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How J.R.R. Tolkien Found Mordor on the Western Front
NY Times ^
| June 30, 2016
| Joseph Laconte
Posted on 07/01/2016 5:10:02 AM PDT by C19fan
IN the summer of 1916, a young Oxford academic embarked for France as a second lieutenant in the British Expeditionary Force. The Great War, as World War I was known, was only half-done, but already its industrial carnage had no parallel in European history.
Junior officers were being killed off, a dozen a minute, recalled J. R. R. Tolkien. Parting from my wife, he wrote, doubting that he would survive the trenches, was like a death.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
TOPICS: Books/Literature; History; Military/Veterans; The Hobbit Hole
KEYWORDS: battleofthesomme; jrrtolkien; lotr; mordor; pages; somme; thegreatwar; tolkien; war; worldwarone; ww1
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1
posted on
07/01/2016 5:10:02 AM PDT
by
C19fan
To: C19fan
2
posted on
07/01/2016 5:26:25 AM PDT
by
marron
To: C19fan; marron
Another echo of Tolkien’s wartime experience at the Front is the Hobbit’s obsession with food. Tolkien wrote that the soldiers in the trenches were always hungry and food was always on their mind.
3
posted on
07/01/2016 5:39:04 AM PDT
by
Pelham
(Obama, the most unAmerican President in history)
To: C19fan
The author ignores completely the most important element of Tolkien’s life, his deep and abiding faith in Christ. With his devoted friend, C.S. Lewis, they nurtured the spirit of Christ and His teachings not just in Oxford but in all of England. Wherever The LOR has touched a mind the knowledge of Christ has entered and taken root.
4
posted on
07/01/2016 5:39:07 AM PDT
by
Louis Foxwell
(Stop the Left and save the world.)
To: Louis Foxwell
5
posted on
07/01/2016 5:42:39 AM PDT
by
Pelham
(Obama, the most unAmerican President in history)
To: C19fan
6
posted on
07/01/2016 5:47:19 AM PDT
by
Envisioning
(Before we get started, does anyone want to get out?)
To: C19fan
This also shows why Ralph Bakshi’s animated interpretation of Tolkien was very much on the mark with what the author was conveying in his books.
7
posted on
07/01/2016 5:52:04 AM PDT
by
T-Bird45
(It feels like the seventies, and it shouldn't.)
To: C19fan
8
posted on
07/01/2016 5:58:42 AM PDT
by
kalee
To: C19fan
Very good article. Usually, the NYT is trash, but this one is superb.
Beside the courage of ordinary men, the carnage of war seems also to have opened Tolkiens eyes to a primal fact about the human condition: the will to power. This is the force animating Sauron, the sorcerer-warlord and great enemy of Middle-earth. But the only measure that he knows is desire, explains the wizard Gandalf, desire for power.
The elements of lust for power that Tolkien recognized then are even more prominent today-witness just about any leftist politician. Tolkien also captured the deceptive language that the power-hungry use to mask their true motivations. For example, the language that Sauron's lieutenant used when parlaying with the representatives of Gondor. It was full of self-serving dissembling: how Sauron is merely minding his own business, and all the people of Middle Earth are unfairly arraying themselves against him, yada yada yada.
I started reading The Hobbit in 6th grade, but it wasn't until high school that I really was able to read it with comprehension. I was fifteen the first time I read The Hobbit and LOTR all the way through--my, what an exciting adventure! And I read it again every few years. Each time, I pick up on a new nuance that I've never seen before. Those books are truly classics.
9
posted on
07/01/2016 6:00:14 AM PDT
by
exDemMom
(Current visual of the hole the US continues to dig itself into: http://www.usdebtclock.org/)
To: C19fan
“I dont like anything here at all. said Frodo, step or stone, breath or bone. Earth, air and water all seem accursed. But so our path is laid.
10
posted on
07/01/2016 6:13:51 AM PDT
by
BipolarBob
(I'm so open minded that you should only think like me.)
