JRRT on YouTube

[The Gaffer]

Apologies if this has been done, but didn't show up on a search. I hadn't seen these before.

On Elves, Dwarves and Men

On writing the books (long)
- "The Shire is very like the world in which I first became aware of things"

Reciting the One Ring poem

[Rían]

Thanks, Gaffer! I've never seen these

*watches for a few minutes*

My goodness, no one speaks faster than a Brit!

[Alcuin]

Originally Posted by The Gaffer

On Elves, Dwarves and Men

Thank you, Gaffer.

That was really interesting. Elves and Men are EruhÃ*ni – Children of Eru, but Dwarves are specifically excluded from that designation: Aulë, not Eru, made them, and they remain separate from Elves and Men, apparently throughout Time.

Does anyone understand the gestures Tolkien is making with his hands when he partially covers his face during this interview? What is the psychological meaning of this? He looks exceedingly uncomfortable, covers his face with an “intellectual� gesture with his left hand, realizes he’s done it, stops it, and then involuntarily makes a similar but less obvious gesture, and catches himself again, all the time still looking very uncomfortable. It seems that he grimaces a bit, too, during this part of the conversation. What’s going on there, and why do you suppose he’s so uncomfortable?

[The Gaffer]

I get the feeling that JRRT has a bit of embarrassment about the success of the whole enterprise.

But what a boring voice!! Ye gods, if you could stay awake for 2 minutes in one of his philology lectures you'd be doing well.

[Alcuin]

He drew a packed crowd for his annual Beowulf recitation at Oxford.

What I’m curious about is the hand-over-the-mouth, hand and fingers over the mouth and three-quarters of the face gesture. He recognizes what he’s doing, stops, and then does a petit version of the same gesture.

There’s a whole study of “micro-expressions” and hand gestures in speech and movement. I don’t know how solid it is, but practitioners – policemen, psychiatrists and psychologists, politicians, lawyers, and other folk – believe in it. Tolkien’s delivery has several of these that I think I can identify, and I’m curious what it is that’s happening that made him want to conceal himself, or cover his mouth, or look as if he found some part of the experience bitter or unpleasant. Even if this conclusion is correct – and there is absolutely no professional judgment on my part to back it – we might still never know; and of course, I might simply be chasing a skunk: looks funny, smells funny, and if I get too close, I will, too.

(Skunks, by the way, are New World animals. I’ve always wondered if there are any records of the Europeans first encountering them…)

[The Gaffer]

Originally Posted by Alcuin

He drew a packed crowd for his annual Beowulf recitation at Oxford.

Insomniacs to a man

Originally Posted by Alcuin

What I’m curious about is the hand-over-the-mouth, hand and fingers over the mouth and three-quarters of the face gesture.

Lying, embarrassed or both.

[inked]

His recitation voice is quite different from his interview voice. I suspect his annual recitation was quite stirring. Hear here: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=fccfIJ...eature=related

As to the gestures, I think that you have an individual with a camera shoved into his face who cannot gesticulate as he seems wont to do, cannot handle his pipe nor smoke it as is his wont, and who is intensely private but faced with an aggressive interviewer who seems peremptory. Tolkien is a man given to thought before he utters the answer and the interviewer cannot seem to give him the space to do this! (Did the interviewer never hear of editing, one wonders?)

I do not think that Tolkien is lying in any fashion; embarrassed, yes. But mainly uncertain as to how manage his hands and his rapid-fire interlocutor who seems to be angling for some sort of expose along lines of his own choosing.

Your mileage may differ.

By the by, I have a DVD of BEOWULF done quite well by Benjamin Bagby that gives the bard voice quite well. Based on the Tolkien recitation of the Ents March found here: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=yPV63i...eature=related
I should say that his recitation and his lectures would not have allowed sleeping! The bard in Tolkien comes through quite well. The enunciation and declamation are wonderful.

Thanks, Gaffer, for directing to these. I have another reason for Thanksgiving!

[Valandil]

I'm happy! I was finally able to take some time to listen to these.

Originally Posted by inked

His recitation voice is quite different from his interview voice. I suspect his annual recitation was quite stirring...
:
:

And don't fail to listen to his singing voice:

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=K9Wmxw...eature=related

[inked]

Aye, an' a luv'ly rendition 'twere, too, Sir. 'Un of 'is oldest public verses!