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The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien
This collection will entertain all who appreciate the art of masterful letter writing. The Letters of J.R.R Tolkien sheds much light on J.R.R. Tolkien's creative genius and grand design for the creation of a whole new Middle-earth. Featuring a radically expanded index, this volume contains 354 letters, dating between October 1914, when Tolkien was an undergraduate at the University of Oxford, and August 29, 1973, four days before his death. This is a valuable research tool for all fans wishing to trace the evolution of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.
502 pages, Paperback
First published August 20, 1981
About the author
J.R.R. Tolkien
516 books71.1k followersJohn Ronald Reuel Tolkien: writer, artist, scholar, linguist. Known to millions around the world as the author of The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien spent most of his life teaching at the University of Oxford where he was a distinguished academic in the fields of Old and Middle English and Old Norse. His creativity, confined to his spare time, found its outlet in fantasy works, stories for children, poetry, illustration and invented languages and alphabets.
Tolkien’s most popular works, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings are set in Middle-earth, an imagined world with strangely familiar settings inhabited by ancient and extraordinary peoples. Through this secondary world Tolkien writes perceptively of universal human concerns – love and loss, courage and betrayal, humility and pride – giving his books a wide and enduring appeal.
Tolkien was an accomplished amateur artist who painted for pleasure and relaxation. He excelled at landscapes and often drew inspiration from his own stories. He illustrated many scenes from The Silmarillion, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, sometimes drawing or painting as he was writing in order to visualize the imagined scene more clearly.
Tolkien was a professor at the Universities of Leeds and Oxford for almost forty years, teaching Old and Middle English, as well as Old Norse and Gothic. His illuminating lectures on works such as the Old English epic poem, Beowulf, illustrate his deep knowledge of ancient languages and at the same time provide new insights into peoples and legends from a remote past.
Tolkien was born in Bloemfontein, South Africa, in 1892 to English parents. He came to England aged three and was brought up in and around Birmingham. He graduated from the University of Oxford in 1915 and saw active service in France during the First World War before being invalided home. After the war he pursued an academic career teaching Old and Middle English. Alongside his professional work, he invented his own languages and began to create what he called a mythology for England; it was this ‘legendarium’ that he would work on throughout his life. But his literary work did not start and end with Middle-earth, he also wrote poetry, children’s stories and fairy tales for adults. He died in 1973 and is buried in Oxford where he spent most of his adult life.
Tolkien’s most popular works, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings are set in Middle-earth, an imagined world with strangely familiar settings inhabited by ancient and extraordinary peoples. Through this secondary world Tolkien writes perceptively of universal human concerns – love and loss, courage and betrayal, humility and pride – giving his books a wide and enduring appeal.
Tolkien was an accomplished amateur artist who painted for pleasure and relaxation. He excelled at landscapes and often drew inspiration from his own stories. He illustrated many scenes from The Silmarillion, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, sometimes drawing or painting as he was writing in order to visualize the imagined scene more clearly.
Tolkien was a professor at the Universities of Leeds and Oxford for almost forty years, teaching Old and Middle English, as well as Old Norse and Gothic. His illuminating lectures on works such as the Old English epic poem, Beowulf, illustrate his deep knowledge of ancient languages and at the same time provide new insights into peoples and legends from a remote past.
Tolkien was born in Bloemfontein, South Africa, in 1892 to English parents. He came to England aged three and was brought up in and around Birmingham. He graduated from the University of Oxford in 1915 and saw active service in France during the First World War before being invalided home. After the war he pursued an academic career teaching Old and Middle English. Alongside his professional work, he invented his own languages and began to create what he called a mythology for England; it was this ‘legendarium’ that he would work on throughout his life. But his literary work did not start and end with Middle-earth, he also wrote poetry, children’s stories and fairy tales for adults. He died in 1973 and is buried in Oxford where he spent most of his adult life.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 353 reviews
January 26, 2013
Dear Unwin,
the Hobbit will be ready tomorrow, honest.
Yours faithfully,
Tolkien.
Dear Unwin,
I've been swamped by illness, work, exams, more work, more exams, lectures, more work and more exams. I can't possibly get it ready this decade.
Yours faithfully,
Tolkien.
Dear Unwin,
did you like it?
Yours faithfully,
Tolkien.
Dear Unwin,
glad you liked it. The illustrations will be ready tomorrow.
Yours faithfully,
Tolkien.
...this decade, etc.
Dear Unwin,
I may have no taste but the American cover art is appalling and did they even read the book?
Yours faithfully,
Tolkien.
[Repeat all of the above w.r.t LoTR]
Dear [Inkling]
the other Inklings' work is mostly rubbish but I like it in parts and even though they are annoying I like them really.
Yours,
Tolkers.
[repeat with every other Inkling]
Dear [somebody acquainted with me]
that critic is impertinent and did he even read the book?
Yours, annoyed,
JRRT
Dear Christopher,
you are the only one who understands me! I love you! Sob!
Your
Father.
[Above written in Anglo-Saxon.]
Dear Nazi scum,
you, Apartheid supporters, Colonialists and other racist groups are all intellectually and morally defective. The Jews are a fine people and I would be proud to have Jewish ancestry but as far as I know I don't.
Yours with no respect at all.
Tolkien.
Dear [any translator of LoTR]
your translation is rubbish; why do you translate names that are not in English? Your translations are unnecessary and show a poor grasp of [your native language]. [Demonstrates a superior knowledge of the translator's language.] Here's a book I wrote about how to translate my book.
Yours faithfully,
Tolkien.
Dear {Member of public]
thank you for your interesting questions. Enclosed is a set of answers in obsessive detail that I worked out prior to my 5th birthday. It includes philological details unintelligible to any person lay in the subject.
Yours faithfully,
Tolkien.
Dear {Critic I like]
thank you for your encouraging, perceptive review.
Yours faithfully,
Tolkien.
Dear [prospective interviewer]
leave me alone.
Yours faithfully,
Tolkien.
Dear [Reader who said something stupid]
as any one with a modicum of understanding of [Old Ancient High Low North Western Indo-European Obscure Language], which is surely everybody, knows, you are completely wrong. Enclosed is a detailed explanation, incomprehensible to anyone lay in philology. And anyway it says you're wrong in the Appendices.
Yours faithfully,
Tolkien.
Dear Christopher,
the Roman Catholic Church is axiomatically right about everything even though most of its priests are idiotic, uneducated, corrupt, morally defective, politcally-minded perverts.
Your
Father.
----------------------------------------
That, if repeated many times over, is this book. It's interesting in parts and dull (because repetitive) in others. It shows a man jealously protective of his work, easily irritated (although by things that would probably wind up many an author) in search of an unmechanised rural idyll that never existed in the same way as Thomas Hardy. Enormously erudite, he struggled to understand why other people might find Anglo-Saxon difficult - a common problem with people of enormous talent in any intellectual discipline being the inability to conceive of it being anything but simple to grasp.
Worthwhile for anybody who wants to know more of what Tolkien the person was like.
the Hobbit will be ready tomorrow, honest.
Yours faithfully,
Tolkien.
Dear Unwin,
I've been swamped by illness, work, exams, more work, more exams, lectures, more work and more exams. I can't possibly get it ready this decade.
Yours faithfully,
Tolkien.
Dear Unwin,
did you like it?
Yours faithfully,
Tolkien.
Dear Unwin,
glad you liked it. The illustrations will be ready tomorrow.
Yours faithfully,
Tolkien.
...this decade, etc.
Dear Unwin,
I may have no taste but the American cover art is appalling and did they even read the book?
Yours faithfully,
Tolkien.
[Repeat all of the above w.r.t LoTR]
Dear [Inkling]
the other Inklings' work is mostly rubbish but I like it in parts and even though they are annoying I like them really.
Yours,
Tolkers.
[repeat with every other Inkling]
Dear [somebody acquainted with me]
that critic is impertinent and did he even read the book?
Yours, annoyed,
JRRT
Dear Christopher,
you are the only one who understands me! I love you! Sob!
Your
Father.
[Above written in Anglo-Saxon.]
Dear Nazi scum,
you, Apartheid supporters, Colonialists and other racist groups are all intellectually and morally defective. The Jews are a fine people and I would be proud to have Jewish ancestry but as far as I know I don't.
Yours with no respect at all.
Tolkien.
Dear [any translator of LoTR]
your translation is rubbish; why do you translate names that are not in English? Your translations are unnecessary and show a poor grasp of [your native language]. [Demonstrates a superior knowledge of the translator's language.] Here's a book I wrote about how to translate my book.
Yours faithfully,
Tolkien.
Dear {Member of public]
thank you for your interesting questions. Enclosed is a set of answers in obsessive detail that I worked out prior to my 5th birthday. It includes philological details unintelligible to any person lay in the subject.
Yours faithfully,
Tolkien.
Dear {Critic I like]
thank you for your encouraging, perceptive review.
Yours faithfully,
Tolkien.
Dear [prospective interviewer]
leave me alone.
Yours faithfully,
Tolkien.
Dear [Reader who said something stupid]
as any one with a modicum of understanding of [Old Ancient High Low North Western Indo-European Obscure Language], which is surely everybody, knows, you are completely wrong. Enclosed is a detailed explanation, incomprehensible to anyone lay in philology. And anyway it says you're wrong in the Appendices.
Yours faithfully,
Tolkien.
Dear Christopher,
the Roman Catholic Church is axiomatically right about everything even though most of its priests are idiotic, uneducated, corrupt, morally defective, politcally-minded perverts.
Your
Father.
----------------------------------------
That, if repeated many times over, is this book. It's interesting in parts and dull (because repetitive) in others. It shows a man jealously protective of his work, easily irritated (although by things that would probably wind up many an author) in search of an unmechanised rural idyll that never existed in the same way as Thomas Hardy. Enormously erudite, he struggled to understand why other people might find Anglo-Saxon difficult - a common problem with people of enormous talent in any intellectual discipline being the inability to conceive of it being anything but simple to grasp.
Worthwhile for anybody who wants to know more of what Tolkien the person was like.
February 29, 2016
I discovered The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien back in '96 when I moved to an LA suburb and was searching through the library for something interesting to read while I took advantage of their free A/C during the blistering summer heat.
This was definitely something interesting, but only because I was a Tolkien fanboy. Who else would find joy in pouring over mostly mundane letters to friends, family and publishers? Me, I pored over over them, so happy to read even the most minuscule detail of the man's life.
It's been a while, so my recollection of what's contained in the letters is not precise. I seem to recall a feeling of being let down that more personal information wasn't revealed. English reserve seemed to be at play here.
The correspondence with his book publisher and seeing how that portion of his work came together held just as much interest, and there is a good deal of that herein, if I recall. I was already aware that Tolkien had some trouble convincing them to publish Lord of the Rings, even after the success of The Hobbit. And after publishing went forward, there was still a struggle over issues that needed ironing out. None of which is terribly riveting reading unless you're a fan.
