Welcome to the Deep Dive, where we take these
huge stacks of sources, articles, research, complex
histories, and we boil them all down into the
most essential, usable knowledge for you. And
today, we are really opening the archives on
a man that I think most people know as the father
of modern fantasy. Right. But his life story
is just so much more compelling than just, you
know, being a successful author. We are talking
about... John Ronald Ruel Tolkien. And I think
it's crucial right from the start that when you
approach Tolkien, you remember you're dealing
with a figure whose genius wasn't just imaginative.
It was intensely academic. Yes. His fictional
universe, his legendarium. It wasn't just built
on whimsy or arbitrary decisions. It was forged
in the fires of high level scholarship. Exactly.
We all know the storyteller, the master of Middle
Earth, but the sources, they just hammer this
home again and again. Tolkien was, first and
foremost, a professional academic. I mean, we're
talking about some of the most prestigious positions
at the University of Oxford. Right. He held the,
what was it, the Rawlinson and Bosworth Professorship
of Anglo -Saxon? That's the one. From 1925 to
1945. And then, after that, he became the Merton
Professor of English Language and Literature
all the way up to 1959. That is a towering, serious
pedigree. It's not the background of a simple
fantasy writer. And that really is the scaffolding
for this entire deep dive. Our mission here is
to connect that scholarly pursuit. specifically
philology you know the deep study of language
in its historical context and connect that directly
to his well his turbulent personal history his
experiences as a soldier in world war one his
profound sense of loss his deep catholic faith
these weren't just background details yeah they
were the ingredients they were the essential
thematic components that shaped middle earth
and gave it that enduring weight and morality
that we all feel when we read it So we're really
uncovering the foundational philosophy of a world,
not just reading a biography. Exactly. And understand
that philosophy. We have started at the beginning.
And surprisingly, for an icon of English literature,
his origins were, well, anything but typically
English. That's right. So we jump right into
part one, the formative years. John Ronald Reuel
Tolkien was born on January 3rd, 1892 in Bloemfontein.
In what was then the Orange Free State. In South
Africa. Correct. His father, Arthur Rule Tolkien,
had moved there to take a position as a bank
manager. But that chapter, that African chapter
of his life, it was tragically brief. It led
to a defining early loss for him. Very brief.
When Ronald was just three years old, he traveled
back to England with his mother, Mabel, and his
younger brother, Hillary. It was only supposed
to be a temporary visit. But his father never
joined them. No. Arthur Tolkien died unexpectedly
back in South Africa from acute rheumatic fever
before he could get back to them. So suddenly,
Mabel and the two little boys were basically
stranded in England. And completely stripped
of their financial security. Completely. Yeah.
That immediately changed their entire trajectory.
They eventually settled near Birmingham in King's
Heath. And then, crucially, they moved to the
rural Worcestershire village of Serhol. And this
is where it all starts. This is where you can
literally see the landscape of Middle Earth beginning
to form. Sarehole was essential. I mean, we are
talking about places like Sarehole Mill, Mosley
Bog, the Clint and Licky Hills. These weren't
just places he played as a kid. No, no. They
are directly referenced and sort of stylized
in his fiction. For instance, his Aunt Jane's
farm. It was actually named Bag End. That's the
ultimate example, isn't it? Reality just bleeding
directly into fantasy. It's a remarkable detail,
grounding maybe the most famous fictional home
in the real world. It is. This physical landscape,
this simple, idyllic English countryside would
become the Shire. It becomes the place that is
worth defending above all else. And it just underscores
how deeply connected his imaginary world was
to that physical nostalgia of his childhood.
Absolutely. And speaking of childhood, our sources
really stress the monumental role his mother,
Mabel, played in his early education and, critically,
his faith. She was a woman of fierce intellect,
from what I've read. And dedication. She taught
him entirely at home, and he was clearly a prodigious
student, a precocious kid. He could read by age
four, write fluently soon after. You got into
languages early, right? Very early. She taught
him the basics of Latin. He developed a strong
interest in botany. And he even started inventing
his own sort of private language games with his
cousins before he was even 10. But the most significant,
the most definitive aspect of Mabel's life, and
therefore Ronald's, was her conversion to Roman
Catholicism in 1900. And that was a seismic event
in that rigid Protestant Edwardian society. It
was a huge deal. Her wealthy Baptist family,
they were outraged. They cut her off. Completely.
