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As John Ronald Reuel Tolkien
created his fantasy universe

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called Middle-earth,

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hardly anyone could have
anticipated how successful

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and influential it would become.

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Without Tolkien,

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there would be no J.K. Rowling,
no George Martin or Game of Thrones,

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no role-playing games, no Star Wars.

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He even influenced The Beatles
and Led Zeppelin.

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He influenced so many,
but what inspired him?

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What is the true story of the rings?

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This film is a quest for traces...

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In the landscapes, the history

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and the myths
of his homeland England.

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Everybody wants to discover

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the one place that sparked

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Tolkien's imagination.

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Tolkien's fans really want

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this Middle-earth mythology

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to be real
or to at least be inspired

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by real things.
There is a real desire.

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Less known
are Tolkien's personal encounters

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with the history
of the 20th century,

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for example, as a soldier

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in the First World War.

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Tolkien was here between

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the 25th and the 29th

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of July 1916.

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If we were to go back
more than 100 years,

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we would likely already be
under heavy fire here.

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His greatest journey took him

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to Switzerland in 1911.

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A very real,

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even life-threatening adventure.

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That was a near-death

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sort of experience.

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We could have had
the end of Tolkien at that point.

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We're very lucky that we didn't.

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Tolkien's books are unique.

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Fantasy and world literature.

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Timeless. Profound. Immortal. Cult.

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Brought to the world by a professor

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while marking exam papers:

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One page of this

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particular paper
was left blank, glorious,

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nothing to read. So,
I scribble on it. I can't think why.

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"In a hole in the ground
lived a Hobbit."

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I am in fact a Hobbit myself,

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in all but size.

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I like gardens, trees

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and unmechanised farmlands.

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I smoke a pipe
and enjoy eating.

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I like and even dare

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to wear ornamental waistcoats
in these dull days.

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I am fond of mushrooms.

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I have a very simple
sense of humour.

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I go to bed late
and get up late, when possible.

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I do not travel much.

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Well, he often said,
I'm very much a Hobbit, you know?

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Sometimes that's a bit of a joke
with the waistcoats,

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the pipe, you know. But it's...

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They're based in a...

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part of his life
that was kind of idyllic,

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that turn of the century, you know,
late-Victorian England.

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That sort of rural idyll.

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Today, when many people think
of Middle-earth,

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they mostly imagine what
Peter Jackson showed us

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of New Zealand

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in the Tolkien films.

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Tolkien's rural idyll
was the West Midlands,

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"England's green and pleasant land,"

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as he called his homeland
in the heart of Britain.

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Wow.

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Can you believe this?

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Can you believe this place?

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It's supernatural.

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So this is the doorway

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to Saint Edward's Church.

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In Stow-on-the-Wold.

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We don't know for certain

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that Tolkien ever came here,

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so this is... it's only a theory

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that maybe this was
a kind of inspiration

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for the West Gate of Moria,

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it's called Durin's Doors.

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Very famously,
Durin's Doors are secret.

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By the time of the Third Age,
they are hidden away,

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and they need a magic spell

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for them to open.

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The magic spell is "speak, friend,

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and enter". Mellon,

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in the Elvish language.

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Ancient languages, names
and their stories.

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Tolkien was obsessed.

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As a child, as a student
and as a professor in Oxford,

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he even used family trips
for research purposes.

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They would take weekends
and drive out in the countryside

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and look exactly for
places like this.

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So, Rollright Stones,

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it's kind of a very strange,
unusual name.

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One of the theories,
the one that I like,

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is that it's actually
an ancient British word

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before the old English language
comes here.

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That's one of the things Tolkien
is most interested in.

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This layering of names,

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the layering of time, of history

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on places like these.

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Not far from Oxford,
near Dragon Hill,

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is the Uffington White Horse,

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a figure over 100 metres long,

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carved into the chalk hillside.

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A horse.

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We're looking out
towards Oxfordshire,

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the land that was sort of closest

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to Tolkien's heart.

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But this carving

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would have been carved
thousands of years ago,

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and every age probably gave it

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a new legend, a new mythology.

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And we know by the time of
the Anglo Saxon kingdoms

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that this was the heartland
of a kingdom

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called Mercia. And Mercia

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"The men of the march",

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is the inspiration
for the kingdom of Rohan.

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The people of Rohan,
the men of Rohan

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have Anglo Saxon names

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and they call themselves
"The men of the march".

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And they speak
in old English language

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and they quote from Beowolf.

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Tolkien, a linguist by profession,

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gave a groundbreaking lecture
on the Old English

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heroic epic Beowulf.

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Elements of it appear in Rohan,

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the equestrian kingdom

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in The Lord of the Rings.

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In Rohan,

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the symbol, the banner,

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is a white horse on a green field.

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This is no accident.
So this is

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the founding white horse

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of the Kingdom of Rohan.

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It is also the ancestor
of Shadowfax,

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the horse of King Théoden
and eventually the horse of Gandalf.

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Many of Tolkien's iconic characters

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contain references and allusions.

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Gandalf, for example,

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one of the five great wizards
of Middle-earth,

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derives his name from
the Old Icelandic saga "Edda".

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Tolkien was fascinated by
the old myths of Europe.

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In the landscapes of
the English Midlands,

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traces of them are everywhere,
overlapping with

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millennia-old stories and history.

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So, he could draw from
his neighbourhood

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to make

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Middle-earth

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come alive.

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It's hard to travel through

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the Cotswolds, this wooded area

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surrounding Oxford,

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without thinking of the Shire.

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Whether you're talking about England

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or you're talking about Tolkien,

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kind of all roads lead here,

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to Wayland's Smithy.

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This place is also important

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because it's one of
the ancient places

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that we know Tolkien visited.

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Named about 1500 years ago

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by Anglo-Saxon settlers

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after the Germanic demigod Wayland,

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it later became

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"Wayland's Smithy."

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It's highly likely Tolkien

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had burial mounds

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like this in mind

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while writing his "legendarium."

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One of the really curious theories
was that

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traditions across
the British Isles about a

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fairy folk who had lived

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underground in mounds

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may have originated
with the real people

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who had been here.
The Celts.

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And who had

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been so shy that they were only

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vaguely known on the peripheries of

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the incomers, civilisation.

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A small people, perhaps, who could

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vanish in the flash of an eye,
you know?

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And I'm sure that this
is where Tolkien gets

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the idea of the Hobbits from.

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Tolkien is very clear
that these real-life places

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are not the same places

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he describes in his legendarium.

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But he wants to describe
that feeling

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of being there,
close to something ancient,

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knowing somehow

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that many lives
have passed through here,

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that many stories
have been told here.

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And I think we do the same thing

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when we follow
in Tolkien's footsteps.

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We want to imagine

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what he imagined when he was here.

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On the one hand, Tolkien creatively
uses his environment,

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historical sites, what he learnt

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and what he experienced.
But he was also shaped by

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traumatic events from his childhood.

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John Ronald Reuel Tolkien,

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was born in 1892

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in the Orange Free State,

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in what is now South Africa.

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His father worked for
an English bank there.

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When Tolkien was three,

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his mother returned to England
with him and his brother, Hilary.

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They would never see
their father again,

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he died shortly afterwards.

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He talks about that
in his late interviews, actually,

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about that huge contrast
between the landscape of

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South Africa
and what he sees in Birmingham.

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He talks a lot
about the rustic people

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there as well and their accents.

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Remember, Tolkien
is a middle class child, right?

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He's a sort of
upper-middle-class child, really,

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transposed into an environment
where there are more rural people.

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And the rural Hobbits are very much

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a representation of that.

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His mother settled with the two boys
Hilary and Ronald

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near Sarehole Mill,

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then on the rural outskirts

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of Birmingham.

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For the children,
it was a world full of wonder.

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It was a kind of lost paradise.

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There was an old mill
that really

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did grind corn with two millers,

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a great big pond with swans on it,

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a sandpit,
a wonderful dell with flowers,

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a few old-fashioned village houses

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and, further away,
a stream with another mill.

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Any time you see
Tolkien's own drawings,

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his own depictions
of what he thinks

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Hobbiton looks like,

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you always see a river

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and a mill with its water wheel.

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The central location of that mill
in his drawings

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links to the central location
of this mill in his memories.

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Ronald and Hilary created

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early games and stories
about witches and ogres.

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They named the young miller,

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who was always covered in flour,
the "White Ogre"

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and a farmer who once chased them,
the "Black Ogre."

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They intertwined their surroundings

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with dangerous,
child-eating creatures

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drawn from popular
English fairy tales.

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Mabel Tolkien
was a very educated woman

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for the standards of the period,

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She was up to date
with children's books at the time.

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This is just after the first
golden age of children's literature.

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So we know that Tolkien read
Andrew Lang,

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the Coloured Fairy Books.

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He knew about the Arthurian legend

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from her.
He learnt languages from her,

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the linguistic element
is particularly important,

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obviously, for Tolkien's
later development, the fact that

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he was being taught languages,
but he was

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getting interested in
how languages work.

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When Ronald was eight years old,

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00:12:57,760 --> 00:12:59,680
they moved away from
this idyllic area

266
00:12:59,880 --> 00:13:02,680
so he would not have to walk
six kilometres

267
00:13:02,880 --> 00:13:05,280
to Birmingham's
King Edward's School.

268
00:13:08,280 --> 00:13:10,160
Now he lived in the city!

269
00:13:12,040 --> 00:13:14,240
Fascinated, he discovered
Welsh words

270
00:13:14,440 --> 00:13:16,640
on coal wagons
destined for industry.

271
00:13:20,800 --> 00:13:24,480
These words sparked his interest
in developing artificial languages.

272
00:13:24,880 --> 00:13:26,920
One of these, Sindarin,

273
00:13:27,120 --> 00:13:28,800
was based on Welsh.

274
00:13:29,240 --> 00:13:31,800
Another, Quenya,
was inspired by Finnish.

275
00:13:34,000 --> 00:13:35,840
Early in life, Ronald

276
00:13:36,040 --> 00:13:38,280
and Hilary learnt that nothing
stays the same.

277
00:13:38,840 --> 00:13:40,360
Their hard lesson:

278
00:13:40,560 --> 00:13:42,120
Things can always get worse.

279
00:13:42,560 --> 00:13:45,160
Their father died
before he could follow

280
00:13:45,360 --> 00:13:47,760
the family to England,
when Ronald was four.

281
00:13:48,280 --> 00:13:50,960
At 12, Ronald also lost his mother.

282
00:13:51,520 --> 00:13:54,080
The Tolkien brothers
became orphans.

283
00:13:56,400 --> 00:13:59,320
But it seems there is this
trauma childhood.

284
00:13:59,520 --> 00:14:02,480
So it's the trauma of losing
a father, then losing a mother

285
00:14:02,680 --> 00:14:04,360
to whom he was very, very close

286
00:14:04,680 --> 00:14:07,320
and I think there is this melancholy

287
00:14:07,680 --> 00:14:10,920
and this general tendency to

288
00:14:11,120 --> 00:14:14,240
at times fall into
swings of pessimism,

289
00:14:14,520 --> 00:14:16,200
are definitely there
throughout his life.

290
00:14:16,480 --> 00:14:19,360
And yes, I suppose you see that

291
00:14:19,560 --> 00:14:22,880
via characters such as Frodo,
who is traumatised

292
00:14:23,080 --> 00:14:25,280
and never quite recovers.

293
00:14:27,360 --> 00:14:31,200
Frodo. Frodo Baggins,
after all,

294
00:14:31,400 --> 00:14:33,400
lives in Bag End in the Shire

295
00:14:33,600 --> 00:14:35,480
with his foster father Bilbo.

296
00:14:36,120 --> 00:14:38,400
Like Tolkien, he is an orphan

297
00:14:38,600 --> 00:14:41,760
and knows
his creator's pessimism well.

298
00:14:45,200 --> 00:14:47,080
So, yes, I think I think
there is a very

299
00:14:47,280 --> 00:14:48,840
important part of this

300
00:14:49,200 --> 00:14:52,400
inner melancholy, inner pessimism

301
00:14:52,600 --> 00:14:54,320
feeding into Middle-earth.

302
00:14:54,520 --> 00:14:56,720
And I think what that's
what makes it enduring as well.

303
00:14:56,880 --> 00:15:01,640
If we had a very linear

304
00:15:01,840 --> 00:15:04,920
narrative in which everything
gets resolved at the end,

305
00:15:05,160 --> 00:15:07,720
I don't think we would have
such an enduring story.

306
00:15:07,920 --> 00:15:10,720
In many ways, life doesn't work
like that very often.

307
00:15:13,000 --> 00:15:15,040
The brothers were assigned
a guardian:

308
00:15:15,280 --> 00:15:17,000
Father Francis Morgan.

309
00:15:22,080 --> 00:15:24,560
Ronald and Hilary remained close

310
00:15:24,760 --> 00:15:26,680
all their lives.

311
00:15:29,160 --> 00:15:31,680
His brother Hilary,
two years younger...

312
00:15:34,440 --> 00:15:37,120
didn't have that...
He left school

313
00:15:37,320 --> 00:15:39,240
as soon as he was able to

314
00:15:39,600 --> 00:15:42,560
and went to work on his aunt's farm.

315
00:15:43,800 --> 00:15:46,920
And later in life
had his own farm.

316
00:15:47,480 --> 00:15:49,760
I think there's a touch
of Sam Gamgee about him,

317
00:15:50,280 --> 00:15:51,800
and I think that, you know,
that reflects that

318
00:15:52,000 --> 00:15:53,800
there was an ongoing bond
between the two.

319
00:15:54,440 --> 00:15:57,240
This may be a key
to Tolkien's ability

320
00:15:58,400 --> 00:16:00,960
to empathise with people
who are not like himself.

321
00:16:01,760 --> 00:16:03,720
Under Father Francis' care,

322
00:16:03,920 --> 00:16:06,440
Ronald met Edith Bratt,
three years his senior.

323
00:16:07,040 --> 00:16:09,280
When they grew close,
Father Francis

324
00:16:09,480 --> 00:16:12,280
forbade the minor
from seeing Edith

325
00:16:12,720 --> 00:16:15,800
until he turned 21.

326
00:16:16,840 --> 00:16:18,560
His first great love

327
00:16:18,760 --> 00:16:20,320
became a forbidden love.

328
00:16:24,280 --> 00:16:26,320
His love for nature,
however, was unbridled.

329
00:16:26,520 --> 00:16:29,080
Ronald liked to climb trees

330
00:16:29,520 --> 00:16:31,320
and was distraught

331
00:16:31,640 --> 00:16:34,120
when one of these trees,
an old willow

332
00:16:34,840 --> 00:16:37,400
near the mill, was cut down
and left to rot.

333
00:16:40,200 --> 00:16:42,520
This tree would later reappear

334
00:16:42,720 --> 00:16:45,320
in Tolkien's work
as "Old Man Willow,"

335
00:16:45,720 --> 00:16:47,880
a character who fights back
against humans.

336
00:16:50,320 --> 00:16:52,680
In The Lord of the Rings,
Tolkien turns trees

337
00:16:52,880 --> 00:16:55,640
into active beings.
He goes beyond simply giving them

338
00:16:56,000 --> 00:16:58,080
a mystical history, as Shakespeare

339
00:16:58,280 --> 00:17:01,480
did in Macbeth.

340
00:17:02,040 --> 00:17:03,600
Tolkien wanted more.

341
00:17:04,360 --> 00:17:06,560
Their part in the story is due,
I think,

342
00:17:06,760 --> 00:17:09,680
to my bitter disappointment
and disgust from schooldays

343
00:17:09,880 --> 00:17:11,240
with the shabby use made
in Shakespeare of the coming

344
00:17:11,400 --> 00:17:13,080
of "Great Birnam Wood
to high Dunsinane hill".

345
00:17:13,360 --> 00:17:15,440
I longed to devise
a setting in which

346
00:17:15,640 --> 00:17:17,800
the trees
might really march to war.

347
00:17:18,120 --> 00:17:21,440
Thus, Tolkien created the Ents,
tree shepherds.

348
00:17:22,120 --> 00:17:24,120
Ancient beings

349
00:17:24,320 --> 00:17:26,320
who could walk, speak

350
00:17:26,520 --> 00:17:28,680
and, when absolutely necessary,

351
00:17:29,040 --> 00:17:30,680
even go to war.

352
00:17:32,480 --> 00:17:35,240
Few tasks are as pressing
for humanity

353
00:17:35,560 --> 00:17:38,600
as avoiding climate catastrophe,

354
00:17:39,120 --> 00:17:41,120
making Tolkien's vision

355
00:17:41,320 --> 00:17:43,160
of intelligent, speaking trees

356
00:17:43,360 --> 00:17:46,080
with a clear purpose

357
00:17:46,280 --> 00:17:48,760
all the more prescient.

358
00:17:50,200 --> 00:17:52,440
In Peter Jackson's film,

359
00:17:52,640 --> 00:17:54,280
The Two Towers,

360
00:17:54,480 --> 00:17:56,880
the Ents become living beings

361
00:17:57,080 --> 00:17:59,840
who have had enough.

362
00:18:04,280 --> 00:18:05,960
Come, my friends.

363
00:18:07,120 --> 00:18:11,040
The Ents are going to war.

364
00:18:11,360 --> 00:18:13,040
It is likely

365
00:18:13,400 --> 00:18:16,720
that we go to our doom.

