Personal Life Experiences Of John Tolkien In His Novel The Lord Of The Rings

The Lord of the Rings trilogy, along with many other writings, reflected much of J. R. R. Tolkien's personal life in showing his educational understandings, his experiences, as well as his former loves and losses. He became known as the “Father of Modern Fantasy” for his fictional writings that seemed so surreal.

Tolkien’s story can be told through the ones he wrote. Born to Arthur and Mabel Tolkien, John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, along with his brother, Hilary Arthur Reuel Tolkien, spent the beginning of their lives in South Africa. It was after the Tolkien brother’s move with their mother to England that John began his schooling. King Edward’s School in Birmingham, England revealed Tolkien’s incredible comprehension of the classics and modern languages alike. He was young, ambitious, and well-informed in the ways of linguistics. Contributions to King Edward’s Chronicle were also made by young John while he attended the school. With Tolkien’s fascination for linguistics continuing to expand, he decided to go to Exeter College at Oxford to begin his studies in classic literature. This particular literature fell out of favor with Tolkien, leading him to switch to English and graduate with a first class degree. It was in his time at Oxford where he studied a wide variety of languages such as Classics, Old English, German, Welsh, Finnish, among many others. Subsequently, he became a Professor of Rawlinson and Bosworth in teaching Anglo-Saxon, and of Merton for English Language and Literature. Amidst his studies and lectures, he found time to write, not only poetry and short stories but languages of his own. Later, Tolkien would use these in his most famous of adventures, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. He was only slightly older than the age of thirteen when he began to scribe his own languages. It became a hobby that carried on throughout his life, even though to his death.

A large number of his languages was created and integrated into his later writings. One of his most well-known is Elf Tongue, or Elvish for short; under which there are many dialects. Of the lesser known languages are: Mannish,; the Dwarf Language; Entish or the language of the Tree Folk; Ainur Language or the language of the “First Beings”; Language of the Orcs; Black Speech or Language of Mordor, Warg Language or the Wild Wolves Language; and Thrush. His aptitude in creating languages was astonishing. His philosophical knowledge and linguistic artistry still amaze the world today. Not only was it through his understandings that he was able to create a whole other world, but it was also through his experiences. One would daresay that Tolkien had an odd way of reliving his shortcomings with animals in the real world with the ones he placed in his fantasy. For example, when still a young boy, John was on an everyday stroll when a tarantula came and stung him. Although he claims that he held no personal vendetta against spiders from that day forth, the impact of this experience can be seen in his writing of both The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit.

In The Lord of the Rings, one of the last obstacles Frodo Baggins must face is Shelob, The Shadow Spider. During the infamous encounter of Hobbit and Spider, Frodo is stung and falls into a coma and is eventually recovered by Sauron’s minions. After a swift encounter with the sword, Sting, and Samwise Gamgee, Shelob is sent crippled back into the shadows, not to be heard of again. As bullets rained down and booming louder than fireworks was heard off in the distance, Tolkien came face to face with a monster. Though alive only by the power of man, army tanks were one of the many inventions of World War I and one of the most feared. During the Battle of Somme, of which Tolkien was deployed, Great Britain unleashed its defense. A machine that spits fire and wrought destruction wherever it was pointed was a perfect model for dragons. The most memorable of Tolkien’s dragons is Smaug the Impenetrable from The Hobbit. The seizure of Erebor and evacuation of its mining facilities along with the destruction of the town of Dale by fire was all due to Smaug, the fire-breather.

The parallelism between the Great World War and the war scenes in The Hobbit show directly how deeply Tolkien was scarred by the war. Deployed on the western front and engaged in the Battle of Somme, Tolkien struggled being separated from the love of his life, Edith Bratt. Although serving as Second Lieutenant in the Lancaster Fusiliers, John’s service was cut short in his contraction of trench fever and was sent back to England in November of 1916. The complete horrors and utter devastation of being on the front lines in one of the bloodiest battles in history took a toll on the writer's mind. The battles fought and wars won are scattered throughout Tolkien’s writing’s and resemble much of his real-life experiences on the battlefield. The sight of bloody bodies piled on top of one another along with the sheer wreckage of the landscape resolving into nothingness, gave Tolkien a clear picture war, allowing clarity in his writings. In The Hobbit, the end of the war scene depicts a battlefield scattered with bodies of many breeds. Likewise, the Battle of Somme battlefield was covered in bodies of many nationalities. It had been a long, awaited love story between Edith and John. She was older than him by about three years yet both were orphans when they met in that fateful boarding house. They grew up together, and in the summer of 1909, they fell madly for the other. Though many were fond of the couple, Tolkien’s guardian, Father Francis Morgan, disapproved. John began to lack in his studies, leading him to be forbidden to see, speak, or even write Edith until his 21st birthday. During this time apart, Tolkien immersed himself in his studies and, while unknown to him, Edith became engaged. When his 21st birthday finally rolled around, Tolkien was finally allowed to reconnect with her. After much difficulty and many long conversations, he was able to firmly establish their relationship with a proposal, one of which Edith happily accepted. Edith renounced her previous engagement and on March 22, 1916, the couple married.

Tolkien integrated many of his experiences into his writings, including times with his love. Published posthumously, Beren and Lúthien reflected much of his private life alongside Edith. It is said that when Tolkien was very young, he spotted Edith dancing in the forest, and it was in his writing of Beren and Lúthien where Beren falls in love with Lúthien after watching her dance among the trees. The unbreakable bond between Tolkien and Edith and its resemblance in Beren and Lúthien gives a clear picture of Tolkien’s fondness of her. Both couples, forbidden to fall in love, yet fall in love they did. They were ancestors of Aragorn and Arwen, the Man and Elf pair forbidden by Elrond to be together; love stories much the same as Tolkien’s. The record of Beren and Lúthien can be traced back to Tolkien’s grave; each lover over their corresponding character’s name. As many mortal men know, life cannot be fully lived without experiencing loss of some sort or another. It was only three years that John Tolkien lived in South Africa with his folks before moving to England with his mother. Arthur Tolkien, his father, passed later in that year while still in South Africa on business, after coming down with rheumatic fever. His mother, Mabel Tolkien, died after a shocking diagnosis of diabetes. Tolkien was only twelve. From then on, both children lived with Father Francis Morgan. It was also in the midst of a war where Tolkien experienced excruciating pain. Close friends from school were also deployed alongside Tolkien. Though he was taken back after contracting trench fever, his friends stayed and fought. Three of them there were, but only one returned; much the same it was The Fellowship of the Ring, one of the trilogy of The Lord of the Rings. In the story, nine set forth from Rivendell to Mordor, but only one remained with Frodo until the end. The one full of courage and braver than the strongest of men, Samwise Gamgee, was inspired by the soldiers who fought and won against all odds.

The strength, determination, and heroism displayed by Tolkien’s characters reflected that of those he witnessed first-hand in the war. Winning the First World War inspired the ending of The Lord of the Rings with the extermination of evil and a new found hope with light shining through the shadows once again. It was from his understanding of an extensive list of languages that Tolkien was able to write his own. Facing the horrors of war and the loss of many of his loved ones traumatized and ultimately influenced a large portion of his writings. Yet, Tolkien’s lifelong partner, Edith Bratt, brought comfort to his troubled mind. From his childhood to his schooling, to war, and even to death, Tolkien’s life was in writings, literally and figuratively. He was the Master of Middle Earth, for he went there and back again, until the end of his time.