They cut off all financial assistance. They basically
chose their faith over their own kin. And this
left the family in extreme poverty and, you know,
social isolation. That sacrifice, both financial
and social, must have taught the young Tolkien
a very, very harsh lesson about conviction. I
think it was pivotal. And then just four years
later in 1904, Mabel died of acute diabetes.
She was only 34. And this was decades before
insulin. Decades. So she just survived as long
as she could manage without treatment, all while
struggling to raise her two boys and maintain
her faith. It's no wonder Tolkien later referred
to his mother as a martyr. A martyr for the faith
that she instilled in him. Precisely. He wrote
that she, and I'm quoting here, killed herself
with labor and trouble to ensure us keeping the
faith. This is the bedrock of his lifelong commitment.
And his guardian, Father Francis Xavier Morgan,
he reinforced that structure. He did. He was
from the Birmingham Oratory, and he taught Tolkien
about... Charity and forgiveness. So these themes,
religious commitment, sacrifice, the profound
moral stakes of life, they are just foundational
to the adult Tolkien and really to the entire
moral structure of Middle Earth. Now, before
World War I casts its long shadow, we have to
talk about his early romance. because it sounds
like something straight out of one of his own
epic tales. It really does. His courtship with
Edith Mary Bratt, their story is legendary. He
met her when he was just 16. In 1908. She was
three years older than him, and they were both
orphans living in the same boarding house in
Edgbaston. They fell into this deep, intense
bond very quickly. And they were kind of mischievous
together, weren't they? Oh, yeah. They had these
rebellious little antics, like throwing sugar
lumps into the hats of people passing by from
a tier room balcony. Just kids in love. They
were inseparable. But then came the roadblock.
Father Morgan intervened. He did. Father Morgan
was very concerned about the intensity of the
relationship, especially with an older Protestant
woman. He was worried it was distracting Tolkien
from his studies. Right. He thought it was why
Tolkien muffed his scholarship exams for Oxford.
Exactly. So the injunction was severe. Morgan
strictly prohibited Tolkien from meeting, talking
to, or even writing to Edith until he turned
21. That is a five -year banishment from the
person he loved most. And the sources make it
clear that Tolkien, despite the emotional pain,
he obeyed that injunction almost to the letter.
It's a crucial insight into his character, that
sense of duty. He honored the commitment. But
the very moment he turned 21 on January 3rd,
1913, he acted instantly. He wrote her a letter.
A fervent letter declaring he'd never stopped
loving her and proposing marriage. And the reply
he got back must have been a shock. A huge shock.
She replied that she had already accepted another
man's proposal. She thought Tolkien had just
forgotten her after five years of total silence.
But he didn't give up. Not for a second. He got
on a train to Cheltenham, where she was living,
found her, and after this long, intense walk
and talk, famously under a railway viaduct, a
scene that just belongs in a movie. She agreed.
She agreed to marry him and returned her engagement
ring. What incredible resilience. But there was
a condition for the marriage, wasn't there? One
set by Tolkien. Yes. It was non -negotiable for
him, rooted in the sacrifice his mother had made.
Edith had to convert to Catholicism. Well, she
did. Reluctantly. But yeah, she converted in
January 1916. They were married that March. And
that devotion, all those immense obstacles they
overcame, that becomes the real life source material
for the great elven mortal love story that forms
the spine of his entire mythology. And just months
after their wedding, the shadow of the First
World War finally engulfs them. Yes. Tolkien
finally enlists. And our sources do note his
controversial decision to delay enlisting until
he finished his degree. He endured a lot of public
obloquy for that. Yeah, that was a tough position
to be in. Extremely tough. He wrote in a letter
much later that in those days chaps joined up
or were scorned publicly. He saw delaying as
the only way to secure his education and his
future. He finished with first class honors in
1915. and was quickly commissioned as a temporary
second lieutenant. In the Lancashire Fusiliers.