366
00:18:18,560 --> 00:18:23,040
The last march of the Ents!

367
00:18:24,280 --> 00:18:27,000
That nature rebels is unsurprising,

368
00:18:27,200 --> 00:18:29,920
especially when we look at
depictions of the "Black Country,"

369
00:18:30,200 --> 00:18:33,520
an industrial region
north of Birmingham.

370
00:18:35,280 --> 00:18:39,400
It really was a dark
and grim region.

371
00:18:39,600 --> 00:18:41,880
Nature despoiled

372
00:18:42,360 --> 00:18:45,000
the lives of the
workers there, you know,

373
00:18:45,720 --> 00:18:48,560
they would not have been healthy.
They would not have been long lived.

374
00:18:49,920 --> 00:18:52,360
So I think that that's a primal

375
00:18:52,560 --> 00:18:55,720
influence on Tolkien and his idea of

376
00:18:57,360 --> 00:18:59,040
what's right and wrong in the world.

377
00:18:59,320 --> 00:19:01,560
And I don't think
it trivialises things

378
00:19:01,760 --> 00:19:03,600
to point out that

379
00:19:03,800 --> 00:19:06,280
if you translate the Black Country
into Elvish,

380
00:19:06,480 --> 00:19:07,640
you get Mordor.

381
00:19:09,080 --> 00:19:10,680
The backdrop of the Black Country

382
00:19:10,880 --> 00:19:13,360
seems like a model
for the dark places

383
00:19:13,560 --> 00:19:14,640
in Middle-earth

384
00:19:15,160 --> 00:19:17,000
that embody evil.

385
00:19:17,360 --> 00:19:20,200
The worlds of Sauron and Saruman.

386
00:19:21,960 --> 00:19:24,240
The Lord of the Rings
is undoubtedly critical

387
00:19:24,440 --> 00:19:26,960
of industrialisation.
Saruman serves as a champion

388
00:19:27,160 --> 00:19:28,680
of industry.

389
00:19:28,880 --> 00:19:31,760
Mordor, with its dark wasteland

390
00:19:31,960 --> 00:19:34,360
choked by smoke resembles
a massive industrial site.

391
00:19:34,560 --> 00:19:36,560
A land that is no longer green.

392
00:19:36,760 --> 00:19:40,120
A land covered in clouds of smoke,

393
00:19:40,320 --> 00:19:42,120
in which red lights flicker.

394
00:19:42,320 --> 00:19:45,800
It looks like a huge,
giant smelting works.

395
00:19:46,160 --> 00:19:47,800
I'm from Saarland,

396
00:19:48,560 --> 00:19:51,240
I live next door to Mordor.
I know what it looks like!

397
00:19:51,440 --> 00:19:52,960
Just look at the Dillinger Hütte.

398
00:19:54,440 --> 00:19:57,880
Saruman, once a "good"
wizard like Gandalf,

399
00:19:58,080 --> 00:20:00,880
joins forces with Sauron
in Lord of the Rings,

400
00:20:01,160 --> 00:20:04,240
producing orcs
in his Isengard forges

401
00:20:04,440 --> 00:20:05,720
and preparing for war

402
00:20:05,920 --> 00:20:08,360
against Middle-earth's
peaceful peoples.

403
00:20:11,200 --> 00:20:13,160
Tolkien's expansive knowledge,
which would make

404
00:20:13,360 --> 00:20:14,800
his Middle-earth
so rich and complex,

405
00:20:15,200 --> 00:20:16,720
began forming during his time

406
00:20:16,920 --> 00:20:18,600
at King Edward's School.

407
00:20:19,280 --> 00:20:21,440
He delivered lectures to his peers

408
00:20:21,640 --> 00:20:23,960
in Old English, Greek and Gothic.

409
00:20:24,840 --> 00:20:27,040
Alongside three close friends,
he founded

410
00:20:27,360 --> 00:20:29,720
a debating club,

411
00:20:30,080 --> 00:20:31,720
TCBS,

412
00:20:31,920 --> 00:20:34,200
or the Tea Club Barrovian Society,

413
00:20:35,480 --> 00:20:38,040
creating a lifelong bond.

414
00:20:40,000 --> 00:20:42,480
The group consisted of
Wiseman, Smith,

415
00:20:42,680 --> 00:20:45,560
Gilson and Tolkien,

416
00:20:45,880 --> 00:20:47,080
four young men

417
00:20:47,840 --> 00:20:50,360
determined to renew

418
00:20:50,560 --> 00:20:52,640
the world morally.

419
00:20:53,240 --> 00:20:56,600
Idealism was common

420
00:20:56,800 --> 00:20:59,440
for 19- and 20-year-olds
who saw the world before them

421
00:21:00,120 --> 00:21:02,560
and were likely bound for

422
00:21:02,760 --> 00:21:05,200
the universities of
either Cambridge or Oxford,

423
00:21:05,400 --> 00:21:07,560
with careers ahead of them,

424
00:21:07,760 --> 00:21:09,320
expecting to make a difference.

425
00:21:09,520 --> 00:21:11,280
They belonged to the elite.

426
00:21:13,160 --> 00:21:16,720
This included membership
in the school's cadet corps.

427
00:21:17,320 --> 00:21:20,040
For now, they only wore uniforms
for group photos.

428
00:21:20,520 --> 00:21:23,360
But within a few years,
World War I

429
00:21:23,560 --> 00:21:25,440
would become a grim reality
for the cadets.

430
00:21:26,920 --> 00:21:29,360
At this time, they were
still writing poems and essays...

431
00:21:29,720 --> 00:21:31,800
Young Tolkien made an impression

432
00:21:32,000 --> 00:21:33,600
with his vast knowledge,

433
00:21:33,920 --> 00:21:36,560
commenting on the Finnish
national epic,

434
00:21:36,760 --> 00:21:38,000
the Kalevala,

435
00:21:38,200 --> 00:21:40,280
and comparing
the Icelandic sagas

436
00:21:40,480 --> 00:21:42,880
of the Völsungs
to Homer's Odyssey.

437
00:21:44,360 --> 00:21:46,280
In the decades that followed,

438
00:21:46,480 --> 00:21:47,680
all this

439
00:21:47,880 --> 00:21:50,040
would find its way into
his immense body of work

440
00:21:50,240 --> 00:21:51,920
on Middle-earth.

441
00:21:53,720 --> 00:21:56,920
It all began in 1937
with The Hobbit.

442
00:21:57,320 --> 00:21:59,680
One of the illustrations
shows Hobbiton,

443
00:21:59,880 --> 00:22:02,520
complete with a mill
and the landscape of his childhood.

444
00:22:04,320 --> 00:22:06,640
The title page also references

445
00:22:06,840 --> 00:22:08,480
another major influence on his work.

446
00:22:13,000 --> 00:22:15,000
Only in his later years

447
00:22:15,200 --> 00:22:17,760
did Tolkien write letters
to his sons,

448
00:22:17,960 --> 00:22:20,720
revealing how much
the single major journey

449
00:22:20,920 --> 00:22:22,880
of his youth influenced him.

450
00:22:26,960 --> 00:22:29,760
Tolkien's journey
in the summer of 1911

451
00:22:29,960 --> 00:22:31,720
took him to the Swiss Alps.

452
00:22:33,480 --> 00:22:36,720
This was a time when
the Swiss Alps would have been

453
00:22:37,200 --> 00:22:38,760
the frontier of

454
00:22:39,120 --> 00:22:41,600
experience for someone
from England of his class.

455
00:22:41,960 --> 00:22:44,960
And also, this was a time

456
00:22:45,840 --> 00:22:48,160
when the romantic ethos

457
00:22:48,360 --> 00:22:50,280
was very important.
So the sense that

458
00:22:50,480 --> 00:22:52,080
mountains were a place

459
00:22:52,680 --> 00:22:54,600
where you went to experience
something that

460
00:22:54,800 --> 00:22:57,200
was sublime rather than
pretty or beautiful.

461
00:22:57,440 --> 00:22:59,440
They gave him a sense of awe,

462
00:22:59,640 --> 00:23:02,040
of the immensity

463
00:23:02,240 --> 00:23:04,280
of the natural world within which

464
00:23:04,480 --> 00:23:06,760
we are tiny and vulnerable figures.

465
00:23:11,800 --> 00:23:14,880
Tolkien was in Switzerland in 1911,
in the summer.

466
00:23:15,240 --> 00:23:18,880
He travelled for about a month

467
00:23:19,160 --> 00:23:21,560
on foot through the mountains,

468
00:23:21,760 --> 00:23:23,480
Bernese Oberland and the Valais.

469
00:23:23,760 --> 00:23:26,200
It was a very mixed group,

470
00:23:26,400 --> 00:23:29,560
with many women and even children,

471
00:23:30,000 --> 00:23:32,720
a rather colourful troupe

472
00:23:32,920 --> 00:23:35,520
with funny hats and skirts.

473
00:23:35,720 --> 00:23:37,680
It's hard to imagine today

474
00:23:37,880 --> 00:23:39,440
that people would go hiking
like that.

475
00:23:43,080 --> 00:23:45,280
They were flatland tourists

476
00:23:45,600 --> 00:23:47,320
and for the first time in his life,

477
00:23:47,520 --> 00:23:49,400
19-year-old Ronald saw

478
00:23:49,600 --> 00:23:51,200
real mountains.

479
00:23:59,360 --> 00:24:01,520
About eight years ago,
I travelled to

480
00:24:01,720 --> 00:24:04,600
the Lauterbrunnen Valley.
Then I came across information

481
00:24:04,800 --> 00:24:06,400
that Tolkien had been there

482
00:24:06,720 --> 00:24:08,640
and was inspired by it
for Rivendell.

483
00:24:08,840 --> 00:24:11,040
I then stumbled upon
Tolkien's letters

484
00:24:11,360 --> 00:24:14,040
and it was,

485
00:24:14,800 --> 00:24:18,520
how should I say,
really a "wow' moment

486
00:24:18,720 --> 00:24:20,440
for me because I saw

487
00:24:20,760 --> 00:24:24,080
how profoundly this trip
influenced Tolkien.

488
00:24:26,920 --> 00:24:28,920
The Hobbit Bilbo's journey

489
00:24:29,120 --> 00:24:31,840
from Rivendell to the other side
of the Misty Mountains,

490
00:24:32,120 --> 00:24:34,200
including the glissade
down the slithering stones

491
00:24:34,400 --> 00:24:35,600
into the pine woods,

492
00:24:36,040 --> 00:24:39,160
is based on my adventures in 1911.

493
00:24:39,480 --> 00:24:42,120
The annus mirabilis of sunshine.

494
00:24:47,000 --> 00:24:49,080
The similarity between

495
00:24:49,280 --> 00:24:50,760
the Lauterbrunnen Valley

496
00:24:50,960 --> 00:24:54,280
and Tolkien's drawing of Rivendell,

497
00:24:54,560 --> 00:24:56,920
the seat of the Elven realm
in Middle-earth, is striking.

498
00:25:04,840 --> 00:25:06,640
There is also the river Lautwasser,

499
00:25:06,840 --> 00:25:09,560
known in English as Loudwater,

500
00:25:09,760 --> 00:25:11,560
which flows through Rivendell

501
00:25:11,760 --> 00:25:14,120
and is called Bruinen in Elvish.

502
00:25:14,320 --> 00:25:17,480
A connection to the place name
Lauterbrunnen

503
00:25:17,680 --> 00:25:20,720
has also been suggested.

504
00:25:20,920 --> 00:25:22,280
It is interesting because it shows

505
00:25:22,480 --> 00:25:24,600
how Tolkien thought

506
00:25:24,800 --> 00:25:26,000
as a philologist.

507
00:25:27,480 --> 00:25:30,600
In The Lord of the Rings,
Tolkien brings much of

508
00:25:30,800 --> 00:25:33,560
the real magical beauty
of the Lauterbrunnen Valley

509
00:25:33,760 --> 00:25:35,440
into his fantasy world.

510
00:25:36,960 --> 00:25:38,160
He found his friends

511
00:25:38,360 --> 00:25:40,960
sitting in a porch on the side
of the house looking east.

512
00:25:41,600 --> 00:25:43,800
Shadows had fallen
in the valley below,

513
00:25:44,080 --> 00:25:45,600
but there was still a light
on the faces

514
00:25:45,760 --> 00:25:46,920
of the mountains far above.

515
00:25:47,560 --> 00:25:48,880
The air was warm.

516
00:25:49,320 --> 00:25:52,440
The sound of running
and falling water was loud

517
00:25:52,640 --> 00:25:55,280
and the evening was filled with
a faint scent

518
00:25:55,800 --> 00:25:57,280
of trees and flowers,

519
00:25:57,680 --> 00:26:00,400
as if summer still lingered
in Elrond's gardens.

520
00:26:04,280 --> 00:26:06,840
In a similarly idyllic
mountainous world,

521
00:26:07,040 --> 00:26:10,560
Tolkien gathers the main characters
in The Lord of the Rings,

522
00:26:10,760 --> 00:26:11,760
the Fellowship.

523
00:26:12,200 --> 00:26:14,080
At Elrond's house,
the Half-Elven Lord

524
00:26:14,280 --> 00:26:15,720
of Rivendell,

525
00:26:15,920 --> 00:26:19,040
representatives of all
the free peoples come together.

526
00:26:19,560 --> 00:26:21,920
From there, men, Hobbits,

527
00:26:22,120 --> 00:26:23,560
a dwarf, an elf

528
00:26:23,760 --> 00:26:27,000
and the wizard Gandalf set out

529
00:26:27,200 --> 00:26:29,320
together to defeat evil.

530
00:26:33,240 --> 00:26:34,960
They must first cross

531
00:26:35,160 --> 00:26:36,680
the Misty Mountains.

532
00:26:37,440 --> 00:26:39,720
In reality, Tolkien had experienced

533
00:26:39,920 --> 00:26:41,800
only one mountain range
of such magnitude:

534
00:26:42,240 --> 00:26:43,640
the Swiss Alps.

535
00:26:48,200 --> 00:26:50,640
The first part of his journey
is described,

536
00:26:50,840 --> 00:26:52,080
many years later,

537
00:26:52,280 --> 00:26:55,080
in letters to his sons
in great detail.

538
00:26:58,280 --> 00:27:00,160
Tolkien began his journey here

539
00:27:00,480 --> 00:27:02,280
in Interlaken,

540
00:27:02,480 --> 00:27:04,920
then continued to Lauterbrunnen,

541
00:27:05,120 --> 00:27:07,240
from there up to Mürren

542
00:27:07,440 --> 00:27:09,720
and into the far end
of the Lauterbrunnen Valley,

543
00:27:09,920 --> 00:27:12,800
crossing the Kleine Scheidegg
to Grindelwald,

544
00:27:13,000 --> 00:27:15,400
then over the Grosse Scheidegg
to Meiringen,

545
00:27:15,800 --> 00:27:18,800
before presumably hiking through
the Aare Gorge

546
00:27:19,160 --> 00:27:22,600
to the Grimsel Pass

547
00:27:22,800 --> 00:27:24,160
and then over into the Valais.

548
00:27:25,000 --> 00:27:26,680
Colin Brooks-Smith,
a fellow traveller,

549
00:27:26,880 --> 00:27:28,760
also wrote memoirs of the journey

550
00:27:29,120 --> 00:27:30,720
and he particularly mentions

551
00:27:30,920 --> 00:27:32,920
the second part of the trip.

552
00:27:33,360 --> 00:27:36,600
There are also guest books
from two huts

553
00:27:36,840 --> 00:27:39,280
where we know for sure
that Tolkien stayed

554
00:27:39,480 --> 00:27:41,120
because he signed them.

555
00:27:44,280 --> 00:27:46,280
One of these huts

556
00:27:46,480 --> 00:27:48,120
is still only accessible
on foot today.

557
00:27:48,680 --> 00:27:50,560
It takes several hours to hike

558
00:27:50,760 --> 00:27:53,640
to the Hotel Obersteinberg
in the Bernese Oberland,

559
00:27:54,280 --> 00:27:56,840
with an ascent
of more than 600 metres

560
00:27:57,040 --> 00:27:58,760
from the valley floor.

561
00:27:59,200 --> 00:28:01,720
Difficulty level today: moderate.

562
00:28:04,400 --> 00:28:07,760
Tolkien travelled mostly on foot,
as he himself wrote,

563
00:28:07,960 --> 00:28:10,400
across many high passes,

564
00:28:10,720 --> 00:28:12,880
over a month-long period.

565
00:28:13,080 --> 00:28:15,880
It was truly an enormous journey,

566
00:28:16,080 --> 00:28:17,960
covering perhaps 300 kilometres.

567
00:28:18,280 --> 00:28:20,360
On 5th August 1911,

568
00:28:20,560 --> 00:28:22,880
he reached the Hotel Obersteinberg.

569
00:28:25,040 --> 00:28:26,640
So, here,

570
00:28:26,840 --> 00:28:30,880
we have Tolkien's signature.

571
00:28:32,200 --> 00:28:34,240
That's quite something,

572
00:28:34,440 --> 00:28:36,040
to see the real signature.

573
00:28:36,960 --> 00:28:40,560
The book's a bit worse for wear.

574
00:28:41,440 --> 00:28:43,240
It's ancient.

