[HPforGrownups] LOTR & WWII

[Peg Kerr]

No: HPFGUIDX 1057



Brooks R wrote:.

> LOTR is clearly not a retelling of WWII, and
> Tolkien said as much,  but I believe he also admitted that some
> scenes in it were influenced by WWII experiences/events - not of the
> grand sweep of the war, but of things he experienced on the home
> front.

Tolkien actually fought on the battleline in WWI, which may have been an
even greater influence than being on the home front in WWII.  He was great
friends with three other friends the same age (rather like MWPP--see, I know
what the acronym stands for now!) and two of them died in battle, which
affected him greatly.  He himself became sick from trench fever and was
subsequently sent home from the front.

I recommend Humphrey Carpenter's Tolkien: A Biography.  I believe it does
discuss the influence of the World Wars on his fiction.

Peg