That's right. He trained for almost a year, and
right before he's sent into the fray, you can
see his anti -authoritarian philosophy really
start to germinate. This is a remarkable foreshadowing
of his fictional themes. It really is. He was
commanding enlisted men who were predominantly
working -class Tommies from Lancashire towns,
and he felt this deep affinity for them, but
military protocol strictly forbade officers from
being friends with the other ranks. And he hated
them. that. He chafed against that arbitrary
hierarchy. He didn't just chafe. He rejected
the whole premise of command. He lamented that,
quote, the most improper job of any man is bossing
other men. Wow. Not one in a million is fit for
it, and least of all those who seek the opportunity.
This profound skepticism of centralized power
and the corrupting nature of authority was forged
right before he was thrown into the crucible
of the Somme. That sentiment, that distrust of
the boss, is the moral DNA of his work. So he
was posted to France in June 1916. Right, just
in time to participate in some of the most horrific
battles of the entire war. He joined the line
near Amiens and took part in these savage grinding
assaults on major German defenses. Like the Schwab
and Redoubt and the Leipzig Sailing? Exactly.
He was a battalion signals officer, which meant
he was constantly moving messages through incredibly
dangerous territory. The historical records of
the trenches are vivid. But the details of the
conditions he faced, they're almost unimaginable
today. Horrific, especially the diseases that
just spread like wildfire through the muck and
the congestion. The Anglican chaplain to his
unit recorded that officers were being eaten
by hordes of lice that transmitted trench fever.
Their only way to get clean was to boil their
uniforms. Right. And that biological warfare,
if you can call it that, is exactly what ended
up saving his life. Ironically, yes. On October
27, 1916, as his battalion was attacking a position
called Regina Trench, Tolkien contracted trench
fever. He was immediately invalided back to England
on November 8. And the timing was crucial. Absolutely
crucial. While he was recovering for months,
medically unfit for service, his battalion was
almost completely wiped out. So his physical
survival came at this terrible emotional cost,
specifically the loss of his literary circle.
The TCBS. The Tea Club and Barovian Society.
It was this intense group he'd formed with his
friends Rob Gilson, Jeffrey Bashmith, and Christopher
Wiseman. They were dedicated to writing, to fostering
each other's poetry. And the war just shattered
them. Gilson was killed on the very first day
of the Somme. Smith was killed when a German
shell hit a first aid post. So Tolkien survived,
but the fellowship of his youth was destroyed.
He returned home only to realize that of the
four corps members, only he and Christopher Wiseman
were left. It's just devastating. And that trauma,
it taught him a deep sympathy and feeling for
the Tommy, especially the plain soldier. It cemented
the themes of loss, the destruction of a golden
age, and the fragility of fellowship that just
pervade. his mythology. It gives us the emotional
landscape of Mordor. But even amidst all this
loss, while he was recovering, he got the spark
for the most famous love story in his entire
creation, the Luthien anecdote. This is really
the poetic climax of his personal life. While
he was recovering from trench fever, he was briefly
stationed at the Humber Garrison near Roos in
Yorkshire, and his wife, Edith, was able to live
with him for a while. And one day, in a clearing
of flowering hemlock, she danced for him. She
did. Scholars think it was probably cow parsley
or wild carrot, but the image is the same. That
moment in 1917, seeing his wife dance in the
sunlight among the flowers, was this moment of
profound, spontaneous beauty that just transcended
the ongoing tragedy of the war. He wrote about
it later. He wrote that he never called Edith
Luthien, but she was the source of the story
that in time became the chief part of the Silmarillion.
It was a moment of grace, of enduring life in
the face of so much death. And that event was
immortalized right on their tombstone. Indeed.
It became such a profound central connection
that after Edith died in 1971, he had the name
Luthien engraved on her tombstone. And when he
died 21 months later, Baron was added to his
name. So the central love story of his mythology
is literally inscribed in his real history. It
confirms that his fiction was merely a frame
for his most cherished memories. It's so clear
that everything he cherished and everything he
lost just became foundational. So let's now transition
into part two and look at the scholarly engine
that allowed him to express all this. The linguist's
craft. How philology literally became fantasy.
This is where we really understand that Tolkien's
literary output isn't just related to his academic
career. It is fundamentally inseparable from
it. His first civilian job after the war was
working on the massive Oxford English Dictionary.
The OED. That sounds like a highly meticulous
job that would require obsessive attention to
detail. It was. He worked mainly on the history
and etymology of Germanic words, starting with
the letter W. He actually admitted to struggling
mightily with the entry for Walrus. So he's tracing.