This was definitely something interesting, but only because I was a Tolkien fanboy. Who else would find joy in pouring over mostly mundane letters to friends, family and publishers? Me, I pored over over them, so happy to read even the most minuscule detail of the man's life.
It's been a while, so my recollection of what's contained in the letters is not precise. I seem to recall a feeling of being let down that more personal information wasn't revealed. English reserve seemed to be at play here.
The correspondence with his book publisher and seeing how that portion of his work came together held just as much interest, and there is a good deal of that herein, if I recall. I was already aware that Tolkien had some trouble convincing them to publish Lord of the Rings, even after the success of The Hobbit. And after publishing went forward, there was still a struggle over issues that needed ironing out. None of which is terribly riveting reading unless you're a fan.
December 4, 2008
Tolkien, as popular as he is, is too often misunderstood. His works and world are wrongly interpreted and crazy assumptions are made about the man himself. Worst is when people use The Lord of the Rings to make a point that Tolkien himself would have disagreed with. For instance, after Obama was elected one political commentator happily declared, "The shadows are lifting from Mordor" — being apparently completely unaware that Tolkien was politically against big government and that Obama's moral worldview is about as far from Tolkien's as it is possible to get, so that if anything Tolkien would have considered the night over Mordor to be blacker than ever. If everyone who wanted to say something about Tolkien read his letters first, they would do the man and his works far better justice. Of particular interest in this book are the many moving references to Tolkien's deep Catholic Faith, particularly the long letter to one of his sons on the subject of marriage and the relationships between men and women.
August 31, 2015
What better way to enter the mind of a mentor you'll never get to meet than to read his letters?
There are so many facets I gleaned about the man by reading these letters--his humor, sadness, fear & humility.
There are so many facets I gleaned about the man by reading these letters--his humor, sadness, fear & humility.
February 1, 2023
I feel like I have a deeper understanding of Tolkien after reading this, not just as an author but as a human.
April 16, 2010
An excerpt from a letter to Walter Hooper, 20 February 1968:
"I remember Jack [C.S. Lewis:] telling me a story of Brightman, the distinguished ecclesiastical scholar, who used to sit quietly in Common Room saying nothing except on rare occasions. Jack said that there was a discussion on dragons one night and at the end Brightman's voice was heard to say, 'I have seen a dragon.' Silence. 'Where was that?' he was asked. 'On the Mount of Olives,' he said. He relapsed into silence and never before his death explained what he meant."
Very few things could be more imagination-sparking than reading that late at night curled up with a massive book of letters when one is already thinking about wonderful things. I think it's very healthy to believe in the possibility of things, it makes life so much more interesting.
"I remember Jack [C.S. Lewis:] telling me a story of Brightman, the distinguished ecclesiastical scholar, who used to sit quietly in Common Room saying nothing except on rare occasions. Jack said that there was a discussion on dragons one night and at the end Brightman's voice was heard to say, 'I have seen a dragon.' Silence. 'Where was that?' he was asked. 'On the Mount of Olives,' he said. He relapsed into silence and never before his death explained what he meant."
Very few things could be more imagination-sparking than reading that late at night curled up with a massive book of letters when one is already thinking about wonderful things. I think it's very healthy to believe in the possibility of things, it makes life so much more interesting.
May 31, 2023
“Frodo deserved all honour because he spent every drop of his power of will and body, and that was just sufficient to bring him to the destined point, and no further. Few others, possibly no others of his time, would have got so far.”
You guys better start giving Frodo the respect he deserves.
This is a collection of letters written by our beloved author. We get to see some parts of his private life (he really loved his family😭) and his journey is writing and publishing his books (his biggest fans were his children, C.S Lewis and the publisher’s son, all who championed the Hobbit🥹) It was lovely getting a glimpse of his life but how I got teary eyed whenever he mentioned C.S Lewis. I don’t why this friendship hits me so hard but it does. And Tolkien’s reaction to his death!
[Written four days after the death of C. S. Lewis.]
So far I have felt the normal feelings of a man of my age – like an old tree that is losing all its leaves one by one: this feels like an axe-blow near the roots.
For a man who loved trees so much, this description is a painful analogy to give😭
July 11, 2017
“It is a curse having an epic temperament in an overcrowded age [1944] devoted to sappy bits!”
A treasure trove of insightful material into the life and writings of Tolkien, but not for everyone. Readers uninterested in Tolkien’s writings need not waste their time.
Where to start? With the negatives, since they’re so few. Tolkien is opinionated, peevish and pedantic. He hated the appellation “professor.”
Among these letters covering most of his adult life, we learn how he viewed his world, his writings, his friends, his religion and his invented languages and history. That is how he saw Middle Earth as history he had discovered as much as created—or, as he would say, sub-created. The letters begin shortly after The Hobbit was published and cover the production of The Lord of the Rings and the aftermath of its unexpected popularity, and his futile struggle to complete and publish The Silmarillion, which his son Christopher succeeded in publishing five years after his father died.
For those, like myself, who count Tolkein’s works as the gold standard of epic fantasy, these letters give insights only alluded to elsewhere. It’s slow and difficult reading in some cases, partly because context is missing. But the payoff is deeper appreciation of Tolkien’s life and world (real and imagined). We learn the origin of the world, names and characters of the fantasy, and his struggle to keep others from reading alien ideas into the works. Though he admitted (in 1939), “The darkness of the present days has had some effect on it.”
“A most amusing and highly contentious evening, on which (had an outsider eavesdropped) he would have thought it (the Inklings) a meeting of fell enemies hurling deadly insults before drawing their guns.” Sounds like fun.
Now I'll the only logical thing: re-read The Lord of the Rings. Again.
A treasure trove of insightful material into the life and writings of Tolkien, but not for everyone. Readers uninterested in Tolkien’s writings need not waste their time.
Where to start? With the negatives, since they’re so few. Tolkien is opinionated, peevish and pedantic. He hated the appellation “professor.”
Among these letters covering most of his adult life, we learn how he viewed his world, his writings, his friends, his religion and his invented languages and history. That is how he saw Middle Earth as history he had discovered as much as created—or, as he would say, sub-created. The letters begin shortly after The Hobbit was published and cover the production of The Lord of the Rings and the aftermath of its unexpected popularity, and his futile struggle to complete and publish The Silmarillion, which his son Christopher succeeded in publishing five years after his father died.
For those, like myself, who count Tolkein’s works as the gold standard of epic fantasy, these letters give insights only alluded to elsewhere. It’s slow and difficult reading in some cases, partly because context is missing. But the payoff is deeper appreciation of Tolkien’s life and world (real and imagined). We learn the origin of the world, names and characters of the fantasy, and his struggle to keep others from reading alien ideas into the works. Though he admitted (in 1939), “The darkness of the present days has had some effect on it.”
“A most amusing and highly contentious evening, on which (had an outsider eavesdropped) he would have thought it (the Inklings) a meeting of fell enemies hurling deadly insults before drawing their guns.” Sounds like fun.
Now I'll the only logical thing: re-read The Lord of the Rings. Again.
January 28, 2020
What a brilliant, brilliant man.
“Well, cheers and all that to you dearest son. We were born in a dark age out of due time (for us). But there is comfort: otherwise we should not know, or so much love, what we do love. I imagine the fish out of water is the only fish to have an inkling of water.” (To Christopher Tolkien, 1943)
“Well, cheers and all that to you dearest son. We were born in a dark age out of due time (for us). But there is comfort: otherwise we should not know, or so much love, what we do love. I imagine the fish out of water is the only fish to have an inkling of water.” (To Christopher Tolkien, 1943)
April 23, 2024
How do you review a book that is entirely based on personal-professional letters and then assign a score to it—something that was never intended to be published? Well, it is what it is. Firstly, let's break some misconceptions: “Tolkien never wanted anyone to write an autobiography of him” That’s misleading, to say the least. He just didn’t want someone completely unacquainted with him writing about his life (rather it be done by a friend), and most importantly, he just didn’t want people to read his life and apply that to his work (it being the secrets to analyse his work). As he repeats verbatim that he actively dislikes allegory, but doesn’t mind applicability. He inevitably knew someone would write an autobiography of him, so he dictated a lot of these letters himself.
I wish I kept track of all the most important letters that spoke to me in a profound way, but I didn’t. Nevertheless, there are gems littered throughout, from Tolkien's general worldview, philosophy and how he views his work. It’s not one of a writer (he views it almost like it’s entirely real), not one of a historian, he did say a term that words lost me as I've been typing this review, but I will settle for a recorder. One thing I should note, people often say the characters in Tolkien LOTR sound unrealistic, but after reading all these letters, you just realise Tolkien just talked in this manner, in particular the way of Bilbo with his cleverness, charm, and wit.
I think if you watch or read a lot about Tolkien, I don’t believe this will radically change your view of Middle Earth as a whole. The most important information about his works has been cited almost everywhere else. This is not to say you won’t learn anything about Middle Earth, you still learn a good deal. I particularly liked him talking about Frodo and his quest, however, this is, as you would expect, the personal life of Tolkien, the trouble he had publishing his works (and failing to publish many books within his lifetime), and his academic career. It’s saddening to hear how much money issues Tolkien had considering the wealth LOTR accumulated near the end of his life, but particularly after his death.
The letters near the end of his life were the most tragic to read. Especially the final letter written days before his death to his daughter. It’s the letters where he is old, reminiscing about life, that are the most tragic to read. He was burdened by so much, but never had the time to write. When he had some time to write, it became too much. After the death of his wife, he wrote:
I’m glad I waited till now to read The Letters of Tolkien, especially this new edition, which was Humphrey Carpenter's original vision of the book (like Stephen King's The Stand Uncut edition). It’s not exactly the most riveting read, but there’s a lot of fun, letters to reminisce, digest, and just take in. Obviously, philsophically, I differ from Tolkien in many respects. Not just in terms of faith, however, he’s a fun, witty, intelligent, and charming man who I would have loved to share a beer with if I were born in that era and visited Oxford. I should note, the notes that are littered throughout do provide important context that you would miss otherwise and are valuable.
In Conclusion, if you are just interested in Tolkien himself and want to read his letters, not just about Middle Earth, definitely give it a shot. It’s the closest thing to an to an autobiography we will get from the professor.
I wish I kept track of all the most important letters that spoke to me in a profound way, but I didn’t. Nevertheless, there are gems littered throughout, from Tolkien's general worldview, philosophy and how he views his work. It’s not one of a writer (he views it almost like it’s entirely real), not one of a historian, he did say a term that words lost me as I've been typing this review, but I will settle for a recorder. One thing I should note, people often say the characters in Tolkien LOTR sound unrealistic, but after reading all these letters, you just realise Tolkien just talked in this manner, in particular the way of Bilbo with his cleverness, charm, and wit.
