Language and Legends

By Olivia Blumenshine

A biography on J.R.R. Tolkien

‘There rose a huge shape of shadow, impenetrable, lightning-crowned, filling all the sky. Enormous it reached above the world, and stretched out towards them a vast threatening hand, terrible but impotent; for even as it leaned over them, a great wind took it, and it was blown away, and passed; and then a hush fell.’

-Tolkien, J.R.R. The Return of the King

What is this?! You wonder. Well, it may seem random and unnecessary now, but you see, this is the writing of J.R.R. Tolkien. He was an amazing author with an amazing past. He wrote many books, including The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, The Return of the King, and The Hobbit (my personal favorites). I can’t imagine writing with such excellent qualities myself. He makes sure you see what his characters see and feel what they feel. He was inspired in many ways, which you will see. Read.

His imaginary worlds bring to life some of the deepest human thoughts and emotions while creating some of the most complicated and interesting characters. His writing could not be without inspiration, and it got me wondering what this inspiration could possibly be.

It all started in South Africa.

<!--[if !vml]--><!--[endif]--> Imagine this: you are a toddler running through the tall grass of your home. You are almost to your beautiful tree; one of the only trees here. A burning pain causes you to stumble, and then fall. The black of a tarantula shoots out from under you as you watch in horror and fascination. Your anxious nurse catches up to you, and while she sucks the venom out of your foot, you babble about ‘a spider as big as a dragon’. The spider came to be Shelob, the horrible monster in The Two Towers.

‘Not far down the tunnel, between them and the opening where they had reeled and stumbled, he was aware of eyes growing visible, two great clusters of many–windowed eyes – the coming menace was unmasked at last. The radiance of the star-glass was broken and thrown back from their thousand facets, but behind the glitter a pale deadly flame began steadily to grow within, a flame kindled in some deep pit of evil thought. Monstrous and abominable eyes they were, bestial and yet filled with purpose and with hideous delight, gloating over their prey trapped beyond all hope of escape’.

-Tolkien, J.R.R. The Two Towers

This tarantula must have scared poor toddler Tolkien senseless to have shaped this horrible (thankfully, fictional) beast. Her chapter in his book, The Two Towers, in my opinion, is one of the most intense parts in the whole book. It makes you watch, helpless, as the unknowing main character is almost killed by Shelob.

<!--[if !vml]--><!--[endif]-->She was a monster! A huge black tarantula with silvery webs thicker than rope, she had a habit of letting her victims dangle in her webs. I am so glad that she is merely a fragment of J.R.R. Tolkien’s imagination, not real!

His experience with the tarantula was just the beginning of his rather unusual life. Imagine now moving to England, without your father. Your mother introduces you to botany, which encourages your love of nature. (If you remember, in South Africa he was running to a tree when the tarantula bit him). Near your home, there are many beautiful plants worth observing. You love all plants, especially trees. Later on, you will write about the ents, who act like humans, wiser humans, but look more like trees. They are related to trees, and are their ‘shepherds’. It is hard to describe ents, (especially their eyes; the character who saw them couldn’t describe them either). To get the full picture, maybe you want to hear it from their creator.

<!--[if !vml]--><!--[endif]-->‘They found that they were looking at a most extraordinary face. It belonged to a Man-like, almost Troll-like, figure, at least fourteen foot high, very sturdy, with a tall head, and hardly any neck. Whether he was clad in stuff like green and grey bark, or whether that was his hide, was difficult to say. At any rate the arms, at a short distance from the trunk, were not wrinkled, but covered with a brown smooth skin. The large feet had seven toes each. The lower part of the long face was covered with a sweeping grey beard, bushy, almost twiggy at the roots, thin and mossy at the ends. Bt at the moment the hobbits noted little but the eyes. These deep eyes were now surveying them, slow and solemn, but very penetrating. They were brown, shot with a green light.’

-Tolkien, J.R.R. The Two Towers

In Tolkien’s imaginary ‘Middle Earth’, ents are a species that is dying out. They cannot reproduce, and Saruman, a wizard, is killing them off, and using their wood for his own needs. They are not ‘hasty’ and peaceful, and prefer to take a long time to do what they like. Now that Saruman is killing them off, they are roused and they are ready to fight!

Later on in Tolkien’s childhood, he has to move again, leaving the flowers and the trees and the cottages he has come to love. He feels that wherever he may live, his home will always be in the flowered meadows of Sarehole. This beautiful Sarehole inspires Hobbiton, a hobbit land. (Tolkien thought himself similar to a hobbit. Hobbits are short, stout creatures, similar to humans, with hairy feet and a liking for comfort).

‘The late afternoon was bright and peaceful. The flowers glowed red and golden: snapdragons and sunflowers, and nasturtians trailing all over the turf walls and peeping in the round windows.’

