Ben and Alice keep going in circles reading Lord of the Rings. Just when they finish the series, Ben asks what they should read next. The common answer? The Hobbit!
I am more a reader of non-fiction than fiction when left to my own devices, so I picked up a 1977 biography on the man behind it all. Along they way I have been dog-ear-ing many pages and making notes of what I wanted to share with B&A. But they are too good not to share with a wider audience, so here goes!
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Tolkien German father died at war when he was only 1, and he grew up with his English mother’s side of the family, and then largely in boarding schools for boys. At age 15 his mother died, and “Ronald” and his brother were put under the guardianship on a Catholic Priest, as his mother had become a devout catholic.
“My own dear mother was a martyr indeed, and it is not to everybody that God grants so easy a way to his great gifts as he did to [my brother] and myself in giving us a mother who killed herself with labour and trouble to ensure us keeping the faith” – J.R.R
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His fascination and academic interest with words and languages began at a young age. Also, his appreciation of male friendships was also foundational in his life.
With his cousins they made up a nonsense language called “Nevbosh”, translated words and wrote limericks with it! 😛
“Tolkien was at his happiest in groups of cronies where the was good talk, plenty of tobacco (he was not firmly dedicated to a pipe, with occasional excursions into expensive cigarettes), and male company.”
“[the male company] used among themselves a curious slang… breakfast was “brekker”, lecture was “lekker”, a sing-song was “sigger-sogger” and a practical joke was a “pragger-jogger”. 😛
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During his days as a professor at Oxford he would sit up late and work. On the other side of the building lived another professor who liked to work in the early dawn hours. And so, when Tolkien went off to bed he would knock on the wall that was between the two men and pronounce, “Good morning”, to receive the reply of “Good night!”.
He really loved languages and words, finding particular beauty in Welsh. “Most English-speaking people…will admit that the word Cellar door is “Beautiful”, especially if dissociated from it’s sense and spelling. More beautiful than, say, sky and far more beautiful than beautiful.
🙂
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