battalion signals officer, which meant 00:10:15.960 --> 00:10:18.419 he was constantly moving messages through incredibly 00:10:18.419 --> 00:10:20.879 dangerous territory. The historical records of 00:10:20.879 --> 00:10:23.720 the trenches are vivid. But the details of the 00:10:23.720 --> 00:10:26.519 conditions he faced, they're almost unimaginable 00:10:26.519 --> 00:10:29.379 today. Horrific, especially the diseases that 00:10:29.379 --> 00:10:32.299 just spread like wildfire through the muck and 00:10:32.299 --> 00:10:34.940 the congestion. The Anglican chaplain to his 00:10:34.940 --> 00:10:36.899 unit recorded that officers were being eaten 00:10:36.899 --> 00:10:39.620 by hordes of lice that transmitted trench fever. 00:10:39.860 --> 00:10:42.200 Their only way to get clean was to boil their 00:10:42.200 --> 00:10:44.860 uniforms. Right. And that biological warfare, 00:10:45.039 --> 00:10:47.519 if you can call it that, is exactly what ended 00:10:47.519 --> 00:10:50.230 up saving his life. Ironically, yes. On October 00:10:50.230 --> 00:10:53.990 27, 1916, as his battalion was attacking a position 00:10:53.990 --> 00:10:57.129 called Regina Trench, Tolkien contracted trench 00:10:57.129 --> 00:11:00.129 fever. He was immediately invalided back to England 00:11:00.129 --> 00:11:03.169 on November 8. And the timing was crucial. Absolutely 00:11:03.169 --> 00:11:05.450 crucial. While he was recovering for months, 00:11:05.649 --> 00:11:08.669 medically unfit for service, his battalion was 00:11:08.669 --> 00:11:10.909 almost completely wiped out. So his physical 00:11:10.909 --> 00:11:13.429 survival came at this terrible emotional cost, 00:11:13.570 --> 00:11:16.029 specifically the loss of his literary circle. 00:11:16.360 --> 00:11:18.980 The TCBS. The Tea Club and Barovian Society. 00:11:19.299 --> 00:11:21.419 It was this intense group he'd formed with his 00:11:21.419 --> 00:11:24.000 friends Rob Gilson, Jeffrey Bashmith, and Christopher 00:11:24.000 --> 00:11:27.220 Wiseman. They were dedicated to writing, to fostering 00:11:27.220 --> 00:11:29.200 each other's poetry. And the war just shattered 00:11:29.200 --> 00:11:31.580 them. Gilson was killed on the very first day 00:11:31.580 --> 00:11:34.080 of the Somme. Smith was killed when a German 00:11:34.080 --> 00:11:36.820 shell hit a first aid post. So Tolkien survived, 00:11:37.240 --> 00:11:39.179 but the fellowship of his youth was destroyed. 00:11:39.519 --> 00:11:41.639 He returned home only to realize that of the 00:11:41.639 --> 00:11:44.659 four corps members, only he and Christopher Wiseman 00:11:44.659 --> 00:11:47.379 were left. It's just devastating. And that trauma, 00:11:47.480 --> 00:11:49.840 it taught him a deep sympathy and feeling for 00:11:49.840 --> 00:11:53.179 the Tommy, especially the plain soldier. It cemented 00:11:53.179 --> 00:11:55.919 the themes of loss, the destruction of a golden 00:11:55.919 --> 00:11:58.259 age, and the fragility of fellowship that just 00:11:58.259 --> 00:12:01.090 pervade. his mythology. It gives us the emotional 00:12:01.090 --> 00:12:04.509 landscape of Mordor. But even amidst all this 00:12:04.509 --> 00:12:07.669 loss, while he was recovering, he got the spark 00:12:07.669 --> 00:12:10.230 for the most famous love story in his entire 00:12:10.230 --> 00:12:13.289 creation, the Luthien anecdote. This is really 00:12:13.289 --> 00:12:15.909 the poetic climax of his personal life. While 00:12:15.909 --> 00:12:18.129 he was recovering from trench fever, he was briefly 00:12:18.129 --> 00:12:20.269 stationed at the Humber Garrison near Roos in 00:12:20.269 --> 00:12:22.730 Yorkshire, and his wife, Edith, was able to live 00:12:22.730 --> 00:12:25.409 with him for a while. And one day, in a clearing 00:12:25.409 --> 00:12:28.490 of flowering hemlock, she danced for him. She 00:12:28.490 --> 00:12:30.990 did. Scholars think it was probably cow parsley 00:12:30.990 --> 00:12:34.690 or wild carrot, but the image is the same. That 00:12:34.690 --> 00:12:37.690 moment in 1917, seeing his wife dance in the 00:12:37.690 --> 00:12:40.269 sunlight among the flowers, was this moment of 00:12:40.269 --> 00:12:43.750 profound, spontaneous beauty that just transcended 00:12:43.750 --> 00:12:46.149 the ongoing tragedy of the war. He wrote about 00:12:46.149 --> 00:12:48.970 it later. He wrote that he never called Edith 00:12:48.970 --> 00:12:51.309 Luthien, but she was the source of the story 00:12:51.309 --> 00:12:53.909 that in time became the chief part of the Silmarillion. 00:12:54.149 --> 00:12:57.029 It was a moment of grace, of enduring life in 00:12:57.029 --> 00:12:59.289 the face of so much death. And that event was 00:12:59.289 --> 00:13:01.570 immortalized right on their tombstone. Indeed. 00:13:01.690 --> 00:13:04.129 It became such a profound central connection 00:13:04.129 --> 00:13:07.789 that after Edith died in 1971, he had the name 00:13:07.789 --> 00:13:10.409 Luthien engraved on her tombstone. And when he 00:13:10.409 --> 00:13:13.309 died 21 months later, Baron was added to his 00:13:13.309 --> 00:13:15.730 name. So the central love story of his mythology 00:13:15.730 --> 00:13:18.399 is literally inscribed in his real history. It 00:13:18.399 --> 00:13:20.399 confirms that his fiction was merely a frame 00:13:20.399 --> 00:13:22.820 for his most cherished memories. It's so clear 00:13:22.820 --> 00:13:24.460 that everything he cherished and everything he 00:13:24.460 --> 00:13:27.320 lost just became foundational. So let's now transition 00:13:27.320 --> 00:13:29.580 into part two and look at the scholarly engine 00:13:29.580 --> 00:13:32.100 that allowed him to express all this. The linguist's 00:13:32.100 --> 00:13:35.159 craft. How philology literally became fantasy. 