The historical journey of words. Exactly. Where
they came from, how they changed, what cultural
baggage they carried. That is the essence of
philology. And from the OED, he very quickly
transitioned into a professorship. He was obviously
brilliant. By 1920, he was a reader in English
language at the University of Leeds. He was the
youngest member of the academic staff, and he
was promoted to full professor by 1924. And he
was an engaging teacher, right? Not some dry
academic. Apparently very engaging. He even boasted
that he'd increased the number of Germanic philology
students from 5 to 20, and they went on to form
a boisterous Viking club. So what exactly was
he teaching that captivated these students? What
was on the syllabus? He taught an immense array
of subjects that really formed the linguistic
backbone of Middle Earth. We're talking Old English,
heroic verse. Gothic, Old Icelandic, Middle English
texts, introductory Germanic philology, medieval
Welsh. Wow. He specialized in English philology
and Old Norse. And he had a particular, no, he
said imperfect knowledge of Finnish, which would
become one of the crucial ingredients for his
invented languages. So his passion wasn't just
English language. It was this whole ancient world
of Northern European linguistic history. Precisely.
For Tolkien, language wasn't just communication.
It was archaeology. Every word carried the weight
of history, myth, and culture. His focus was
always on the relationship between language and
the people who spoke it. And it was this specialization
that led to his greatest single academic contribution,
the 1936 lecture, Beowulf, The Monsters and the
Critics. This lecture is widely seen as a major
turning point in Beowulf scholarship. It completely
redefined how the poem was read. Before Tolkien,
scholars pretty much dismissed it, right? They
did. They were antiquarians. They read the poem
for its linguistic history or used it as a source
of cultural facts about, you know, early Anglo
Saxon society. And they dismissed the battles
with Grendel and the dragon as just childish,
distracting elements. They saw the fantasy as
a flaw. They wanted realistic tribal warfare,
not monsters. But Tolkien argued the exact opposite.
He established the primacy of the poem as art
as dramatic poetry. What was the essence of his
revolutionary argument? He argued that the monster
battles were, in fact, the most essential part
of the poem. The author wasn't just addressing
tribal politics. He was addressing universal
human destiny, fate, mortality. So Grendel and
the dragon represented the eternal struggle against
chaos and death. Exactly. By centering the monsters,
Tolkien lifted Beowulf out of the dusty archives
of linguistics and into the realm of profound
dramatic literature. That is the moment where
the philologist finds the mythology he needs
to create. He even said Beowulf was among my
most valued sources. And this academic triumph
was delivered with incredible dramatic flair.
This is one of the most memorable details of
his academic life. Tell us the anecdote. It's
fantastic. His biographer, Humphrey Carpenter,
noted that Tolkien would start his lecture series
not with notes, but by silently entering the
room, surveying the students, and then suddenly
declaiming the opening lines of Beowulf in the
original Old English. It's booming it out. He
would burst out with a great cry of wheat. Which
is Old English for listen or hark. Right. It
was this sudden dramatic performance, forcing
the students to hear the poem as living, powerful,
dramatic art. And that's why W .H. Auden wrote
to him decades later. Yes. The poet W .H. Auden
thanked him for the unforgettable experience,
and I'm quoting here, saying, the voice was the
voice of Gandalf. It's just an amazing crystallization
of the academic and the myth maker being one
and the same person. So the foundation of Middle
Earth wasn't a plot idea. It was language. Our
source material stresses this over and over.
He was inventing worlds just to give his languages
a home. That is the defining insight into Tolkien.
His philosophy was radical. He believed that
language construction should breed a mythology.
He wasn't like modern authors who invent a few
placeholder words. For him, the language was
the primary artistic creation. So what did he
mean by prioritizing aesthetics in Euphony? It
means he felt that the beauty and pleasantness
of sound, the phonesthetic considerations, had
to come first. Only then could a believable culture
and history and mythology naturally follow. So
if he liked the sound of a certain consonant
cluster. He would invent a history for a people
whose vocal habits produce those sounds. It's
completely backwards from how most people write.
