![]() |
|
![]() |
#1 |
Sapling
Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: Victoria BC Canada
Posts: 14
|
![]() I wonder if Prof. Tolkien was not writting this series of books as a reaction first to his experiences in WW I , which saw most of his classmates killed and secondly to WW II which was even more random in its awfulness.
Some of the passages showing the attacks on Rohan & Gondor evoke images of the efugees feeing in Europe in both world wars and as recently as the former Yugoslavia. And Frodo's feeling that he saved the Shire, but not for himself wel that sounds like a lot of returned veterans from any war any century.
__________________
[B]The road goes ever on and on down from the house where it began ![]() Last edited by paulbaggins : 04-11-2005 at 05:58 PM. Reason: mispeslling |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
#2 |
The Intermittent One
Join Date: Feb 2004
Location: here and there
Posts: 4,671
|
tolkien himself said this was not the case, but was in fact the way he disliked the loss of nature in favour of machinery [ref to: Saruman & Ents]
|
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
#3 | ||
Co-President of Entmoot
Super Moderator Join Date: Aug 2002
Location: Canada
Posts: 8,397
|
I'm sure Tolkien's experiences and values influenced his writing. I think you have a good point there Paul Baggins.
![]() (That doesn't mean it was alegorical, but you're not saying that anyway. ![]()
__________________
"I can add some more, if you'd like it. Calling your Chief Names, Wishing to Punch his Pimply Face, and Thinking you Shirriffs look a lot of Tom-fools." - Sam Gamgee, p. 340, Return of the King Quote:
Quote:
|
||
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
#4 |
Elf Lord
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: sikeston, MO, usa, earth, sol
Posts: 3,114
|
Tolkien began the work before he went to WWI (see LETTERS). He specifically repudiates the concept of the LOTR being a response to either WW. Those wars were in point of fact the mere continuation of the primal disruption of creation (in the subcreated ME) by Melkor as expressed in the primary world. Thus the "applicability" is there, as Tolkien would and did say.
But the creative process in which he engaged before, during, and after WWI, and before, during, and after WWII were engendered by his love of languages and desire to place them in a context. No doubt the experiences he underwent influenced his work consciously and unconsciously as does every author's life experience. But Tolkien denies an explicit rendering of these life events as the sole cause or impetus. And it is very telling in his life that he was at pains to refute such a simplistic approach by critics of his day. One must remember that he and CS Lewis both repudiated the concept of critics that the author's life was the be-all and end-all of understanding a work (see "The Personal Heresy" by CS Lewis for a clear formulation of this rejection). Both these men thought the world of ideas was best communicated in some forms as myth and fairie (see "On Fairy Stories" by Tolkien and Lewis' thoughts in ESSAYS PRESENTED TO CHARLES WILLIAMS edited by CS Lewis, a festschrift to Charles Williams).
__________________
Inked "Aslan is not a tame lion." CSL/LWW "The new school [acts] as if it required...courage to say a blasphemy. There is only one thing that requires real courage to say, and that is a truism." GK Chesterton "And there is always the danger of allowing people to suppose that our modern times are so wholly unlike any other times that the fundamental facts about man's nature have wholly changed with changing circumstances." Dorothy L. Sayers, 1 Sept. 1941 |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
#5 | |
Sapling
Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: Victoria BC Canada
Posts: 14
|
Quote:
But of course Tolkien did not start this as allegory the book just grew and that we see what do is a credit to Tolkiens genius
__________________
[B]The road goes ever on and on down from the house where it began ![]() |
|
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
#6 |
An enigma in a conundrum
Join Date: Oct 1999
Posts: 6,476
|
Each reader views a tome through his own lifes experience. It is part of what makes each book personal. I agree with PB and Inked and both are true to the facts as we know them from Tolkein and his son.
__________________
Vizzini: "HE DIDN'T FALL?! INCONCEIVABLE!!" Inigo: "You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means." |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
|
|
![]() |
||||
Thread | Thread Starter | Forum | Replies | Last Post |
HP Vs. LoTR | Pytt | Harry Potter | 53 | 01-17-2011 01:33 AM |
Blatant LoTR Copy-Cats | ItalianLegolas | Middle Earth | 81 | 08-13-2010 12:17 AM |
LOTR Discussion: Appendices E and F | Forkbeard | LOTR Discussion Project | 11 | 09-15-2008 06:16 PM |
LOTR Discussion: Appendix A, parts 2 and 3 | Forkbeard | LOTR Discussion Project | 12 | 12-28-2007 07:10 AM |
Funny LOTR Insults | Haradrim | Middle Earth | 0 | 08-22-2004 01:19 AM |