00:13:35.690 --> 00:13:38.129 This is where we really understand that Tolkien's 00:13:38.129 --> 00:13:40.850 literary output isn't just related to his academic 00:13:40.850 --> 00:13:43.669 career. It is fundamentally inseparable from 00:13:43.669 --> 00:13:46.490 it. His first civilian job after the war was 00:13:46.490 --> 00:13:49.629 working on the massive Oxford English Dictionary. 00:13:49.649 --> 00:13:53.669 The OED. That sounds like a highly meticulous 00:13:53.669 --> 00:13:55.649 job that would require obsessive attention to 00:13:55.649 --> 00:13:58.090 detail. It was. He worked mainly on the history 00:13:58.090 --> 00:14:00.830 and etymology of Germanic words, starting with 00:14:00.830 --> 00:14:03.470 the letter W. He actually admitted to struggling 00:14:03.470 --> 00:14:06.590 mightily with the entry for Walrus. So he's tracing. 00:14:07.100 --> 00:14:09.419 The historical journey of words. Exactly. Where 00:14:09.419 --> 00:14:11.600 they came from, how they changed, what cultural 00:14:11.600 --> 00:14:14.360 baggage they carried. That is the essence of 00:14:14.360 --> 00:14:16.759 philology. And from the OED, he very quickly 00:14:16.759 --> 00:14:19.620 transitioned into a professorship. He was obviously 00:14:19.620 --> 00:14:22.659 brilliant. By 1920, he was a reader in English 00:14:22.659 --> 00:14:25.039 language at the University of Leeds. He was the 00:14:25.039 --> 00:14:27.139 youngest member of the academic staff, and he 00:14:27.139 --> 00:14:30.340 was promoted to full professor by 1924. And he 00:14:30.340 --> 00:14:32.279 was an engaging teacher, right? Not some dry 00:14:32.279 --> 00:14:35.639 academic. Apparently very engaging. He even boasted 00:14:35.639 --> 00:14:37.909 that he'd increased the number of Germanic philology 00:14:37.909 --> 00:14:40.529 students from 5 to 20, and they went on to form 00:14:40.529 --> 00:14:43.070 a boisterous Viking club. So what exactly was 00:14:43.070 --> 00:14:45.350 he teaching that captivated these students? What 00:14:45.350 --> 00:14:48.330 was on the syllabus? He taught an immense array 00:14:48.330 --> 00:14:50.590 of subjects that really formed the linguistic 00:14:50.590 --> 00:14:53.490 backbone of Middle Earth. We're talking Old English, 00:14:53.629 --> 00:14:57.250 heroic verse. Gothic, Old Icelandic, Middle English 00:14:57.250 --> 00:15:00.909 texts, introductory Germanic philology, medieval 00:15:00.909 --> 00:15:04.129 Welsh. Wow. He specialized in English philology 00:15:04.129 --> 00:15:07.429 and Old Norse. And he had a particular, no, he 00:15:07.429 --> 00:15:10.190 said imperfect knowledge of Finnish, which would 00:15:10.190 --> 00:15:12.090 become one of the crucial ingredients for his 00:15:12.090 --> 00:15:14.470 invented languages. So his passion wasn't just 00:15:14.470 --> 00:15:17.230 English language. It was this whole ancient world 00:15:17.230 --> 00:15:20.590 of Northern European linguistic history. Precisely. 00:15:20.940 --> 00:15:22.840 For Tolkien, language wasn't just communication. 00:15:23.080 --> 00:15:25.740 It was archaeology. Every word carried the weight 00:15:25.740 --> 00:15:28.879 of history, myth, and culture. His focus was 00:15:28.879 --> 00:15:30.940 always on the relationship between language and 00:15:30.940 --> 00:15:33.320 the people who spoke it. And it was this specialization 00:15:33.320 --> 00:15:36.519 that led to his greatest single academic contribution, 00:15:36.899 --> 00:15:40.980 the 1936 lecture, Beowulf, The Monsters and the 00:15:40.980 --> 00:15:43.480 Critics. This lecture is widely seen as a major 00:15:43.480 --> 00:15:45.919 turning point in Beowulf scholarship. It completely 00:15:45.919 --> 00:15:48.799 redefined how the poem was read. Before Tolkien, 00:15:48.960 --> 00:15:51.080 scholars pretty much dismissed it, right? They 00:15:51.080 --> 00:15:53.279 did. They were antiquarians. They read the poem 00:15:53.279 --> 00:15:56.600 for its linguistic history or used it as a source 00:15:56.600 --> 00:15:59.639 of cultural facts about, you know, early Anglo 00:15:59.639 --> 00:16:02.360 Saxon society. And they dismissed the battles 00:16:02.360 --> 00:16:05.159 with Grendel and the dragon as just childish, 00:16:05.360 --> 00:16:07.460 distracting elements. They saw the fantasy as 00:16:07.460 --> 00:16:10.179 a flaw. They wanted realistic tribal warfare, 00:16:10.340 --> 00:16:13.700 not monsters. But Tolkien argued the exact opposite. 00:16:13.919 --> 00:16:16.460 He established the primacy of the poem as art 00:16:16.460 --> 00:16:19.200 as dramatic poetry. What was the essence of his 00:16:19.200 --> 00:16:21.460 revolutionary argument? He argued that the monster 00:16:21.460 --> 00:16:23.659 battles were, in fact, the most essential part 00:16:23.659 --> 00:16:26.019 of the poem. The author wasn't just addressing 00:16:26.019 --> 00:16:28.200 tribal politics. He was addressing universal 00:16:28.200 --> 00:16:31.620 human destiny, fate, mortality. So Grendel and 00:16:31.620 --> 00:16:33.899 the dragon represented the eternal struggle against 00:16:33.899 --> 00:16:37.120 chaos and death. Exactly. By centering the monsters, 00:16:37.340 --> 00:16:39.820 Tolkien lifted Beowulf out of the dusty archives 00:16:39.820 --> 00:16:42.299 of linguistics and into the realm of profound 00:16:42.299 --> 00:16:45.139 dramatic literature. That is the moment where 00:16:45.139 --> 00:16:47.100 the philologist finds the mythology he needs 00:16:47.100 --> 00:16:50.740 to create. He even said Beowulf was among my 00:16:50.740 --> 00:16:54.139 most valued sources. And this academic triumph 00:16:54.139 --> 00:16:57.279 was delivered with incredible dramatic flair. 