To: exDemMom; All
I started reading The Hobbit in 6th grade, but it wasn't until high school that I really was able to read it with comprehension. I was fifteen the first time I read The Hobbit and LOTR all the way through--my, what an exciting adventure! And I read it again every few years. Each time, I pick up on a new nuance that I've never seen before. Those books are truly classics.
I agree, I remember the first time I read the entire trilogy (sophomore in high school) I was so moved I cried when it was over. Truly the greatest classic of fantasy fiction I've ever read, if not of all time!
11
posted on
07/01/2016 6:14:16 AM PDT
by
notdownwidems
(Washington DC has become the enemy of free people everywhere)
To: BipolarBob
“The enemy? His sense of duty was no less than yours, I deem. You wonder what his name is, where he came from. And if he was really evil at heart. What lies or threats led him on this long march from home. If he would not rather have stayed there in peace. War will make corpses of us all.
12
posted on
07/01/2016 6:14:59 AM PDT
by
BipolarBob
(I'm so open minded that you should only think like me.)
To: notdownwidems
I was so moved I cried when it was over. I still cry every time I finish those books. Poor Frodo wanted for so long nothing more than to go home to the Shire--but when he finally did go home, he was so damaged by the entire experience that he could not stay and enjoy the comfortable life he longed for.
I have a friend who looks at it a little differently. She thought that Frodo was very fortunate, since he was leaving to go live with the elves. Since the elves always seemed arrogant and condescending to me, I never thought that a very good deal.
13
posted on
07/01/2016 6:35:00 AM PDT
by
exDemMom
(Current visual of the hole the US continues to dig itself into: http://www.usdebtclock.org/)
To: C19fan
14
posted on
07/01/2016 7:43:03 AM PDT
by
SueRae
(An election like no other..)
To: exDemMom; All
I have a friend who looks at it a little differently. She thought that Frodo was very fortunate, since he was leaving to go live with the elves. Since the elves always seemed arrogant and condescending to me, I never thought that a very good deal.
It wasn't that so much; just that the whole story was so overwhelming and was wrapped up so neatly at the end, especially the sadness at the end of the hobbits going after each other due to Saruman's treacherous revenge...I don't know, it was emotional lol
15
posted on
07/01/2016 7:48:01 AM PDT
by
notdownwidems
(Washington DC has become the enemy of free people everywhere)
To: Pelham
Another echo of Tolkiens wartime experience at the Front is the Hobbits obsession with food. Tolkien wrote that the soldiers in the trenches were always hungry and food was always on their mind. Interesting... thanks for sharing.
16
posted on
07/01/2016 8:00:28 AM PDT
by
GOPJ
(Bill Clinton's white trash. Loretta Lynch is black trash... Comey has NO backbone. Welcome to AMeriK)
To: notdownwidems
It’s been years since I read the books. I, too, first read them when I was 14 or 15 years old. I’ll have to get them out again.
17
posted on
07/01/2016 8:02:30 AM PDT
by
sneakers
To: sneakers; All
Its been years since I read the books. I, too, first read them when I was 14 or 15 years old. Ill have to get them out again.
I would recommend it! The story never gets old and as another freeper mentioned, every reading uncovers previously undiscovered nuances that just reveal more brilliance from the author.
18
posted on
07/01/2016 8:09:53 AM PDT
by
notdownwidems
(Washington DC has become the enemy of free people everywhere)
To: C19fan
If you have read Humphrey Carpenter's authorized biography of J.R.R. Tolkien, one thing that was strongly seared in Tolkien's mind was the loss of two of his closest friends in the Battle of the Somme--a battle that in many ways essentially ended the supremacy of Europe as a power because so many of the brightest university students from the UK, France and Germany were killed in that bloody four-month battle. And it was battle that in the end changed nothing in terms of the location of the front lines.
It was only the arrival of the Americans in 1917--backed by the industrial might of the USA--that finally turned tide in favor of the Allies by 1918.
19
posted on
07/01/2016 8:09:56 AM PDT
by
RayChuang88
(FairTax: America's Economic Cure)
To: C19fan
20
posted on
07/01/2016 8:10:54 AM PDT
by
Lurker
(Violence is rarely the answer. But when it is it is the only answer.)
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