575
00:28:43,760 --> 00:28:45,400
Yes.

576
00:28:49,440 --> 00:28:51,960
Among the 12 companions
were six women,

577
00:28:52,160 --> 00:28:53,880
including Tolkien's aunt.

578
00:28:54,080 --> 00:28:55,800
The young widow
had invited her nephew

579
00:28:56,120 --> 00:28:58,400
on the Alpine adventure.

580
00:29:04,400 --> 00:29:07,640
Jane Neave, his mother's sister,
was a huge influence,

581
00:29:08,320 --> 00:29:10,640
partly because
she was like his mother,

582
00:29:10,840 --> 00:29:12,320
very, very intelligent.

583
00:29:12,520 --> 00:29:15,520
She was a warden
of St Andrews University

584
00:29:17,280 --> 00:29:21,160
at a time when women
in academia were a rarity.

585
00:29:21,520 --> 00:29:23,240
She's a very important character.

586
00:29:23,440 --> 00:29:26,160
It has been argued that
because she led

587
00:29:26,600 --> 00:29:28,920
the 1911 holiday trek

588
00:29:29,120 --> 00:29:31,000
through the Swiss Alps,

589
00:29:32,960 --> 00:29:36,760
that she may have inspired
aspects of Gandalf,

590
00:29:38,000 --> 00:29:39,400
and who knows?

591
00:29:43,760 --> 00:29:45,680
I've even heard people

592
00:29:45,880 --> 00:29:48,320
aware of this say,

593
00:29:48,520 --> 00:29:50,400
"Well, in essence,

594
00:29:50,600 --> 00:29:52,120
Gandalf is a feminine character."

595
00:29:53,480 --> 00:29:55,360
Gandalf, the wizard,

596
00:29:55,560 --> 00:29:57,520
inspired by a woman?

597
00:29:58,200 --> 00:30:00,160
It's possible,
though in Tolkien's time,

598
00:30:00,360 --> 00:30:02,200
the character became a man.

599
00:30:03,080 --> 00:30:05,920
As always with his work,

600
00:30:06,120 --> 00:30:08,240
Gandalf likely had many influences.

601
00:30:08,480 --> 00:30:10,120
The Germanic god Odin,

602
00:30:10,320 --> 00:30:13,120
the Eastern European
folklore figure Rübezahl,

603
00:30:13,440 --> 00:30:15,960
mountain spirits like one
depicted on a postcard

604
00:30:16,160 --> 00:30:19,120
Tolkien kept by the artist
Josef Madeler

605
00:30:19,400 --> 00:30:21,240
and even his Aunt Jane,

606
00:30:21,560 --> 00:30:24,080
all combined
with Tolkien's imagination

607
00:30:24,560 --> 00:30:25,560
to create Gandalf!

608
00:30:26,400 --> 00:30:29,520
Gandalf is many things at once.

609
00:30:29,960 --> 00:30:31,400
Gandalf is also Christ.

610
00:30:32,040 --> 00:30:34,840
The Balrog burns him,
but he returns.

611
00:30:35,040 --> 00:30:37,640
Gandalf undergoes a resurrection,

612
00:30:37,840 --> 00:30:40,160
transforming from Gandalf the Grey

613
00:30:40,360 --> 00:30:41,840
to Gandalf the White.

614
00:30:42,040 --> 00:30:43,840
This is clearly

615
00:30:44,040 --> 00:30:45,400
a reference to Christ.

616
00:30:45,760 --> 00:30:48,840
One of Tolkien's major influences
is the Bible,

617
00:30:49,040 --> 00:30:51,120
which, given

618
00:30:51,320 --> 00:30:54,560
his deep Catholic faith,
is unsurprising

619
00:30:54,760 --> 00:30:56,480
but often overlooked.

620
00:31:01,160 --> 00:31:03,520
In Switzerland, Tolkien experienced

621
00:31:03,720 --> 00:31:04,840
creation's grandeur.

622
00:31:05,280 --> 00:31:07,760
Wherever one looks,
there are views

623
00:31:08,080 --> 00:31:10,400
reminiscent of Middle-earth scenery.

624
00:31:18,640 --> 00:31:20,960
Here, he saw the three famous peaks

625
00:31:21,160 --> 00:31:22,960
of the Bernese Alps:

626
00:31:23,320 --> 00:31:25,800
Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau.

627
00:31:29,680 --> 00:31:32,080
The next likely stop on his journey

628
00:31:32,280 --> 00:31:34,760
was the Aare Gorge,

629
00:31:35,560 --> 00:31:38,720
which evokes the entrance
to the underground realms

630
00:31:39,040 --> 00:31:41,280
of Moria, the Dwarven kingdom.

631
00:31:46,640 --> 00:31:49,680
It was already
a tourist attraction back then,

632
00:31:49,880 --> 00:31:51,800
with a path

633
00:31:52,000 --> 00:31:53,840
through the gorge

634
00:31:54,040 --> 00:31:56,280
that was well-developed,

635
00:31:56,600 --> 00:31:58,400
though not quite like today.

636
00:31:58,720 --> 00:32:01,080
There was also

637
00:32:01,280 --> 00:32:04,080
an interesting bridge

638
00:32:04,280 --> 00:32:07,240
crossing the gorge,

639
00:32:07,440 --> 00:32:09,920
which was quite daring at the time.

640
00:32:10,120 --> 00:32:12,560
It's been suggested

641
00:32:12,760 --> 00:32:14,600
that it might have inspired

642
00:32:14,800 --> 00:32:16,840
the Bridge of Khazad-dûm

643
00:32:17,040 --> 00:32:18,720
in Moria.

644
00:32:20,160 --> 00:32:22,280
Moria is a major setting

645
00:32:22,480 --> 00:32:24,160
in The Lord of the Rings.

646
00:32:24,480 --> 00:32:27,000
Underground halls where battles rage

647
00:32:27,200 --> 00:32:29,920
between dwarves and orcs,

648
00:32:30,120 --> 00:32:32,080
between the Fellowship
and evil forces.

649
00:32:34,600 --> 00:32:36,600
When Tolkien was in Switzerland,

650
00:32:36,920 --> 00:32:40,280
the Lötschberg Tunnel
was being built

651
00:32:40,560 --> 00:32:43,560
and the breakthrough happened
in the spring of that year.

652
00:32:43,960 --> 00:32:45,360
Many workers died

653
00:32:45,560 --> 00:32:47,760
during its construction,

654
00:32:47,960 --> 00:32:51,240
buried within the tunnel.

655
00:32:51,880 --> 00:32:54,440
This sense of horror
may have also inspired

656
00:32:54,800 --> 00:32:58,280
Tolkien's depiction of Moria.

657
00:33:01,240 --> 00:33:03,680
For the English,
mountains and gorges

658
00:33:03,880 --> 00:33:06,200
weren't just new but also

659
00:33:06,520 --> 00:33:08,880
introduced the dangers
of the alpine world.

660
00:33:18,000 --> 00:33:21,240
On the evening of 21st August 1911,

661
00:33:21,440 --> 00:33:24,240
the group encountered
a fierce thunderstorm.

662
00:33:24,440 --> 00:33:27,280
Surrounded by snow-covered peaks,

663
00:33:27,480 --> 00:33:30,320
an experience that left
a lasting impression.

664
00:33:36,440 --> 00:33:38,600
In The Hobbit,

665
00:33:38,800 --> 00:33:40,520
written over 20 years later,

666
00:33:41,240 --> 00:33:42,920
this "thunder battle"

667
00:33:43,120 --> 00:33:44,880
feels vividly real.

668
00:33:46,560 --> 00:33:48,960
More terrible still
are thunder and lightning

669
00:33:49,160 --> 00:33:50,640
in the mountains at night,

670
00:33:50,840 --> 00:33:53,280
when storms come up
from East and West

671
00:33:53,480 --> 00:33:55,480
and make war.

672
00:33:55,920 --> 00:33:57,800
The lightning splinters on the peaks

673
00:33:58,000 --> 00:33:59,240
and rocks shiver

674
00:33:59,440 --> 00:34:01,080
and great crashes split the air

675
00:34:01,280 --> 00:34:03,200
and go rolling and tumbling
into every cave

676
00:34:03,400 --> 00:34:04,680
and hollow.

677
00:34:06,440 --> 00:34:09,560
In The Hobbit,
it's perhaps most striking

678
00:34:09,760 --> 00:34:12,640
when the group encounters
the tempest,

679
00:34:12,960 --> 00:34:15,400
they experience these stone battles,

680
00:34:15,560 --> 00:34:18,040
thunder battles of stone giants,

681
00:34:19,880 --> 00:34:22,680
or imagine that

682
00:34:22,880 --> 00:34:24,440
this is the case.

683
00:34:24,760 --> 00:34:27,000
It's left open

684
00:34:27,200 --> 00:34:29,240
to the reader's imagination

685
00:34:29,440 --> 00:34:31,360
whether these were actual giants

686
00:34:31,560 --> 00:34:33,600
or that it merely

687
00:34:33,800 --> 00:34:36,120
sounded like it.

688
00:34:38,280 --> 00:34:42,280
A few days later, the group found
themselves in immediate danger.

689
00:34:42,840 --> 00:34:45,600
Large rocks broke off
from a cliff face.

690
00:34:46,000 --> 00:34:49,240
The woman in front of Tolkien
saved herself by jumping forward.

691
00:34:49,600 --> 00:34:51,440
A boulder crashed
just ahead of Tolkien

692
00:34:51,600 --> 00:34:52,840
and plummeted into the abyss.

693
00:34:53,800 --> 00:34:56,840
In a letter written decades later,
he mentioned

694
00:34:57,040 --> 00:34:59,960
that his "unmanly knees"
were trembling.

695
00:35:03,360 --> 00:35:05,720
It's the elemental force

696
00:35:06,240 --> 00:35:08,600
of storms, lightning,

697
00:35:09,080 --> 00:35:11,680
rockslides and avalanches.

698
00:35:11,880 --> 00:35:15,440
All of it a direct confrontation
with nature's raw power.

699
00:35:15,640 --> 00:35:18,520
It translates well

700
00:35:18,720 --> 00:35:20,400
because he adopts

701
00:35:20,600 --> 00:35:23,160
the Hobbit's perspective.

702
00:35:23,360 --> 00:35:26,120
These are really characters

703
00:35:26,320 --> 00:35:28,200
who are non-heroic

704
00:35:28,520 --> 00:35:29,720
and physically small,

705
00:35:29,920 --> 00:35:32,360
naturally struggling with snowdrifts
and such.

706
00:35:33,080 --> 00:35:34,520
The man who later described himself

707
00:35:34,720 --> 00:35:36,440
as "a Hobbit" was,

708
00:35:36,640 --> 00:35:40,840
like the companions in his books,
nearly lost in the mountains.

709
00:35:41,040 --> 00:35:44,720
It's only later on that I think
it really sinks in

710
00:35:45,560 --> 00:35:49,200
that that was a near death
sort of experience.

711
00:35:49,400 --> 00:35:52,200
We could have had the end
of J.R.R. Tolkien

712
00:35:52,400 --> 00:35:55,720
at that particular point and we were
very lucky that we didn't.

713
00:36:04,400 --> 00:36:07,200
The profound impact
of the experiences on his journey

714
00:36:07,400 --> 00:36:10,360
through the Bernese Oberland
and the Valais is evident

715
00:36:10,560 --> 00:36:13,360
in a watercolour painting
he created

716
00:36:13,560 --> 00:36:14,960
just a few years later.

717
00:36:16,040 --> 00:36:18,120
When Tolkien was in the Valais,

718
00:36:18,320 --> 00:36:21,480
there were several
major forest fires.

719
00:36:22,280 --> 00:36:25,000
Articles vividly describe

720
00:36:25,200 --> 00:36:27,120
the fire horns sounding,

721
00:36:27,320 --> 00:36:29,560
church bells ringing

722
00:36:29,760 --> 00:36:31,880
and masses being held

723
00:36:32,080 --> 00:36:33,760
at 2:00 a.m.

724
00:36:33,960 --> 00:36:36,320
We might see impressions
of these fires

725
00:36:36,520 --> 00:36:38,480
in his painting "Fantasy Landscape."

726
00:36:45,360 --> 00:36:48,240
These existentially
threatening experiences

727
00:36:48,440 --> 00:36:50,800
contributed to his Swiss journey

728
00:36:51,000 --> 00:36:54,320
taking on an increasingly
surreal, mythic quality.

729
00:36:55,080 --> 00:36:56,600
A key moment

730
00:36:56,800 --> 00:36:58,240
in shaping the landscapes

731
00:36:58,440 --> 00:37:00,920
of Middle-earth.

732
00:37:14,440 --> 00:37:17,560
The second guestbook Tolkien signed

733
00:37:17,760 --> 00:37:20,320
is still accessible only
with a mountain guide.

734
00:37:21,960 --> 00:37:23,680
The ascent to the Bertol Hut

735
00:37:23,880 --> 00:37:26,640
is a memorable climb.

736
00:37:27,240 --> 00:37:30,120
Colin Brook-Smith,
a travel companion,

737
00:37:30,320 --> 00:37:32,200
mentioned that the whole group

738
00:37:32,400 --> 00:37:35,480
had no mountaineering experience.

739
00:37:35,680 --> 00:37:37,520
The Swiss guides essentially

740
00:37:37,840 --> 00:37:39,480
pulled them up this final part.

741
00:37:41,120 --> 00:37:42,920
The Bertol Hut stands at

742
00:37:43,120 --> 00:37:45,560
3311 metres above sea level.

743
00:37:46,200 --> 00:37:48,960
On 25th August 1911,

744
00:37:49,160 --> 00:37:50,920
it was the group's destination.

745
00:37:51,360 --> 00:37:52,600
Back then,

746
00:37:52,920 --> 00:37:54,160
the ascent took seven hours.

747
00:37:55,040 --> 00:37:58,200
The mountain landscape has changed
dramatically since.

748
00:38:02,000 --> 00:38:03,640
We're seeing

749
00:38:04,880 --> 00:38:07,320
far more rockfalls due to
permafrost melting and so on.

750
00:38:07,520 --> 00:38:10,400
The Alps are changing,
as is the entire world.

751
00:38:10,600 --> 00:38:13,160
In the last two years,

752
00:38:13,360 --> 00:38:16,600
the pace of change
has accelerated dramatically.

753
00:38:17,160 --> 00:38:20,200
I never thought I'd see the Alps
without glaciers.

754
00:38:21,480 --> 00:38:24,280
But it's happening

755
00:38:24,600 --> 00:38:26,560
and we'll see it soon.

756
00:38:29,040 --> 00:38:31,400
In 1911, the glaciers

757
00:38:31,600 --> 00:38:33,480
nearly reached the hut.

758
00:38:40,520 --> 00:38:44,680
This could be exactly from the time
when Tolkien's group was here.

759
00:38:44,840 --> 00:38:46,360
Yes.

760
00:38:47,280 --> 00:38:48,800
But do you see

761
00:38:49,000 --> 00:38:51,880
- the difference with the glacier?
- Yes.

762
00:38:52,080 --> 00:38:54,680
Here is a copy

763
00:38:54,880 --> 00:38:57,840
of the old Bertol Hut guestbook

764
00:38:58,040 --> 00:39:02,120
with Tolkien's original signature.

765
00:39:04,400 --> 00:39:06,520
Do you know Tolkien?

766
00:39:06,720 --> 00:39:08,600
Now I do.

767
00:39:10,360 --> 00:39:13,600
From the Bertol Hut,
you can see the Matterhorn

768
00:39:13,800 --> 00:39:15,000
on the horizon.

769
00:39:15,200 --> 00:39:17,600
It's quite possible that Tolkien
had the Matterhorn in mind

770
00:39:17,800 --> 00:39:20,800
when he described Mount Doom
in The Lord of the Rings,

771
00:39:21,320 --> 00:39:23,440
the mountain where the battle

772
00:39:23,640 --> 00:39:26,040
between good and evil is decided.

773
00:39:28,120 --> 00:39:31,280
Of course, there are other traces...

774
00:39:32,920 --> 00:39:34,920
During my research,

775
00:39:35,120 --> 00:39:37,320
I also found Mont Miné.

776
00:39:37,680 --> 00:39:39,160
This mountain
is particularly fascinating.

777
00:39:39,360 --> 00:39:41,320
Its shape strongly resembles

778
00:39:41,520 --> 00:39:43,920
a sketch by Tolkien

779
00:39:44,240 --> 00:39:45,920
of Mount Doom,

780
00:39:46,120 --> 00:39:50,960
a rather steep volcano.

781
00:39:51,160 --> 00:39:54,280
This sketch in one of
his original manuscripts

782
00:39:54,600 --> 00:39:58,480
shows that the Swiss journey
stayed with Tolkien for decades.

783
00:40:00,960 --> 00:40:03,320
Really, any mountain scene

784
00:40:03,520 --> 00:40:05,760
that you encounter in The Hobbit
or Lord of the Rings,

785
00:40:06,000 --> 00:40:09,040
you can bet that the Swiss Alps

786
00:40:09,240 --> 00:40:10,880
have got in there deep

787
00:40:11,200 --> 00:40:13,680
into the bones of that passage.

788
00:40:14,040 --> 00:40:17,400
And yeah, it made
a permanent mark on Tolkien

789
00:40:17,640 --> 00:40:20,680
and he's able to draw on that
as a resource.

790
00:40:21,160 --> 00:40:23,520
Because Tolkien says that
in his own letters too.

791
00:40:23,760 --> 00:40:27,240
"I wish I could see
those Swiss Alps once more."

792
00:40:29,440 --> 00:40:32,000
Peter Jackson's film
The Fellowship of the Ring

793
00:40:32,200 --> 00:40:34,280
captures how Tolkien
channels this longing

794
00:40:34,480 --> 00:40:37,200
through his character Bilbo Baggins.

795
00:40:39,520 --> 00:40:41,320
I want to see mountains again,

796
00:40:41,520 --> 00:40:43,360
mountains, Gandalf,

797
00:40:43,560 --> 00:40:45,440
and then find somewhere quiet
where I can

798
00:40:45,640 --> 00:40:47,120
finish my book.

799
00:40:51,200 --> 00:40:52,760
Some of it remains speculation.

800
00:40:53,600 --> 00:40:55,520
Not every mountain, path

801
00:40:55,720 --> 00:40:58,200
or glacier from the Alps

802
00:40:58,400 --> 00:41:00,080
is directly transposed into
Middle-earth,

803
00:41:00,280 --> 00:41:02,240
despite fans' wishes.

804
00:41:02,840 --> 00:41:04,760
Still, the trip to Switzerland,

805
00:41:04,960 --> 00:41:07,160
after his childhood experiences
in England,

806
00:41:07,360 --> 00:41:09,600
represented the second
major source of experience

807
00:41:09,800 --> 00:41:11,520
Tolkien would draw upon.

808
00:41:13,960 --> 00:41:15,360
A lot of writers do that.

809
00:41:15,560 --> 00:41:17,960
They've been somewhere.
They go, oh, well, I remember that.

810
00:41:18,160 --> 00:41:20,280
I can now just describe that shop

811
00:41:20,960 --> 00:41:23,040
and, you know,
and that's my perfect setting

812
00:41:23,240 --> 00:41:24,280
because I don't have
to think it through.

813
00:41:24,440 --> 00:41:26,120
I've got everything there.

814
00:41:26,520 --> 00:41:29,520
But I think in the Swiss Alps

815
00:41:29,720 --> 00:41:33,000
there's an element
of the sublime there,

816
00:41:33,200 --> 00:41:35,880
the overpowering vastness
of nature

817
00:41:36,080 --> 00:41:39,000
which he takes from. So he's not
just taking the physical description

818
00:41:39,560 --> 00:41:42,480
he takes the emotional description
from it as well.

819
00:41:44,600 --> 00:41:46,640
After the Alpine tour,

820
00:41:46,840 --> 00:41:48,440
Tolkien began his studies at Oxford.

821
00:41:48,920 --> 00:41:50,960
Initially, he studied Classics,

822
00:41:51,160 --> 00:41:54,320
Greek and Roman literature,
and Latin.

823
00:41:54,800 --> 00:41:57,600
Soon, he switched to philology.

824
00:41:58,040 --> 00:42:01,200
His mother's early influence
on his love for languages

825
00:42:01,400 --> 00:42:04,360
would become his professional focus.

826
00:42:08,680 --> 00:42:11,040
Medieval literature, Norse sagas,

827
00:42:11,240 --> 00:42:13,680
Arthurian legend, Beowulf, the Edda

828
00:42:13,880 --> 00:42:16,400
and the Song of Roland.

829
00:42:16,600 --> 00:42:18,080
Tolkien absorbed all of it.

830
00:42:19,040 --> 00:42:22,000
Together with his close friends
from school,

831
00:42:22,200 --> 00:42:24,160
the "TCBS,"

832
00:42:24,360 --> 00:42:27,240
he pursued his artistic endeavours.

833
00:42:29,520 --> 00:42:31,680
But Great Britain's entry
into World War I

834
00:42:31,880 --> 00:42:33,880
in August 1914

835
00:42:34,080 --> 00:42:37,160
would disrupt the young men's plans.

836
00:42:38,920 --> 00:42:41,920
Many enlisted immediately.

837
00:42:42,760 --> 00:42:44,240
Tolkien hesitated.

838
00:42:48,880 --> 00:42:51,960
He was an orphan with no money.
He wasn't a wealthy heir.

839
00:42:52,280 --> 00:42:55,640
He needed a job, which required
completing his degree at Oxford.

840
00:42:55,960 --> 00:42:58,840
He stayed there
and he was called a coward.

841
00:42:59,040 --> 00:43:02,360
He even received the white feather,

842
00:43:02,600 --> 00:43:05,000
a symbol handed out,
often by women,

843
00:43:05,200 --> 00:43:07,520
to shame men who hadn't

844
00:43:07,720 --> 00:43:10,720
immediately volunteered
for the front.

845
00:43:11,120 --> 00:43:13,080
It was a form of public humiliation,
a way

846
00:43:13,280 --> 00:43:15,360
to pressure men into enlisting

847
00:43:15,560 --> 00:43:16,880
by means of group pressure.

848
00:43:19,160 --> 00:43:21,320
With the threat of combat looming,

849
00:43:21,520 --> 00:43:23,240
Tolkien focused on poetry

850
00:43:23,440 --> 00:43:25,320
and his Elvish languages,

851
00:43:25,880 --> 00:43:28,440
a creative surge
without the epic scale

852
00:43:28,640 --> 00:43:30,040
of his later novels.

853
00:43:30,840 --> 00:43:33,200
During a visit
to his Aunt Jane's farm,

854
00:43:33,400 --> 00:43:35,560
he produced watercolours
and sketches.

855
00:43:35,960 --> 00:43:38,480
Influenced by his Swiss journey

856
00:43:38,680 --> 00:43:40,680
and the outbreak of war,
Tolkien developed

857
00:43:40,880 --> 00:43:43,680
a unique artistic style.

858
00:43:45,320 --> 00:43:48,800
Tolkien applied his principle
of "sub-creation"

859
00:43:49,000 --> 00:43:51,160
both literarily and artistically.

860
00:43:51,560 --> 00:43:54,360
We worked with the National Library

861
00:43:54,560 --> 00:43:57,280
to find visual equivalents
to his work,

862
00:43:57,480 --> 00:43:59,240
but the experts concluded

863
00:43:59,440 --> 00:44:02,680
that Tolkien's art was so singular

864
00:44:02,880 --> 00:44:05,320
that no real comparisons

865
00:44:05,520 --> 00:44:08,680
could be made.

866
00:44:11,280 --> 00:44:14,240
Almost all his university friends
were now at the front.

867
00:44:14,680 --> 00:44:16,600
The societal pressure mounted
on those who hesitated,

868
00:44:16,760 --> 00:44:17,880
like Tolkien.

869
00:44:18,400 --> 00:44:21,320
In 1916,
he enlisted for military service.

870
00:44:22,680 --> 00:44:24,600
Before heading to war,

871
00:44:24,800 --> 00:44:26,440
Tolkien had one private matter
to settle:

872
00:44:26,640 --> 00:44:28,360
seeing his "forbidden" love,

873
00:44:28,680 --> 00:44:30,080
Edith, again.

874
00:44:34,160 --> 00:44:36,400
When they met, Tolkien was 16

875
00:44:36,600 --> 00:44:38,160
and Edith 19.

876
00:44:39,160 --> 00:44:40,360
Father Francis

877
00:44:40,560 --> 00:44:42,280
found out

878
00:44:42,480 --> 00:44:45,040
about their relationship
and forbade it.

879
00:44:45,240 --> 00:44:47,120
Ronald, who was dependent
on him

880
00:44:47,320 --> 00:44:49,400
both financially
and for his education,

881
00:44:49,600 --> 00:44:51,760
abided by this prohibition.

882
00:44:52,520 --> 00:44:55,560
On the evening of his 21st birthday,

883
00:44:55,760 --> 00:44:57,480
Ronald wrote a letter to Edith

884
00:44:57,680 --> 00:44:59,720
and re-established contact with her.

885
00:45:00,120 --> 00:45:03,520
In the meantime,
she had moved away

886
00:45:03,720 --> 00:45:05,280
and was engaged to another man

887
00:45:05,800 --> 00:45:09,000
but she agreed to meet Tolkien.

888
00:45:10,640 --> 00:45:14,160
Edith broke off her engagement
and married Ronald.

889
00:45:14,360 --> 00:45:16,080
By then, he was 24

890
00:45:16,280 --> 00:45:19,360
and an officer
in the Lancashire Fusiliers.

891
00:45:19,560 --> 00:45:21,880
His marching orders were imminent.

892
00:45:25,360 --> 00:45:27,840
Their honeymoon was brief,

893
00:45:28,040 --> 00:45:30,920
but Tolkien had a specific
destination in mind.

894
00:45:31,120 --> 00:45:33,840
The romantic outing
led them to a gorge

895
00:45:34,040 --> 00:45:35,480
on the southwest coast of England.

896
00:45:35,680 --> 00:45:38,680
Ronald wanted to show Edith
a natural wonder:

897
00:45:39,040 --> 00:45:40,280
Cox's Cave.

898
00:45:48,160 --> 00:45:50,600
Ronald and Edith
had just been married

899
00:45:50,800 --> 00:45:53,080
and they knew

900
00:45:53,280 --> 00:45:55,200
that it wasn't going to be long

901
00:45:55,520 --> 00:45:58,440
before he had to go off
and fight the war.

902
00:45:59,160 --> 00:46:00,600
And you can imagine

903
00:46:01,280 --> 00:46:03,960
one last happy moment
before he goes off to war,

904
00:46:04,160 --> 00:46:05,440
maybe never to come back.

905
00:46:10,120 --> 00:46:13,400
These caves will seem familiar
to Tolkien readers.

906
00:46:13,600 --> 00:46:15,840
The grottos beneath "Helm's Deep,"

907
00:46:16,280 --> 00:46:19,560
the refuge of dwarves and men
in The Lord of the Rings,

908
00:46:19,760 --> 00:46:22,080
bear a striking resemblance
to Cox's Cave.

909
00:46:26,200 --> 00:46:28,320
Gimli even raves about it:

910
00:46:30,160 --> 00:46:31,240
Then, Legolas,

911
00:46:31,440 --> 00:46:33,400
gems and crystals

912
00:46:33,720 --> 00:46:36,800
and veins of precious ore
glint in the polished walls,

913
00:46:37,120 --> 00:46:40,560
and the light glows through
folded marbles, shell-like,

914
00:46:40,760 --> 00:46:44,120
translucent as the living hands
of Queen Galadriel.

915
00:46:44,640 --> 00:46:47,080
There are columns of white
and saffron

916
00:46:47,280 --> 00:46:50,160
and dawn-rose, Legolas.

917
00:46:52,640 --> 00:46:54,120
Gimli, a dwarf,

918
00:46:54,320 --> 00:46:56,120
and Legolas, an elf,

919
00:46:56,320 --> 00:46:59,600
are two of the companions who form
the Fellowship of the Ring

920
00:46:59,800 --> 00:47:01,880
alongside the Hobbit Frodo.

921
00:47:08,960 --> 00:47:12,280
It's really a warm moment,
a really special moment in the story

922
00:47:12,480 --> 00:47:14,000
and in both of their characters.

923
00:47:14,200 --> 00:47:16,840
They agree that if
they survive this war,

924
00:47:17,040 --> 00:47:19,000
they will visit
these places together.

925
00:47:20,320 --> 00:47:22,520
And you can imagine Ronald

926
00:47:22,720 --> 00:47:25,720
and Edith making themselves
a similar promise.

927
00:47:26,520 --> 00:47:27,920
If we survive this,

928
00:47:28,120 --> 00:47:29,400
we'll come back here.

929
00:47:34,040 --> 00:47:37,400
Tolkien didn't know
if he would ever see Edith again.

930
00:47:37,600 --> 00:47:39,960
On 4th June 1916,

931
00:47:40,160 --> 00:47:42,160
he crossed over to France,

932
00:47:42,680 --> 00:47:43,800
to the war.

933
00:47:44,360 --> 00:47:46,680
He later described the crossing:

934
00:47:47,200 --> 00:47:50,000
"It felt like death."

935
00:47:53,880 --> 00:47:55,960
Photographs, military records

936
00:47:56,160 --> 00:47:57,440
and maps allow us

937
00:47:57,640 --> 00:47:59,440
to accurately reconstruct

938
00:47:59,760 --> 00:48:01,280
Tolkien's time at the front.

939
00:48:05,280 --> 00:48:06,880
Tolkien arrived by train

940
00:48:07,080 --> 00:48:09,160
from the north to Amiens,

941
00:48:09,600 --> 00:48:11,720
then continued to Albert.

942
00:48:11,920 --> 00:48:13,320
From Albert,

943
00:48:13,520 --> 00:48:16,480
his first posting was at Boiselle,

944
00:48:17,000 --> 00:48:18,440
where he encountered the front

945
00:48:18,640 --> 00:48:21,600
for the first time.

946
00:48:22,080 --> 00:48:25,240
From battalion records,

947
00:48:25,560 --> 00:48:27,040
we can trace the area

948
00:48:27,240 --> 00:48:29,400
of the Somme where Tolkien

949
00:48:29,600 --> 00:48:32,560
was stationed during these months.

950
00:48:34,720 --> 00:48:35,800
The Somme region

951
00:48:36,000 --> 00:48:38,240
remains a surreal landscape today,

952
00:48:38,760 --> 00:48:41,040
with war scars everywhere.

953
00:48:42,520 --> 00:48:45,360
The troops faced each other here
for months.

954
00:48:46,320 --> 00:48:49,120
Tolkien and his friends
from the TCBS

955
00:48:49,320 --> 00:48:50,600
were in this war.

956
00:48:51,040 --> 00:48:53,120
Three of them here,
in northern France.

957
00:48:54,200 --> 00:48:57,040
We're standing
at the Lochnagar Crater,

958
00:48:57,320 --> 00:49:01,360
the result of one
of many mines detonated

959
00:49:01,560 --> 00:49:03,760
on the morning of July 1st,

960
00:49:03,960 --> 00:49:07,040
which started
the Battle of the Somme.

961
00:49:07,240 --> 00:49:08,960
At 7:28 a.m.,

962
00:49:09,160 --> 00:49:11,040
27 tonnes of explosives

963
00:49:11,240 --> 00:49:13,480
went off here.

964
00:49:14,000 --> 00:49:16,320
Finally,

965
00:49:16,960 --> 00:49:18,160
July 1st

966
00:49:18,360 --> 00:49:20,640
went down in history

967
00:49:20,840 --> 00:49:23,360
as one of the bloodiest days
of the Somme.

968
00:49:26,920 --> 00:49:29,520
One of the many, many people

969
00:49:29,840 --> 00:49:32,040
who died on that first day

970
00:49:32,240 --> 00:49:34,320
was Robert Quilter Gilson,
called Rob,

971
00:49:34,920 --> 00:49:37,200
one of Tolkien's closest friends.

972
00:49:39,160 --> 00:49:42,480
Nearly 20,000 British soldiers

973
00:49:42,680 --> 00:49:45,800
died on the first day
of the battle alone

974
00:49:46,200 --> 00:49:48,440
and around 40,000 were wounded.

975
00:49:49,680 --> 00:49:51,360
Almost all

976
00:49:51,680 --> 00:49:53,920
of Tolkien's "lost generation"
perished.

977
00:49:59,360 --> 00:50:02,840
Tolkien became his battalion's
signals officer.

978
00:50:03,040 --> 00:50:04,760
So he was in charge
of communications

979
00:50:04,960 --> 00:50:07,360
for, say, 700 or 800 men

980
00:50:07,560 --> 00:50:08,840
in the Battle of the Somme.

981
00:50:09,040 --> 00:50:11,160
It would mean

982
00:50:11,360 --> 00:50:14,400
that Tolkien's chances of survival
were higher

983
00:50:14,600 --> 00:50:16,800
than other officers of his rank.

984
00:50:18,600 --> 00:50:20,480
At the "Musée Somme" in Albert,

985
00:50:20,680 --> 00:50:23,080
the traces of the war can be seen.

986
00:50:23,720 --> 00:50:27,040
Tolkien and his friends
experienced it as an apocalypse.

987
00:50:33,680 --> 00:50:36,120
Geoffrey was at an outpost

988
00:50:36,320 --> 00:50:37,880
at night

989
00:50:38,440 --> 00:50:41,920
and wrote an intensely
emotional letter.

990
00:50:42,760 --> 00:50:45,080
He didn't expect

991
00:50:45,680 --> 00:50:47,520
to survive the night

992
00:50:47,720 --> 00:50:49,280
and essentially entrusted

993
00:50:49,480 --> 00:50:51,640
Tolkien with a mission.

994
00:50:51,840 --> 00:50:53,760
He wrote to Tolkien

995
00:50:53,960 --> 00:50:55,840
in the letter's final lines,

996
00:50:56,040 --> 00:50:58,600
"Say the things I may no longer

997
00:50:58,800 --> 00:51:00,800
be able to say:

998
00:51:01,000 --> 00:51:02,240
carry it out."

999
00:51:05,240 --> 00:51:06,760
Tolkien would carry out

1000
00:51:06,960 --> 00:51:08,400
that mission in his works,

1001
00:51:08,600 --> 00:51:10,680
creating a legacy
of the four friends

1002
00:51:10,880 --> 00:51:13,240
of the "Tea Club Barrovian Society"

1003
00:51:13,440 --> 00:51:14,880
from their school days
in Birmingham.

1004
00:51:16,280 --> 00:51:18,840
Their friendship and the war
at the Somme

1005
00:51:19,560 --> 00:51:22,640
were immortalized
in the fantasy world

1006
00:51:22,840 --> 00:51:24,240
of Middle-earth.

1007
00:51:25,840 --> 00:51:28,240
You can especially see it

1008
00:51:28,440 --> 00:51:30,640
in Tolkien's landscape descriptions,
for example,

1009
00:51:30,840 --> 00:51:33,240
in the chapter
"The Siege of Gondor."

1010
00:51:34,160 --> 00:51:37,920
The orcs dig trenches.

1011
00:51:38,120 --> 00:51:40,240
They entrench themselves.

1012
00:51:40,440 --> 00:51:41,920
The English original

1013
00:51:42,240 --> 00:51:44,400
even uses the word "trenches",

1014
00:51:44,880 --> 00:51:47,200
the same word for military dugouts.

1015
00:51:47,400 --> 00:51:49,360
In this chapter,

1016
00:51:49,560 --> 00:51:51,840
the narrative tone

1017
00:51:52,040 --> 00:51:54,120
becomes very modern.

1018
00:51:54,720 --> 00:51:56,920
It mentions comrades

1019
00:51:57,120 --> 00:51:59,280
and even furlough for Pippin,

1020
00:52:00,320 --> 00:52:02,880
reflecting how these experiences,

1021
00:52:03,080 --> 00:52:06,400
even subconsciously, resurfaced
in Tolkien's writing.

1022
00:52:07,000 --> 00:52:09,320
Perhaps a lot of things

1023
00:52:09,520 --> 00:52:12,080
fight their way back
to the surface when writing.

1024
00:52:14,400 --> 00:52:17,560
Many years later, Tolkien wrote
to his son Christopher

1025
00:52:17,760 --> 00:52:20,120
that his monumental work
began with scribbled notes

1026
00:52:20,320 --> 00:52:22,240
in army barracks,

1027
00:52:22,440 --> 00:52:24,400
and even in the trenches.

1028
00:52:25,280 --> 00:52:27,160
In late October 1916,

1029
00:52:27,360 --> 00:52:30,200
he described
the devastated battlefield

1030
00:52:30,400 --> 00:52:33,560
as miles and miles
of seething mud...

1031
00:52:33,760 --> 00:52:35,840
an experience that scorches
itself into the mind.

1032
00:52:36,920 --> 00:52:39,720
A similar scene appears
in The Lord of the Rings

1033
00:52:39,920 --> 00:52:42,600
with the depiction of Mordor's

1034
00:52:42,800 --> 00:52:43,960
no-man's-land:

1035
00:52:46,160 --> 00:52:47,880
The gasping pools

1036
00:52:48,080 --> 00:52:50,680
were choked with ash
and crawling muds,

1037
00:52:51,200 --> 00:52:53,080
sickly white and grey,

1038
00:52:53,720 --> 00:52:56,640
great cones of earth,
fire-blasted and poison-stained,

1039
00:52:56,840 --> 00:52:58,800
stood like an obscene graveyard

1040
00:52:59,000 --> 00:53:00,680
in endless rows.

1041
00:53:01,040 --> 00:53:02,440
A land defiled,

1042
00:53:02,640 --> 00:53:04,080
diseased beyond all healing.

1043
00:53:06,520 --> 00:53:09,520
On 15th September 1916,

1044
00:53:09,720 --> 00:53:12,600
the first tank in history,

1045
00:53:13,280 --> 00:53:15,160
the British "Mark I,"

1046
00:53:15,360 --> 00:53:17,400
was deployed at the Somme.

1047
00:53:21,360 --> 00:53:23,320
The war was becoming industrialised.

1048
00:53:23,720 --> 00:53:25,600
Soldiers turned into
killing machines,

1049
00:53:25,800 --> 00:53:28,640
numbed by the noise and chaos.

1050
00:53:29,160 --> 00:53:31,320
Sleepless, hungry,

1051
00:53:31,520 --> 00:53:33,520
with one goal drilled into them:

1052
00:53:34,160 --> 00:53:35,320
to kill.

1053
00:53:37,560 --> 00:53:38,720
We know,

1054
00:53:39,040 --> 00:53:40,840
at least from literature,

1055
00:53:41,240 --> 00:53:42,840
that the biggest shock

1056
00:53:43,040 --> 00:53:45,440
of World War I
was the realisation

1057
00:53:45,640 --> 00:53:47,400
that this was not a heroic

1058
00:53:48,320 --> 00:53:50,720
or chivalric struggle,

1059
00:53:50,920 --> 00:53:52,920
red blood on bright sand,
or the like.

1060
00:53:53,720 --> 00:53:54,560
I think

1061
00:53:54,760 --> 00:53:57,640
that sentiment is visible
even in Isengard.

1062
00:53:58,880 --> 00:54:01,120
In Isengard, the evil wizard

1063
00:54:01,320 --> 00:54:02,880
Saruman manufactures orcs,

1064
00:54:03,080 --> 00:54:06,400
creatures bred solely for war,

1065
00:54:06,960 --> 00:54:07,800
for killing.

1066
00:54:08,000 --> 00:54:10,160
In Peter Jackson's iconic films,

1067
00:54:10,360 --> 00:54:12,880
they are a manifestation
of pure evil,

1068
00:54:13,080 --> 00:54:15,200
drooling and ruthless.

1069
00:54:16,560 --> 00:54:18,000
We could say, the orcs,

1070
00:54:18,200 --> 00:54:20,840
to some extent,
reflect war propaganda

1071
00:54:21,240 --> 00:54:24,640
in which enemies, like the Germans,

1072
00:54:25,120 --> 00:54:27,760
were depicted as "Huns".

1073
00:54:27,960 --> 00:54:29,400
Dehumanised,

1074
00:54:29,600 --> 00:54:32,000
semi-ape-like,

1075
00:54:32,200 --> 00:54:33,200
bloodthirsty creatures

1076
00:54:33,520 --> 00:54:36,120
who ravage the conquered lands.

1077
00:54:37,360 --> 00:54:40,080
So, are the orcs a depiction
of the Germans,

1078
00:54:40,280 --> 00:54:41,120
the enemy?

1079
00:54:41,840 --> 00:54:43,800
Or do they represent

1080
00:54:44,120 --> 00:54:45,840
a generation slaughtered

1081
00:54:46,040 --> 00:54:47,960
at the Somme,

1082
00:54:48,160 --> 00:54:49,960
killing and being killed,

1083
00:54:50,160 --> 00:54:51,280
cannon fodder on both sides

1084
00:54:51,720 --> 00:54:53,240
of the front?

1085
00:54:54,040 --> 00:54:55,480
But within the orcs themselves,

1086
00:54:55,680 --> 00:54:57,320
and Tolkien was quite clear on this,

1087
00:54:57,520 --> 00:54:58,920
he says, you really do get glimpses,

1088
00:54:59,120 --> 00:55:00,920
so let's not just dismiss them

1089
00:55:01,120 --> 00:55:03,160
as the sort of characters that

1090
00:55:03,360 --> 00:55:05,000
are just really there
for cannon fodder

1091
00:55:05,320 --> 00:55:06,720
for people to kill, which

1092
00:55:06,920 --> 00:55:09,960
is what they become, unfortunately,
in Peter Jackson's films.

1093
00:55:10,160 --> 00:55:12,760
But in the books they, for example,

1094
00:55:12,960 --> 00:55:15,120
they made complaints about,
you know,

1095
00:55:15,320 --> 00:55:17,560
orders from on high.
They're very scared.

1096
00:55:17,760 --> 00:55:18,960
They sit there and say,
well, I'm not going down there.

1097
00:55:19,120 --> 00:55:20,280
You go down there.

1098
00:55:23,320 --> 00:55:25,920
"In war, we were all orcs,"

1099
00:55:26,120 --> 00:55:27,600
Tolkien would later write.

1100
00:55:28,240 --> 00:55:31,400
He transformed his experiences
into something symbolic.

1101
00:55:35,600 --> 00:55:37,440
If you read
the Battalion War Diaries,

1102
00:55:37,640 --> 00:55:39,440
you see it's a litany

1103
00:55:39,760 --> 00:55:41,760
of how many soldiers died

1104
00:55:41,960 --> 00:55:44,880
on each given day from shell fire,

1105
00:55:45,080 --> 00:55:47,760
from enemy attack,
poison gas, of course.

1106
00:55:47,960 --> 00:55:50,200
Memories of poison gas

1107
00:55:50,400 --> 00:55:53,000
stayed in Tolkien's mind,

1108
00:55:54,320 --> 00:55:57,720
fumbling to get your gas helmet on
to try to protect yourself.

1109
00:56:02,040 --> 00:56:03,440
And if you imagine

1110
00:56:03,840 --> 00:56:07,400
the already devastated landscape,

1111
00:56:07,600 --> 00:56:11,200
with shell craters everywhere,

1112
00:56:11,400 --> 00:56:13,560
tree stumps

1113
00:56:14,120 --> 00:56:16,720
covering the ground like skeletons,

1114
00:56:16,920 --> 00:56:21,240
and then everything covered
with water,

1115
00:56:22,520 --> 00:56:25,640
then that brings you close to the
Lord of the Rings descriptions

1116
00:56:25,840 --> 00:56:27,760
of the Dead Marshes.

1117
00:56:30,400 --> 00:56:32,680
Rain, flooded trenches,

1118
00:56:32,880 --> 00:56:35,040
corpses in shell craters,

1119
00:56:35,240 --> 00:56:38,200
the ghastly war scenery
of the Somme

1120
00:56:38,400 --> 00:56:41,480
is mirrored in
Middle-earth's landscapes,

1121
00:56:41,680 --> 00:56:43,240
such as the "Dead Marshes."

1122
00:56:43,840 --> 00:56:46,480
Peter Jackson
captures this hauntingly

1123
00:56:46,680 --> 00:56:48,480
in his film The Two Towers.

1124
00:56:48,680 --> 00:56:51,640
There are dead things!

1125
00:56:52,440 --> 00:56:53,840
Dead faces in the water!

1126
00:56:58,920 --> 00:57:00,960
All dead.

1127
00:57:01,160 --> 00:57:06,800
All rotten.
Elves and men and orcs.

1128
00:57:07,400 --> 00:57:10,600
A great battle long ago.

1129
00:57:11,840 --> 00:57:13,440
The dead marshes.

1130
00:57:13,760 --> 00:57:16,200
Yes, yes, that is the name.

1131
00:57:16,760 --> 00:57:18,240
Death makes no distinctions.

1132
00:57:18,760 --> 00:57:21,000
Britons, French, Germans,

1133
00:57:21,560 --> 00:57:23,600
all remained
in the no-man's-land

1134
00:57:23,800 --> 00:57:26,040
between positions.

1135
00:57:26,360 --> 00:57:28,520
They became part

1136
00:57:28,720 --> 00:57:30,480
of the earth,

1137
00:57:30,680 --> 00:57:32,240
as Gollum describes.

1138
00:57:32,440 --> 00:57:35,120
The graves were swallowed.

1139
00:57:45,400 --> 00:57:46,680
One notices

1140
00:57:47,520 --> 00:57:49,560
that in Tolkien's work

1141
00:57:49,760 --> 00:57:51,520
loss, death and mourning

1142
00:57:51,720 --> 00:57:53,880
are recurring themes.

1143
00:57:54,080 --> 00:57:56,800
In The Lord of the Rings,
for example, when Boromir dies,

1144
00:57:57,160 --> 00:57:58,400
it's crucial

1145
00:57:58,600 --> 00:58:00,800
for the companions to bury him.

1146
00:58:01,000 --> 00:58:03,400
There's a line about how

1147
00:58:03,600 --> 00:58:05,640
they can't leave him

1148
00:58:05,840 --> 00:58:07,680
among his enemies.

1149
00:58:08,360 --> 00:58:11,240
And I think that for someone

1150
00:58:11,440 --> 00:58:12,920
who witnessed

1151
00:58:13,120 --> 00:58:15,400
such scenes here firsthand,

1152
00:58:15,600 --> 00:58:17,960
it clearly influenced his work.

1153
00:58:19,240 --> 00:58:21,760
Tolkien and his close school friends

1154
00:58:21,960 --> 00:58:23,720
wanted to change the world.

1155
00:58:23,920 --> 00:58:26,200
They were companions on a mission,

1156
00:58:26,400 --> 00:58:27,440
full of hope.

1157
00:58:27,640 --> 00:58:29,720
They spurred each other on.

1158
00:58:31,640 --> 00:58:33,440
But the war changed everything.

1159
00:58:35,200 --> 00:58:37,240
It's unclear
whether it was intentional

1160
00:58:37,440 --> 00:58:39,280
or unconscious

1161
00:58:39,480 --> 00:58:42,760
that Tolkien's four Hobbits

1162
00:58:42,960 --> 00:58:44,840
come from the same region

1163
00:58:45,480 --> 00:58:48,560
and bond on their journey,

1164
00:58:48,760 --> 00:58:50,320
getting closer.

1165
00:58:51,160 --> 00:58:53,960
They survive it all,
in The Lord of The Rings,

1166
00:58:54,160 --> 00:58:55,600
and perhaps there we also see

1167
00:58:55,800 --> 00:58:57,440
a homage or a wish

1168
00:58:57,640 --> 00:59:00,440
for survival,
for these four friends,

1169
00:59:00,640 --> 00:59:03,600
these four young men who shared

1170
00:59:04,000 --> 00:59:05,080
this terrible experience.

1171
00:59:07,360 --> 00:59:09,760
In real life,
there are no happy endings.

1172
00:59:09,960 --> 00:59:13,000
His friend Geoffrey Bache Smith
died in December.

1173
00:59:13,720 --> 00:59:16,200
Far from the front,
he was hit by shrapnel,

1174
00:59:16,400 --> 00:59:19,120
a shell filled with metal bullets,

1175
00:59:19,520 --> 00:59:22,120
and succumbed to his injuries
on 3 December.

1176
00:59:22,480 --> 00:59:25,640
Rob Gilson had already been killed
on the first day of the battle.

1177
00:59:27,680 --> 00:59:30,160
Tolkien was deeply shaken

1178
00:59:30,360 --> 00:59:33,640
by the news of Rob's death.

1179
00:59:34,640 --> 00:59:36,680
He wrote

1180
00:59:36,880 --> 00:59:40,360
a very impactful phrase,
saying simply,

1181
00:59:40,680 --> 00:59:42,280
"Something has gone crack".

1182
00:59:42,480 --> 00:59:44,800
Something is broken,

1183
00:59:45,000 --> 00:59:47,280
irretrievably destroyed.

1184
00:59:48,960 --> 00:59:51,280
Can no longer be repaired,
can no longer be patched up.

1185
00:59:51,480 --> 00:59:52,920
Something is broken.

1186
00:59:58,000 --> 00:59:59,480
One has indeed personally

1187
00:59:59,680 --> 01:00:01,520
to come under the shadow of war

1188
01:00:01,720 --> 01:00:03,840
to feel fully its oppression.

1189
01:00:07,400 --> 01:00:08,880
By 1918,

1190
01:00:09,080 --> 01:00:10,200
all but one

1191
01:00:10,400 --> 01:00:12,280
of my close friends were dead.

1192
01:00:19,320 --> 01:00:20,800
As always with Tolkien,

1193
01:00:21,000 --> 01:00:23,680
there is another place
that could have inspired him

1194
01:00:23,880 --> 01:00:25,680
for the Dead Marshes.

1195
01:00:26,200 --> 01:00:30,400
He visited it on his trip
to Switzerland in 1911.

1196
01:00:31,760 --> 01:00:33,280
We're at the Grimsel Pass.

1197
01:00:33,480 --> 01:00:36,200
I find it interesting that
Tolkien passed through here,

1198
01:00:36,400 --> 01:00:38,560
crossing the Bernese Alps,

1199
01:00:38,760 --> 01:00:40,840
the mountain range

1200
01:00:41,040 --> 01:00:42,680
which inspired the Misty Mountains.

1201
01:00:42,880 --> 01:00:44,880
It's also interesting,
this lake behind me,

1202
01:00:45,080 --> 01:00:46,880
it's called the Lake of the Dead.

1203
01:00:47,080 --> 01:00:49,920
These are the kinds of things
that fascinated Tolkien so much.

1204
01:00:50,120 --> 01:00:52,600
And we see that again
in the swamps of the dead.

1205
01:00:52,800 --> 01:00:53,800
It has this name

1206
01:00:54,000 --> 01:00:55,880
about death, because a battle

1207
01:00:56,080 --> 01:00:59,800
took place there a long time ago.

1208
01:01:00,480 --> 01:01:03,400
And it was the same
with the Lake of the Dead.

1209
01:01:04,840 --> 01:01:06,320
During the Revolutionary Wars

1210
01:01:06,520 --> 01:01:08,880
of 1799,

1211
01:01:09,080 --> 01:01:10,680
Napoleon's general

1212
01:01:10,880 --> 01:01:12,600
Charles-Etienne Gudin

1213
01:01:12,800 --> 01:01:14,240
defeated enemy troops here,

1214
01:01:15,720 --> 01:01:17,800
leaving the pass strewn with bodies.

1215
01:01:18,000 --> 01:01:20,240
They sunk in the lake.

1216
01:01:21,960 --> 01:01:23,600
However, this Lake of the Dead

1217
01:01:23,800 --> 01:01:25,320
is very clear and blue,

1218
01:01:25,520 --> 01:01:27,520
unlike the marshes.
For that reason,

1219
01:01:27,720 --> 01:01:30,000
I'd think more

1220
01:01:30,200 --> 01:01:31,920
of Flanders Fields,

1221
01:01:32,120 --> 01:01:33,200
the no-man's-land.

1222
01:01:34,440 --> 01:01:37,680
What Frodo and Sam experience
in the Dead Marshes,

1223
01:01:37,880 --> 01:01:39,520
explained by Gollum,

1224
01:01:39,720 --> 01:01:41,480
stems not from one specific place

1225
01:01:41,680 --> 01:01:43,240
in Switzerland

1226
01:01:43,440 --> 01:01:44,760
or on the Western Front.

1227
01:01:46,200 --> 01:01:48,280
Tolkien's method

1228
01:01:48,480 --> 01:01:50,080
is to combine experiences,

1229
01:01:50,400 --> 01:01:52,320
making them applicable this way.

1230
01:01:54,680 --> 01:01:56,960
Tolkien's legacy is a rich,

1231
01:01:57,200 --> 01:02:00,200
varied world built on

1232
01:02:00,560 --> 01:02:03,280
certain principles.

1233
01:02:03,720 --> 01:02:06,440
There's a connection
between his invented ages

1234
01:02:06,640 --> 01:02:08,040
and us because it takes place

1235
01:02:08,240 --> 01:02:10,960
in a world reminiscent of ours.

1236
01:02:11,160 --> 01:02:13,480
He spoke of "applicability",

1237
01:02:13,680 --> 01:02:16,200
the freedom of readers

1238
01:02:16,400 --> 01:02:18,640
to interpret as they choose.

1239
01:02:19,560 --> 01:02:22,160
Tolkien himself escaped
the battlefield

1240
01:02:22,360 --> 01:02:25,360
by contracting trench fever,

1241
01:02:25,560 --> 01:02:28,080
a severe illness
with feverish attacks.

1242
01:02:28,280 --> 01:02:29,800
After six months at the front,

1243
01:02:30,000 --> 01:02:32,280
he returned to England to recover.

1244
01:02:34,680 --> 01:02:37,840
For the first time,
he spent Christmas

1245
01:02:38,040 --> 01:02:39,080
with his wife Edith.

1246
01:02:40,640 --> 01:02:42,840
In hospitals and sanatoriums

1247
01:02:43,040 --> 01:02:44,520
like this one in Harrogate,

1248
01:02:44,720 --> 01:02:46,360
Tolkien began writing

1249
01:02:46,840 --> 01:02:48,360
his first stories,

1250
01:02:48,560 --> 01:02:50,120
that would later be published

1251
01:02:50,320 --> 01:02:53,320
after his death as
The Book of Lost Tales,

1252
01:02:54,080 --> 01:02:55,520
preserved partially

1253
01:02:55,720 --> 01:02:57,240
in Edith's hand.

1254
01:02:58,120 --> 01:02:59,800
After the horror of the Somme,

1255
01:03:00,120 --> 01:03:02,320
Tolkien's formerly
romantic, poetic tone

1256
01:03:02,520 --> 01:03:03,840
became darker,

1257
01:03:04,200 --> 01:03:05,480
seen, for example,

1258
01:03:05,680 --> 01:03:07,440
in The Fall of Gondolin.

1259
01:03:15,040 --> 01:03:17,760
In the Fall of Gondolin,
the Elven city of Gondolin

1260
01:03:17,960 --> 01:03:19,880
is attacked by a force of

1261
01:03:20,480 --> 01:03:22,760
what Tolkien calls
monsters or dragons,

1262
01:03:22,960 --> 01:03:24,440
but he describes them as being

1263
01:03:24,760 --> 01:03:26,160
engineered creations

1264
01:03:26,360 --> 01:03:29,400
made of metals.

1265
01:03:31,280 --> 01:03:32,920
They roll over things.

1266
01:03:33,480 --> 01:03:35,640
They roll over barriers
and crush them.

1267
01:03:36,120 --> 01:03:38,320
They launch fire like flamethrowers.

1268
01:03:38,520 --> 01:03:40,400
Obviously like medieval dragons too.

1269
01:03:40,600 --> 01:03:42,360
But this is Tolkien fusing

1270
01:03:43,000 --> 01:03:44,360
the mythological with the modern.

1271
01:03:46,320 --> 01:03:48,960
"Iron dragons", driven by a chain

1272
01:03:49,160 --> 01:03:51,200
like the tanks
of the First World War,

1273
01:03:51,400 --> 01:03:54,520
attack the elven city

1274
01:03:54,720 --> 01:03:56,520
of Gondolin on behalf of
the villain Morgoth.

1275
01:03:56,880 --> 01:03:58,680
In their belly are orc warriors.

1276
01:03:59,600 --> 01:04:02,600
The bitter experience
of the First World War

1277
01:04:02,800 --> 01:04:05,520
arrived directly
in Tolkien's Middle-earth.

1278
01:04:08,200 --> 01:04:10,520
After the war,
Tolkien earned his living

1279
01:04:10,720 --> 01:04:12,360
as a scientist and lecturer.

1280
01:04:12,720 --> 01:04:14,880
Edith and he had four children.

1281
01:04:15,920 --> 01:04:17,440
A typical professor's life,

1282
01:04:17,680 --> 01:04:19,160
at first glance.

1283
01:04:19,600 --> 01:04:21,160
But after work,

1284
01:04:21,360 --> 01:04:24,360
he wrote several versions
of the "Silmarillion",

1285
01:04:24,560 --> 01:04:26,040
a legendary prequel

1286
01:04:26,360 --> 01:04:28,720
to his later bestselling novels.

1287
01:04:34,240 --> 01:04:36,160
He lived multiple lives
at the same time.

1288
01:04:36,360 --> 01:04:39,000
Professor by day,

1289
01:04:39,200 --> 01:04:40,560
writer and painter by night.

1290
01:04:40,760 --> 01:04:42,520
He raised his young children

1291
01:04:42,720 --> 01:04:45,400
and maintained his friendships.

1292
01:04:45,600 --> 01:04:47,400
When you think this is a man
who survived

1293
01:04:47,600 --> 01:04:49,960
the First World War, he showed

1294
01:04:50,320 --> 01:04:52,880
absolutely extraordinary resilience.

1295
01:04:54,040 --> 01:04:56,200
Orphaned twice before 12,
with no family reference points,

1296
01:04:56,400 --> 01:04:58,200
having lost his friends
during the First World War,

1297
01:04:58,400 --> 01:05:02,160
he built a family, a career
and a body of work.

1298
01:05:02,360 --> 01:05:04,160
It's quite staggering
when you think about it.

1299
01:05:05,080 --> 01:05:09,120
Edith, his childhood love, remained
by his side until her death.

1300
01:05:09,400 --> 01:05:11,720
Unlike Tolkien's mother Mabel

1301
01:05:11,920 --> 01:05:13,160
or his aunt Jane,

1302
01:05:13,360 --> 01:05:15,360
she had no academic ambitions.

1303
01:05:16,080 --> 01:05:18,360
You know,
when you are in a very

1304
01:05:18,560 --> 01:05:21,240
male-dominated Oxford,
in academia,

1305
01:05:21,440 --> 01:05:22,440
where

1306
01:05:22,640 --> 01:05:24,720
you know, the Dons have,
their... you know,

1307
01:05:24,920 --> 01:05:26,840
the academics have their community

1308
01:05:27,040 --> 01:05:29,680
and they get together and they talk
and they have

1309
01:05:29,840 --> 01:05:30,960
all these intellectual
sort of discussions.

1310
01:05:31,120 --> 01:05:34,600
And the wives are mostly at home,
not in contact with anyone else.

1311
01:05:34,760 --> 01:05:36,080
So there was a point where

1312
01:05:36,760 --> 01:05:38,680
things became strained
and difficult.

1313
01:05:39,560 --> 01:05:42,080
But again, these were difficulties
that they went past

1314
01:05:42,240 --> 01:05:45,600
and continued being together,
very happy until the end.

1315
01:05:45,840 --> 01:05:48,800
At times, I feel for poor Edith,
just thinking, gosh, yeah,

1316
01:05:49,000 --> 01:05:50,000
must have been tough.

1317
01:05:52,000 --> 01:05:54,960
Some aspects of Middle-earth

1318
01:05:55,160 --> 01:05:57,000
now seem outdated,

1319
01:05:57,680 --> 01:05:59,040
at first glance,

1320
01:05:59,600 --> 01:06:02,920
particularly the lack of women

1321
01:06:03,120 --> 01:06:04,880
among main characters
in the novels.

1322
01:06:06,120 --> 01:06:08,440
If you look at what kind
of characters they are,

1323
01:06:08,760 --> 01:06:10,240
a character like Luthien,

1324
01:06:10,640 --> 01:06:12,560
who has to save the man.

1325
01:06:12,760 --> 01:06:15,120
Galadriel who has done

1326
01:06:15,320 --> 01:06:18,440
all sorts of things,
including acts of war,

1327
01:06:18,640 --> 01:06:21,480
in her long life.

1328
01:06:21,680 --> 01:06:23,400
If you look at Eowyn,

1329
01:06:23,760 --> 01:06:25,320
the only character who manages

1330
01:06:25,520 --> 01:06:27,920
to overcome the Nazgul King,

1331
01:06:28,120 --> 01:06:29,960
the Witch King, to kill him.

1332
01:06:30,280 --> 01:06:31,920
So you can see great respect

1333
01:06:32,120 --> 01:06:34,160
for the opposite sex

1334
01:06:34,600 --> 01:06:37,160
that Tolkien brings into his work.

1335
01:06:39,080 --> 01:06:41,640
Tolkien honours strong women.

1336
01:06:41,840 --> 01:06:43,440
He even indirectly memorialises

1337
01:06:43,640 --> 01:06:45,640
his aunt Jane Neave,

1338
01:06:45,840 --> 01:06:47,520
who took him to Switzerland.

1339
01:06:47,720 --> 01:06:50,040
He names Bilbo Baggins'
place of residence

1340
01:06:50,240 --> 01:06:52,640
after her farm
in the English Midlands,

1341
01:06:53,360 --> 01:06:56,320
Bag End.

1342
01:06:59,360 --> 01:07:00,960
The professional aunt

1343
01:07:01,160 --> 01:07:03,080
is a fairly recent development,
perhaps.

1344
01:07:03,440 --> 01:07:06,400
But I was fortunate
in having an early example:

1345
01:07:06,600 --> 01:07:10,320
one of the first women
to take a science degree.

1346
01:07:11,000 --> 01:07:12,520
She is now 90,

1347
01:07:12,800 --> 01:07:14,880
but only a few years ago

1348
01:07:15,080 --> 01:07:16,560
went botanising in Switzerland.

1349
01:07:17,360 --> 01:07:19,200
Even before "The Hobbit",

1350
01:07:19,760 --> 01:07:20,880
his first bestseller,

1351
01:07:21,080 --> 01:07:23,320
Tolkien had already mapped out
numerous elements

1352
01:07:23,520 --> 01:07:26,120
of his legendarium in detail.

1353
01:07:27,040 --> 01:07:29,760
Over the years, the maps
became more extensive

1354
01:07:30,360 --> 01:07:31,920
and he kept adding new sheets

1355
01:07:32,120 --> 01:07:34,520
in the margins for new locations.

1356
01:07:35,080 --> 01:07:37,280
The end result was the largest

1357
01:07:37,480 --> 01:07:40,240
fantasy universe ever conceived:

1358
01:07:41,120 --> 01:07:42,480
Middle-earth.

1359
01:07:44,800 --> 01:07:46,680
Initially, he "only" wanted

1360
01:07:46,880 --> 01:07:49,240
to look for the mythological roots
of England.

1361
01:07:49,840 --> 01:07:52,720
What was before the Celts,
the Anglo-Saxons,

1362
01:07:52,920 --> 01:07:55,600
Arthur and the knights
of the Middle Ages?

1363
01:07:57,200 --> 01:08:00,240
The Nibelungenlied for Germany,
the Kalevala for Finland,

1364
01:08:00,440 --> 01:08:03,800
the Edda, of course,
the great stories for Iceland.

1365
01:08:04,160 --> 01:08:06,320
The Irish, the Welsh,
they all have stories.

1366
01:08:06,520 --> 01:08:08,280
But the English were a bit thin
on the ground.

1367
01:08:08,480 --> 01:08:10,480
But that wasn't really

1368
01:08:10,680 --> 01:08:12,000
a serious nationalistic background

1369
01:08:12,200 --> 01:08:14,600
in that sense, it was based on

1370
01:08:14,800 --> 01:08:17,360
the fact that he believed,

1371
01:08:17,560 --> 01:08:18,840
perhaps a little ambitiously,

1372
01:08:19,680 --> 01:08:21,960
that he could fill a gap
that no other writer

1373
01:08:22,160 --> 01:08:24,160
had ever been able to fill before.

1374
01:08:25,440 --> 01:08:28,440
The first book
in this fantasy universe

1375
01:08:28,640 --> 01:08:30,480
was a children's book, "The Hobbit",

1376
01:08:31,160 --> 01:08:32,880
in which Bilbo Baggins

1377
01:08:33,080 --> 01:08:35,000
defeats evil and returns home

1378
01:08:35,200 --> 01:08:37,040
to Hobbiton
with a ring in his pocket.

1379
01:08:41,920 --> 01:08:43,920
On the cover, his drawing

1380
01:08:44,120 --> 01:08:45,840
of Hobbiton in the Shire.

1381
01:08:46,320 --> 01:08:47,760
A place full of trees

1382
01:08:47,960 --> 01:08:50,040
and, of course, a mill -

1383
01:08:50,560 --> 01:08:53,160
the symbols of his happy childhood.

1384
01:08:56,560 --> 01:08:57,920
At first glance, Tolkien's work

1385
01:08:58,240 --> 01:08:59,680
seems apolitical.

1386
01:08:59,880 --> 01:09:02,520
Although the 1930s,
when he was writing,

1387
01:09:02,720 --> 01:09:05,080
were a decade of crises and wars.

1388
01:09:05,760 --> 01:09:07,760
Hitler came to power

1389
01:09:07,960 --> 01:09:09,560
in Germany in 1933.

1390
01:09:12,080 --> 01:09:15,080
In the Soviet Union,
Stalin and his terror reigned.

1391
01:09:15,760 --> 01:09:17,560
A look at Tolkien's manuscripts

1392
01:09:17,880 --> 01:09:19,880
from different years shows

1393
01:09:20,160 --> 01:09:22,880
how an iconic villain
takes on traits

1394
01:09:23,080 --> 01:09:24,320
of these contemporary events.

1395
01:09:25,040 --> 01:09:27,760
Sauron, the dark lord
of the Lord of the Rings,

1396
01:09:28,520 --> 01:09:31,000
he began as a rather gothic,

1397
01:09:31,320 --> 01:09:33,880
slightly vampiric character
in the Silmarillion.

1398
01:09:34,840 --> 01:09:37,520
In 1936 to 1937,

1399
01:09:37,720 --> 01:09:40,840
Tolkien redefines him
as the primal enemy,

1400
01:09:41,160 --> 01:09:43,120
the dark Lord

1401
01:09:43,320 --> 01:09:46,200
and a totalitarian.

1402
01:09:46,400 --> 01:09:49,040
But he does that just at the time

1403
01:09:49,360 --> 01:09:51,560
when Stalin was perpetrating

1404
01:09:51,760 --> 01:09:54,480
the huge Soviet purges.

1405
01:09:56,240 --> 01:09:58,600
And when

1406
01:09:58,920 --> 01:10:01,160
the danger
of totalitarianism in Europe

1407
01:10:02,280 --> 01:10:05,360
was becoming absolutely apparent.

1408
01:10:05,720 --> 01:10:08,320
It distressed him.
I think that his writing was a way

1409
01:10:08,520 --> 01:10:09,600
of expressing all of these things.

1410
01:10:11,720 --> 01:10:14,320
While The Hobbit
was a success in England,

1411
01:10:14,880 --> 01:10:16,920
the German licence publisher

1412
01:10:17,120 --> 01:10:18,680
Rütten and Loening

1413
01:10:18,880 --> 01:10:21,120
set a condition before publication.

1414
01:10:21,600 --> 01:10:23,200
Tolkien must provide
what is known as

1415
01:10:23,400 --> 01:10:25,240
"proof of Aryanism".

1416
01:10:25,680 --> 01:10:27,000
I will under no circumstances

1417
01:10:27,680 --> 01:10:30,120
allow you to translate it.

1418
01:10:30,720 --> 01:10:32,400
So he practically takes apart

1419
01:10:32,680 --> 01:10:34,320
the letter from Germany

1420
01:10:34,640 --> 01:10:37,040
in a really very sympathetic

1421
01:10:37,280 --> 01:10:39,760
and very sarcastic way as a linguist

1422
01:10:40,080 --> 01:10:43,640
and shows you that you are talking
absolute nonsense with your demands

1423
01:10:44,320 --> 01:10:45,720
and also tells you

1424
01:10:45,920 --> 01:10:48,800
that he very much regrets that,
as far as he knows,

1425
01:10:49,240 --> 01:10:52,400
no one in his family
is of Jewish blood,

1426
01:10:52,600 --> 01:10:54,320
and that he very much regrets
not having any part

1427
01:10:54,520 --> 01:10:56,680
of this truly gifted
and wonderful people.

1428
01:10:57,640 --> 01:10:59,680
Anyway, I have in this war

1429
01:10:59,880 --> 01:11:01,320
a burning private grudge

1430
01:11:01,640 --> 01:11:03,960
against that ruddy little ignoramus
Adolf Hitler.

1431
01:11:04,360 --> 01:11:07,280
Ruining, perverting, misapplying

1432
01:11:07,480 --> 01:11:09,760
and making for ever accursed,
that noble northern spirit.

1433
01:11:10,480 --> 01:11:11,920
The political abuse

1434
01:11:12,120 --> 01:11:13,760
by the Nazis repelled him.

1435
01:11:14,120 --> 01:11:15,720
Because he was fascinated by
the myths of northern

1436
01:11:15,920 --> 01:11:18,200
and north-western Europe -

1437
01:11:18,400 --> 01:11:21,000
as an ancient cultural asset
of Europe.

1438
01:11:21,480 --> 01:11:23,720
The German composer
Richard Wagner

1439
01:11:23,920 --> 01:11:25,600
also drew on these myths.

1440
01:11:28,280 --> 01:11:30,800
When asked whether he borrowed

1441
01:11:31,000 --> 01:11:33,360
from Wagner's opera cycle

1442
01:11:33,560 --> 01:11:35,600
"The Ring of the Nibelung"
for his Ring,

1443
01:11:36,120 --> 01:11:38,440
Tolkien counters
with his British humour:

1444
01:11:39,120 --> 01:11:40,480
"Both rings are round,

1445
01:11:40,680 --> 01:11:42,960
but that's it for the similarity".

1446
01:11:43,680 --> 01:11:45,840
Which is not quite true.

1447
01:11:54,520 --> 01:11:56,600
He knew,
Ok, I have to distance myself,

1448
01:11:56,800 --> 01:11:58,000
otherwise I'll be in hot water.

1449
01:11:58,200 --> 01:11:59,880
And that does happen to some extent.

1450
01:12:00,280 --> 01:12:01,920
But that element,

1451
01:12:02,120 --> 01:12:04,480
for example, that the ring

1452
01:12:04,920 --> 01:12:06,960
consumes the owner, so to speak,

1453
01:12:07,160 --> 01:12:09,240
that he becomes obsessed with it.

1454
01:12:09,440 --> 01:12:11,560
That's Wagner,

1455
01:12:11,760 --> 01:12:13,600
you don't have that
in the other rings.

1456
01:12:13,800 --> 01:12:15,800
The other rings,
they make you invisible,

1457
01:12:16,000 --> 01:12:18,920
they give you a lot of gold
or something.

1458
01:12:19,120 --> 01:12:22,040
But this element,
that it gives them power

1459
01:12:22,240 --> 01:12:24,720
but they give themselves up,
that's Wagnerian.

1460
01:12:26,120 --> 01:12:28,080
Like many in Tolkien's work,

1461
01:12:28,280 --> 01:12:30,240
Gollum, this schizophrenic being

1462
01:12:30,440 --> 01:12:31,800
possessed by the Ring,

1463
01:12:32,000 --> 01:12:33,880
is a very complex creation.

1464
01:12:34,080 --> 01:12:36,200
One that Tolkien
was particularly proud of.

1465
01:12:36,560 --> 01:12:39,520
Gollum was once a Hobbit
called Smeagol.

1466
01:12:39,720 --> 01:12:41,000
He killed his cousin Deagol

1467
01:12:41,200 --> 01:12:42,880
because of the Ring.

1468
01:12:44,120 --> 01:12:45,440
For me, Gollum is definitely

1469
01:12:45,640 --> 01:12:48,560
one of the best characters
in the book.

1470
01:12:49,400 --> 01:12:51,080
The Smeagol character who

1471
01:12:51,560 --> 01:12:53,480
seems almost very human.

1472
01:12:53,760 --> 01:12:56,240
It's desire,
it's greed over the Ring.

1473
01:12:56,440 --> 01:12:58,840
But that's what thwarts him.
And then you have

1474
01:12:59,040 --> 01:13:00,920
the Gollum character, which just

1475
01:13:01,120 --> 01:13:02,920
becomes so under the thrall of

1476
01:13:03,120 --> 01:13:04,760
of the Ring that it's just...

1477
01:13:04,960 --> 01:13:07,240
That competing Jekyll and Hyde,
you know,

1478
01:13:07,440 --> 01:13:08,720
that type of character there.

1479
01:13:09,120 --> 01:13:11,040
But Gollum is there
really also to display

1480
01:13:11,240 --> 01:13:13,040
to Frodo and to Bilbo

1481
01:13:13,240 --> 01:13:14,680
what might happen to them.

1482
01:13:19,080 --> 01:13:20,280
He's probably a Hobbit.

1483
01:13:20,720 --> 01:13:23,080
He should actually be like Frodo

1484
01:13:23,280 --> 01:13:25,200
and Sam and Merry and Pippin.

1485
01:13:25,920 --> 01:13:27,160
And then you see

1486
01:13:27,360 --> 01:13:30,000
what someone can become
in the worst case scenario.

1487
01:13:30,280 --> 01:13:32,360
And of course,
if you make the analogy

1488
01:13:32,560 --> 01:13:34,720
that every story is
always fundamentally human

1489
01:13:34,920 --> 01:13:36,480
and the Hobbits
are just representations

1490
01:13:36,680 --> 01:13:38,960
of human values or behaviour,

1491
01:13:39,560 --> 01:13:41,560
then of course
it's frightening to see

1492
01:13:41,760 --> 01:13:43,040
that we can fall so low.

1493
01:13:43,240 --> 01:13:46,320
We can fall so low.
We could be as terrible

1494
01:13:46,600 --> 01:13:47,880
as some kind of Gollum.

1495
01:13:48,080 --> 01:13:51,400
And that, I think, is one of those
terrifying experiences

1496
01:13:51,800 --> 01:13:54,360
from the First World War,
that people became monsters.

1497
01:13:56,360 --> 01:13:58,840
In Tolkien's mind,
something new emerges

1498
01:13:59,040 --> 01:14:00,800
from the true story of the rings.

1499
01:14:01,120 --> 01:14:03,200
There are many
possible interpretations,

1500
01:14:03,400 --> 01:14:04,600
including that of Gollum:

1501
01:14:05,120 --> 01:14:06,280
Is he, like the author,

1502
01:14:06,480 --> 01:14:09,080
a traumatised veteran
of the Great War?

1503
01:14:09,280 --> 01:14:11,520
Does this schizophrenic being
go back

1504
01:14:11,720 --> 01:14:12,880
to Jekyll and Hyde?

1505
01:14:13,120 --> 01:14:15,520
To the biblical brothers
Cain and Abel?

1506
01:14:15,720 --> 01:14:19,120
Or to figures
from Wagner's "Nibelungen"?

1507
01:14:22,160 --> 01:14:23,960
Tolkien works with

1508
01:14:24,160 --> 01:14:26,720
a huge amount of material.

1509
01:14:27,400 --> 01:14:29,000
He seems, and this also makes him

1510
01:14:29,200 --> 01:14:31,720
the very special author that he is,

1511
01:14:32,080 --> 01:14:34,800
to be able to work

1512
01:14:35,000 --> 01:14:36,320
with almost anything.

1513
01:14:36,520 --> 01:14:38,400
In Middle-earth, we find the history

1514
01:14:38,600 --> 01:14:40,560
of antiquity, of the Middle Ages.

1515
01:14:40,880 --> 01:14:42,840
But we also find

1516
01:14:43,040 --> 01:14:46,280
Tolkien's biography. Again and again

1517
01:14:46,480 --> 01:14:48,480
we find his personal attitude.

1518
01:14:48,840 --> 01:14:50,640
If we ask ourselves
where Middle-earth

1519
01:14:50,840 --> 01:14:55,040
actually comes from,
then I could almost ask back:

1520
01:14:55,200 --> 01:14:57,200
Where doesn't
Middle-earth come from?

1521
01:14:58,600 --> 01:15:02,040
The search for inspiration
for Tolkien's

1522
01:15:02,240 --> 01:15:03,400
one "Ring of Power"

1523
01:15:04,080 --> 01:15:05,920
is particularly of interest
to fans and researchers.

1524
01:15:08,160 --> 01:15:10,120
In 2013, a ring was on display

1525
01:15:10,320 --> 01:15:12,560
at The Vyne Museum in Hampshire,

1526
01:15:12,760 --> 01:15:15,560
which was claimed to be

1527
01:15:15,760 --> 01:15:17,600
the "One Ring" to attract tourists.

1528
01:15:18,120 --> 01:15:20,840
The ring, which is over
1500 years old,

1529
01:15:21,040 --> 01:15:23,240
was once discovered by a farmer
while ploughing.

1530
01:15:23,440 --> 01:15:26,120
According to the Latin inscription,

1531
01:15:26,320 --> 01:15:27,680
it belonged to
a certain "Senicianus".

1532
01:15:28,200 --> 01:15:29,920
The same name is discovered
during an excavation

1533
01:15:30,120 --> 01:15:32,320
in 1929

1534
01:15:32,520 --> 01:15:34,560
at an ancient temple
around 100 kilometres away

1535
01:15:34,920 --> 01:15:37,040
in Gloucestershire,

1536
01:15:37,240 --> 01:15:39,880
on a leaden plaque with a curse.

1537
01:15:40,880 --> 01:15:43,280
The well-known archaeologist
Mortimer Wheeler

1538
01:15:43,480 --> 01:15:46,320
asks Tolkien for an expert opinion
on the history of the language,

1539
01:15:46,520 --> 01:15:48,720
published on the excavation.

1540
01:15:49,640 --> 01:15:50,680
The inscription on the tablet

1541
01:15:50,880 --> 01:15:53,720
curses a Senicianus with illness.

1542
01:15:57,280 --> 01:16:00,600
"Among those who bear
the name Senicianus,

1543
01:16:00,800 --> 01:16:02,760
give no one good health

1544
01:16:03,360 --> 01:16:06,160
until he returns the ring
to the temple".

1545
01:16:06,360 --> 01:16:09,520
But the chain of evidence
from the ancient gold ring

1546
01:16:09,720 --> 01:16:12,640
to the curse tablet
to Tolkien's work

1547
01:16:12,840 --> 01:16:14,080
is incomplete.

1548
01:16:15,200 --> 01:16:18,040
The curse that was written down here

1549
01:16:18,440 --> 01:16:21,640
curses someone who has stolen

1550
01:16:21,840 --> 01:16:23,400
a ring.

1551
01:16:24,400 --> 01:16:25,520
On first hearing,

1552
01:16:25,720 --> 01:16:27,720
this does indeed sound like

1553
01:16:27,920 --> 01:16:29,120
"The Lord of the Rings".

1554
01:16:29,320 --> 01:16:32,160
But the fact that
the ring is magical

1555
01:16:32,360 --> 01:16:35,400
is not what is written
on this tablet.

1556
01:16:35,600 --> 01:16:38,440
It is simply to curse a thief

1557
01:16:38,640 --> 01:16:42,440
who has taken a ring.

1558
01:16:44,960 --> 01:16:47,000
He always used
the analogy of the soup.

1559
01:16:47,720 --> 01:16:49,200
There are all kinds of ingredients

1560
01:16:49,360 --> 01:16:50,760
which make the soup great.

1561
01:16:51,280 --> 01:16:52,080
The real thing is about

1562
01:16:52,240 --> 01:16:53,800
drinking the soup
and enjoying the soup.

1563
01:16:53,960 --> 01:16:56,640
It's not how much pepper in
and so on, like that.

1564
01:16:56,840 --> 01:16:59,720
You shouldn't really be going in
and delving into that.

1565
01:17:01,280 --> 01:17:04,600
The first Tolkien "soup"
tastes good to its readers.

1566
01:17:05,120 --> 01:17:06,960
After the global success
of The Hobbit,

1567
01:17:07,160 --> 01:17:09,720
his publisher wanted a sequel.

1568
01:17:13,840 --> 01:17:15,320
I now wanted

1569
01:17:16,880 --> 01:17:18,440
to try my hand...

1570
01:17:20,840 --> 01:17:23,840
at writing a really
stupendously long narrative

1571
01:17:24,560 --> 01:17:26,400
and to see whether I had sufficient

1572
01:17:26,600 --> 01:17:28,480
cunning or material

1573
01:17:29,040 --> 01:17:31,080
to make a really long narrative

1574
01:17:31,280 --> 01:17:32,880
which would hold
the average reader right through.

1575
01:17:34,960 --> 01:17:36,800
The best...
One of the best forms

1576
01:17:37,000 --> 01:17:39,640
for long narrative, as was found
in The Hobbit.

1577
01:17:39,880 --> 01:17:42,600
There's a much more
elaborate form of the

1578
01:17:43,080 --> 01:17:45,720
pilgrimage or journey
with an object.

1579
01:17:46,400 --> 01:17:48,640
So that was inevitably the form
I adopted.

1580
01:17:51,760 --> 01:17:54,840
An epic pilgrimage,
as he himself

1581
01:17:55,160 --> 01:17:57,160
experienced in Switzerland in 1911.

1582
01:17:57,480 --> 01:17:59,040
An item.

1583
01:17:59,680 --> 01:18:00,760
That sounds so simple.

1584
01:18:01,440 --> 01:18:03,760
Tolkien spent 15 years
writing this book,

1585
01:18:04,480 --> 01:18:05,720
the three-part epic

1586
01:18:05,920 --> 01:18:07,280
The Lord of the Rings.

1587
01:18:14,960 --> 01:18:19,040
This "doorstop"
is a worldwide classic today.

1588
01:18:19,240 --> 01:18:21,840
But because he invented wizards

1589
01:18:22,040 --> 01:18:23,560
and magical creatures,

1590
01:18:23,760 --> 01:18:25,560
dwarves, Hobbits and orcs,

1591
01:18:25,760 --> 01:18:27,120
its author

1592
01:18:27,320 --> 01:18:29,200
has long been accused
of not paying much attention

1593
01:18:29,400 --> 01:18:31,760
to the political present
of his lifetime.

1594
01:18:32,120 --> 01:18:34,120
As if a fantasy author

1595
01:18:34,320 --> 01:18:35,640
is not from this world.

1596
01:18:36,320 --> 01:18:38,720
I do believe that if

1597
01:18:38,920 --> 01:18:41,120
you look at his biography,
you will realise

1598
01:18:41,320 --> 01:18:43,000
that his entire life

1599
01:18:43,200 --> 01:18:45,040
was spent at war

1600
01:18:45,240 --> 01:18:46,800
in one form or another.

1601
01:18:47,160 --> 01:18:49,440
The First World War,
in which he himself served,

1602
01:18:49,640 --> 01:18:53,040
the Second World War, in which
two of his sons served,

1603
01:18:53,240 --> 01:18:55,080
the Spanish Civil War,

1604
01:18:55,280 --> 01:18:57,800
the Cold War. So there's always

1605
01:18:58,320 --> 01:19:00,600
this threat in the background.

1606
01:19:00,920 --> 01:19:02,920
It could be that time again,
at any moment.

1607
01:19:05,560 --> 01:19:07,080
While he was writing
The Lord of the Rings,

1608
01:19:07,400 --> 01:19:10,160
a second world war shook Europe.

1609
01:19:10,360 --> 01:19:12,360
Now his sons Christopher and Michael

1610
01:19:12,560 --> 01:19:14,240
wore the uniform of the fatherland.

1611
01:19:14,600 --> 01:19:17,600
Tolkien sent Christopher
the latest chapters

1612
01:19:17,800 --> 01:19:18,960
to review.

1613
01:19:19,160 --> 01:19:21,080
And to give him hope,

1614
01:19:21,280 --> 01:19:22,440
to comfort him.

1615
01:19:22,640 --> 01:19:25,760
Your accounts,
which were uncensored,

1616
01:19:25,960 --> 01:19:27,280
distressed but did not surprise me.

1617
01:19:27,720 --> 01:19:30,200
How it reminds me
of my own experience!

1618
01:19:30,920 --> 01:19:32,880
One war is enough
for any man.

1619
01:19:33,080 --> 01:19:35,360
I hope you will be spared a second.

1620
01:19:35,760 --> 01:19:36,800
Either the bitterness

1621
01:19:37,000 --> 01:19:39,240
of youth or that of middle-age
is enough

1622
01:19:39,440 --> 01:19:40,920
for a lifetime:

1623
01:19:41,160 --> 01:19:42,800
both is too much.

1624
01:19:46,000 --> 01:19:48,320
The world in which
Tolkien wrote the book

1625
01:19:48,520 --> 01:19:50,520
has become even darker.

1626
01:19:50,720 --> 01:19:52,920
And Middle-earth is now also

1627
01:19:53,120 --> 01:19:54,760
threatened by even more evil forces.