00:16:57.929 --> 00:17:00.049 This is one of the most memorable details of 00:17:00.049 --> 00:17:02.309 his academic life. Tell us the anecdote. It's 00:17:02.309 --> 00:17:04.569 fantastic. His biographer, Humphrey Carpenter, 00:17:04.750 --> 00:17:07.069 noted that Tolkien would start his lecture series 00:17:07.069 --> 00:17:10.230 not with notes, but by silently entering the 00:17:10.230 --> 00:17:13.170 room, surveying the students, and then suddenly 00:17:13.170 --> 00:17:16.549 declaiming the opening lines of Beowulf in the 00:17:16.549 --> 00:17:19.049 original Old English. It's booming it out. He 00:17:19.049 --> 00:17:21.309 would burst out with a great cry of wheat. Which 00:17:21.309 --> 00:17:24.470 is Old English for listen or hark. Right. It 00:17:24.470 --> 00:17:27.130 was this sudden dramatic performance, forcing 00:17:27.130 --> 00:17:29.630 the students to hear the poem as living, powerful, 00:17:29.789 --> 00:17:32.730 dramatic art. And that's why W .H. Auden wrote 00:17:32.730 --> 00:17:35.549 to him decades later. Yes. The poet W .H. Auden 00:17:35.549 --> 00:17:37.609 thanked him for the unforgettable experience, 00:17:37.829 --> 00:17:40.089 and I'm quoting here, saying, the voice was the 00:17:40.089 --> 00:17:43.609 voice of Gandalf. It's just an amazing crystallization 00:17:43.609 --> 00:17:45.789 of the academic and the myth maker being one 00:17:45.789 --> 00:17:48.269 and the same person. So the foundation of Middle 00:17:48.269 --> 00:17:51.650 Earth wasn't a plot idea. It was language. Our 00:17:51.650 --> 00:17:53.430 source material stresses this over and over. 00:17:53.529 --> 00:17:56.029 He was inventing worlds just to give his languages 00:17:56.029 --> 00:17:58.710 a home. That is the defining insight into Tolkien. 00:17:59.089 --> 00:18:02.670 His philosophy was radical. He believed that 00:18:02.670 --> 00:18:05.089 language construction should breed a mythology. 00:18:05.490 --> 00:18:08.069 He wasn't like modern authors who invent a few 00:18:08.069 --> 00:18:10.809 placeholder words. For him, the language was 00:18:10.809 --> 00:18:13.390 the primary artistic creation. So what did he 00:18:13.390 --> 00:18:16.480 mean by prioritizing aesthetics in Euphony? It 00:18:16.480 --> 00:18:18.759 means he felt that the beauty and pleasantness 00:18:18.759 --> 00:18:21.859 of sound, the phonesthetic considerations, had 00:18:21.859 --> 00:18:25.200 to come first. Only then could a believable culture 00:18:25.200 --> 00:18:28.640 and history and mythology naturally follow. So 00:18:28.640 --> 00:18:31.160 if he liked the sound of a certain consonant 00:18:31.160 --> 00:18:33.700 cluster. He would invent a history for a people 00:18:33.700 --> 00:18:36.500 whose vocal habits produce those sounds. It's 00:18:36.500 --> 00:18:38.859 completely backwards from how most people write. 00:18:39.019 --> 00:18:41.380 And this led to his most famous linguistic creations, 00:18:41.500 --> 00:18:43.940 especially the Elvish languages. Yes, Quenya, 00:18:44.079 --> 00:18:47.069 which is high Elvish, and Sindarin. Quenya in 00:18:47.069 --> 00:18:49.190 particular was driven purely by those fun aesthetic 00:18:49.190 --> 00:18:52.049 considerations. He based its phonology on Latin 00:18:52.049 --> 00:18:54.529 with crucial influences from Welsh, English, 00:18:54.789 --> 00:18:57.329 Greek, and most importantly, Finnish. Finnish 00:18:57.329 --> 00:18:59.349 is a very specific choice, very different from 00:18:59.349 --> 00:19:01.470 the Germanic traditions he usually studied. Why 00:19:01.470 --> 00:19:04.099 Finnish? Finnish offered a structure that Tolkien 00:19:04.099 --> 00:19:06.819 found profoundly beautiful. It's an agglutinative 00:19:06.819 --> 00:19:09.480 language. Which means? It means words are formed 00:19:09.480 --> 00:19:12.119 by gluing together long strings of prefixes and 00:19:12.119 --> 00:19:15.259 suffixes to express complex meanings. It results 00:19:15.259 --> 00:19:18.299 in these very long, rolling words with rich vowel 00:19:18.299 --> 00:19:21.799 sounds. He wanted Quenya to be melodious, almost 00:19:21.799 --> 00:19:25.299 operatic. He called it Elvin Latin, a formal, 00:19:25.420 --> 00:19:28.240 preserved language, much like Latin was to medieval 00:19:28.240 --> 00:19:31.339 Europe. So Quenya is beautiful and formal. What 00:19:31.339 --> 00:19:34.279 about Sindarin? Sindarin was based more on Welsh 00:19:34.279 --> 00:19:37.119 phonologically with its mutations and complex 00:19:37.119 --> 00:19:39.700 consonant sounds. That was designed to be the 00:19:39.700 --> 00:19:41.859 more mutable everyday language of the elves, 00:19:42.000 --> 00:19:44.539 the language that changed over time, reflecting 00:19:44.539 --> 00:19:47.299 the real history of language evolution. So he's 00:19:47.299 --> 00:19:49.160 not just creating languages. He's creating linguistic 00:19:49.160 --> 00:19:51.900 histories. He is. And he believed that if a language 00:19:51.900 --> 00:19:54.259 didn't have a myth, it was dead. He was very 00:19:54.259 --> 00:19:56.660 skeptical of constructed languages like Esperanto. 00:19:56.720 --> 00:19:59.839 He said their authors never invented any Esperanto 00:19:59.839 --> 00:20:02.039 legends. So for him, if a language... language 00:20:02.039 --> 00:20:04.119 lacked the historical and cultural weight of 00:20:04.119 --> 00:20:06.839 stories, it was far deader than ancient unused 00:20:06.839 --> 00:20:09.819 languages. Language and myth were two sides of 00:20:09.819 --> 00:20:12.420 the same coin. Absolutely. That deep commitment 00:20:12.420 --> 00:20:15.400 to language explains why his world feels so vast 00:20:15.400 --> 00:20:18.099 and layered. It was literally built from the 00:20:18.099 --> 00:20:21.660 ground up, starting with grammar. So let's move 00:20:21.660 --> 00:20:25.220 into part three, building the legendarium. By 00:20:25.220 --> 00:20:28.359 1925, Tolkien is back at Oxford, and he's writing 00:20:28.359 --> 00:20:30.900 his major works. And while he's at Oxford, first 00:20:30.900 --> 00:20:33.579 as a professor at Pembroke College, he becomes 00:20:33.579 --> 00:20:36.319 a key figure in this informal literary discussion 00:20:36.319 --> 00:20:38.740 group called the Inklings. And the importance 00:20:38.740 --> 00:20:40.720 of this group, especially his close friendship 00:20:40.720 --> 00:20:43.000 with C .S. Lewis, you really can't overstate 00:20:43.000 --> 00:20:45.039 it. You can't. They weren't just drinking buddies. 