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Assignment 2

The document discusses the inspirations and influences for J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy. It describes events from Tolkien's life, including his experiences in World War 1, that may have influenced elements of the trilogy like the friendship between Frodo and Sam and the darkness of Mordor.

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0% found this document useful (0 votes)
60 views4 pages

Assignment 2

The document discusses the inspirations and influences for J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy. It describes events from Tolkien's life, including his experiences in World War 1, that may have influenced elements of the trilogy like the friendship between Frodo and Sam and the darkness of Mordor.

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mdrury2
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Drury 1

Michael Drury Professor Ashlyn Walden English 1102-028 18 March 2014

Creating Brave New Worlds For thousands of years the world has been entranced by tales of magical places filled with sinister forces and brave heroes that risk their lives to save kingdoms. Over the years, master story-tellers have continued to perfect their art, leading to mass followings of millions to a universe that doesnt truly exist. Some of the largest followings belong to the futuristic worlds created by George Lucas (Star Wars), Gene Roddenberry (Star Trek), and J.R.R. Tolkien (Lord of the Rings). People love these worlds so much because of how theyre nothing like the world we live in today, but these fantastical worlds might be more like ours than they appear. For Tolkiens Middle Earth, many of the heroes share traits and goals with real people in history. Take the ranger Aragorn for example, he fought not for power or glory but for freedom from the armies of Mordor much like William Wallace (Braveheart) fighting for freedom against England. Another being Gandalf who plays the wise man who keeps the king in his place and encourages him to fight for his allies, just like Queen Elizabeth Is Chief Secretary William Cecils advise lead to the defeat of the Spanish Armada (National Geographic 2003). Tolkiens Middle Earth trilogy has been captivating readers and viewers for almost a hundred years now, including myself, but usually an audience is attracted to stories and characters that they can relate to. In the case of the Lord of the Rings, seeing as people couldnt really relate to the actual circumstances, it is more of the choices, friendships, and actions of the characters that people see themselves. These situations can seem rather small, but when blown up to epic proportions

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where the fate of the world hangs in the balance can really highlight just how important they can be. An example can be seen in the relationship between the two protagonists Frodo and Samwise as their friendship is put to the test by the journey to destroy the Ring. To help see some of Tolkiens possible inspirations, its best to know where hes been and major periods in life that he could adopt into his writings. J.R.R. Tolkien was born on January 3, 1892, in South Africa and received his first-class degree from Exeter College, specializing in classic literature as well as Germanic and Saxon languages. When World War I first began, Tolkien decided to enlist after he finished his degree in 1916. He was deployed to the western front at the height of the war and all but one of his close friends were dead by 1918. Because of the horrors he saw, Tolkien never left the trenches which kept him alive till he was sent back to England. In the mid 1920s he became a professor at Oxford University and started studying ancient languages, finnish especially as it would give him the basis for Quenya, a language he later gave to the Elves in Lord of the Rings. While teaching, he jump-started an informal Oxford literary club called the Inklings where they would get together and read poems and short stories. Sometime during his professorship, Tolkien was reading over a student paper and spontaneously wrote In a hole in the ground lived a hobbit. From there he began writing until the Hobbit was finished. Unlike his previous works, the Hobbit was a childrens book concerning good overcoming evil like most childrens books. The book was then published by Allen and Unwin, after a healthy amount of good reviews from his friends including C.S. Lewis who was also a member of the Inklings, and became a huge success. Naturally, due to the Hobbits popularity, Allen and Unwin proposed writing a sequel. So Tolkien began writing the Lord of the Rings. However, Tolkien didnt want to use the same fairy-tale format that the Hobbit was, he made it so there was no guarantee of a happy ending

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(Tejvan 2007). Along with being a bit darker, one could argue that Tolkien uses more of his war memories to develop some some of the major motifs in the trilogy. The most obvious of these is the bond between Frodo and Sam-wise, they must trust each other with their own lives and their quest would be impossible without the either of them, similar to soldiers fighting side by side in a war. And like most friendships, they dont always agree while going through the trials of their journey, leading to distrust etc. The trilogy also explores the loss of friends as multiple times Frodo is faced with the death of a friend just as Tolkien lost many of his good friends during the war. The pain that Frodo endures also serves a purpose in his grand journey, to make him stronger and remind him why his quest is so important. Another correlation that can be seen is the darkness that covers Mordor and how it is only illuminated by the fires of Mount Doom (shown in the picture below) with the nights Tolkien spent in the trenches when the only light comes from the occasional mortar fire and explosions lighting up the sky above him (National Geographic, 2003).

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Mordor

Works Cited: "John Ronald Ruel Tolkien." 2014. The Biography Channel website. Mar 10 2014, 12:15 http://www.biography.com/people/jrr-tolkien-9508428. National Geographic: Beyond the Movie: The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. Dir. National Geographic. Perf. Peter Jackson. Netflix.com. Netflix, 2003. Web. National Geographic: Beyond the Movie: The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. Dir. National Geographic. Perf. Peter Jackson. Netflix.com. Netflix, 2001. Web. Pettinger, Tejvan. "Biography of J.R.R. Tolkien", Oxford,www.biographyonline.net, 12th Jan. 2007

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