I think if you watch or read a lot about Tolkien, I don’t believe this will radically change your view of Middle Earth as a whole. The most important information about his works has been cited almost everywhere else. This is not to say you won’t learn anything about Middle Earth, you still learn a good deal. I particularly liked him talking about Frodo and his quest, however, this is, as you would expect, the personal life of Tolkien, the trouble he had publishing his works (and failing to publish many books within his lifetime), and his academic career. It’s saddening to hear how much money issues Tolkien had considering the wealth LOTR accumulated near the end of his life, but particularly after his death.
The letters near the end of his life were the most tragic to read. Especially the final letter written days before his death to his daughter. It’s the letters where he is old, reminiscing about life, that are the most tragic to read. He was burdened by so much, but never had the time to write. When he had some time to write, it became too much. After the death of his wife, he wrote:
”But the story has gone crooked, & I am left, and I cannot plead before the inexorable Mandos.”
I’m glad I waited till now to read The Letters of Tolkien, especially this new edition, which was Humphrey Carpenter's original vision of the book (like Stephen King's The Stand Uncut edition). It’s not exactly the most riveting read, but there’s a lot of fun, letters to reminisce, digest, and just take in. Obviously, philsophically, I differ from Tolkien in many respects. Not just in terms of faith, however, he’s a fun, witty, intelligent, and charming man who I would have loved to share a beer with if I were born in that era and visited Oxford. I should note, the notes that are littered throughout do provide important context that you would miss otherwise and are valuable.
In Conclusion, if you are just interested in Tolkien himself and want to read his letters, not just about Middle Earth, definitely give it a shot. It’s the closest thing to an to an autobiography we will get from the professor.
February 6, 2023
"I do not know all the answers. Much of my own book puzzles me."
Tolkienovy dopisy bych bez rozmýšlení strčila do pomyslné škatulky naprosté povinnosti. Vlastně jsem si během čtení několikrát smutně povzdechla, protože český překlad by byl rozhodně na místě. Prosím, prosím. Tahle věc dokresluje plno sounáležitostí, dokončuje rozestavěné puzzle, a když ne, tak v něm minimálně pokračuje. Vzbuzuje otázky a naprosto nekompromisně odpovídá na tu jednu mnohdy opomíjenou. Byl by Tolkien někdy spokojený s jakoukoliv adaptací? Nebyl. no a pokud si nakonec potřebujete trošku dokreslit, jak na tom otec Středozemě byl, co se povahy týče, atmosféra mnoha a mnoha dopisů, vám na to ráda odpoví.
Tolkienovy dopisy bych bez rozmýšlení strčila do pomyslné škatulky naprosté povinnosti. Vlastně jsem si během čtení několikrát smutně povzdechla, protože český překlad by byl rozhodně na místě. Prosím, prosím. Tahle věc dokresluje plno sounáležitostí, dokončuje rozestavěné puzzle, a když ne, tak v něm minimálně pokračuje. Vzbuzuje otázky a naprosto nekompromisně odpovídá na tu jednu mnohdy opomíjenou. Byl by Tolkien někdy spokojený s jakoukoliv adaptací? Nebyl. no a pokud si nakonec potřebujete trošku dokreslit, jak na tom otec Středozemě byl, co se povahy týče, atmosféra mnoha a mnoha dopisů, vám na to ráda odpoví.
April 1, 2016
Review originally posted 4 January 2013 on Falling Letters.
I thought I would breeze through this book and finish it in two days maximum. Not because it would be an 'easy' read, but because I had lots of time to read and I am highly interested in the subject matter. Not so! The book contains 430 pages of letters so dense and filled with so much that it took me much longer to read. This is not at all a complaint. I was absolutely delighted to have so much to sink my teeth into.
I don't read books about Tolkien to think 'Oh, so that's why he wrote it like this!' I agree with him (in this instance, at least) that an author's life should not be examined with intention of gaining insight with regards to authorial intent (have I phrased this sentence correctly?). I simply find him a fascinating person, for having created such a detailed and vast mythology. It really does delight me to read about someone so seemingly normal and yet so extraordinary. To be able to read hundreds of his letters, to read his thoughts, is a treat in itself. I would have read them even if they had been more dull! But this collection is not at all boring, it is a treasure trove. The letters cover so many topics, from troubles with translators, family matters, C.S. Lewis, religious debate, and of course, much on The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings and Middle-Earth lore in general.
I didn't make any notes while reading this. I was wholly absorbed in letting Tolkien's words wash over me. Note taking will come on the reread. But there are a few letters that still stuck in my memory, such as an unsent response (Tolkien sent two versions to his publisher to forward; they did not use the one that appears in the book) to a publisher looking to do a German translation of The Hobbit inquiring if Tolkien is Aryan. He writes a clever and pointed response, not confessing any Aryan lineage and refusing publication. Of course, the lengthy letter he wrote to another publisher who expressed interest in publishing The LotR and The Silmarillion, was fascinating. I also especially enjoyed the letters he wrote to inquiring fans - I doubt there any authors today who would put so much thought into their responses (let alone have that much information to impart about their imaginary worlds). These letters are chockful of highly valuable information to any fan of Middle-Earth I do have to add a caveat - I've not yet read any of Tolkien's writings besides the LotR and The Hobbit, so I can't say how much of this information is exclusive but to read Tolkien's own words feels very special indeed.
This review consists mostly of me gushing...I might be a bit of a fangirl. But really, needless to say, this tome is a highly valuable read for anyone interested in Tolkien or his works.
[Originally read 20 Dec 2012 to 3 Jan 2013]
I thought I would breeze through this book and finish it in two days maximum. Not because it would be an 'easy' read, but because I had lots of time to read and I am highly interested in the subject matter. Not so! The book contains 430 pages of letters so dense and filled with so much that it took me much longer to read. This is not at all a complaint. I was absolutely delighted to have so much to sink my teeth into.
I don't read books about Tolkien to think 'Oh, so that's why he wrote it like this!' I agree with him (in this instance, at least) that an author's life should not be examined with intention of gaining insight with regards to authorial intent (have I phrased this sentence correctly?). I simply find him a fascinating person, for having created such a detailed and vast mythology. It really does delight me to read about someone so seemingly normal and yet so extraordinary. To be able to read hundreds of his letters, to read his thoughts, is a treat in itself. I would have read them even if they had been more dull! But this collection is not at all boring, it is a treasure trove. The letters cover so many topics, from troubles with translators, family matters, C.S. Lewis, religious debate, and of course, much on The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings and Middle-Earth lore in general.
I didn't make any notes while reading this. I was wholly absorbed in letting Tolkien's words wash over me. Note taking will come on the reread. But there are a few letters that still stuck in my memory, such as an unsent response (Tolkien sent two versions to his publisher to forward; they did not use the one that appears in the book) to a publisher looking to do a German translation of The Hobbit inquiring if Tolkien is Aryan. He writes a clever and pointed response, not confessing any Aryan lineage and refusing publication. Of course, the lengthy letter he wrote to another publisher who expressed interest in publishing The LotR and The Silmarillion, was fascinating. I also especially enjoyed the letters he wrote to inquiring fans - I doubt there any authors today who would put so much thought into their responses (let alone have that much information to impart about their imaginary worlds). These letters are chockful of highly valuable information to any fan of Middle-Earth I do have to add a caveat - I've not yet read any of Tolkien's writings besides the LotR and The Hobbit, so I can't say how much of this information is exclusive but to read Tolkien's own words feels very special indeed.
This review consists mostly of me gushing...I might be a bit of a fangirl. But really, needless to say, this tome is a highly valuable read for anyone interested in Tolkien or his works.
[Originally read 20 Dec 2012 to 3 Jan 2013]
Read
March 31, 2016One of my favorite rereads.
Not only does one catch a glimpse of Tolkien's personality, life, and times, but deep in this book are buried letter-essays that provide the kernels of his ideas "On Fairy Stories" and the poem Mythopoeisis.
Not only does one catch a glimpse of Tolkien's personality, life, and times, but deep in this book are buried letter-essays that provide the kernels of his ideas "On Fairy Stories" and the poem Mythopoeisis.
April 17, 2024
This is a difficult review to write. These letters are a collection of Tolkien’s faith, love for his family, and creativity. They’re all very heartfelt, even in the brief excerpts of a few letters. Would highly recommend this for every Tolkien fan and especially from those who love God’s creation and wish to be inspired by those who did not fall into despair after the travesty of the Great War.
Read
February 3, 2024This new edition features a hundred and fifty newly-published letters, plus expansions to some letters previously included in the original edition: this is all excellent and most welcome. It should be noted, though, that these additions and expansions are selections that Humphrey Carpenter intended for inclusion in the original 1981 edition. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but it means that, for good or for ill, this new edition remains shaped by Carpenter's original editorial emphases. That means a greater focus on behind-the-scenes looks at the composition and publication of Tolkien's works, especially The Lord of the Rings, and on Tolkien's theological and philosophical reflections on his writings. While finding these fascinating and invaluable, I personally would have liked to see the more "everyday" biographical materials augmented in this new edition — partly because I delight in entering into (or at least glimpsing) that world, and partly because some of Tolkien's best, wisest, most incisive and most humane reflections tend to emerge out of these. (Letter no. 55 is perhaps my favorite example.)
Not that the expanded edition is lacking in new letters of this kind: a tender letter to a son in his first year away from home at boarding school; another to a teenage son (also away at boarding school), delicately but pointedly telling him to never again forget to write to his mother on her birthday; a warm and encouraging letter to his dear friend and colleague E.V. Gordon; a letter detailing his trip to the cinema to see The Song of Bernadette and being unexpectedly deeply touched by it (as well as a subsequent letter in which Tolkien declares that the film, upon reflection, was not so good after all!; but that he nevertheless continues, days later, to be haunted and moved by the life and story of St. Bernadette herself).
All in all: an expanded edition of Tolkien's letters can't but be a welcome and excellent thing.
Not that the expanded edition is lacking in new letters of this kind: a tender letter to a son in his first year away from home at boarding school; another to a teenage son (also away at boarding school), delicately but pointedly telling him to never again forget to write to his mother on her birthday; a warm and encouraging letter to his dear friend and colleague E.V. Gordon; a letter detailing his trip to the cinema to see The Song of Bernadette and being unexpectedly deeply touched by it (as well as a subsequent letter in which Tolkien declares that the film, upon reflection, was not so good after all!; but that he nevertheless continues, days later, to be haunted and moved by the life and story of St. Bernadette herself).
All in all: an expanded edition of Tolkien's letters can't but be a welcome and excellent thing.