00:20:45.119 --> 00:20:48.000 They were intellectual sparring partners. Lewis 00:20:48.000 --> 00:20:50.680 was often the pragmatic, classical counterweight 00:20:50.680 --> 00:20:53.460 to Tolkien's romantic, philological views. And 00:20:53.460 --> 00:20:55.089 he was a critical... sounding board constantly 00:20:55.089 --> 00:20:58.170 lewis provided constant support while tolkien 00:20:58.170 --> 00:21:00.230 was writing the lord of the rings listening to 00:21:00.230 --> 00:21:02.990 chapters read aloud and giving sometimes harsh 00:21:02.990 --> 00:21:05.970 but always crucial critique they were essential 00:21:05.970 --> 00:21:08.430 to each other's creative process during this 00:21:08.430 --> 00:21:11.670 time the hobbit emerges as this kind of accidental 00:21:11.670 --> 00:21:14.369 success it was written purely for his children 00:21:15.020 --> 00:21:17.440 Entirely. He'd been creating fantasy stories 00:21:17.440 --> 00:21:20.079 for his kids for years, including those highly 00:21:20.079 --> 00:21:22.339 illustrated annual Christmas letters that were 00:21:22.339 --> 00:21:24.759 supposed to be from Father Christmas. The Hobbit 00:21:24.759 --> 00:21:27.180 was written over many years and only came to 00:21:27.180 --> 00:21:29.299 the attention of publishers by sheer accident. 00:21:29.559 --> 00:21:32.299 A chance recommendation in 1936. That's right. 00:21:32.440 --> 00:21:35.660 An employee at George Allen and Unwin named Susan 00:21:35.660 --> 00:21:39.200 Dagnall read the manuscript. The publisher, Stanley 00:21:39.200 --> 00:21:41.859 Unwin, wisely gave it to his 10 -year -old son, 00:21:42.039 --> 00:21:44.839 Rainer, to review. And Rainer loved it. He did. 00:21:45.019 --> 00:21:48.079 The book attracted both kids and adults and the 00:21:48.079 --> 00:21:50.559 publisher immediately asked for a sequel. And 00:21:50.559 --> 00:21:52.960 that request led directly to The Lord of the 00:21:52.960 --> 00:21:55.619 Rings, which took him over a decade to complete. 00:21:56.009 --> 00:21:58.329 It was a monumental undertaking. He originally 00:21:58.329 --> 00:22:00.609 thought he'd write another light, simple children's 00:22:00.609 --> 00:22:02.509 story, but it quickly evolved into something 00:22:02.509 --> 00:22:05.869 much darker, much more serious. Because he started 00:22:05.869 --> 00:22:08.730 drawing on that immense, complex backstory he'd 00:22:08.730 --> 00:22:10.869 been building for years. Yeah. His legendarium. 00:22:10.970 --> 00:22:13.470 Right. It was a serious effort, consuming most 00:22:13.470 --> 00:22:15.589 of his available time during the war and post 00:22:15.589 --> 00:22:17.910 -war years. He finished the primary narrative 00:22:17.910 --> 00:22:20.809 around 1948, but the publishing process itself 00:22:20.809 --> 00:22:24.890 was complex. Printing costs in post -WWII Britain 00:22:24.890 --> 00:22:27.279 were... high. Very high. So the massive novel 00:22:27.279 --> 00:22:29.240 had to be published in three separate volumes 00:22:29.240 --> 00:22:32.720 between 1954 and 1955. And the popularity was 00:22:32.720 --> 00:22:35.319 not just immense. It was culturally transformative. 00:22:35.700 --> 00:22:38.640 It really established him as the father of high 00:22:38.640 --> 00:22:41.440 fantasy. The success was astronomical, especially 00:22:41.440 --> 00:22:44.059 in the 1960s when the paperbacks hit the U .S. 00:22:44.059 --> 00:22:46.500 market. It became a genuine cult phenomenon on 00:22:46.500 --> 00:22:49.200 university campuses. We can quantify this fame. 00:22:49.299 --> 00:22:53.140 Oh, yeah. In the 2003 BBC Big Read survey, it 00:22:53.140 --> 00:22:56.619 was voted the UK's best love novel. Amazon customers 00:22:56.619 --> 00:22:58.539 judged it their favorite book of the millennium 00:22:58.539 --> 00:23:01.660 in 1999. It didn't just sell well. It created 00:23:01.660 --> 00:23:04.339 a genre. But Tolkien himself always considered 00:23:04.339 --> 00:23:07.160 his central epic, the Silmarillion, the true 00:23:07.160 --> 00:23:09.700 core of his mythology. He did. The Silmarillion 00:23:09.700 --> 00:23:12.299 was the spine of it all. An epic history of the 00:23:12.299 --> 00:23:14.099 Elder Days, starting with the creation of the 00:23:14.099 --> 00:23:16.279 world. And he started it multiple times, but 00:23:16.279 --> 00:23:18.299 just never managed to finish or publish it in 00:23:18.299 --> 00:23:20.599 his lifetime. He desperately hoped to publish 00:23:20.599 --> 00:23:22.579 it alongside The Lord of the Rings, but the publishers 00:23:22.579 --> 00:23:25.440 declined. They saw it as too complex, too esoteric, 00:23:25.440 --> 00:23:28.900 just too commercially risky. But this material... 00:23:29.049 --> 00:23:30.630 It contained deeper connections to classical 00:23:30.630 --> 00:23:33.809 myth, which he loved, like the Atlantis legend. 00:23:34.029 --> 00:23:37.630 Yes. From around 1936, he worked on the tragic 00:23:37.630 --> 00:23:40.329 tale of the fall of Numenor, the great western 00:23:40.329 --> 00:23:43.329 island that was swallowed by the sea. He consciously 00:23:43.329 --> 00:23:46.490 based this on the myth of Atlantis. He also wrote 00:23:46.490 --> 00:23:49.609 other substantial lesser -known works, like retellings 00:23:49.609 --> 00:23:51.950 of the Germanic legend of Sigurd and Gudrun. 00:23:52.130 --> 00:23:54.170 Always interacting with those classical northern 00:23:54.170 --> 00:23:56.849 myths. Yeah. But the publication of the bulk 00:23:56.849 --> 00:23:59.779 of his mythology. It relied entirely on the decades 00:23:59.779 --> 00:24:02.339 -long dedication of his son, Christopher Tolkien. 00:24:02.539 --> 00:24:05.420 Christopher was his father's literary executor, 00:24:05.420 --> 00:24:08.099 and he faced this immense task of organizing 00:24:08.099 --> 00:24:11.599 decades of contradictory, abandoned, messy drafts. 