And this led to his most famous linguistic creations,
especially the Elvish languages. Yes, Quenya,
which is high Elvish, and Sindarin. Quenya in
particular was driven purely by those fun aesthetic
considerations. He based its phonology on Latin
with crucial influences from Welsh, English,
Greek, and most importantly, Finnish. Finnish
is a very specific choice, very different from
the Germanic traditions he usually studied. Why
Finnish? Finnish offered a structure that Tolkien
found profoundly beautiful. It's an agglutinative
language. Which means? It means words are formed
by gluing together long strings of prefixes and
suffixes to express complex meanings. It results
in these very long, rolling words with rich vowel
sounds. He wanted Quenya to be melodious, almost
operatic. He called it Elvin Latin, a formal,
preserved language, much like Latin was to medieval
Europe. So Quenya is beautiful and formal. What
about Sindarin? Sindarin was based more on Welsh
phonologically with its mutations and complex
consonant sounds. That was designed to be the
more mutable everyday language of the elves,
the language that changed over time, reflecting
the real history of language evolution. So he's
not just creating languages. He's creating linguistic
histories. He is. And he believed that if a language
didn't have a myth, it was dead. He was very
skeptical of constructed languages like Esperanto.
He said their authors never invented any Esperanto
legends. So for him, if a language... language
lacked the historical and cultural weight of
stories, it was far deader than ancient unused
languages. Language and myth were two sides of
the same coin. Absolutely. That deep commitment
to language explains why his world feels so vast
and layered. It was literally built from the
ground up, starting with grammar. So let's move
into part three, building the legendarium. By
1925, Tolkien is back at Oxford, and he's writing
his major works. And while he's at Oxford, first
as a professor at Pembroke College, he becomes
a key figure in this informal literary discussion
group called the Inklings. And the importance
of this group, especially his close friendship
with C .S. Lewis, you really can't overstate
it. You can't. They weren't just drinking buddies.
They were intellectual sparring partners. Lewis
was often the pragmatic, classical counterweight
to Tolkien's romantic, philological views. And
he was a critical... sounding board constantly
lewis provided constant support while tolkien
was writing the lord of the rings listening to
chapters read aloud and giving sometimes harsh
but always crucial critique they were essential
to each other's creative process during this
time the hobbit emerges as this kind of accidental
success it was written purely for his children
Entirely. He'd been creating fantasy stories
for his kids for years, including those highly
illustrated annual Christmas letters that were
supposed to be from Father Christmas. The Hobbit
was written over many years and only came to
the attention of publishers by sheer accident.
A chance recommendation in 1936. That's right.
An employee at George Allen and Unwin named Susan
Dagnall read the manuscript. The publisher, Stanley
Unwin, wisely gave it to his 10 -year -old son,
Rainer, to review. And Rainer loved it. He did.
The book attracted both kids and adults and the
publisher immediately asked for a sequel. And
that request led directly to The Lord of the
Rings, which took him over a decade to complete.
It was a monumental undertaking. He originally
thought he'd write another light, simple children's
story, but it quickly evolved into something
much darker, much more serious. Because he started
drawing on that immense, complex backstory he'd
been building for years. Yeah. His legendarium.
Right. It was a serious effort, consuming most
of his available time during the war and post
-war years. He finished the primary narrative
around 1948, but the publishing process itself
was complex. Printing costs in post -WWII Britain
were... high. Very high. So the massive novel
had to be published in three separate volumes
between 1954 and 1955. And the popularity was
not just immense. It was culturally transformative.
It really established him as the father of high
fantasy. The success was astronomical, especially
in the 1960s when the paperbacks hit the U .S.
market. It became a genuine cult phenomenon on
university campuses. We can quantify this fame.
Oh, yeah. In the 2003 BBC Big Read survey, it
was voted the UK's best love novel. Amazon customers
judged it their favorite book of the millennium
in 1999. It didn't just sell well. It created
a genre. But Tolkien himself always considered
his central epic, the Silmarillion, the true
core of his mythology. He did. The Silmarillion
was the spine of it all. An epic history of the
Elder Days, starting with the creation of the
world. And he started it multiple times, but
just never managed to finish or publish it in
his lifetime. He desperately hoped to publish
it alongside The Lord of the Rings, but the publishers
declined. They saw it as too complex, too esoteric,
just too commercially risky. But this material...
It contained deeper connections to classical
myth, which he loved, like the Atlantis legend.
