In 1948, nearly a decade after creating the first sketches, J.R.R. Tolkien finished The Lord of the Rings. An absolute favourite of mine, it is a story full of magical beings and enchanted places, Hobbits, Wizards, Elves, Orcs, Goblins, and Men.
It is a children’s story, yet one that speaks in the language of fantasy so as to tell of things fundamental to all humankind - friendship, loyalty, courage, love, and of course, death.
Most of all, though, it is a story about hope. And, hope, being that interstice that holds both night and morning by the hand, is, perhaps, the most potent utterance of trust.
Having hope is believing that no matter how untraversable darkness might seem, dawn is always bound to break in the East. There is no shortage of cruelty and evil in the world, and to hold hope in the heart is to have a heart as deep as an ocean.
Only the strong hope - those whose strength is not found in the dropping of bombs and the shattering of dreams, but in their ability to see how beautiful life truly is, and love all compassionately and unconditionally.
Today, as we mark 132 years of Tolkien’s birth, we remember a little part of The Lord of the Rings in one of the sweetest conversations between Frodo and Sam.
FRODO: I can’t do this, Sam.
SAM: I know. It’s all wrong. By rights we shouldn’t even be here. But we are. It’s like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger they were. And sometimes you didn’t want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it’s only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you. That meant something. Even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back only they didn’t. Because they were holding on to something.
FRODO: What are we holding on to, Sam?
SAM: That there’s some good in this world, Mr. Frodo. And it’s worth fighting for.
Get The Lord of the Rings trilogy at Harper Collins Publishers.
About J.R.R. Tolkien
Born on January 3, 1892,in Bloemfontein, South Africa, J.R.R. Tolkien was an English writer and scholar who became famous with his children’s book The Hobbit (1937) and his richly inventive epic fantasy The Lord of the Rings (1954–55).
Tolkien’s father, a bank manager, died in South Africa when he was four, after which the Tolkien family moved to Birmingham, England.
His mother, a converted Roman Catholic, died in 1904, and her sons became wards of a Catholic priest. Four years later, Tolkien fell in love with another orphan, Edith Bratt, who inspired his fictional character Lúthien Tinúviel. However, his guardian disapproved of the relationship, and not until he was 21 years old could he ask Edith to marry him.
Adult Life and Children’s Stories
Tolkien taught English language and literature for most of his adult life. He specialised in Old and Middle English at the Universities of Leeds (1920–25) and Oxford (1925–59).
While busy with academic duties and acting as an examiner for other universities, he produced a few influential scholarly publications, notably a standard edition of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (1925; with E.V. Gordon) and a landmark lecture on Beowulf (Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics, 1936).
Privately, Tolkien entertained himself by writing an extensive series of fantasy tales set in a world of his own creation. He invented “Elvish” languages and created a whole setting, “the legendarium” - which eventually became The Silmarillion - where those languages could exist. Tolkien loved myths and legends and their influence is greatly present in his tales of Arda and Middle-Earth.
The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings
Perhaps the most important of Tolkien’s stories, which, he created to entertain his four children, is The Hobbit, a coming-of-age fantasy about a comfort-loving “hobbit” (a smaller relative of Man) who joins a quest for a dragon’s treasure, as a burglar. The Hobbit was published in1937 with pictures by the author, and was so popular that the publishers asked for a sequel. 17 years later, Tolkien’s masterpiece, The Lord of the Rings, a modern version of the heroic epic, was born.
Tolkien carried over a few elements from The Hobbit, in particular the One Ring which must be destroyed before it can be used by its creator, the Dark Lord, Sauron, to rule the world.
The book became incredibly successful - it had sold more than 50 million copies in 30 languages by the turn of the 21st century.
In the period 2001-2003, the New Zealand director Peter Jackson, released a three-part film version of the book: The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and The Return of the King, and achieved worldwide critical and financial success. Jackson then adapted The Hobbit as a trilogy comprising the films An Unexpected Journey (2012), The Desolation of Smaug (2013), and The Battle of the Five Armies (2014).
Tolkien’s Shorter Works and Legacy
Tolkien also wrote several shorter works during his lifetime, such as Farmer Giles of Ham (1949), a mock-mediaeval story, The Adventures of Tom Bombadil and Other Verses from the Red Book (1962), poetry related to The Lord of the Rings; Tree and Leaf (1964), with the seminal lecture “On Fairy-Stories” and the tale “Leaf by Niggle”; and the fantasy Smith of Wootton Major (1967).
A storyteller with an unmatched imagination, he died on September 2, 1973, in Bournemouth, Hampshire, England.
Want to read more stories? Visit the Storytelling Category and explore.
#arayofsigh #arayofsighblog #stories #storytelling #writing #writingstories #fantasy #fantasybooks #books #thelordoftherings #thehobbit #jrrtolkien #tolkien #thefellowshipofthering #thetwotowers #thereturnoftheking #writingcommunity #englishauthors #elves #elvish #childrensstories
Comments