olkien made this narration before The Lord of the Rings had found a publisher. He was rather disillusioned, even despairing about it's prospects, and had lost faith in his ability as a writer. He was visiting the house of a friend, and this friend had bought a fairly newfangled device: a tape recorder. After messing with it a bit, recording The Lord's Prayer (to exorcise any evil spirits in it, for Tolkien was a bit suspicious of new tech), his friend suggested that he record his favourite passage from his new book. Tolkien did so, and on replaying it, the...