00:24:11.599 --> 00:24:14.000 He compiled The Silmarillion, which was published 00:24:14.000 --> 00:24:17.059 posthumously in 1977. And that book provided 00:24:17.059 --> 00:24:19.039 the epic history that readers had been waiting 00:24:19.039 --> 00:24:20.799 for, but that was only the tip of the iceberg. 00:24:21.019 --> 00:24:22.940 Right, because then came the 12 comprehensive 00:24:22.940 --> 00:24:25.279 volumes, The History of Middle Earth. And those 00:24:25.279 --> 00:24:27.640 12 volumes really show the sheer scope of his 00:24:27.640 --> 00:24:30.019 work. They track the evolution of the stories 00:24:30.019 --> 00:24:32.740 and languages over time. And they really emphasize 00:24:32.740 --> 00:24:35.599 how fluid and unfinished Tolkien considered his 00:24:35.599 --> 00:24:38.440 entire creation. That is the essential insight. 00:24:38.619 --> 00:24:40.839 These materials contain unfinished, abandoned, 00:24:41.200 --> 00:24:43.980 alternative, and often wildly contradictory accounts 00:24:43.980 --> 00:24:46.420 because they were always a work in progress for 00:24:46.420 --> 00:24:49.380 him. He was a fastidious perfectionist. And he 00:24:49.380 --> 00:24:52.079 rarely settled on a definitive version of any 00:24:52.079 --> 00:24:54.940 given tale. He was constantly refining the linguistic 00:24:54.940 --> 00:24:57.480 and historical tapestry. He was so committed 00:24:57.480 --> 00:25:00.539 to that refinement that he even said years later 00:25:00.539 --> 00:25:02.859 that he would have preferred to rewrite The Hobbit 00:25:02.859 --> 00:25:05.299 completely because of its earlier, lighter prose 00:25:05.299 --> 00:25:07.829 style. it just shows his perpetual commitment 00:25:07.829 --> 00:25:11.789 to his own internal canon his goal wasn't a fixed 00:25:11.789 --> 00:25:15.130 singular text but a living evolving linguistic 00:25:15.130 --> 00:25:18.700 history that felt real exactly Before we move 00:25:18.700 --> 00:25:20.819 on to his philosophy, we have to briefly acknowledge 00:25:20.819 --> 00:25:23.319 his versatility as an artist. We mentioned his 00:25:23.319 --> 00:25:25.680 children's books like Mr. Bliss and Roverandom. 00:25:25.880 --> 00:25:27.720 And those father Christmas letters weren't just 00:25:27.720 --> 00:25:30.180 stories. They were elaborately illustrated works 00:25:30.180 --> 00:25:32.380 of art he sent to his kids every year. He was 00:25:32.380 --> 00:25:35.740 a skilled visual artist. He was. He produced 00:25:35.740 --> 00:25:38.059 the cover art, the maps, and numerous illustrations 00:25:38.059 --> 00:25:40.079 for the early editions of his published works, 00:25:40.220 --> 00:25:42.380 including The Hobbit and the maps for The Lord 00:25:42.380 --> 00:25:45.450 of the Rings. A true polymath. A scholar who 00:25:45.450 --> 00:25:48.029 synthesizes history, language, illustration, 00:25:48.250 --> 00:25:52.809 and narrative into a single cohesive world. Okay, 00:25:52.849 --> 00:25:55.549 let's transition into part four. We need to explore 00:25:55.549 --> 00:25:57.670 the philosophical compass that guided all of 00:25:57.670 --> 00:26:01.740 this. His views on religion, power, race. and 00:26:01.740 --> 00:26:04.099 nature. We absolutely have to start with the 00:26:04.099 --> 00:26:07.180 sanctifying myth of his deep Catholicism. It 00:26:07.180 --> 00:26:09.339 was a cornerstone of his existence, inherited 00:26:09.339 --> 00:26:12.279 from his mother's sacrifice, and it deeply influenced 00:26:12.279 --> 00:26:14.980 his worldview. We know he and C .S. Lewis had 00:26:14.980 --> 00:26:18.019 many intense discussions about faith, and Tolkien's 00:26:18.019 --> 00:26:20.359 beliefs were a significant factor in Lewis's 00:26:20.359 --> 00:26:22.920 famous conversion from atheism to Christianity. 00:26:23.529 --> 00:26:25.910 Tolkien had a very clear, devout view of the 00:26:25.910 --> 00:26:27.990 purpose of life. He wrote that it was, quote, 00:26:28.130 --> 00:26:30.710 to increase according to our capacity, our knowledge 00:26:30.710 --> 00:26:33.430 of God by all the means we have, and to be moved 00:26:33.430 --> 00:26:36.250 by it to praise and thanks. And he had a special 00:26:36.250 --> 00:26:39.410 devotion to the Blessed Sacrament. He did. He 00:26:39.410 --> 00:26:41.690 wrote this deeply personal advice to his son 00:26:41.690 --> 00:26:44.329 Michael, telling him that in Holy Communion you 00:26:44.329 --> 00:26:48.569 will find romance, glory, honor, fidelity, and 00:26:48.569 --> 00:26:51.400 the true way of all your loves upon earth. So 00:26:51.400 --> 00:26:53.119 for him, religious commitment was the highest 00:26:53.119 --> 00:26:55.960 form of loyalty and duty? It was. He strongly 00:26:55.960 --> 00:26:58.619 encouraged frequent reception of Holy Communion 00:26:58.619 --> 00:27:01.619 as the only cure for sagging of fainting faith. 00:27:01.819 --> 00:27:05.480 His faith was so intertwined with language that 00:27:05.480 --> 00:27:08.119 he even resisted liturgical changes within the 00:27:08.119 --> 00:27:10.440 church later in life. That's a perfect example 00:27:10.440 --> 00:27:13.119 of his integrated identity. He resisted some 00:27:13.119 --> 00:27:15.059 of the changes after the Second Vatican Council, 00:27:15.220 --> 00:27:17.880 primarily because he objected to the use of clumsy, 00:27:18.039 --> 00:27:20.740 literal English translations for the Mass. He 00:27:20.740 --> 00:27:22.880 spoke Latin fluently. So he would often just 00:27:22.880 --> 00:27:25.259 continue to make the Mass responses in fluent 00:27:25.259 --> 00:27:27.900 Latin, preferring the precision and historical 00:27:27.900 --> 00:27:30.779 weight of the ancient language over what he saw 00:27:30.779 --> 00:27:33.980 as awkward modern vernacular. And the most provocative 00:27:33.980 --> 00:27:36.259 detail from our sources is the movement toward 00:27:36.259 --> 00:27:38.880 possible sainthood for him. The recognition of 00:27:38.880 --> 00:27:42.299 his profound spiritual life is serious. In 2017, 00:27:42.619 --> 00:27:45.140 the Oxford Oratory, which was Tolkien's parish 00:27:45.140 --> 00:27:48.220 church, offered its first mass with the explicit 00:27:48.220 --> 00:27:50.980 intention of opening Tolkien's cause for beatification. 