Q: John Garth – J.R.R. Tolkien – Intro

A:

• Read Lord of the Rings at age 9

• Fascinated by names, places in Tolkien

• Influenced by Tom Shippey

• Studied literature at Oxford

Q:  What influenced Tolkien?

A: 

• Deepest influences are from earliest memories

• Orphaned at age 12

• Focus on souls, life after, no natural mortality

• Love of England’s landscapes

• Religion, wife

Q: Did being an orphan drive Tolkien’s imagination?

A: 

• Tolkien developed deep imagination at an early age

• At 7 he was already, “world building”

• Later, as a child, Tolkien invented his own languages

Q: Why does Tolkien resonate?

A:

• Readers come to Tolkien in different ways

• Demographic of readers is very different

• Mythic archetypes, multi-cultural

• Wrote for kids and adults

• Pushed barriers, not boxed in

Q: Are the movies, The Hobbit, Lord of the Rings, good?

A: 

• Lord of the Rings – fine work of art

• Succeed when they match pre conceived images

• Fail when they do not

• Good at getting kids to read the books

Q: Can you compare Tolkien’s works to Harry Potter?

A: 

• J.K Rowling is an amazing author

• Connects genres of fantasy, school & detective

• Hard to compare

Q: What was it like to be Tolkien’s student at Oxford?

A: 

• Mixed reports regarding his lecturing

• Enunciation was often flawed

• Tolkien was a natural performer

Q: What inspired Tolkien’s Middle Earth?

A: 

• Cultural heritage of Britain, Celtic, Anglo Saxon

• Elves by the sea

• Classical Greek & Roman myth

• Word Sounds from the Old testament

Q: Were Tolkien’s dwarves, Jews?

A: 

• Tolkien made the comparison himself

• Comparison focuses on language, not race or religion

• Source language of dwarves is Semitic, including Hebrew