May 10, 2014
Tolkien speaks often in these letters about his distaste for the over-analysis of literature. He says that trying to learn more about the author and his life and trying to fit the literature into that outside environment is unwise, and basically, annoying. So, as I read these letters of Tolkien I tried not to let what I learned about him, his life, and his views color the stories, particularly those, of course, of the Legendarium. As I am apt to over-analyze things, especially those for which I have much zeal, I was thankful that his letters made it easy! In fact, I was more encouraged than ever to know just how much the story was not written with specific events, thoughts, or intentions in mind. In one of the last letters of the book, Tolkien recalls a story in which an acquaintance shows him paintings that were created long before Middle-earth, yet seemed to almost illustrate Lord of the Rings. Tolkien insisted, truthfully, that he had never seen the paintings before. The man exclaims, embodying Gandalf utterly, "Of course you don't suppose, do you, that you wrote all that book yourself?" To me, these stories just are. They speak truths. These letters support that.
And, I learned a lot and the letters were mostly all delightful. On a less important note, I doubt any casual Middle-earth reader will enjoy these letters, unless they just like reading letters.
And, I learned a lot and the letters were mostly all delightful. On a less important note, I doubt any casual Middle-earth reader will enjoy these letters, unless they just like reading letters.
March 31, 2012
Reading Tolkien's letters has to be fascinating for anyone interested in the man and/or his works. He reflects on what he wrote, gives advice to his sons, reports on the progress of his work, and sends irritated letters to Germans who have asked if he's of Jewish descent. It's a pretty exhaustive collection, with an index and little bits of context to go with each letter. Worth reading!
February 18, 2023
Among various types of writing (fiction, poetry, critical essay, script writing, etc etc), correspondence is usually seen as a very minor (if at all) art. Do we often think about the fact that our letters (or, let's be real, our e-mails or Messenger and Whatsapp written exchanges) could be potent expressions of ourselves, containing way more than the requisite and minimal exchange of information with an interlocutor : (in)jokes, efforts to show emotion, storytelling, attemps to connect with a real or imagined audience of one or more, etc ?.. It seems to me that correspondence is where the line between “Artist” (whomst we tend to place outside of “normal people” as possessing some kind of innate qualities or “talent”) and everyday “artist” (everyone of us insofar as we express ourselves into any medium and create something out of something else) is the thinnest. Any written word presupposes intention, thinking about what we're going to write, in a moment that can last anywhere from two seconds to three months. In that intention and distance, communication becomes art.
Those were the thoughts rattling in my head while reading the huge mass of letters written by J.R.R.Tolkien. The letters reveal something of both the artist and the man. Tolkien having been a very private person, the selection of letters is adequately representative of that, focusing mostly on his thoughts about the creation of his works and his whole lifelong mythology (adressed either to friends, his editor, or, later in his life, to fans), and the letters giving glimpses into his personal life are very few. Both are fascinating in their own way, even if Tolkien himself (as he reminds often in numerous letters) espoused a (somewhat contradictory and fragmentary) belief in the concept the Death of the Author. That is, he firmly disagreed with a “biographical” interpretation of a text relating to an author's life, yet at the same time, was fiercely protective of his own view and interpretation of the books and quite disapproving at times of other interpretations (it seems in line with what I tend to call the “soft” version of the Death of the Author concept : the book existing independently of the author once released into the world, but the original author still retaining some authority over the interpretation of the books, while accepting that others might offer different interpretations that have merit).
Tolkien's art has been a subject of different controversies over the decades, and interpreted in various ways. The author himself was championed and claimed by every corner of the political spectrum. He was said to be an anarchist, a fascist, a conservative, a monarchist ... and so forth. I find it interesting that his letters do indeed give us a glimpse of a passionate and contradictory mind. He wasn't really an anarchist, at least not in the (true) leftist sense, having a strongly hierarchical mind linked to his Christian conservatism, yet he despised the lust for power in itself and was wary of anyone exhibiting it. I would say that he wasn't a fascist either, both by his negative reactions to real fascist regimes (except for a soft spot for Franco's which seems to be born more out of ignorance about the real happenings in it) and his rejection of any person trying to impose their will onto others. He definitely was a Christian Conservative (and has many amusing proto-boomer thoughts about women in trousers during Mass, the Beatles and modern jazz) and had a strong faith tinged with melancholy. He doesn't really seem to have had a coherent political ideology, and was more influenced by his feeling of living in a “fallen” world where everything not related to the highest most transcendent matters was bound to failure and decrepitude.
This melancholy tone carries over from the beginning, in his first letters written during WWI, sometimes directly from the trenches, through his later success and fame – which often made him very uncomfortable – and right until the end of his life. It lingers, like a cloud, even over his most joyous moments, his triumphs, his passions, his quiet appreciation of nature and music, his marriage, his advice to his (four) children.
Which isn't to say that there aren't any other emotions at play. Tolkien being a clearly passionate individual, his letters are often barely contained bundles of excitement or fury hidden behind a veneer of respectable "gentlemanly" expression. I found some of his petty rages to be particularly entertaining. While reading letters more or less in order, one comes to know Tolkien's mind and his triggers, and I, for instance, remember anticipating him going berserk over an absurd cover of the Hobbit (in the introduction to the letter number 277 : “The cover picture showed a lion, two emus, and a tree with bulbous fruit”) and thinking “this is gonna be good”. He had a very clear picture in his mind regarding his "sub-creation" (a very important concept in his understanding of art and litterature), and had difficulty accepting things that deviated from it too strongly.
All in all, the letters were a fascinating look into someone's lifework (and contained very many nerdy details about said lifework for obsessive types like me) and the different ways it can be expressed in correspondence, each interlocutor receiving a piece of it, and we, the readers, godlike, putting it all together with distance and hindsight.
BONUS ROUND
I do admit I did chuckle when reading this : “[about women] they do not as a rule talk 'bawdy'; not because they are purer than men (they are not) but because they don't find it funny. I have known those who pretended to, but it is a pretence. It may be intriguing, interesting, absorbing (even a great deal too absorbing) to them : but it is just plumb natural, a serious, obvious interest; where is the joke?” (letter number 42). In my experience, this is absolutely true. There is a lot to be said about sex, and jokes to be had about a variety of sexual situations, and women do engage in it, but the only ones who goes “har har, sex” about the mere mention of the existence of sex have always been men. Maybe it's a defense mechanism because men find earnestly thinking about it uncomfortable ?.. (I'm of course painting with a wide brush and do recognize that it is a socially constructed thing, and not anything inherent in being a man or a woman).
The last thing that makes me chuckle everytime, is Tolkien raging about his name being misspelled as “Tolkein” and going into insane linguistic lengths and explanations to explain why it is “Tolkien” rather than “Tolkein”, and his name still being misspelled very often. If he were alive today, I can hardly imagine the rages he'll fly into, because I still see this misspelling absolutely everywhere, from Youtube comments to articles written about his work. I guess some things never change.
Those were the thoughts rattling in my head while reading the huge mass of letters written by J.R.R.Tolkien. The letters reveal something of both the artist and the man. Tolkien having been a very private person, the selection of letters is adequately representative of that, focusing mostly on his thoughts about the creation of his works and his whole lifelong mythology (adressed either to friends, his editor, or, later in his life, to fans), and the letters giving glimpses into his personal life are very few. Both are fascinating in their own way, even if Tolkien himself (as he reminds often in numerous letters) espoused a (somewhat contradictory and fragmentary) belief in the concept the Death of the Author. That is, he firmly disagreed with a “biographical” interpretation of a text relating to an author's life, yet at the same time, was fiercely protective of his own view and interpretation of the books and quite disapproving at times of other interpretations (it seems in line with what I tend to call the “soft” version of the Death of the Author concept : the book existing independently of the author once released into the world, but the original author still retaining some authority over the interpretation of the books, while accepting that others might offer different interpretations that have merit).
Tolkien's art has been a subject of different controversies over the decades, and interpreted in various ways. The author himself was championed and claimed by every corner of the political spectrum. He was said to be an anarchist, a fascist, a conservative, a monarchist ... and so forth. I find it interesting that his letters do indeed give us a glimpse of a passionate and contradictory mind. He wasn't really an anarchist, at least not in the (true) leftist sense, having a strongly hierarchical mind linked to his Christian conservatism, yet he despised the lust for power in itself and was wary of anyone exhibiting it. I would say that he wasn't a fascist either, both by his negative reactions to real fascist regimes (except for a soft spot for Franco's which seems to be born more out of ignorance about the real happenings in it) and his rejection of any person trying to impose their will onto others. He definitely was a Christian Conservative (and has many amusing proto-boomer thoughts about women in trousers during Mass, the Beatles and modern jazz) and had a strong faith tinged with melancholy. He doesn't really seem to have had a coherent political ideology, and was more influenced by his feeling of living in a “fallen” world where everything not related to the highest most transcendent matters was bound to failure and decrepitude.
This melancholy tone carries over from the beginning, in his first letters written during WWI, sometimes directly from the trenches, through his later success and fame – which often made him very uncomfortable – and right until the end of his life. It lingers, like a cloud, even over his most joyous moments, his triumphs, his passions, his quiet appreciation of nature and music, his marriage, his advice to his (four) children.
Which isn't to say that there aren't any other emotions at play. Tolkien being a clearly passionate individual, his letters are often barely contained bundles of excitement or fury hidden behind a veneer of respectable "gentlemanly" expression. I found some of his petty rages to be particularly entertaining. While reading letters more or less in order, one comes to know Tolkien's mind and his triggers, and I, for instance, remember anticipating him going berserk over an absurd cover of the Hobbit (in the introduction to the letter number 277 : “The cover picture showed a lion, two emus, and a tree with bulbous fruit”) and thinking “this is gonna be good”. He had a very clear picture in his mind regarding his "sub-creation" (a very important concept in his understanding of art and litterature), and had difficulty accepting things that deviated from it too strongly.
All in all, the letters were a fascinating look into someone's lifework (and contained very many nerdy details about said lifework for obsessive types like me) and the different ways it can be expressed in correspondence, each interlocutor receiving a piece of it, and we, the readers, godlike, putting it all together with distance and hindsight.
BONUS ROUND
I do admit I did chuckle when reading this : “[about women] they do not as a rule talk 'bawdy'; not because they are purer than men (they are not) but because they don't find it funny. I have known those who pretended to, but it is a pretence. It may be intriguing, interesting, absorbing (even a great deal too absorbing) to them : but it is just plumb natural, a serious, obvious interest; where is the joke?” (letter number 42). In my experience, this is absolutely true. There is a lot to be said about sex, and jokes to be had about a variety of sexual situations, and women do engage in it, but the only ones who goes “har har, sex” about the mere mention of the existence of sex have always been men. Maybe it's a defense mechanism because men find earnestly thinking about it uncomfortable ?.. (I'm of course painting with a wide brush and do recognize that it is a socially constructed thing, and not anything inherent in being a man or a woman).