Yes. From around 1936, he worked on the tragic
tale of the fall of Numenor, the great western
island that was swallowed by the sea. He consciously
based this on the myth of Atlantis. He also wrote
other substantial lesser -known works, like retellings
of the Germanic legend of Sigurd and Gudrun.
Always interacting with those classical northern
myths. Yeah. But the publication of the bulk
of his mythology. It relied entirely on the decades
-long dedication of his son, Christopher Tolkien.
Christopher was his father's literary executor,
and he faced this immense task of organizing
decades of contradictory, abandoned, messy drafts.
He compiled The Silmarillion, which was published
posthumously in 1977. And that book provided
the epic history that readers had been waiting
for, but that was only the tip of the iceberg.
Right, because then came the 12 comprehensive
volumes, The History of Middle Earth. And those
12 volumes really show the sheer scope of his
work. They track the evolution of the stories
and languages over time. And they really emphasize
how fluid and unfinished Tolkien considered his
entire creation. That is the essential insight.
These materials contain unfinished, abandoned,
alternative, and often wildly contradictory accounts
because they were always a work in progress for
him. He was a fastidious perfectionist. And he
rarely settled on a definitive version of any
given tale. He was constantly refining the linguistic
and historical tapestry. He was so committed
to that refinement that he even said years later
that he would have preferred to rewrite The Hobbit
completely because of its earlier, lighter prose
style. it just shows his perpetual commitment
to his own internal canon his goal wasn't a fixed
singular text but a living evolving linguistic
history that felt real exactly Before we move
on to his philosophy, we have to briefly acknowledge
his versatility as an artist. We mentioned his
children's books like Mr. Bliss and Roverandom.
And those father Christmas letters weren't just
stories. They were elaborately illustrated works
of art he sent to his kids every year. He was
a skilled visual artist. He was. He produced
the cover art, the maps, and numerous illustrations
for the early editions of his published works,
including The Hobbit and the maps for The Lord
of the Rings. A true polymath. A scholar who
synthesizes history, language, illustration,
and narrative into a single cohesive world. Okay,
let's transition into part four. We need to explore
the philosophical compass that guided all of
this. His views on religion, power, race. and
nature. We absolutely have to start with the
sanctifying myth of his deep Catholicism. It
was a cornerstone of his existence, inherited
from his mother's sacrifice, and it deeply influenced
his worldview. We know he and C .S. Lewis had
many intense discussions about faith, and Tolkien's
beliefs were a significant factor in Lewis's
famous conversion from atheism to Christianity.
Tolkien had a very clear, devout view of the
purpose of life. He wrote that it was, quote,
to increase according to our capacity, our knowledge
of God by all the means we have, and to be moved
by it to praise and thanks. And he had a special
devotion to the Blessed Sacrament. He did. He
wrote this deeply personal advice to his son
Michael, telling him that in Holy Communion you
will find romance, glory, honor, fidelity, and
the true way of all your loves upon earth. So
for him, religious commitment was the highest
form of loyalty and duty? It was. He strongly
encouraged frequent reception of Holy Communion
as the only cure for sagging of fainting faith.
His faith was so intertwined with language that
he even resisted liturgical changes within the
church later in life. That's a perfect example
of his integrated identity. He resisted some
of the changes after the Second Vatican Council,
primarily because he objected to the use of clumsy,
literal English translations for the Mass. He
spoke Latin fluently. So he would often just
continue to make the Mass responses in fluent
Latin, preferring the precision and historical
weight of the ancient language over what he saw
as awkward modern vernacular. And the most provocative
detail from our sources is the movement toward
possible sainthood for him. The recognition of
his profound spiritual life is serious. In 2017,
the Oxford Oratory, which was Tolkien's parish
church, offered its first mass with the explicit
intention of opening Tolkien's cause for beatification.
A necessary step toward possible sainthood. It
just underscores how exemplary his faith was
perceived to be. And that strong moral grounding
connects directly to his fiercely individual
political philosophy. His deep skepticism. of
authority he described his political leanings
as moving more and more to anarchy and we really
need to clarify what he meant by anarchy he specified
he meant anarchy he saw it as inherently dangerous
and corrupting regardless of who held it exactly
essentially he believed that no human being was
fit to rule others and we're back to that quote
forged in the trenches yes The most improper
job of any man is bossing other men. Not one
in a million is fit for it and least of all those
who seek the opportunity. He saw humility and
service as virtues that were just constantly
eroded by political ambition. So if that is his
philosophical conviction, what does this mean
for the epic he wrote? How does that philosophical
anarchism play out? It is the central engine
of the Lord of the Rings. His conviction was
that power itself inherently corrupts. The One
Ring isn't just a weapon. It is the ultimate
expression of centralized, dominating power.
