On Tolkien's sense of Humor

Beren3000 · 01-11-2005, 05:04 PM

Lotr and the Sil. are such serious and "grand" works. But through subtle hints here and there you can feel that Tolkien enjoyed a great sense of humor (like with Sam's troll song) and that sense of humor can be seen in some of his letters: he knew someone by the name of T. W. Earp, so he nicknamed him "the original twerp"!

That said, the Sil. doesn't contain that much humor (at least the Tolkien version of it

) So do you think that this sense of humor was inherent to Tolkien or was it just a literary device to lighten in the mood in some of the darker parts of Lotr? IOW, was Tolkien the stereotypical college professor, or was he a funny guy?

01-11-2005, 05:04 PM	#1
Beren3000 Fëanorophobic Join Date: May 2004 Location: Between the pages of a book Posts: 1,417	On Tolkien's sense of Humor Lotr and the Sil. are such serious and "grand" works. But through subtle hints here and there you can feel that Tolkien enjoyed a great sense of humor (like with Sam's troll song) and that sense of humor can be seen in some of his letters: he knew someone by the name of T. W. Earp, so he nicknamed him "the original twerp"! That said, the Sil. doesn't contain that much humor (at least the Tolkien version of it ) So do you think that this sense of humor was inherent to Tolkien or was it just a literary device to lighten in the mood in some of the darker parts of Lotr? IOW, was Tolkien the stereotypical college professor, or was he a funny guy?

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