The last thing that makes me chuckle everytime, is Tolkien raging about his name being misspelled as “Tolkein” and going into insane linguistic lengths and explanations to explain why it is “Tolkien” rather than “Tolkein”, and his name still being misspelled very often. If he were alive today, I can hardly imagine the rages he'll fly into, because I still see this misspelling absolutely everywhere, from Youtube comments to articles written about his work. I guess some things never change.
November 16, 2023
Ich habe dieses Buch über 6 Monate in Etappen gelesen. Am Stück ist es zu anstrengend. Aber am Ende fand ich es besser und lehrreicher als jede Biografie. Es ist schon erstaunlich, wenn man einem Autor in seinen eigenen Worten sowohl beim Nachdenken als auch beim Altern zuhören kann -die Texte aber keine Tagebücher sind, sondern etwas, das immer schon mit einem Adressat im Kopf verfasst wurde. Verschiedene Dinge werden dabei sehr klar, wenn man sie nicht vorher wusste:
* Tolkien war ein absolut ungeplanter Autor, der von der Inspiration lebte und dessen Inspiration ständig da war, aber definitiv niemand, der Geschichten plottete und effizient arbeitete.
* Tolkiens Katholizismus ist überall im Herrn der Ringe, aber nicht so platt und allegorisch, wie es manchmal gerne dargestellt wird. (Ich mag insbesondere die Idee von der "Eukatastrophe", die er mehrfach darlegt und die eine endlos gute Antwort auf die typischste Beschwerde über das Ende des Herrn der Ringe ist.)
* Tolkien war schon ein ziemlich Alter Weißer Mann(tm) lange bevor er tatsächlich alt war, aber er wusste das auch zu einem gewissen Grad - er war aber auch ein sehr mitfühlender und humanistischer Mensch, und es zeigt wieder mal, wie komplex die ganze Sache ist.
Ich habe mich während des Lesens außerdem gefragt, ob Werke wie dieses mit dem Ende des Briefeschreibens der Vergangenheit angehören. Es gibt ja durchaus Autor:innen, die nach wie vor sehr viel schriftlich über ihr Leben und Werk und Drumherum nachdenken, nur halt meistens eher in Form von Blogs, Newslettern, Tweets etc. - Wären solche redaktionellen Zusammenstellungen in Zukunft denkbar? Wären sie interessant?
* Tolkien war ein absolut ungeplanter Autor, der von der Inspiration lebte und dessen Inspiration ständig da war, aber definitiv niemand, der Geschichten plottete und effizient arbeitete.
* Tolkiens Katholizismus ist überall im Herrn der Ringe, aber nicht so platt und allegorisch, wie es manchmal gerne dargestellt wird. (Ich mag insbesondere die Idee von der "Eukatastrophe", die er mehrfach darlegt und die eine endlos gute Antwort auf die typischste Beschwerde über das Ende des Herrn der Ringe ist.)
* Tolkien war schon ein ziemlich Alter Weißer Mann(tm) lange bevor er tatsächlich alt war, aber er wusste das auch zu einem gewissen Grad - er war aber auch ein sehr mitfühlender und humanistischer Mensch, und es zeigt wieder mal, wie komplex die ganze Sache ist.
Ich habe mich während des Lesens außerdem gefragt, ob Werke wie dieses mit dem Ende des Briefeschreibens der Vergangenheit angehören. Es gibt ja durchaus Autor:innen, die nach wie vor sehr viel schriftlich über ihr Leben und Werk und Drumherum nachdenken, nur halt meistens eher in Form von Blogs, Newslettern, Tweets etc. - Wären solche redaktionellen Zusammenstellungen in Zukunft denkbar? Wären sie interessant?
March 22, 2023
Diese Zusammenstellung persönlicher und geschäftlicher Briefe von Tolkien hat mich sehr fasziniert! Wer den Hobbit, den Herrn der Ringe und bestenfalls auch das Silmarilion gelesen hat, und dazu auch noch an der Entstehung Mittelerdes, der dort gesprochenen Sprachen und letztenendes auch an Tolkien, dem Menschen selbst, interessiert ist, denen kann ich dieses Buch wärmstens empfehlen.
Wäre es besser (oder einfacher) gewesen, vorher Tolkiens Biographie zu lesen? Vielleicht. Dazu kann ich mich erst äußern, wenn ich sie zum Lesen aus dem Regal genommen habe. Zu diesem Zeitpunkt kann ich allerdings schon sagen, dass es mir großen Spaß gemacht hat, Tolkiens Leben anhand seiner Briefe (und einzelner Suchanfragen im Internet zu Personen, Orten, Jahreszahlen etc.) zusammenzusetzen. Es war ein bisschen wie eine Schnitzeljagd. :D
Wäre es besser (oder einfacher) gewesen, vorher Tolkiens Biographie zu lesen? Vielleicht. Dazu kann ich mich erst äußern, wenn ich sie zum Lesen aus dem Regal genommen habe. Zu diesem Zeitpunkt kann ich allerdings schon sagen, dass es mir großen Spaß gemacht hat, Tolkiens Leben anhand seiner Briefe (und einzelner Suchanfragen im Internet zu Personen, Orten, Jahreszahlen etc.) zusammenzusetzen. Es war ein bisschen wie eine Schnitzeljagd. :D
February 6, 2017
Tijdens het lezen bekroop mij de vraag wat Tolkien zelf van boek zou vinden. Meermalen geeft hij aan geen nut te zien in het analyseren van een schrijver om boeken beter te begrijpen. "Mijn verhalen zijn bedoeld om van te genieten als avonturen. Ik zie niet in hoe de persoonlijke details van mijn leven daaraan bij kunnen dragen." Als hij een brief ontvangt van een lezer die wetenschappelijke onderzoek naar zijn werken en leven wil doen, reageert hij kort en afwijzend: "Het spijt mij als deze brief een beetje knorrig overkomt. Ik heb een uitgesproken hekel aan dergelijke analyses".
We kunnen ons dus afvragen of Tolkien zelf de waarde van dit boek zou zien. Wat ik wel weet is wat ik van dit boek vond. Ik vond het prachtig. Als fan (bucketlistitem #7: alles van Tolkien gelezen hebben) geeft dit boek een onschatbare waarde aan inzicht in het denken en de persoon van Tolkien.
Hoe is het begonnen? (Met het uitvinden van een taal)
Wat bedoelt Tolkien met...? (Niets, Tolkien heeft nooit een allegorie willen schrijven)
Waar komt de naam Gamgee vandaan? (Van een wattenmerk uit Tolkiens jeugd)
Dit boek bevat veel opmerkelijke inzichten. De reactie van Tolkien op Hitler, WOII en de vernazi-ing van het 'Noordse'. Zijn hartverscheurende brief na het overlijden van zijn vrouw over hoe zij model stond voor Lúthien. Dat hij Frodo heeft laten falen bij de Doemberg omdat Frodo geen klassieke held is ("Helden behalen de eer en overwinning, maar slechts weinig mensen zijn nederig genoeg om slechts een werktuig van het goede te zijn."). Zijn worsteling met de immer fanatieker wordende fans. Zijn worsteling met het feit dat hij zijn levenswerk (De Silmarillion) maar niet in een publiceerbare vorm kreeg.
In het licht van Tolkiens afwijzing van analyse van zijn persoon schrijft hij uiteindelijk dat het misschien wat toevoegt om iets van de schrijver van een goed boek te weten, maar pas nadat men uitgebreid heeft genoten van het verhaal op zich. Ik heb genoten van de boeken van Tolkien en heb genoten van de inzichten in deze collectie brieven.
Na de laatste brief, 4 dagen voor zijn overlijden, had ik hetzelfde gevoel als bij het einde van de trilogie. Frodo was vertrokken, Pepijn en Merijn hadden afscheid genomen en Sam ging naar huis, kreeg zijn dochtertje op schoot en zei "Welnu, ik ben thuis." Ik wilde meer weten over deze hobbits, over de wereld van Midden-Aarde, over hoe het verder ging met... Ik moest echter afscheid van ze nemen.
Dat gevoel had ik na dit boek. Het was niet altijd spannend, soms repetitief of saai, maar aan het eind wil ik geen afscheid nemen van Tolkien, zijn verlangens, dromen, knorrigheid en verhalen. Maar ik moet. Tolkien is niet meer, zijn werken blijven. Ik hoop nog steeds op een Inklings-in-het-hiernamaals, waar ik kan luisteren naar Lewis en Tolkien op hun best in een hemelse 'Bird and the baby'.
We kunnen ons dus afvragen of Tolkien zelf de waarde van dit boek zou zien. Wat ik wel weet is wat ik van dit boek vond. Ik vond het prachtig. Als fan (bucketlistitem #7: alles van Tolkien gelezen hebben) geeft dit boek een onschatbare waarde aan inzicht in het denken en de persoon van Tolkien.
Hoe is het begonnen? (Met het uitvinden van een taal)
Wat bedoelt Tolkien met...? (Niets, Tolkien heeft nooit een allegorie willen schrijven)
Waar komt de naam Gamgee vandaan? (Van een wattenmerk uit Tolkiens jeugd)
Dit boek bevat veel opmerkelijke inzichten. De reactie van Tolkien op Hitler, WOII en de vernazi-ing van het 'Noordse'. Zijn hartverscheurende brief na het overlijden van zijn vrouw over hoe zij model stond voor Lúthien. Dat hij Frodo heeft laten falen bij de Doemberg omdat Frodo geen klassieke held is ("Helden behalen de eer en overwinning, maar slechts weinig mensen zijn nederig genoeg om slechts een werktuig van het goede te zijn."). Zijn worsteling met de immer fanatieker wordende fans. Zijn worsteling met het feit dat hij zijn levenswerk (De Silmarillion) maar niet in een publiceerbare vorm kreeg.
In het licht van Tolkiens afwijzing van analyse van zijn persoon schrijft hij uiteindelijk dat het misschien wat toevoegt om iets van de schrijver van een goed boek te weten, maar pas nadat men uitgebreid heeft genoten van het verhaal op zich. Ik heb genoten van de boeken van Tolkien en heb genoten van de inzichten in deze collectie brieven.
Na de laatste brief, 4 dagen voor zijn overlijden, had ik hetzelfde gevoel als bij het einde van de trilogie. Frodo was vertrokken, Pepijn en Merijn hadden afscheid genomen en Sam ging naar huis, kreeg zijn dochtertje op schoot en zei "Welnu, ik ben thuis." Ik wilde meer weten over deze hobbits, over de wereld van Midden-Aarde, over hoe het verder ging met... Ik moest echter afscheid van ze nemen.