The temptation to boss other men. And this explains
the core moral choices of the story. It perfectly
explains them. It's why Gandalf rejects the ring
outright, fearing that even if he used it with
the best intentions, its nature would inevitably
corrupt him into a dark, dominating force. It's
why the ring has to be destroyed, not used. Exactly.
The desire to dominate and control others is
the core temptation of evil in Middle -earth,
embodied by Sauron and Saruman alike. That dramatically
reframes the quest. It's not just a journey to
destroy an object. philosophical treatise on
governance. We also need to address the scholarly
discussion around race and what some call moral
geography in his work. This is a complex area
that scholars continue to debate, and it requires
careful, impartial reporting. In his personal
life, he was demonstrably anti -racist. Oh, yes.
Famously opposing Nazi racial theories in a 1938
letter and refusing to support anti -German propaganda
during World War II. However... Critics and scholars
analyzing the text have noted certain literary
tropes that require examination. They have. Critics
point out that his work sometimes embodies Victorian
literary attitudes towards race and relies on
medieval literature that often define enemies
as monstrous or other. Specifically, the issue
of moral geography comes up a lot. What does
that term moral geography imply in the context
of Middle Earth? It refers to the observation
that goodness is often associated with the West,
the elves, the shire and evil, with the East
and South Mordor, the Hurdrim, the Easterlings.
And some critics argue that the narrative implies
a hierarchy or a concern with race mixing and
moral decline. Right. They suggest these elements
might echo scientific racism that was present
in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. But
this viewpoint is not universally accepted. Many
scholars offer a robust defense of the work's
cultural complexity. Not at all. Many scholars
argue that Middle Earth is polycultural and polylingual
in its very essence. They defend the work by
pointing out that critics often omit important
textual evidence, like the mixed ancestries of
major heroes like Aragorn. So it's a debate between
reading the text as a product of its time versus
reading it as a profoundly intentional philological
exercise. Exactly. The defense emphasizes that
evil is defined by a philosophical choice, the
desire for domination, not an inherent racial
trait. and that his personal life confirmed his
distaste for racial theory. Our job is simply
to report impartially on the existence of this
sophisticated scholarly debate. Moving from the
political to the natural world, what were his
environmental views? We know his beloved childhood
landscape, Sarah Hole, became the Shire. His
personal fondness for forests and nature was
profound. In private letters, he expressed deep
sadness and distress over industrial development
and tree felling. And literary analyses of The
Lord of the Rings suggest that his writing process
really amplify his interest in protecting wild,
untamed nature from industrialization. It did.
The constant struggle between the simple, agrarian
natural life of the Shire and the destructive,
mechanical hunger for power represented by Saruman's
industrial hellscape at Isengard and the pits
of Mordor is central. But the most direct expression
of this is the scouring of the Shire. Yes. Where
the hobbits return home only to find their idyllic
world has been industrialized and corrupted by
Saruman's lackeys. That scene, which a lot of
the film adaptations gloss over, is actually
the ultimate climax of his philosophical rejection
of industrialized power encroaching on the simple,
natural life. It is the ultimate confrontation
between the rural idol he cherished as a boy
and the urban sprawl he witnessed overtaking
Serhol. The entire battle is essentially a moral
and environmental statement. Okay, let's look
at part five. The immense global legacy of this
reluctant celebrity. After he retired in 1959
his literary fame just exploded. It increased
steadily until his death in 1973. The sales were
so substantial that he often said he regretted
not choosing early retirement. But that popularity
came with an immense personal cost. Relentless
fan attention. It grew so intense that he had
to take his phone number out of the public directory.
Students and fans would constantly bother him.