00:27:51.460 --> 00:27:54.559 A necessary step toward possible sainthood. It 00:27:54.559 --> 00:27:56.900 just underscores how exemplary his faith was 00:27:56.900 --> 00:27:59.160 perceived to be. And that strong moral grounding 00:27:59.160 --> 00:28:01.299 connects directly to his fiercely individual 00:28:01.299 --> 00:28:05.450 political philosophy. His deep skepticism. of 00:28:05.450 --> 00:28:08.130 authority he described his political leanings 00:28:08.130 --> 00:28:10.890 as moving more and more to anarchy and we really 00:28:10.890 --> 00:28:13.069 need to clarify what he meant by anarchy he specified 00:28:13.069 --> 00:28:22.750 he meant anarchy he saw it as inherently dangerous 00:28:22.750 --> 00:28:25.609 and corrupting regardless of who held it exactly 00:28:25.609 --> 00:28:28.569 essentially he believed that no human being was 00:28:28.569 --> 00:28:30.569 fit to rule others and we're back to that quote 00:28:30.569 --> 00:28:33.740 forged in the trenches yes The most improper 00:28:33.740 --> 00:28:37.200 job of any man is bossing other men. Not one 00:28:37.200 --> 00:28:39.440 in a million is fit for it and least of all those 00:28:39.440 --> 00:28:42.140 who seek the opportunity. He saw humility and 00:28:42.140 --> 00:28:44.160 service as virtues that were just constantly 00:28:44.160 --> 00:28:47.460 eroded by political ambition. So if that is his 00:28:47.460 --> 00:28:50.240 philosophical conviction, what does this mean 00:28:50.240 --> 00:28:52.920 for the epic he wrote? How does that philosophical 00:28:52.920 --> 00:28:56.220 anarchism play out? It is the central engine 00:28:56.220 --> 00:28:58.900 of the Lord of the Rings. His conviction was 00:28:58.900 --> 00:29:01.960 that power itself inherently corrupts. The One 00:29:01.960 --> 00:29:04.220 Ring isn't just a weapon. It is the ultimate 00:29:04.220 --> 00:29:06.880 expression of centralized, dominating power. 00:29:06.960 --> 00:29:10.730 The temptation to boss other men. And this explains 00:29:10.730 --> 00:29:13.329 the core moral choices of the story. It perfectly 00:29:13.329 --> 00:29:15.869 explains them. It's why Gandalf rejects the ring 00:29:15.869 --> 00:29:18.009 outright, fearing that even if he used it with 00:29:18.009 --> 00:29:20.470 the best intentions, its nature would inevitably 00:29:20.470 --> 00:29:23.390 corrupt him into a dark, dominating force. It's 00:29:23.390 --> 00:29:26.490 why the ring has to be destroyed, not used. Exactly. 00:29:26.730 --> 00:29:29.190 The desire to dominate and control others is 00:29:29.190 --> 00:29:31.609 the core temptation of evil in Middle -earth, 00:29:31.609 --> 00:29:34.950 embodied by Sauron and Saruman alike. That dramatically 00:29:34.950 --> 00:29:37.769 reframes the quest. It's not just a journey to 00:29:37.769 --> 00:29:40.420 destroy an object. philosophical treatise on 00:29:40.420 --> 00:29:42.920 governance. We also need to address the scholarly 00:29:42.920 --> 00:29:45.660 discussion around race and what some call moral 00:29:45.660 --> 00:29:48.140 geography in his work. This is a complex area 00:29:48.140 --> 00:29:50.299 that scholars continue to debate, and it requires 00:29:50.299 --> 00:29:53.220 careful, impartial reporting. In his personal 00:29:53.220 --> 00:29:56.119 life, he was demonstrably anti -racist. Oh, yes. 00:29:56.579 --> 00:29:59.579 Famously opposing Nazi racial theories in a 1938 00:29:59.579 --> 00:30:02.779 letter and refusing to support anti -German propaganda 00:30:02.779 --> 00:30:06.220 during World War II. However... Critics and scholars 00:30:06.220 --> 00:30:09.039 analyzing the text have noted certain literary 00:30:09.039 --> 00:30:12.400 tropes that require examination. They have. Critics 00:30:12.400 --> 00:30:14.559 point out that his work sometimes embodies Victorian 00:30:14.559 --> 00:30:17.799 literary attitudes towards race and relies on 00:30:17.799 --> 00:30:20.019 medieval literature that often define enemies 00:30:20.019 --> 00:30:23.619 as monstrous or other. Specifically, the issue 00:30:23.619 --> 00:30:25.940 of moral geography comes up a lot. What does 00:30:25.940 --> 00:30:29.059 that term moral geography imply in the context 00:30:29.059 --> 00:30:31.410 of Middle Earth? It refers to the observation 00:30:31.410 --> 00:30:33.890 that goodness is often associated with the West, 00:30:34.130 --> 00:30:36.509 the elves, the shire and evil, with the East 00:30:36.509 --> 00:30:39.069 and South Mordor, the Hurdrim, the Easterlings. 00:30:39.390 --> 00:30:41.829 And some critics argue that the narrative implies 00:30:41.829 --> 00:30:45.150 a hierarchy or a concern with race mixing and 00:30:45.150 --> 00:30:47.369 moral decline. Right. They suggest these elements 00:30:47.369 --> 00:30:49.809 might echo scientific racism that was present 00:30:49.809 --> 00:30:52.410 in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. But 00:30:52.410 --> 00:30:54.970 this viewpoint is not universally accepted. Many 00:30:54.970 --> 00:30:57.269 scholars offer a robust defense of the work's 00:30:57.269 --> 00:31:00.190 cultural complexity. Not at all. Many scholars 00:31:00.190 --> 00:31:03.170 argue that Middle Earth is polycultural and polylingual 00:31:03.170 --> 00:31:05.710 in its very essence. They defend the work by 00:31:05.710 --> 00:31:08.009 pointing out that critics often omit important 00:31:08.009 --> 00:31:11.170 textual evidence, like the mixed ancestries of 00:31:11.170 --> 00:31:14.109 major heroes like Aragorn. So it's a debate between 00:31:14.109 --> 00:31:16.990 reading the text as a product