Dat gevoel had ik na dit boek. Het was niet altijd spannend, soms repetitief of saai, maar aan het eind wil ik geen afscheid nemen van Tolkien, zijn verlangens, dromen, knorrigheid en verhalen. Maar ik moet. Tolkien is niet meer, zijn werken blijven. Ik hoop nog steeds op een Inklings-in-het-hiernamaals, waar ik kan luisteren naar Lewis en Tolkien op hun best in een hemelse 'Bird and the baby'.
January 7, 2019
This book is simply a must-read if you're a Tolkien fan. Most of the letters in this book are really interesting and they certainly changed the way I see Tolkien. The letters contain fascinating information on the absolutely huge creation process of LoTR and the whole mythology, which was probably the most interesting part of this book. But even more important, they shed light on the mind and thoughts of this great man.
After reading this, I feel like I know Tolkien a lot better than I did from just reading his books (although I probably still don't know him at all). I got an image of a tired, overworked but hard-working man completely dedicated to his work (both professional and leisure). Sometimes it was hard to get what he was trying to say since he had so many thoughts and so little time to write everything down. But that was one of his well-known characteristics. What I did get out of his letters was the love for his family, languages and religion, not to mention the amount of thought he put into the stories that were the closest to his heart. And of course, there were many funny letters as well, for example the ones concerning the many difficulties Tolkien had with people who didn't know what to think of the books (or those who had never read them while claiming to know everything about them).
If possible, I appreciate Tolkien's mythology even more now than I used to. It was his life's work (of course he did many other things, too) which is to be seen clearly here. This collection of letters was a very good and interesting read. Being written by the great author himself, how could they disappoint? All fans must read this.
After reading this, I feel like I know Tolkien a lot better than I did from just reading his books (although I probably still don't know him at all). I got an image of a tired, overworked but hard-working man completely dedicated to his work (both professional and leisure). Sometimes it was hard to get what he was trying to say since he had so many thoughts and so little time to write everything down. But that was one of his well-known characteristics. What I did get out of his letters was the love for his family, languages and religion, not to mention the amount of thought he put into the stories that were the closest to his heart. And of course, there were many funny letters as well, for example the ones concerning the many difficulties Tolkien had with people who didn't know what to think of the books (or those who had never read them while claiming to know everything about them).
If possible, I appreciate Tolkien's mythology even more now than I used to. It was his life's work (of course he did many other things, too) which is to be seen clearly here. This collection of letters was a very good and interesting read. Being written by the great author himself, how could they disappoint? All fans must read this.
June 29, 2007
Sick and tired of your pompous friends claiming they know and understand what Tolkien meant, only to shoot off at the mouth some bizarre, mid '90s goth kid trash about the real meanings of the metaphors used in Tolkien's work?
Then buy this book and put them in their place.
This book details Tolkien's real meanings in personal letters he wrote to the publishers and others.
Everything from stating that Elves are close biological cousins to man, through to real issue Elves had with Men (in comparisons which only seem to solidify the claims that they resemble the relationships of the USA with Europe between both world wars).
Sick and tired of videogame companies destroying your fantasy, while claiming they're right on with "source material"? Buy this book and quote passages where Tolkien berates various editors and producers for altering his work.
An amusing thing about these letters, is that Tolkien's letters suggest he would have approved of the recent movies. As a number of changes made in Jackson's movies were suggested by Tolkien himself when trying to communicate with the BBC production during the 50s what should be changed and what shouldn't be changed.
Buy this book, it's a great read
Then buy this book and put them in their place.
This book details Tolkien's real meanings in personal letters he wrote to the publishers and others.
Everything from stating that Elves are close biological cousins to man, through to real issue Elves had with Men (in comparisons which only seem to solidify the claims that they resemble the relationships of the USA with Europe between both world wars).
Sick and tired of videogame companies destroying your fantasy, while claiming they're right on with "source material"? Buy this book and quote passages where Tolkien berates various editors and producers for altering his work.
An amusing thing about these letters, is that Tolkien's letters suggest he would have approved of the recent movies. As a number of changes made in Jackson's movies were suggested by Tolkien himself when trying to communicate with the BBC production during the 50s what should be changed and what shouldn't be changed.
Buy this book, it's a great read
Read
September 4, 2020Much as I enjoy his writing (I read The Lord of the Rings once a year), I've always assumed Tolkien was a bit of a stuffy wanker. But if he was (and I don't think that anymore), then his letters have convinced me that he was a very likeable stuffy wanker.
As I read the letters, picking up that sort of one-sided friendship one gets as one reads another's writing, I started to feel a bit of dread, which at times approached something like real horror. You read his letters, in order, following him from 22 to 81 years old, and of course you know he's going to die, and all his complaints of pain and illness take on a grim aspect, and his wishes to publish The Silmarillion in his lifetime take on a hopeless aspect, and then the final letter — which is all too ordinary — is over, and then you feel something like the shock that comes with the unexpected news of the death of someone you know, whom you saw only just the other day, and who seemed perfectly healthy.
As I read the letters, picking up that sort of one-sided friendship one gets as one reads another's writing, I started to feel a bit of dread, which at times approached something like real horror. You read his letters, in order, following him from 22 to 81 years old, and of course you know he's going to die, and all his complaints of pain and illness take on a grim aspect, and his wishes to publish The Silmarillion in his lifetime take on a hopeless aspect, and then the final letter — which is all too ordinary — is over, and then you feel something like the shock that comes with the unexpected news of the death of someone you know, whom you saw only just the other day, and who seemed perfectly healthy.
December 7, 2014
This could be described as "the glory of Germanic culture without Naziism." Tolkien saw a number of items that are either not noticed in the world, or not harmonized: 1) Germanic literature has an austere cultural beauty about it; 2) Modernism has no beauty; 2) Hitler rightly reacted to the decadence of democracies; 3) Hitler's actions would destroy the beauty of Germanic culture; 4) There would be no winners in WW2.
Besides brilliant commentary and background on the LotR, we gain insight into JRR's cultural views. He was an Agrarian (and not a Green Hippie) who hated both socialism and godless capitalism. He believed in a distributist system like Chesterton and Belloc.
My favorite part was how he loved languages.
Besides brilliant commentary and background on the LotR, we gain insight into JRR's cultural views. He was an Agrarian (and not a Green Hippie) who hated both socialism and godless capitalism. He believed in a distributist system like Chesterton and Belloc.
My favorite part was how he loved languages.
November 9, 2012
What a ride!
I really enjoyed this. This book is for ppl really interested in Tolkien and his masterpieces chiefly those on Middle Earth.
I came to know a lot more about the man behind the books and also about Middle Earth and it's myths. There are answers for very interesting matters, like hobbits, ents and the Elvish tongues.
It was such a pity that he couldn't publish the Silmarillion during his life time as I can feel that through out his letters this was in his mind all the time and he did work long and hard to achieve it.
I really enjoyed this. This book is for ppl really interested in Tolkien and his masterpieces chiefly those on Middle Earth.
I came to know a lot more about the man behind the books and also about Middle Earth and it's myths. There are answers for very interesting matters, like hobbits, ents and the Elvish tongues.
It was such a pity that he couldn't publish the Silmarillion during his life time as I can feel that through out his letters this was in his mind all the time and he did work long and hard to achieve it.
November 3, 2023
I'm really glad I re-read this after reading Humphrey Carpenter and John Garth's biographies. These three books do really make a "trilogy" of sorts, and it presents a very well-realized portrait of Tolkien, imo.
June 26, 2023
OK.
This is a lengthy collection of many of the most interesting and relevant letters J.R.R. Tolkien wrote, spanning basically from when he was a young man to shortly before he died. They cover all manner of topics, and whether or not you enjoy this book is going to depend on how interested you are in the Lord of the Rings and the man who created it. I am extremely interested in this, so I loved it.
One of the reasons I found these letters so interesting is because I got a real insight into who Tolkien was as an individual and as a writer. This is germane to a lot of discussions today--you'll constantly see people arguing about what Tolkien would have wanted wrt new adaptations, etc. But I think sometimes when you ask "What would [historical figure] have been like today?", it's a little bit like asking what Paris would be like if it was in Texas--people and places are formed by the cultures they exist in, and just wanting to transmute something from the past into today can obscure more than it reveals. A better question might be "What kind of man was Tolkien in the time that he lived in"? Regardless, the temptation to bring him into our time is great, and I can't help myself--forgive me if I digress occasionally in this summary of what I learned while reading this book.
Women and Men
One thing that comes out right away when Tolkien writes about women is that he was profoundly religious in a way you basically don't see today. His understanding of what women and men are are is derived from a literal reading of Christian tradition, where women were both created from and meant to be subordinate to men. He views men and women as different not simply in physical ways or surface-level preferences, but fundamentally not the same in a way that almost seems to treat women as a different species. Here's probably the single most objectionable passage from the entire book, from a letter to his son Christopher:
This is unfortunately quite foul, and I wasn't happy to read it (indeed, who could have imagined that a conservative man born in 1892 might have some questionable opinions?). However, I do think that these letters and Tolkien's biography reveal some important context for the kind of conservative Tolkien was. When you encounter American conservatism (and specifically sexism), it's often intensely angry or spiteful, incels venting fury at the sluts who won't give them the time of day or smearing women in tech for supposed inferior abilities. While I can't say that this never happens in Tory conservatism, it does feel like a notably different strain--one that is less mean-spirited, more deeply rooted in a kind of genteel affect.
These are not the letters of a man who hates women. I was often impressed by Tolkien's comments to his adult son--in multiple letters, he cautions Christopher against seeing women as "guiding stars or divinities", urging him instead to understand women as "fallen human beings with souls in peril" or as "companions in shipwreck"--an outlook I'm not sure many men took a century ago. He defends the sheild-maiden character Eowyn, saying that she "like many brave women was capable of great military gallantry at a crisis". We know that later in life, at great personal cost, Tolkien spent his last years away from his beloved Oxford, moving to a smaller community by the sea where his wife Edith could fulfill a lifelong dream and play a society wife. His letters after her death are touching:
So while most people today wouldn't heartily endorse Tolkien's views, I do think that both because of the origins of his antiquated ideas about women (deeply considered religious beliefs) and his fairly solid track record of taking women in his life seriously and treating them well, I am tempted to identify it as a fairly benign form of sexism. Also, I do find myself wondering what he would have thought about When Harry Met Sally:
Race
There's a reasonable-sounding take that Tolkien's Middle-Earth represents a racist worldview and ideology. The noble white heroes, often descended from nobility, must fight off hordes of dirty, dark-skinned humanoids who have no culture and are threatening to take over the pure, pastoral lands in the West/North. Occasional allusions are made to "swarthy" (brown) evil men who come from distant lands and worship a foreign god. Right-wing groups (specifically thinking of Italy here) have even from time to time used The Lord of the Rings as a touchstone in their messaging.