He eventually moved with Edith to the seaside
resort of Bournemouth in 1968, in large part
to escape that relentless attention. Which was,
ironically, the ultimate anti -Hobbit move, moving
to a flashy seaside town. It was. But he did
it for Edith. While he missed his friends from
the Inklings, Edith was reportedly overjoyed
by the move, finally stepping into a role as
a society hostess. And after Edith passed away
in 1971... Tolkien returned to Oxford. He did.
Merton College gave him rooms near the High Street.
And in his final years, he received the highest
honors. He was made a commander of the Order
of the British Empire, a CBE. In the 1972 New
Year honors, receiving the insignia from the
Queen herself. That same year, Oxford University
granted him an honorary doctorate of letters.
He died 21 months after Edith, in September 1973,
at the age of 81. And we return for the last
time. to the most poignant memorial of his life,
his grave. He was buried next to Edith in Wolvercote
Cemetery, and as we noted, the inscription confirms
their connection to the legendarium with the
name Luthien on her tombstone, and Baron added
to his. It's a silent, beautiful testament to
the real life source of his central love story.
His literary influence wasn't just contained
to books and gravestones. It fundamentally shaped
the entire modern fantasy genre. The tremendous
success of his books caused this popular resurgence
in fantasy literature. And most importantly,
it defined the entire high fantasy genre. It
set the standards for world building and scope.
Every subsequent author in the genre, from Ursula
K. Le Guin to George R .R. Martin. has had to
reckon with his legacy. Absolutely. The scholar
Tom Shippey called Tolkien the author of the
20th century for this very impact. And that influence
extended into adaptations almost immediately.
He sold the film, stage, and merchandise rights
to The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings in 1968.
Which opened the floodgates. We had the animated
versions like the Ralph Bakshi film in 78 and
the Rankin based TV films and then of course
the monumental Peter Jackson film trilogies in
the early 2000s which redefined fantasy cinema
entirely. And the appetite remains boundless.
The Jackson films were astronomical successes,
winning numerous Oscars, which only fueled further
expansion. The Amazon television series, The
Rings of Power, new animated projects like The
War of the Rohirrim. Middle Earth is now a permanent
fixture in global popular culture. And the world's
memorials and eponyms dedicated to his work really
drive home how global his impact is. It goes
beyond just plaques and museums. Oh, absolutely.
His creations are literally mapped onto the Earth
and the solar system. Canadian mountains named
Mount Gandalf, Mount Shadowfax, and Mount Aragorn.
And even on Saturn's moon, Titan. Most wonderfully,
yes. Geographical features on Titan are officially
named after characters and places from his works,
from mountains to craters. So, as we reach the
end of this deep dive, we've covered the scholar,
the soldier, the linguist, and the devout man.
What does this synthesis tell us about his enduring
mythology? The key takeaway is synthesis itself.
Tolkien's mythology is not whimsical escapism.
It is a direct, unavoidable product of rigorous
academic labor. The philologist's craft. combined
with profound personal trauma and a clearly defined
moral framework a framework rooted in faith and
a deep skepticism of power exactly the sheer
volume of his creation his legendarium demonstrates
that the languages the history the monsters and
the critics they were all connected elements
of a single coherent vision the moral compass
forged in the wwi trenches His deep faith and
that skepticism of power is the core theme. The
ring is the ultimate expression of the improper
job of bossing other men. Every key event in
his life informs the fiction. His experiences
at the Somme inform the landscape of Mordor and
the theme of inevitable loss. His early life
in Sarehole became the idyllic shire that must
be defended. And his eternal hard -won love for
Edith became the epic central tale of Beren and
Luthien. The mythology is built on everything
he cherished, defended, and lost. So what does
this all mean for you, the listener? What's the
final provocative thought to leave you with now
that you know the depth of this creation? Well,
we spent time detailing Christopher Tolkien's
immense work in compiling the history, those
12 volumes of contradictory, unfinished drafts.
And the final provocative thought is this. Tolkien's
world remains infinitely rich and open to interpretation
precisely because he himself considered it a
perpetual work in progress. He was never satisfied.
Never. He was constantly revising languages,
timelines, and narratives. So you should consider
Middle Earth not as a fixed Finnish narrative,
but as a living, evolving linguistic tapestry,
a lifetime's conversation that was never meant
to be fully finalized. It's constantly inviting
new layers of discovery and debate. It is the
unfinished history of a man who loved language.
too much to ever let it settle into silence.