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Boomer Classics. J. R. R. Tolkien: Creating a new mythos - and a new reality. Background. Seventy years ago, in 1937, John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, a professor of Old English at Oxford, published a short book called “The Hobbit, or There and Back Again.”
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Boomer Classics J. R. R. Tolkien: Creating a new mythos - and a new reality
Background Seventy years ago, in 1937, John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, a professor of Old English at Oxford, published a short book called “The Hobbit, or There and Back Again.” Things have never been quite the same since.
Thoughts to consider tonight The Hobbit was published in 1937. The massive Lord of the Rings trilogy didn’t hit the shelves until 1954 and 1955. Yet these did not become major bestsellers until the mid 1960’s. What changed to drive the new interest in ‘middle earth’ and the land of hobbits, elves, dwarfs and wizards?
Thoughts to consider tonight Does Tolkien have anything to say to us today? Does his work have any major themes that still speak to us?
J.R.R. Tolkien • Born at the end of the 19th Century (1/3/1892) in South Africa. • “Ronald” returned to West Middlelands, England with his mother and brother following his father’s death in 1896. • Mother converted to Catholicism in 1900, which broke all family ties.
Early Years • Tolkien shows great skills and interest in languages. • Fascinated by words, he mastered Greek and Latin by 12. • But in 1904, his mother dies. • The boys are raised by parish priest Father Francis.
The First Glimpse In 1913, he found this intriguing couplet in Crist of Cynewulf : “Eálá Earendel engla beorhtastOfer middangeard monnum sended” Which translated to: “Hail Earendel brightest of angels, over Middle Earth sent to men.”
The War to End All Wars • When war breaks out in 1914, unlike all his friends and most of his generation, he does NOT race to join. • He returns to Oxford to finish his degree, and his invented languages. • However, war soon finds him.
War • Tolkien inducted in 1915 • By this point, all but one of his childhood friends have died at the front. • After 4 months, he has a terrible case of trench fever, a typhus-like infection. • He is returned to England
The Lost Tales During his hospital stay and his long recovery, he writes “The Lost Tales.” It would not be published in his lifetime.
The Lost Tales Here his first stories of the Elves and the Gnomes, of the war of Morgoth, the seige and fall of Gondolin, and the story of Turin, Berin, and Luthian would be told.
The Lost Tales This is where most of the major stories of The Silmarillion would first appear. Tolkien was developing the complete mythos, which he called The Legendarium.
Why the Legendarium? After his experiences in the war of the trenches, Tolkien wrote that he “thought Western Civilization was in peril” and he hoped that his middle earth myth-making would inspire its preservation.
After the War • he worked briefly on the “New Oxford Dictionary” • became an assistant professor at Leeds • collaborated with E.V. Gordon to publish the famous version of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
Tolkien at Oxford • In 1925, he returned to Oxford as a professor of Anglo-Saxon English (Old English to the rest of us.) • While his teaching is mostly unremarkable, his social life is transformative.
The Inklings • He is a founding member of the “The Inklings” a writing group. • The Inklings regularly met for conversation, drink, and frequent reading from their work-in-progress. • The most famous fellow member is C.S. Lewis.
The Birth of the Hobbits “In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.” In his own words… (link)
The Hobbit • Published in 1937, it was … not an instant hit. But it did break through as a children’s story. • While popular, the book sold fewer than 5,000 copies by the end of WW II!
The Hobbit The publisher did ask for more, though, and Tolkien proudly offered up The Silmarillion … Which they rejected!
A Sequel to the Hobbit • They did want a sequel to The Hobbit, though, so he agreed to try. • It only took 16 years! • The first book of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, “The Fellowship of the Ring” was published in 1954.
Enter the 1960’s While it sold ok, it was not a huge hit – until the mid-1960’s. By 1966, Tolkien was a hit on American college campus’s. Why?
Paperback Publication! Ballantine Books issued the first authorized paperback edition of The Lord of the Rings in the United States in 1965.
Paperback Publication! Ace SF had jumped the gun and actually published these in paperback in the US first – and then withdrew them when challenged. Now you understand the little “This is the only paperback editions authorized by me” note from Tolkien on the back of the Ballentine version!
Themes of LOTRs Tolkien's ethical themes of: • heroism • servant-leadership • virtue - and its dependence upon uncorrupted rural setting. (is this actually environmentalism???)
Themes of LOTRs His Political Themes of: • the nature of evil • nihilism • and the inescapably corrupting influence of power.
What is LOTR all about? Why college students in the mid 1960’s? There are many reasons: it didn’t hurt that their values seemed to mirror the counter-culture’s (back to nature) and they were exciting and new, with a view of heroism and love and danger. (The hobbits propensity to pass the time smoking Pipeweed didn’t hurt, either.) • Let’s hear Tolkien read us a verse (verse link) • And speaking about middle earth (link)
Publication History • The Hobbit, 1937 • The Fellowship of the Ring, 1954 • The Two Towers, 1954 • The Return of the King, 1955 • (Paperbacks hit the US, 1965) • The Silmarillion, 1977 • The Lost Tales, 1983 • The Children of Hurin, 2007
J.R.R. Tolkien • Dies in 1973. • At the same time, his stories are only building in sales. Besides the books, a series of games use Tolkien’s Middle Earth as a jumping off point for adventure!
Dungeons & Dragons A huge phenomenon of the 1970’s and 1980’s, creator Gary Gygax says he was not influenced by Tolkien. Of course, he was forced by Ballentine to change hobbit to halfling, ent to treant, and balrog to Type IV demon … and on, and on…
SF & Fantasy Fiction And authors step into the market Tolkien created. Early readers of LOTRs had NO WHERE to turn for some years, but by the late 1970’s the flood began!
SF & Fantasy Fiction “I had read The Lord of the Rings two years earlier. What if Tolkien's magic and fairy creatures were made part of the worlds of Walter Scott and Dumas?” -- Terry Brooks, 1991
Music Led Zeppelin – Battle of Evermore (link)
Computer games The computer gaming industry was only beginning, but action RPGs on computer, arcade games, and text based adventures drew from the concept. (Today, computer games now garner 10 times the movie industry income!)
Movies And movies… Hollywood finally caught up with Tolkien’s imagination with the Peter Jackson epic version of the LOTR. - and made a BILLION DOLLARS in the process!
Movies And while Peter Jackson and New World Features have sworn to never work together again – the cast for the proposed Hobbit movie say “we’ll only do it if Jackson is the director.” NWF & PJ are now in talks … via e-mail
Thoughts to consider tonight But for all the dollars produced by this 70 year old idea, remember that for Tolkien, it was NEVER about the money. His themes of heroic acts and selfless service were a statement to his fallen friends, and how power and corruption, nihilism and loss hurt the world.
Your Thoughts? • Did Tolkien meet his goal to inspire people? • Do the tales from LOTR still inspire? • Does his work have any major themes that still speak to us today? • Did Tolkien make Harry Potter possible? • Will Harry Potter inspire people for three generations to come? • Can we say Tolkien’s “myths” have created a “new reality?”