So, what do these letters suggest about how Tolkien viewed race? With the caveat that these letters were gathered and collected with the help of his family and estate, there's fairly little to suggest that Tolkien was racist in the sense most people mean--holding dislike or hatred towards members of another race. He famously wrote to German censors inquiring about potential Jewish background that "I can only reply that I regret that I appear to have no ancestors of that gifted people", and he goes on record multiple times talking about his hatred of the "wholly pernicious and unscientific race-doctrine". To Christopher (currently serving in the army), he writes "I know nothing about British or American imperialism in the Far East that does not fill me with regret and disgust". I mean, this is honestly fairly impressive--for reference, this is how Winston Churchill was talking at the time:
For the time, I actually think Tolkien had a fairly enlightened view, one that rejected race science or hierarchies and mostly felt people should be left alone.
The parts we would take issue with today are his racial and cultural separatism. He basically seems to believe that people should stay where they are and keep to their own culture and people, sometimes to a ridiculous extent--he writes at one point that he "loves England but not Great Britain, and certainly not the British Commonwealth"! And the charge that the evil enemies are all located in the southeast? Fairly easily fended off, given that in The Silmarillion, which contains the more overarching story of Middle-Earth, the ultimate evil of Morgoth is actually located in the far north--however, he is destroyed before the events of LotR, and his apprentice Sauron is forced to flee somewhere far from the seafaring Numenoreans in the west, so there really was no place to go for him but the east. Simple as.
Americans
There is one group Tolkien did repeatedly talk about hating, and I've got some bad news about who it is: it's us. Here are some of the greatest hits:
Really didn't hold back a lot. I think part of the dislike is due to an aesthetic difference in the kinds of media Americans tend to enjoy--fast, dramatic, explosive, sexual, violent, and not at all the reserved, austere, contemplative work that Tolkien was interested in. The other source of his dislike is that even at this time, American culture was taking over the world. One of the man's deepest beliefs is that a beautiful world is not one where we all speak the same language, consume the same media, and believe the same things, but is instead one where every small community or group has its own traditions and ways of being. Given this, it's not terribly surprising that he had a deep distaste for American media, probably the most powerful homogenizing cultural force the world has ever seen. One more quote to see us out:
Politics
The other group that Tolkien seems to dislike nearly as much as Americans is bureaucrats. Running through these letters is a deep skepticism of power and of planning, largely because he is distrustful of anyone who ends up being able to wield power. Tolkien identifies more than once in his letters as an anarchist, writing "My political opinions lean more and more to Anarchy (philosophically understood, meaning abolition of control not whiskered men with bombs) – or to ‘unconstitutional’ Monarchy". This seems a little surprising, given that the man very clearly behaved and presented as a kind of upper-crust Tory, but maybe we shouldn't be startled that this very weird man had kind of unusual politics. His ideal political setup basically involves nobody bothering anybody else, a kind of libertarianish world where at very least you can be expected to be left in peace, outside the domain of meddling planners who think they know what's best for you.
He also has an extreme distaste for development/modernity. His entire ouvre can be read as a screed against technology--after all, the rings of power are a form of invention that allow the wearer to wield more power than they otherwise could, and Sauron/Saruman are both industrializing powers. In the Second Age, he has the elven kingdom of Eregion destroyed by evil forces specifically because they partnered with the dwarves to research and develop new technology, in some sense 'digging too deep'. He often comes across as comically curmudgeonly, in one letter writing "I wish the 'infernal combustion' engine had never been invented". He goes beyond simply griping at points, writing to his son, who is actively fighting Hitler by flying in the RAF, that "nothing can amend his grief that he has any connection to [airplanes]", and that using modern planes and weapons is like "trying to conquer Sauron with the ring". Think about what kind of father would say that to their deployed child! He is still affectionate always, describing Christopher as "a hobbit among orcs" (not a high opinion of his countrymen!), but his strong rebuke of his son's work took me aback. But it shouldn't be surprising--as mentioned before, he is sincerely Catholic, so in some sense, winning the war against Nazis (or anyone) is completely unimportant when compared to the task of keeping one's eternal soul pure and doing right by God.
We're entering highly speculative mode, but were he to exist in America today, I think Tolkien would be happiest among the Amish in Pennsylvania, or maybe living in a liberatrianish commune somewhere in New Hampshire or the Mountain West. I think he would have genuine appreciation for Joe Biden, both because he's a fellow devout Catholic, and he represents a kind of older and more respectful mode of politics. I can say with 100% certainty that he would have disliked Trump, perhaps because Trump is such a uniquely American figure. He would unfortunately be a huge NIMBY, writing strongly worded letters any time anyone wanted to cut down a tree to build apartments for 200 people. Always interested in ideas of immortality and aging, I think he would regard the Thiel-world of technobillionaires injecting themselves with the blood of the young or trying to upload their brains to the cloud as genuinely Satanic.
General Thoughts on Tolkien's Work
This is swiftly becoming unwieldy, so I'm going to pick up the pace of this review a tiny bit. A classic 110 IQ interpretation of Tolkien is to say "he hated allegory, so nothing in Lord of the Rings represents anything"--this is totally wrong. There are many quotes where he talks about disliking allegory, but when he says "allegory", he's thinking of Animal-Farm-esque writing, where there's a 1:1 comparison between characters and reality, where the book can really only be interpreted in one way. He points out that this kind of book becomes uninteresting as soon as the exact situation has ceased to exist--instead, he's very interested in what he calls "applicability", which is basically how we think of allegory or meaning today. Nothing in Lord of the Rings is realy a direct comparison (with the exception of Galadriel and Mother Mary), but he very much acknowledges that his own ideas, values, and understandings are incorporated into the story, and he is A-OK with readers saying "hobbits represent X, elves represent Y".
What does he think his stories are about? He gives a few answers throughout, including (but not limited to) man and the machine, Catholicism, industrialism, mortality, "the fall", technology, "hoarding memory" and "who has the right to divine honor", but NOT really about power. I think the best take is it doesn't actually matter what he thinks it's about--authors are much more like conduits than gods, and while he did the hard work of combining various influences present at the time, the art stands on its own. It can be about whatever we think it's about.
I often see haters writing that Tolkien is rolling in his grave at the Rings of Power adaptations, or whatever. I think it's mixed--he almost definitely wouldn't have liked them, but he would have absolutely loved the money that came along with them. He is constantly complaining in his letters that he has no money, even at the end of his life after a long and successful career. Here he is talking about a translation of his work that he wasn't in love with:
At one point, he mentions that he's feeling very good about being able to get his wife a wheelchair when she's sick. This is, again, AFTER he published the most important English-language work in a century and spent thirty years being a professor at Oxford. I don't think he was necessarily bad with money, but then as now, publishing books was not a cash faucet.
Overall, a good book, but not entirely necessary unless you're a bit of a fanatic. With that said, I had a great time reading. 5 stars.
This is a lengthy collection of many of the most interesting and relevant letters J.R.R. Tolkien wrote, spanning basically from when he was a young man to shortly before he died. They cover all manner of topics, and whether or not you enjoy this book is going to depend on how interested you are in the Lord of the Rings and the man who created it. I am extremely interested in this, so I loved it.
One of the reasons I found these letters so interesting is because I got a real insight into who Tolkien was as an individual and as a writer. This is germane to a lot of discussions today--you'll constantly see people arguing about what Tolkien would have wanted wrt new adaptations, etc. But I think sometimes when you ask "What would [historical figure] have been like today?", it's a little bit like asking what Paris would be like if it was in Texas--people and places are formed by the cultures they exist in, and just wanting to transmute something from the past into today can obscure more than it reveals. A better question might be "What kind of man was Tolkien in the time that he lived in"? Regardless, the temptation to bring him into our time is great, and I can't help myself--forgive me if I digress occasionally in this summary of what I learned while reading this book.
Women and Men
One thing that comes out right away when Tolkien writes about women is that he was profoundly religious in a way you basically don't see today. His understanding of what women and men are are is derived from a literal reading of Christian tradition, where women were both created from and meant to be subordinate to men. He views men and women as different not simply in physical ways or surface-level preferences, but fundamentally not the same in a way that almost seems to treat women as a different species. Here's probably the single most objectionable passage from the entire book, from a letter to his son Christopher:
Under this impulse (a mentor relationship with a man), [women] can in fact often achieve very remarkable insight and understanding, even of things otherwise outside their natural range: for it is their gift to be receptive, stimulated, fertilized (in many other matters than the physical) by the male. Every teacher knows that. How quickly an intelligent woman can be taught, grasp his ideas, see his point – and how (with rare exceptions) they can go no further, when they leave his hand, or when they cease to take a personal interest in him.
This is unfortunately quite foul, and I wasn't happy to read it (indeed, who could have imagined that a conservative man born in 1892 might have some questionable opinions?). However, I do think that these letters and Tolkien's biography reveal some important context for the kind of conservative Tolkien was. When you encounter American conservatism (and specifically sexism), it's often intensely angry or spiteful, incels venting fury at the sluts who won't give them the time of day or smearing women in tech for supposed inferior abilities. While I can't say that this never happens in Tory conservatism, it does feel like a notably different strain--one that is less mean-spirited, more deeply rooted in a kind of genteel affect.
These are not the letters of a man who hates women. I was often impressed by Tolkien's comments to his adult son--in multiple letters, he cautions Christopher against seeing women as "guiding stars or divinities", urging him instead to understand women as "fallen human beings with souls in peril" or as "companions in shipwreck"--an outlook I'm not sure many men took a century ago. He defends the sheild-maiden character Eowyn, saying that she "like many brave women was capable of great military gallantry at a crisis". We know that later in life, at great personal cost, Tolkien spent his last years away from his beloved Oxford, moving to a smaller community by the sea where his wife Edith could fulfill a lifelong dream and play a society wife. His letters after her death are touching:
I do not feel quite ‘real’ or whole, and in a sense there is no one to talk to. (You share this, of course, especially in the matter of letters.) Since I came of age, and our 3 years separation was ended, we had shared all joys and griefs, and all opinions (in agreement or otherwise), so that I still often find myself thinking ‘I must tell E. about this’ – and then suddenly I feel like a castaway left on a barren island under a heedless sky after the loss of a great ship.
So while most people today wouldn't heartily endorse Tolkien's views, I do think that both because of the origins of his antiquated ideas about women (deeply considered religious beliefs) and his fairly solid track record of taking women in his life seriously and treating them well, I am tempted to identify it as a fairly benign form of sexism. Also, I do find myself wondering what he would have thought about When Harry Met Sally:
In this fallen world the ‘friendship’ that should be possible between all human beings, is virtually impossible between man and woman. The devil is endlessly ingenious, and sex is his favourite subject. He is as good every bit at catching you through generous romantic or tender motives, as through baser or more animal ones. This ‘friendship’ has often been tried: one side or the other nearly always fails.
