Quotes About Tolkien

Language construction will BREED a mythology. J.R.R. Tolkien

And language for Tolkien was also the soil from which his literary garden grew, as he explains in a 1966 interview, referring again to "cellar door": "Supposing you say some quite ordinary words to me—'cellar door,' say. From that, I might think of a name, 'Selador,' and from that a character, a situation begins to grow.

I would love to live in 'The Lord of the Rings.' J. R. R. Tolkien's world is so vivid and rich and sensual. I love the country setting and the routine of the hobbits. Of course, I would like to be a hobbit who goes on small adventures - not huge, horrifying ones like Frodo's quest.

I spent a lot of time on my own working out the physical vocabulary for how Gollum moved. As I say, I drew on a lot of Tolkein's descriptions of how he moves, but also the conceptual artist sketches.

There's no sex in Middle Earth.

This is surely the most significant of the elements that Tolkien brought to fantasy.... his arranged marriage between the Elder Edda and "The Wind in the Willows"--big Icelandic romance and small-scale, cozy English children's book. The story told by "The Lord of the Rings" is essentially what would happen if Mole and Ratty got drafted into the Nibelungenlied.

Tolkien was, I believe, writing about his experience in the First and Second World Wars, where he would have spent a lot of time without any female contact. He was part of the fellowship of men who went to war, and I think, really, that's what he's writing about.

No one seems to wash in Middle-earth.

Tolkien understands the odd danger posed by virtue cut off from the Good. Over and again, he demonstrates his fundamental conviction that evil preys upon our virtues far more than our vices. Our very strengths and assets-whether intelligence or bravery, diligence or loyalty or beauty, but especially righteousness-may dispose us either to scorn those who lack such virtues, or else to employ our gifts for our own selfish ends.

The Gospel is the ultimate fairy-story, Tolkien concludes, because it contains "the greatest and most complete conceivable eucatastrophe.... There is no tale ever told that men would rather find was true, and none which so many sceptical men have accepted as true on its own merits.... To reject it leads either to sadness or to wrath" (MC, 156).

Of all the things that men may heed 'Tis most of love they sing indeed.

The only just literary critic," he concluded, "is Christ, who admires more than does any man the gifts He Himself has bestowed.

The Hobbits are just rustic English people, made small in size because it reflects the generally small reach of their imagination - not the small reach of their courage or latent power.

Long are the lives of elves' he said. Short are the tempers of dwarfs,'Gotrek muttered, just loud enough to be heard.

A fair vision had welcomed him in this land of disease.

And some things that should not have been forgotten were lost. History became legend. Legend became myth. And for two and a half thousand years, the ring passed out of all knowledge.

Cousin John reads Tolkien. No man who does that can be wholly evil.

So far as his beliefs about the primary world were concerned, Tolkien was a traditional, orthodox Catholic. So far as his subcreated world was concerned, he claimed the right to say, not how things are, but how, within the limits set by his fundamental beliefs, they could be.

As he read the long narrative poem, Lewis was struck by two qualities in particular. He admired the realism of Tolkien's sub-created world, the depth and detail of Middle-earth. He also praised the mythical value of the story, the way the events were good in themselves and yet also suggested deeper layers of meaning to the reader. But

However, one of the reasons for their dissolution is that Hugo Dyson crossed this line. When he persisted in dismissing The Lord of the Rings, it changed the group. Dyson didn't critique the work: he rejected it altogether. That eroded the spirit of the Inklings. It was no longer safe to share rough drafts and far-fetched ideas. When creative people encounter thoughtful critique, they feel empowered. When they encounter dismissal, they stop taking risks. They shut down. Tolkien

He captures something of C. S. Lewis in The Lord of the Rings. The character Treebeard makes an unusual "Hrum, Hroom" sound when he speaks. This was Tolkien's attempt to capture the "booming voice" of Lewis. The identification of Lewis with this wise and ancient tree-man should be seen as high praise, indeed, for Tolkien's love for trees is evident throughout his writing. More

10 October 1946 Tollers continued to read his new Hobbit: so sui generis, so alive with the peculiar charm of his "magical" writing, that it is indescribable—and merely worth recording here for an odd proof of how near he is to real magic. 24

As Tolkien got older, he increasingly denied the participation of others in the creation of his work. Tolkien says this is one of the few places where Lewis's detailed criticisms were useful and just. It may be more accurate to say this is one of the few places where Tolkien specifically acknowledges the careful editing of his friend. Changes

Tolkien looked forward to sending new chapters to his son. In one letter, he expressed his appreciation to Christopher saying, "This book has come to be more and more addressed to you, so that your opinion matters more than any one else's." When