of its time versus 00:31:16.990 --> 00:31:19.490 reading it as a profoundly intentional philological 00:31:19.490 --> 00:31:22.410 exercise. Exactly. The defense emphasizes that 00:31:22.410 --> 00:31:25.490 evil is defined by a philosophical choice, the 00:31:25.490 --> 00:31:28.190 desire for domination, not an inherent racial 00:31:28.190 --> 00:31:30.819 trait. and that his personal life confirmed his 00:31:30.819 --> 00:31:33.380 distaste for racial theory. Our job is simply 00:31:33.380 --> 00:31:35.619 to report impartially on the existence of this 00:31:35.619 --> 00:31:38.240 sophisticated scholarly debate. Moving from the 00:31:38.240 --> 00:31:40.519 political to the natural world, what were his 00:31:40.519 --> 00:31:43.460 environmental views? We know his beloved childhood 00:31:43.460 --> 00:31:46.559 landscape, Sarah Hole, became the Shire. His 00:31:46.559 --> 00:31:48.759 personal fondness for forests and nature was 00:31:48.759 --> 00:31:51.500 profound. In private letters, he expressed deep 00:31:51.500 --> 00:31:54.180 sadness and distress over industrial development 00:31:54.180 --> 00:31:56.720 and tree felling. And literary analyses of The 00:31:56.720 --> 00:31:58.759 Lord of the Rings suggest that his writing process 00:31:58.759 --> 00:32:01.200 really amplify his interest in protecting wild, 00:32:01.420 --> 00:32:04.099 untamed nature from industrialization. It did. 00:32:04.220 --> 00:32:06.960 The constant struggle between the simple, agrarian 00:32:06.960 --> 00:32:09.319 natural life of the Shire and the destructive, 00:32:09.539 --> 00:32:12.480 mechanical hunger for power represented by Saruman's 00:32:12.480 --> 00:32:15.140 industrial hellscape at Isengard and the pits 00:32:15.140 --> 00:32:18.400 of Mordor is central. But the most direct expression 00:32:18.400 --> 00:32:21.579 of this is the scouring of the Shire. Yes. Where 00:32:21.579 --> 00:32:24.119 the hobbits return home only to find their idyllic 00:32:24.119 --> 00:32:26.460 world has been industrialized and corrupted by 00:32:26.460 --> 00:32:29.500 Saruman's lackeys. That scene, which a lot of 00:32:29.500 --> 00:32:32.000 the film adaptations gloss over, is actually 00:32:32.000 --> 00:32:34.740 the ultimate climax of his philosophical rejection 00:32:34.740 --> 00:32:37.980 of industrialized power encroaching on the simple, 00:32:38.119 --> 00:32:40.099 natural life. It is the ultimate confrontation 00:32:40.099 --> 00:32:42.619 between the rural idol he cherished as a boy 00:32:42.619 --> 00:32:45.440 and the urban sprawl he witnessed overtaking 00:32:45.440 --> 00:32:48.519 Serhol. The entire battle is essentially a moral 00:32:48.519 --> 00:32:50.519 and environmental statement. Okay, let's look 00:32:50.519 --> 00:32:53.180 at part five. The immense global legacy of this 00:32:53.180 --> 00:32:55.970 reluctant celebrity. After he retired in 1959 00:32:55.970 --> 00:32:58.950 his literary fame just exploded. It increased 00:32:58.950 --> 00:33:02.029 steadily until his death in 1973. The sales were 00:33:02.029 --> 00:33:04.109 so substantial that he often said he regretted 00:33:04.109 --> 00:33:06.470 not choosing early retirement. But that popularity 00:33:06.470 --> 00:33:09.230 came with an immense personal cost. Relentless 00:33:09.230 --> 00:33:11.809 fan attention. It grew so intense that he had 00:33:11.809 --> 00:33:13.549 to take his phone number out of the public directory. 00:33:14.630 --> 00:33:16.890 Students and fans would constantly bother him. 00:33:17.109 --> 00:33:19.769 He eventually moved with Edith to the seaside 00:33:19.769 --> 00:33:23.109 resort of Bournemouth in 1968, in large part 00:33:23.109 --> 00:33:25.529 to escape that relentless attention. Which was, 00:33:25.549 --> 00:33:28.450 ironically, the ultimate anti -Hobbit move, moving 00:33:28.450 --> 00:33:31.829 to a flashy seaside town. It was. But he did 00:33:31.829 --> 00:33:34.029 it for Edith. While he missed his friends from 00:33:34.029 --> 00:33:36.829 the Inklings, Edith was reportedly overjoyed 00:33:36.829 --> 00:33:39.289 by the move, finally stepping into a role as 00:33:39.289 --> 00:33:41.829 a society hostess. And after Edith passed away 00:33:41.829 --> 00:33:45.069 in 1971... Tolkien returned to Oxford. He did. 00:33:45.269 --> 00:33:47.650 Merton College gave him rooms near the High Street. 00:33:47.809 --> 00:33:50.150 And in his final years, he received the highest 00:33:50.150 --> 00:33:52.009 honors. He was made a commander of the Order 00:33:52.009 --> 00:33:55.490 of the British Empire, a CBE. In the 1972 New 00:33:55.490 --> 00:33:57.750 Year honors, receiving the insignia from the 00:33:57.750 --> 00:34:00.589 Queen herself. That same year, Oxford University 00:34:00.589 --> 00:34:02.970 granted him an honorary doctorate of letters. 00:34:03.250 --> 00:34:06.329 He died 21 months after Edith, in September 1973, 00:34:06.710 --> 00:34:09.929 at the age of 81. And we return for the last 00:34:09.929 --> 00:34:12.500 time. to the most poignant memorial of his life, 00:34:12.659 --> 00:34:15.719 his grave. He was buried next to Edith in Wolvercote 00:34:15.719 --> 00:34:18.400 Cemetery, and as we noted, the inscription confirms 00:34:18.400 --> 00:34:20.900 their connection to the legendarium with the 00:34:20.900 --> 00:34:23.639 name Luthien on her tombstone, and Baron added 00:34:23.639 --> 00:34:27.000 to his. It's a silent, beautiful testament to 00:34:27.000 --> 00:34:29.219 the real life source of his central love story. 00:34:29.500 --> 00:34:31.639 His literary influence wasn't just contained 00:34:31.639 --> 00:34:34.980 to books and gravestones. It fundamentally shaped 00:34:34.980 --> 00:34:37.619 the entire modern fantasy genre. The tremendous 00:34:37.619 --> 00:34:40.340 success of his books caused this popular resurgence 00:34:40.340 --> 00:34:42.659 in fantasy literature. And most importantly, 00:34:42.860 --> 00:34:46.260 it defined the entire high fantasy genre. It 00:34:46.260 --> 00:34:48.579 set the standards for world building and scope. 