Skip to comments.
JRR Tolkien trained as British spy
Telegraph ^
| September 16, 2009
Posted on 09/19/2009 2:10:47 PM PDT by NYer
click here to read article
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-20, 21-40, 41-42 next last
1
posted on
09/19/2009 2:10:47 PM PDT
by
NYer
To: NYer
Tolkien: Intelligence chiefs singled him and a 'cadre' of other intellectuals to work at Bletchley Park, the codebreaking centre in Buckinghamshire.
2
posted on
09/19/2009 2:11:25 PM PDT
by
NYer
( "One Who Prays Is Not Afraid; One Who Prays Is Never Alone"- Benedict XVI)
To: NYer
Yes, the Nazis were big on Old Norse. Don’t code-crackers have to be good at math?
3
posted on
09/19/2009 2:12:19 PM PDT
by
Mamzelle
(Who is Kenneth Gladney? (Don't forget to bring your cameras))
To: Old Sarge
4
posted on
09/19/2009 2:12:42 PM PDT
by
MS.BEHAVIN
(Women who behave rarely make history)
To: NYer
I read that one of the recruiting methods used was to find people who could solve one of those difficult English cryptic puzzles and interview them for work at Bletchley.
To: NYer
Alan Turing, the gay codebreakerHis sexuality had to do what with his work? The newsrag couldn't help itself to add this.
6
posted on
09/19/2009 2:13:17 PM PDT
by
SolidWood
(Sarah Palin: "Only dead fish go with the flow!")
To: SolidWood
"Alan Turing, the gay codebreaker"
His sexuality had to do what with his work? The newsrag couldn't help itself to add this.
Ironic that he turned out to be a cunning linguist...
7
posted on
09/19/2009 2:15:57 PM PDT
by
jessduntno
("Integrity is the lifeblood of democracy. Deceit is a poison in it." - Ted Kennedy (D-HELL)
To: NYer
As an academic, Tolkien was primarily a linguist, with a good working knowledge of Old English, Old High German, Old Norse, and the rest of it. In those days, there was also considerable interest in the relations among the various Indo-European languages and the ways that they changed over time. So it was a kind of science.
I imagine Tolkien turned it down because he thought he was not needed and that he had better things to do, such as endlessly working on the Silmarilion and its various component stories.
8
posted on
09/19/2009 2:23:52 PM PDT
by
Cicero
(Marcus Tullius)
To: NYer
If you have not read The
Book of Lost Tales and
The Silmarillion you really haven't read Tolkien.
The man was a genius.
9
posted on
09/19/2009 2:24:52 PM PDT
by
freedumb2003
(Communism comes to America: 1/20/2009. Keep your powder dry, folks. Sic semper tyrannis)
To: NYer
Nah, by that time Gollum had escaped and they went with him instead to find a way through the swamps.
Besides, Tolkein had been to Bree too many times and was known at the Prancing Pony. He used to summer in Frogmorton.
There was a concern in early ‘36 that Saruman had infiltrated into the shire and also had paid informants among the Bucklanders. (This proved false after the fall of the third Reich, although several extended members of the Cotton family that worked at the Green Dragon with Rosie ended up disappearing behind the Iron Curtain in the post war era.)
10
posted on
09/19/2009 2:28:39 PM PDT
by
IrishCatholic
(No local Communist or Socialist Party Chapter? Join the Democrats, it's the same thing!)
To: NYer
which included Alan Turing, the gay codebreaker And?
11
posted on
09/19/2009 2:38:22 PM PDT
by
cardinal4
(Dont Tread on Me)
To: cardinal4
I believe Turing was eventual expelled from intelliegence work because of his blackmailability.
12
posted on
09/19/2009 2:48:19 PM PDT
by
AceMineral
(Offically unapproved of since 1973)
To: Mamzelle
Dont code-crackers have to be good at math?
Cryptanalysis, prior to the 30's, was largely linguistic. Through WWII, there was still a significant linguistic component.
13
posted on
09/19/2009 3:04:32 PM PDT
by
jdege
To: NYer
JRR Tolkien was also a veteran of WWI and saw action in France.
To: Maine Mariner
As I recall what really helped the Brits break the Enigma code is that the Polish intelligence stole an Enigma machine from the Germans and gave it to the Brits. The Brits then reverse engineered it. Supposedly the British commanders then received German orders before the German commanders did.
To: jdege; Mamzelle
Cryptanalysis, prior to the 30's, was largely linguistic. Through WWII, there was still a significant linguistic component. Turing was a mathematician and computer scientist. He headed the code-breaking team at Bentchley Park in WWII. He used mathematical analysis to break the German codes. Tolkien was wise to refuse the job. He was not a mathematician, and had a somewhat negative opinion of science in general. At any rate Tolkien would have been totally useless in building a machine of electric circuits to break the German codes.
16
posted on
09/19/2009 4:04:56 PM PDT
by
stripes1776
("That if gold rust, what shall iron do?" --Chaucer)
To: Citizen Tom Paine
“As I recall what really helped the Brits break the Enigma code is that the Polish intelligence stole an Enigma machine from the Germans and gave it to the Brits. The Brits then reverse engineered it. Supposedly the British commanders then received German orders before the German commanders did.”
From what I have read the Pole in question was some sort of engineer who assembled Enigma machines for the Germans. He managed to get himself over to the Brits and pretty much assembled a working design from memory. The Brits needed a working Enigma device to confirm the info and got it in 1940 when one of Rommels signal units got ahead of the advance and the Brits snagged them. It supposedly was the basis for the 1942 propaganda movie “The Foreman Went To France”. From that point on the decodes in some cases were ahead of the info reaching the German operational units.
17
posted on
09/19/2009 5:42:09 PM PDT
by
Polynikes
(Viene una tormenta)
To: NYer
The wartime Brits were quite resourceful and amazing. One of their operatives was Aleister Crowley the occultist. He was in contact with German occult groups such as the Thule Society and assorted German astrologers through his Golden Dawn Society, during the war. The strange flight of Rudolph Hess (a member of the Thule Society) to England was supposedly provoked by disinformation fed to German astrologers by Crowley. That explained Hitlers rage and consequent arrest of every astrologer in Germany after Hess flew to England. Crowleys handler in British intelligence, Ian Fleming the future author of James Bond.
18
posted on
09/19/2009 6:07:31 PM PDT
by
Polynikes
(Viene una tormenta)
To: NYer
Tolkien was one of the greatest experts in the origin of germanic, norse, and anglo-saxon words. However, Tolkien lacked the patience for the rote work of codebreaking. By the mid 30's Tolkien was consumed by the travails of Middle Earth, saw it as his life's work.
Likely, he cared little for war having lost all of his close friends in WW1.
19
posted on
09/19/2009 6:30:46 PM PDT
by
gandalftb
(An appeaser feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last......)
To: stripes1776
At any rate Tolkien would have been totally useless in building a machine of electric circuits to break the German codes.
The Axis used a great many codes and ciphers, besides the Enigma and Lorenz. Admittedly, Tolkien's background would have been little help with those two, but he could have been a great deal of help with the others.
20
posted on
09/19/2009 7:25:25 PM PDT
by
jdege
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-20, 21-40, 41-42 next last
Disclaimer:
Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual
posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its
management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the
exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson