Tolkien and the Great War: The Threshold of Middle-earth

Tolkien and the Great War: The Threshold of Middle-earth
John Garth

A biography exploring J.R.R. Tolkien’s wartime experiences and their impact on his life and his writing of The Lord of The Rings.“To be caught in youth by 1914 was no less hideous an experience than in 1939 … by 1918 all but one of my close friends were dead.”So J.R.R. Tolkien responded to critics who saw The Lord of the Rings as a reaction to the Second World War. Tolkien and the Great War tells for the first time the full story of how he embarked on the creation of Middle-earth in his youth as the world around him was plunged into catastrophe. This biography reveals the horror and heroism that he experienced as a signals officer in the Battle of the Somme and introduces the circle of friends who spurred his mythology to life. It shows how, after two of these brilliant young men were killed, Tolkien pursued the dream they had all shared by launching his epic of good and evil.John Garth argues that the foundation of tragic experience in the First World War is the key to Middle-earth’s enduring power. Tolkien used his mythic imagination not to escape from reality but to reflect and transform the cataclysm of his generatuion. While his contemporaries surrendered to disillusionment, he kept enchantment alive, reshaping an entire literary tradition into a form that resonates to this day.This is the first substantially new biography of Tolkien since 1977, meticulously researched and distilled from his personal wartime papers and a multitude of other sources.

Tolkien and the Great War

The Threshold of Middle-earth

John Garth

In memory of

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, 1892-1973

Christopher Luke Wiseman, 1893-1987

Robert Quilter Gilson, 1893-1916

Geoffrey Bache Smith, 1894-1916

TCBS

Table of Contents

Cover Page (#u778710e0-6e7e-5412-b277-17c82dff6c95)

Title Page (#u186e80f9-cb50-5db3-82e7-e82f7ca62749)

Dedication (#u64008d20-faaa-54b0-a936-d08dee3168eb)

Chronology (#u28e8abfa-bb7f-5f46-8a29-a6f58938f7df)

Maps (#u93fa1cb0-e3c0-5b05-9f0c-e550ff18e76f)

Preface (#u86b3a61f-4d46-5a51-8c08-bea76189010f)

PART ONE The immortal four (#u48da2b42-fe2a-5506-9857-734da8a20f97)

Prologue (#ua41896a6-d042-53be-8b6c-53cb9b2307fe)

ONE Before (#u13badf63-aa2f-57bc-a900-ac88156f823d)

TWO A young man with too much imagination (#ud0dc8a87-be57-5a6e-9c9e-8a56620cfbf9)

THREE The Council of London (#u9a63b5c4-e1ad-5161-afc7-eb6db85ab4b5)

FOUR The shores of Faërie (#u80dda191-6264-543f-a075-9a2709ba63a3)

FIVE Benighted wanderers (#u5ebbe7d5-d283-58a6-8333-3777f395841b)

SIX Too long in slumber (#litres_trial_promo)

PART TWO Tears unnumbered (#litres_trial_promo)

SEVEN Larkspur and Canterbury-bells (#litres_trial_promo)

EIGHT A bitter winnowing (#litres_trial_promo)

NINE ‘Something has gone crack’ (#litres_trial_promo)

TEN In a hole in the ground (#litres_trial_promo)

PART THREE The Lonely Isle (#litres_trial_promo)

ELEVEN Castles in the air (#litres_trial_promo)

TWELVE Tol Withernon and Fladweth Amrod (#litres_trial_promo)

Epilogue. ‘A new light’ (#litres_trial_promo)

Postscript. ‘One who dreams alone’ (#litres_trial_promo)

Notes (#litres_trial_promo)

Bibliography (#litres_trial_promo)

Index (#litres_trial_promo)

Tolkien and The Great War (#litres_trial_promo)

Copyright (#litres_trial_promo)

About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)

Chronology (#ulink_2e415b61-fb7c-5790-b145-5fb8be6a43ed)

Tolkien on the Somme, 1916

6 June—Tolkien arrives in France.

28 June—He joins 11th Lancashire Fusiliers.

1 July—Battle of the Somme begins.

3 July—Tolkien reaches the frontline area.

6-8 July—With G. B. Smith in Bouzincourt.

14-16 July—Tolkien takes part in attack on Ovillers.