<!--[if !vml]--><!--[endif]-->Tolkien, J.R.R. The Fellowship of the Ring

Tolkien’s new house is a rickety old one, also in England. Almost as soon as he starts to settle in there, the officials pull it out from under him and his family. His widowed mother couldn’t pay the rent, so again his family has to move. This one is a row house next to the railroad tracks and a coal yard. There are old, abandoned coal trucks in the coal yard. The Welsh names fascinate him. Nantyglo and Blaen-Rhondda are interesting names, don’t you think? The names they inspire are important, too. Some of them are Faramir, Arwen, and Galadriel. Arwen and Galadriel are elves, not your typical Keebler elves, or Santa’s helpers, but tall, beautiful immortal warriors who die only in battle. Faramir is a lord of Gondor. They all have important parts in the Ring trilogy (The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and The Return of the King).

<!--[if !vml]--><!--[endif]--> <!--[if !vml]--><!--[endif]--> At Oxford, Tolkien was a top student in many subjects. He loved to read Gothic, Norse, German, and Icelandic mythology. Those are also influences for the product of his work. For example, in Prose Edda, (a Scandinavian myth), he later copied ‘the sword that was broken’, and from Nibelungenlied, (a Teutonic epic), he took the ring, for use in the ring trilogy, The Silmarillion, and The Hobbit. In Nibelungenlied, the ring has corrupted a dwarf, who calls it ‘my precious’, similar to Gollum, who was once a hobbit, or a related species. Poor Gollum was always weak in mind, so the powerful ring drove him crazy easily. He loved it, yet hated it. He called it ‘my precious’.

‘Deep down here by the dark water lived old Gollum, a small slimy creature. I don’t know where he came from, nor who or what he was. He was Gollum - as dark as darkness, except for two big round pale eyes in his thin face.’

-Tolkien, J.R.R. The Hobbit

When Tolkien left college, he joined the army, and served in World War 1. Did he like it? The glory, the danger, the feeling of serving his beloved country? No! Some of his best friends died in battle. He saw blood and disease and death firsthand. Himself, he almost died of trench fever (a disease caused by ticks and lice). No, he didn’t like war at all.

‘The drums rolled louder. Fires leaped up. Great engines crawled across the field; and in the midst was a huge ram, great as a forest-tree a hundred feet in length, swinging on mighty chains. Long had it been forging in the dark smithies of Mordor, and its hideous head, founded of black steel, was shaped in the likeness of a ravening wolf; and on it spells of ruin lay…

Over the hills of slain a hideous shape appeared: a horseman, tall, hooded, cloaked in black. Slowly, trampling the fallen, he rode forth, heeding no longer any dart. He halted and held up a long pale sword. And as he did so a greater fear fell on all, defender and foe alike; and the hands of men drooped to their sides, and no bow sang. For a moment all was still.’

-Tolkien, J.R.R. The Return of the King

As you see, World War 1 influenced his writing to an extent only someone who was in combat could create.

You might notice that he pretty much only wrote fantasy. Well, he had a vivid, mythological imagination, tailored to writing fiction, so that figures. Throughout his life, he read ancient myths and stories. When he was a child, he ‘desired dragons’. A favorite pastime of his was to make up languages.

<!--[if !vml]--><!--[endif]--> So, he made languages. It was fun for him, and he was good at it. He was good with words in general. Gothic and Anglo-Saxon were his favorite languages, and his made-up languages had some resemblances. Quenya was his best, and was inspired by the Finnish language. He worked on it at Oxford. At Oxford, he found a poem in Old English that also influenced his writing.

‘Eala Earendel beorhast

Ofer middangeard monnum sended’

It means:

‘Hail Earendel brightest of angels,

Over Middle Earth sent to men’

Isn’t it nice? Anyway, he loved experimenting with languages and sounds. His first language was Nevbosh, meaning New Nonsense. It was literally nonsense. One phrase was, ‘Dar fys ma vel gom co palt “Hoc pys go iskeli far maino woc?”’ That means, ‘There was an old man who said “How can I possibly carry my cow?”

<!--[if !vml]--><!--[endif]--> How could someone carry their cow? I wonder. Anyway, there you have it. The inspiration for all the books Tolkien has written. How J.R.R. Tolkien was inspired to write!

I think that Mr. Tolkien was an amazing author. What do you think?

Note

J.R.R. Tolkien died on September 2, 1973. He was eighty-one years old.

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien: 1892-1973

<!--[if !vml]--><!--[endif]-->

Works Cited

Realms of Tolkien: Images of Middle Earth. 1996. Print.

Hodges, Ted. Understanding the Lord of the Rings. 2003. Print.

Neimark, Anne. Myth Maker: J.R.R. Tolkien. 1996. Print.

"J.R.R. Tolkien." www.wikipedia.com. Web. 18 Jan. 2011.

"J.R.R. Tolkien." www.biography.com. Web. 18 Jan. 2011.

"J.R.R. Tolkien." www.tolkiensociety.org. Web. 18 Jan. 2011.

"J.R.R. Tolkien." www.indephinfo.com. Web. 20 Jan. 2011.