Tolkien's Inspiration
 

Sorry if this has been asked many times, but i was just wondering if any of you knew what the inspiration was for the greatest books on earth?! It's been really bugging me and i've been trying to get into his head, but no success.... Do his letters say anything about the inspiration? thanks anyway. [img]smilies/rolleyes.gif[/img]

I guess there are a lot of answers to this but here comes what I've gathered. Tolkien loved heroic fantasy literature and myth but was dismayed that England didn't have a mythology to call it's own and so wanted to create one. Also, as a linguist, he must have found the desire to create his own languages overwhelming and language and history are intricately intertwined. You can't study a language with considering the history of the people that spoke that language.

Is that close?

H.C.

I heard C.S Lewis got him into writing. Not really inspiration, but maybe got him to write fantasy. Can anyone cofirm that?

Tolkien had a life-long love of languages (especially Anglo-Saxon) and often played with the original meanings of words, such as Gandalf, which means "Wand Elf", which brought to mind a Wizard with a staff.

He wrote some of his earliest tales (which later became The Silmarillion) in the trenches of World War I, long before he ever met CS Lewis.

[ February 07, 2003: Message edited by: Barahir ]

I think he wanted to create a English mythology? Or was that BoLT?

I've heard that he was inspired by Norse mythology, especially Boewulf. I haven't read it, yet. 'Course he started creating his world of Middle-Earth when he was a child. I'm sure there were a lot of things that inspired him.

Inderjit, you're quite correct. He found the Arthurian Legends to not be a real mythology, like those of the Norse and Greek.

Oh, the wonderful answers that this question can recieve! [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]

1) He wanted to create a british mythology, because it bothered him that the only "true" peice of British mythology (King Arthur) was actually French in origin.

2) He wanted to express his faith while writing the most epic mythology in human history.

3) His wonderful works reflected the tortures of war and the impotance and benifits of self-sacrifice, along as accent the importance of good moral values in one's life.

4) He was specifially asked to write the Lord of the Rings.


Happy Once More,

the Eldest,
Iarwain

I think possibly Shakespeare. And also, himself of course. And probably children, as that was what The Hobbit was intended for, and as a result, Middle-earth was created and the other books spawned from it.

The Hobbit was written after much of the middle-earth mythology had been created.

As others have mentioned, Tolkien actually created the languages first, before he wrote the stories. Middle Earth, its peoples, legends and tales were created to give the languages history and meaning.
I believe this is unique in fantasy literature. And I also believe that is what makes Tolkien an author apart. I have tried to read other fantasy authors and found them all fairly tedious, while Tolkien I could read forever.

This does not follow anything that others have been saying, but...

When I was younger, I went with school to a place in the Lake District, an outdoor activity centre called Low bank ground. (For anyone who has been there, I was the one who started the ghost stories [img]smilies/evil.gif[/img] )
Anyway, when we where out one day, one of the leaders took us to what he called a secret place. It was a ledge high above everything, only accesable through a small coridor in the rock invisible to anyone who did not know it was there. As soon as I saw the view, I thought "This is the Shire". It was everything that the shire was meant to be. It was then that he told us that this is where Tolkien got his insperation. I was the only one who knew who Tolkien was, and the only one who believed him.

ever since this, I have heard several things to suggest that this could be true. I dont know about anyone else, but though the countryside surrounding Oxford is said to be the shire, to me, it always will exist in the Lakes, the view from that ledge.

I have been there as well, but no one told me it was Tolkien's Shire. I'm not saying your lying by the way! Now thinking about it, it really did look like the Shire and i do remember reading somewere that Tolkien liked to go up there....fascinating, you should all go! [img]smilies/tongue.gif[/img]

The man who told us went to work at another place similar to that when we left. He wasnt the most reliable source, but he did love Tolkien, so it doesnt mean he wasnt telling the truth. No one else believed him, though!