1628
01:19:55,920 --> 01:19:58,040
Is he referring to
his immediate present?

1629
01:19:59,200 --> 01:20:01,560
People do not fully understand
the difference between an allegory

1630
01:20:02,440 --> 01:20:04,680
and an application.
You can go to a Shakespeare play

1631
01:20:04,880 --> 01:20:07,000
and you can apply it to things
in your mind if you like,

1632
01:20:07,200 --> 01:20:08,520
but they're not allegories.

1633
01:20:09,080 --> 01:20:11,680
Many people applied "The Ring"

1634
01:20:12,360 --> 01:20:14,840
to the nuclear bomb, don't they?

1635
01:20:15,360 --> 01:20:16,640
They think it was in my mind,
the whole thing

1636
01:20:16,800 --> 01:20:18,440
was only an allegory of it.

1637
01:20:20,200 --> 01:20:21,200
But it isn't.

1638
01:20:23,240 --> 01:20:25,800
At first glance, little about
this work seems

1639
01:20:26,000 --> 01:20:27,160
directly political.

1640
01:20:27,360 --> 01:20:29,080
But at second glance,

1641
01:20:29,280 --> 01:20:30,680
is it not "applicable" after all?

1642
01:20:31,120 --> 01:20:33,520
Sauron, for example,
the new villain -

1643
01:20:33,840 --> 01:20:37,080
Tolkien himself later even
referred to him in a letter later as

1644
01:20:37,280 --> 01:20:38,560
a "Hitler with a ring".

1645
01:20:39,560 --> 01:20:41,640
Sauron's goal is to turn the world

1646
01:20:41,840 --> 01:20:45,040
into hell on Earth,

1647
01:20:45,240 --> 01:20:47,320
to spread Mordor.

1648
01:20:48,040 --> 01:20:49,800
He has no other goal.

1649
01:20:50,000 --> 01:20:52,240
He has no identifiable,
objective goal

1650
01:20:52,440 --> 01:20:54,120
other than destruction.

1651
01:20:54,320 --> 01:20:56,080
He is evil in itself. The devil.

1652
01:20:56,560 --> 01:20:58,760
Seeing him as an allusion
to Hitler, Mussolini

1653
01:20:58,960 --> 01:21:01,720
or Stalin doesn't work,
because these people

1654
01:21:01,920 --> 01:21:04,800
have a cult of personality
surrounding them.

1655
01:21:05,200 --> 01:21:07,240
But Sauron is not a person at all.

1656
01:21:08,840 --> 01:21:10,760
We never see him as a presence.

1657
01:21:10,960 --> 01:21:12,040
And...

1658
01:21:12,640 --> 01:21:15,680
he's represented by this
all seeing eye,

1659
01:21:15,960 --> 01:21:19,320
which seems to have control
around Mordor

1660
01:21:19,520 --> 01:21:21,480
without him being present.

1661
01:21:21,680 --> 01:21:24,000
So there's something very Orwellian

1662
01:21:24,200 --> 01:21:26,160
about this idea of sort of a

1663
01:21:26,360 --> 01:21:28,200
totalitarian regime,

1664
01:21:28,400 --> 01:21:30,480
which is in many ways what

1665
01:21:30,680 --> 01:21:33,320
the Second World War
was fighting against. Right?

1666
01:21:36,040 --> 01:21:37,560
The international breakthrough

1667
01:21:37,760 --> 01:21:39,680
for the novel
The Lord of the Rings

1668
01:21:39,880 --> 01:21:41,600
did not come until 1965:

1669
01:21:42,080 --> 01:21:44,400
with a paperback edition in the USA,

1670
01:21:45,120 --> 01:21:47,200
which was published quasi-illegally

1671
01:21:47,520 --> 01:21:49,960
due to a loophole in the licence law
for North America.

1672
01:21:50,520 --> 01:21:52,560
Once again, it was a time of unrest

1673
01:21:52,760 --> 01:21:53,840
and change,

1674
01:21:54,160 --> 01:21:56,000
and once again, Tolkien's book

1675
01:21:56,320 --> 01:21:57,560
fitted perfectly into this period.

1676
01:22:01,120 --> 01:22:03,400
In the 60s and 70s,

1677
01:22:03,600 --> 01:22:06,360
the Hobbits became important

1678
01:22:06,760 --> 01:22:08,240
to the hippie movement,

1679
01:22:08,520 --> 01:22:11,200
essentially people in search of
an alternative way of life,

1680
01:22:11,400 --> 01:22:14,080
an alternative society.

1681
01:22:14,560 --> 01:22:16,520
If you identify with the Hobbits,

1682
01:22:16,720 --> 01:22:18,600
you are even satisfied with
your own inadequacy,

1683
01:22:18,800 --> 01:22:21,200
because the Hobbits
are obviously inadequate too,

1684
01:22:21,400 --> 01:22:23,400
so it can't be that wrong.

1685
01:22:24,680 --> 01:22:26,360
In the Middle of the Earth
In the land of Shire

1686
01:22:26,520 --> 01:22:28,280
Lives a brave little Hobbit
Whom we all admire

1687
01:22:30,760 --> 01:22:33,320
A veritable Hobbit hype breaks out.

1688
01:22:33,520 --> 01:22:34,760
Tolkien goes pop

1689
01:22:34,960 --> 01:22:36,960
and even Mr Spock sings along.

1690
01:22:48,240 --> 01:22:50,040
It's a fantastic place to shop,

1691
01:22:50,240 --> 01:22:53,440
you can practically try
to live there.

1692
01:22:53,960 --> 01:22:56,440
So get out of Mordor,

1693
01:22:56,640 --> 01:22:59,720
out of the industrialised city,
into the Shire,

1694
01:22:59,920 --> 01:23:02,360
back to the countryside,
to the organic farm.

1695
01:23:03,560 --> 01:23:05,840
It's practically exemplified

1696
01:23:06,320 --> 01:23:07,240
in The Lord of the Rings.

1697
01:23:09,600 --> 01:23:11,640
So what is

1698
01:23:11,840 --> 01:23:13,760
this huge work?

1699
01:23:13,960 --> 01:23:16,520
Sure, the greatest
fantasy adventure of all time.

1700
01:23:16,960 --> 01:23:19,640
But it is also an artistically
alienated image

1701
01:23:19,840 --> 01:23:21,240
of our world.

1702
01:23:22,000 --> 01:23:23,880
Tolkien created it

1703
01:23:24,520 --> 01:23:26,600
from his own experiences
and those of mankind.

1704
01:23:28,120 --> 01:23:29,880
From sagas and legends,

1705
01:23:30,400 --> 01:23:32,360
his childhood in central England

1706
01:23:33,240 --> 01:23:35,080
and his experiences in the trenches

1707
01:23:35,280 --> 01:23:36,840
on the Somme.

1708
01:23:40,760 --> 01:23:42,640
In the course of his life,

1709
01:23:42,840 --> 01:23:44,440
Tolkien learnt

1710
01:23:44,800 --> 01:23:46,800
that war and peace
come and go,

1711
01:23:47,000 --> 01:23:48,400
almost like the seasons.

1712
01:23:49,320 --> 01:23:50,680
Nothing is permanent,

1713
01:23:50,880 --> 01:23:52,280
nothing is guaranteed.

1714
01:23:52,480 --> 01:23:54,960
What can be said is that
every age of Middle-earth

1715
01:23:55,160 --> 01:23:57,080
ends with a war

1716
01:23:58,400 --> 01:23:59,760
and that this is a caesura

1717
01:23:59,960 --> 01:24:02,000
and that a new age then begins,

1718
01:24:02,200 --> 01:24:05,000
first in relative peace,

1719
01:24:05,200 --> 01:24:07,080
only to end with war again.

1720
01:24:07,400 --> 01:24:09,000
We must always rejoice,

1721
01:24:09,600 --> 01:24:11,640
be grateful, but also

1722
01:24:11,840 --> 01:24:14,120
work ourselves to ensure
that this does not happen again.

1723
01:24:16,680 --> 01:24:19,480
That's what the comrades do
in The Lord of the Rings.

1724
01:24:19,680 --> 01:24:20,920
Put themselves out there.

1725
01:24:21,240 --> 01:24:24,200
They embark on a dangerous
journey into the unknown,

1726
01:24:24,400 --> 01:24:26,960
just as Tolkien experienced
in Switzerland.

1727
01:24:27,680 --> 01:24:30,800
They are the only hope
for Middle-earth.

1728
01:24:31,600 --> 01:24:32,840
And somehow,

1729
01:24:33,040 --> 01:24:35,080
they are also
a reflection of humanity.

1730
01:24:42,640 --> 01:24:44,480
Their goal is
to destroy the One Ring,

1731
01:24:44,680 --> 01:24:46,840
to destroy evil.

1732
01:24:47,400 --> 01:24:48,720
How do you do that?

1733
01:24:49,160 --> 01:24:51,400
With will. With values.

1734
01:24:51,880 --> 01:24:53,080
With friends.

1735
01:24:53,600 --> 01:24:56,080
In Peter Jackson's film
The Two Towers,

1736
01:24:56,280 --> 01:24:59,520
the Hobbit Samwise Gamgee
embodies these values:

1737
01:25:01,200 --> 01:25:03,160
What are we holding on to, Sam?

1738
01:25:15,560 --> 01:25:18,400
There is some good in this world,
Mr Frodo,

1739
01:25:19,560 --> 01:25:21,320
and it's worth fighting for.

1740
01:25:24,800 --> 01:25:26,200
He brought the Hobbits

1741
01:25:26,400 --> 01:25:29,920
into the story
as a stroke of genius.

1742
01:25:30,120 --> 01:25:31,240
The real heroes are the little ones.

1743
01:25:31,440 --> 01:25:33,680
I think that is something that
the sixty-eighters

1744
01:25:33,880 --> 01:25:35,960
became very aware of.
We have to stand up

1745
01:25:36,160 --> 01:25:37,880
against the big ones up there,

1746
01:25:38,080 --> 01:25:39,720
against the bigwigs, the big-heads.

1747
01:25:39,920 --> 01:25:41,760
And the little man,
the little woman,

1748
01:25:41,960 --> 01:25:43,480
we can all make a difference.

1749
01:25:48,080 --> 01:25:50,240
Tolkien wrote books
full of symbolic wisdom

1750
01:25:50,440 --> 01:25:52,720
that have always held true

1751
01:25:52,920 --> 01:25:55,160
and have since captivated

1752
01:25:55,360 --> 01:25:57,640
hundreds of millions of readers.

1753
01:25:58,480 --> 01:25:59,880
Respect nature.

1754
01:26:00,240 --> 01:26:02,840
Stick together.
Believe in yourselves.

1755
01:26:03,360 --> 01:26:04,880
Do not despair.

1756
01:26:09,480 --> 01:26:11,880
The reader is free to apply

1757
01:26:12,480 --> 01:26:14,800
the book to their own experience

1758
01:26:15,000 --> 01:26:16,480
or to history, as they wish.

1759
01:26:17,200 --> 01:26:19,200
Tolkien's books combine history

1760
01:26:19,400 --> 01:26:21,440
and values
that everyone can connect to.

1761
01:26:24,160 --> 01:26:25,920
I was maybe 10 years old

1762
01:26:26,120 --> 01:26:28,280
when I read The Hobbit
for the first time.

1763
01:26:28,960 --> 01:26:30,400
I grew up in Puerto Rico,

1764
01:26:30,600 --> 01:26:32,360
a world away from this.

1765
01:26:32,800 --> 01:26:34,880
In the tropics, speaking Spanish.

1766
01:26:36,400 --> 01:26:38,320
But when I read The Hobbit,

1767
01:26:39,640 --> 01:26:42,000
there are things about it,
there are hints

1768
01:26:42,200 --> 01:26:46,200
and fragments of a deeper world,

1769
01:26:46,640 --> 01:26:49,360
of a longer history that Tolkien

1770
01:26:49,560 --> 01:26:52,040
spreads into these stories.

1771
01:26:54,040 --> 01:26:56,080
He teaches us as we read,

1772
01:26:56,280 --> 01:26:58,840
to appreciate these things

1773
01:26:59,040 --> 01:27:01,920
about our environment
and about our landscape

1774
01:27:02,240 --> 01:27:04,360
that are ancient, that go beyond us
and will outlast us.

1775
01:27:06,440 --> 01:27:09,880
After The Lord of the Rings,
Tolkien begins a sequel

1776
01:27:10,080 --> 01:27:11,920
that is not supposed
to have a happy ending.

1777
01:27:12,160 --> 01:27:14,360
The dystopia The New Shadow

1778
01:27:14,560 --> 01:27:17,120
from the Fourth Age of Middle-earth.

1779
01:27:17,520 --> 01:27:19,920
He finished it
after just a few pages.

1780
01:27:20,360 --> 01:27:22,000
If I recall correctly,

1781
01:27:22,480 --> 01:27:25,040
he abandoned it basically
because he felt it

1782
01:27:25,240 --> 01:27:28,760
was too dark
and he was going into a dark place.

1783
01:27:29,640 --> 01:27:31,160
It kind of

1784
01:27:31,600 --> 01:27:33,480
undermined his whole...

1785
01:27:34,120 --> 01:27:36,600
his whole theory that good
will eventually

1786
01:27:36,800 --> 01:27:39,440
conquer evil, coming from
his Christian beliefs.

1787
01:27:40,840 --> 01:27:42,480
By the end of his life,

1788
01:27:42,680 --> 01:27:45,160
his Middle-earth epic
was a global success.

1789
01:27:45,360 --> 01:27:47,960
And Tolkien himself lived more
and more in the world

1790
01:27:48,160 --> 01:27:49,680
he had created.

1791
01:27:52,160 --> 01:27:54,560
When Edith died in 1971

1792
01:27:54,760 --> 01:27:56,880
at the age of 82,

1793
01:27:57,080 --> 01:27:59,840
he has "Luthien" written
on her gravestone -

1794
01:28:00,040 --> 01:28:02,720
a character from his posthumously
published book

1795
01:28:02,920 --> 01:28:04,560
Beren and Luthien.

1796
01:28:04,760 --> 01:28:07,240
A great love story
between a mortal

1797
01:28:07,440 --> 01:28:08,920
and an Elf.

1798
01:28:09,280 --> 01:28:12,720
When he died two years later
in 1973,

1799
01:28:13,000 --> 01:28:14,960
the name of the mortal

1800
01:28:15,160 --> 01:28:17,000
was found under his own name:

1801
01:28:17,200 --> 01:28:18,240
"Beren".

1802
01:28:20,440 --> 01:28:23,040
Tolkien did not continue the story

1803
01:28:23,240 --> 01:28:26,160
of the Fourth Age, the Age of Men,

1804
01:28:26,640 --> 01:28:28,560
as he also called it.

1805
01:28:29,200 --> 01:28:30,320
What we do know: Middle-earth

1806
01:28:30,520 --> 01:28:33,560
has the shape of a sphere

1807
01:28:33,760 --> 01:28:35,400
and corresponds in many ways

1808
01:28:35,720 --> 01:28:37,160
to our world today.

1809
01:28:39,240 --> 01:28:42,040
His books for adults,

1810
01:28:42,240 --> 01:28:45,680
especially The Lord of the Rings
and The Silmarillion,

1811
01:28:45,880 --> 01:28:48,280
have a very melancholic,
even pessimistic undertone

1812
01:28:48,480 --> 01:28:51,480
regarding the history of mankind.

1813
01:28:53,360 --> 01:28:54,800
The way he portrays humanity

1814
01:28:55,000 --> 01:28:57,840
is like a warning
about the threats of his time

1815
01:28:58,640 --> 01:29:01,920
and is frighteningly
topical again today.

1816
01:29:04,200 --> 01:29:05,960
Time and again,
"evil rulers" start wars

1817
01:29:06,160 --> 01:29:08,840
and thus seem to confirm
Tolkien's terrifying vision

1818
01:29:09,080 --> 01:29:10,800
of a "Fourth Age".

1819
01:29:11,360 --> 01:29:13,560
Did he become
a pessimist in the end?

1820
01:29:14,040 --> 01:29:15,840
A key scene
in Peter Jackson's film

1821
01:29:16,000 --> 01:29:18,120
The Fellowship of the Ring
provides the answer:

1822
01:29:19,680 --> 01:29:21,560
I wish the Ring
had never come to me.

1823
01:29:24,400 --> 01:29:26,040
I wish none of this had happened.

1824
01:29:26,720 --> 01:29:29,440
So do all
who live to see such times.

1825
01:29:29,640 --> 01:29:31,400
But that is not for them to decide.

1826
01:29:32,400 --> 01:29:34,880
All we have to decide,
is what to do

1827
01:29:35,080 --> 01:29:36,680
with the time that is given to us.

1828
01:29:43,000 --> 01:29:45,880
A look at the true history
of the rings shows

1829
01:29:46,080 --> 01:29:47,360
that not only evil,

1830
01:29:47,800 --> 01:29:49,920
but also good,
repeats itself cyclically

1831
01:29:50,120 --> 01:29:52,200
in human history.

1832
01:29:52,760 --> 01:29:54,480
That there are always "companions"

1833
01:29:54,680 --> 01:29:56,400
who destroy evil.

1834
01:29:58,000 --> 01:30:00,360
If that's not a message...

1835
01:30:06,960 --> 01:30:09,440
Subtitles by Alison Watt