00:34:48.699 --> 00:34:51.659 Every subsequent author in the genre, from Ursula 00:34:51.659 --> 00:34:54.219 K. Le Guin to George R .R. Martin. has had to 00:34:54.219 --> 00:34:56.579 reckon with his legacy. Absolutely. The scholar 00:34:56.579 --> 00:34:58.739 Tom Shippey called Tolkien the author of the 00:34:58.739 --> 00:35:01.360 20th century for this very impact. And that influence 00:35:01.360 --> 00:35:03.679 extended into adaptations almost immediately. 00:35:04.019 --> 00:35:06.880 He sold the film, stage, and merchandise rights 00:35:06.880 --> 00:35:09.039 to The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings in 1968. 00:35:09.760 --> 00:35:12.179 Which opened the floodgates. We had the animated 00:35:12.179 --> 00:35:15.000 versions like the Ralph Bakshi film in 78 and 00:35:15.000 --> 00:35:17.039 the Rankin based TV films and then of course 00:35:17.039 --> 00:35:19.900 the monumental Peter Jackson film trilogies in 00:35:19.900 --> 00:35:22.519 the early 2000s which redefined fantasy cinema 00:35:22.519 --> 00:35:25.199 entirely. And the appetite remains boundless. 00:35:25.579 --> 00:35:27.739 The Jackson films were astronomical successes, 00:35:28.000 --> 00:35:30.480 winning numerous Oscars, which only fueled further 00:35:30.480 --> 00:35:33.280 expansion. The Amazon television series, The 00:35:33.280 --> 00:35:35.900 Rings of Power, new animated projects like The 00:35:35.900 --> 00:35:38.860 War of the Rohirrim. Middle Earth is now a permanent 00:35:38.860 --> 00:35:41.659 fixture in global popular culture. And the world's 00:35:41.659 --> 00:35:44.840 memorials and eponyms dedicated to his work really 00:35:44.840 --> 00:35:47.760 drive home how global his impact is. It goes 00:35:47.760 --> 00:35:50.199 beyond just plaques and museums. Oh, absolutely. 00:35:50.420 --> 00:35:53.039 His creations are literally mapped onto the Earth 00:35:53.039 --> 00:35:56.090 and the solar system. Canadian mountains named 00:35:56.090 --> 00:35:59.030 Mount Gandalf, Mount Shadowfax, and Mount Aragorn. 00:35:59.090 --> 00:36:01.949 And even on Saturn's moon, Titan. Most wonderfully, 00:36:02.070 --> 00:36:04.349 yes. Geographical features on Titan are officially 00:36:04.349 --> 00:36:06.690 named after characters and places from his works, 00:36:06.750 --> 00:36:09.590 from mountains to craters. So, as we reach the 00:36:09.590 --> 00:36:11.489 end of this deep dive, we've covered the scholar, 00:36:11.710 --> 00:36:13.949 the soldier, the linguist, and the devout man. 00:36:14.550 --> 00:36:16.889 What does this synthesis tell us about his enduring 00:36:16.889 --> 00:36:19.510 mythology? The key takeaway is synthesis itself. 00:36:20.300 --> 00:36:22.840 Tolkien's mythology is not whimsical escapism. 00:36:22.940 --> 00:36:25.679 It is a direct, unavoidable product of rigorous 00:36:25.679 --> 00:36:29.309 academic labor. The philologist's craft. combined 00:36:29.309 --> 00:36:32.670 with profound personal trauma and a clearly defined 00:36:32.670 --> 00:36:36.210 moral framework a framework rooted in faith and 00:36:36.210 --> 00:36:39.309 a deep skepticism of power exactly the sheer 00:36:39.309 --> 00:36:42.090 volume of his creation his legendarium demonstrates 00:36:42.090 --> 00:36:44.650 that the languages the history the monsters and 00:36:44.650 --> 00:36:47.170 the critics they were all connected elements 00:36:47.170 --> 00:36:49.969 of a single coherent vision the moral compass 00:36:49.969 --> 00:36:53.510 forged in the wwi trenches His deep faith and 00:36:53.510 --> 00:36:56.530 that skepticism of power is the core theme. The 00:36:56.530 --> 00:36:58.590 ring is the ultimate expression of the improper 00:36:58.590 --> 00:37:01.550 job of bossing other men. Every key event in 00:37:01.550 --> 00:37:04.170 his life informs the fiction. His experiences 00:37:04.170 --> 00:37:06.389 at the Somme inform the landscape of Mordor and 00:37:06.389 --> 00:37:09.010 the theme of inevitable loss. His early life 00:37:09.010 --> 00:37:11.030 in Sarehole became the idyllic shire that must 00:37:11.030 --> 00:37:13.090 be defended. And his eternal hard -won love for 00:37:13.090 --> 00:37:15.530 Edith became the epic central tale of Beren and 00:37:15.530 --> 00:37:17.750 Luthien. The mythology is built on everything 00:37:17.750 --> 00:37:21.349 he cherished, defended, and lost. So what does 00:37:21.349 --> 00:37:23.489 this all mean for you, the listener? What's the 00:37:23.489 --> 00:37:25.550 final provocative thought to leave you with now 00:37:25.550 --> 00:37:28.010 that you know the depth of this creation? Well, 00:37:28.090 --> 00:37:30.369 we spent time detailing Christopher Tolkien's 00:37:30.369 --> 00:37:32.809 immense work in compiling the history, those 00:37:32.809 --> 00:37:35.730 12 volumes of contradictory, unfinished drafts. 00:37:35.730 --> 00:37:39.199 And the final provocative thought is this. Tolkien's 00:37:39.199 --> 00:37:42.340 world remains infinitely rich and open to interpretation 00:37:42.340 --> 00:37:44.840 precisely because he himself considered it a 00:37:44.840 --> 00:37:47.420 perpetual work in progress. He was never satisfied. 00:37:47.679 --> 00:37:50.239 Never. He was constantly revising languages, 00:37:50.420 --> 00:37:52.800 timelines, and narratives. So you should consider 00:37:52.800 --> 00:37:54.980 Middle Earth not as a fixed Finnish narrative, 00:37:55.139 --> 00:37:58.039 but as a living, evolving linguistic tapestry, 00:37:58.219 --> 00:38:00.940 a lifetime's conversation that was never meant 00:38:00.940 --> 00:38:03.320 to be fully finalized. It's constantly inviting 00:38:03.320 --> 00:38:05.500 new layers of discovery and debate. It is the 00:38:05.500 --> 00:38:07.480 unfinished history of a man who loved language. 00:38:07.559 --> 00:38:09.880 too much to ever let it settle into silence.