Race
There's a reasonable-sounding take that Tolkien's Middle-Earth represents a racist worldview and ideology. The noble white heroes, often descended from nobility, must fight off hordes of dirty, dark-skinned humanoids who have no culture and are threatening to take over the pure, pastoral lands in the West/North. Occasional allusions are made to "swarthy" (brown) evil men who come from distant lands and worship a foreign god. Right-wing groups (specifically thinking of Italy here) have even from time to time used The Lord of the Rings as a touchstone in their messaging.
So, what do these letters suggest about how Tolkien viewed race? With the caveat that these letters were gathered and collected with the help of his family and estate, there's fairly little to suggest that Tolkien was racist in the sense most people mean--holding dislike or hatred towards members of another race. He famously wrote to German censors inquiring about potential Jewish background that "I can only reply that I regret that I appear to have no ancestors of that gifted people", and he goes on record multiple times talking about his hatred of the "wholly pernicious and unscientific race-doctrine". To Christopher (currently serving in the army), he writes "I know nothing about British or American imperialism in the Far East that does not fill me with regret and disgust". I mean, this is honestly fairly impressive--for reference, this is how Winston Churchill was talking at the time:
I do not admit ... for instance, that a great wrong has been done to the Red Indians of America or the black people of Australia. I do not admit that a wrong has been done to these people by the fact that a stronger race, a higher-grade race, a more worldly wise race to put it that way, has come in and taken their place.
For the time, I actually think Tolkien had a fairly enlightened view, one that rejected race science or hierarchies and mostly felt people should be left alone.
The parts we would take issue with today are his racial and cultural separatism. He basically seems to believe that people should stay where they are and keep to their own culture and people, sometimes to a ridiculous extent--he writes at one point that he "loves England but not Great Britain, and certainly not the British Commonwealth"! And the charge that the evil enemies are all located in the southeast? Fairly easily fended off, given that in The Silmarillion, which contains the more overarching story of Middle-Earth, the ultimate evil of Morgoth is actually located in the far north--however, he is destroyed before the events of LotR, and his apprentice Sauron is forced to flee somewhere far from the seafaring Numenoreans in the west, so there really was no place to go for him but the east. Simple as.
Americans
There is one group Tolkien did repeatedly talk about hating, and I've got some bad news about who it is: it's us. Here are some of the greatest hits:
It might be advisable, rather than lose the American interest, to let the Americans do what seems good to them – as long as it was possible (I should like to add) to veto anything from or influenced by the Disney studios (for all whose works I have a heartfelt loathing)...perhaps you could tell me how long there is before I must produce samples that might hope to satisfy Transatlantic juvenile taste
The Americans are not as a rule at all amenable to criticism or correction; but I think their effort is so poor that I feel constrained to make some effort to improve it, though without much more hope of effect than in the case of the appalling jacket they produced for The Hobbit.
I am sorry about The Pied Piper,2 I loathe it. God help the children! I would as soon give them crude and vulgar plastic toys. Which of course they will play with, to the ruin of their taste. Terrible presage of the most vulgar elements in Disney.
The horrors of the American scene I will pass over, though they have given me great distress and labour. (They arise in an entirely different mental climate and soil, polluted and impoverished to a degree only paralleled by the lunatic destruction of the physical lands which Americans inhabit.).
Really didn't hold back a lot. I think part of the dislike is due to an aesthetic difference in the kinds of media Americans tend to enjoy--fast, dramatic, explosive, sexual, violent, and not at all the reserved, austere, contemplative work that Tolkien was interested in. The other source of his dislike is that even at this time, American culture was taking over the world. One of the man's deepest beliefs is that a beautiful world is not one where we all speak the same language, consume the same media, and believe the same things, but is instead one where every small community or group has its own traditions and ways of being. Given this, it's not terribly surprising that he had a deep distaste for American media, probably the most powerful homogenizing cultural force the world has ever seen. One more quote to see us out:
It is getting to be all one blasted little provincial suburb. When they have introduced American sanitation, morale-pep, feminism, and mass production throughout the Near East, Middle East, Far East, U.S.S.R., the Pampas, el Gran Chaco, the Danubian Basin, Equatorial Africa, Hither Further and Inner Mumbo-land, Gondhwanaland, Lhasa, and the villages of darkest Berkshire, how happy we shall be.
Politics
The other group that Tolkien seems to dislike nearly as much as Americans is bureaucrats. Running through these letters is a deep skepticism of power and of planning, largely because he is distrustful of anyone who ends up being able to wield power. Tolkien identifies more than once in his letters as an anarchist, writing "My political opinions lean more and more to Anarchy (philosophically understood, meaning abolition of control not whiskered men with bombs) – or to ‘unconstitutional’ Monarchy". This seems a little surprising, given that the man very clearly behaved and presented as a kind of upper-crust Tory, but maybe we shouldn't be startled that this very weird man had kind of unusual politics. His ideal political setup basically involves nobody bothering anybody else, a kind of libertarianish world where at very least you can be expected to be left in peace, outside the domain of meddling planners who think they know what's best for you.
He also has an extreme distaste for development/modernity. His entire ouvre can be read as a screed against technology--after all, the rings of power are a form of invention that allow the wearer to wield more power than they otherwise could, and Sauron/Saruman are both industrializing powers. In the Second Age, he has the elven kingdom of Eregion destroyed by evil forces specifically because they partnered with the dwarves to research and develop new technology, in some sense 'digging too deep'. He often comes across as comically curmudgeonly, in one letter writing "I wish the 'infernal combustion' engine had never been invented". He goes beyond simply griping at points, writing to his son, who is actively fighting Hitler by flying in the RAF, that "nothing can amend his grief that he has any connection to [airplanes]", and that using modern planes and weapons is like "trying to conquer Sauron with the ring". Think about what kind of father would say that to their deployed child! He is still affectionate always, describing Christopher as "a hobbit among orcs" (not a high opinion of his countrymen!), but his strong rebuke of his son's work took me aback. But it shouldn't be surprising--as mentioned before, he is sincerely Catholic, so in some sense, winning the war against Nazis (or anyone) is completely unimportant when compared to the task of keeping one's eternal soul pure and doing right by God.
We're entering highly speculative mode, but were he to exist in America today, I think Tolkien would be happiest among the Amish in Pennsylvania, or maybe living in a liberatrianish commune somewhere in New Hampshire or the Mountain West. I think he would have genuine appreciation for Joe Biden, both because he's a fellow devout Catholic, and he represents a kind of older and more respectful mode of politics. I can say with 100% certainty that he would have disliked Trump, perhaps because Trump is such a uniquely American figure. He would unfortunately be a huge NIMBY, writing strongly worded letters any time anyone wanted to cut down a tree to build apartments for 200 people. Always interested in ideas of immortality and aging, I think he would regard the Thiel-world of technobillionaires injecting themselves with the blood of the young or trying to upload their brains to the cloud as genuinely Satanic.
General Thoughts on Tolkien's Work
This is swiftly becoming unwieldy, so I'm going to pick up the pace of this review a tiny bit. A classic 110 IQ interpretation of Tolkien is to say "he hated allegory, so nothing in Lord of the Rings represents anything"--this is totally wrong. There are many quotes where he talks about disliking allegory, but when he says "allegory", he's thinking of Animal-Farm-esque writing, where there's a 1:1 comparison between characters and reality, where the book can really only be interpreted in one way. He points out that this kind of book becomes uninteresting as soon as the exact situation has ceased to exist--instead, he's very interested in what he calls "applicability", which is basically how we think of allegory or meaning today. Nothing in Lord of the Rings is realy a direct comparison (with the exception of Galadriel and Mother Mary), but he very much acknowledges that his own ideas, values, and understandings are incorporated into the story, and he is A-OK with readers saying "hobbits represent X, elves represent Y".
What does he think his stories are about? He gives a few answers throughout, including (but not limited to) man and the machine, Catholicism, industrialism, mortality, "the fall", technology, "hoarding memory" and "who has the right to divine honor", but NOT really about power. I think the best take is it doesn't actually matter what he thinks it's about--authors are much more like conduits than gods, and while he did the hard work of combining various influences present at the time, the art stands on its own. It can be about whatever we think it's about.
I often see haters writing that Tolkien is rolling in his grave at the Rings of Power adaptations, or whatever. I think it's mixed--he almost definitely wouldn't have liked them, but he would have absolutely loved the money that came along with them. He is constantly complaining in his letters that he has no money, even at the end of his life after a long and successful career. Here he is talking about a translation of his work that he wasn't in love with:
My chief interest in being translated is pecuniary, as long as the basic text is treated with respect; so that even if the touchiness of parenthood is outraged, I should wish to refrain from doing or saying anything that may damage the good business of being published in other countries.
At one point, he mentions that he's feeling very good about being able to get his wife a wheelchair when she's sick. This is, again, AFTER he published the most important English-language work in a century and spent thirty years being a professor at Oxford. I don't think he was necessarily bad with money, but then as now, publishing books was not a cash faucet.
Overall, a good book, but not entirely necessary unless you're a bit of a fanatic. With that said, I had a great time reading. 5 stars.
March 27, 2022
Reading this was, poignantly, a lot like the first time I read Lord of the Rings. You start out wondering what all this is and who this man is. You continue on feeling as if you have made the best of friends and are fully invested in their lives, and then it ends. You close the book and they're gone and you must carry on without them. Life feels empty. You wonder what they're doing, how they're doing, you consider starting the book over just to walk with them again. They have grown, as Data would say, familiar.
The other thing that struck me reading this book was how insecure old age is, and then sense of not having enough time to finish your work or love those you love. I'm middle aged, but this struck me as the great difficulties of old age.
Tolkien was sharp, a bit of a curmudgeon, loved trees and his family, hated how misunderstood his work was, or misused. I think I would have found him very intimidating in real life, but also wonderful.
It was a true and real pleasure to read the letters and walk through the life of my favorite author and not feel disappointed. He wasn't a celebrity, but he was a very intelligent and gifted man.
The other thing that struck me reading this book was how insecure old age is, and then sense of not having enough time to finish your work or love those you love. I'm middle aged, but this struck me as the great difficulties of old age.
Tolkien was sharp, a bit of a curmudgeon, loved trees and his family, hated how misunderstood his work was, or misused. I think I would have found him very intimidating in real life, but also wonderful.
It was a true and real pleasure to read the letters and walk through the life of my favorite author and not feel disappointed. He wasn't a celebrity, but he was a very intelligent and gifted man.
February 4, 2022
I really enjoyed reading through this and discussing with my reading buddy.
I especially loved the letters to his family and close friends.
Some of the business letters got a little boring, but that is to be expected.
I felt this book really gave me insight into Tolkien’s personality, his inner workings, his writing, and such the way biographies have not.
I especially loved the letters to his family and close friends.
Some of the business letters got a little boring, but that is to be expected.
I felt this book really gave me insight into Tolkien’s personality, his inner workings, his writing, and such the way biographies have not.
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