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J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy and The Hobbit adventure that preceded it are full-fledged mythologies and histories unto themselves, making it a little strange to discuss the impact of real-world mythology and history on Tolkien’s saga. But the list of historical references in The Lord of the Rings is long and the impact of influences on his writings, including Norse mythology and Tolkien’s own WWI experiences, is undeniable.
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J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy, and the countless movies, TV shows, and surprisingly
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good Nintendo games inspired by it, are all full-fledged mythologies and histories unto themselves
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But Tolkien lived through one of the most tumultuous periods in modern history, and his experiences
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not to mention his love of ancient myths from different cultures, couldn't help but influence
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his writing. So, today, we're taking an unexpected journey to the real-world inspirations behind Lord of the Rings
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Now, Mr. Frodo, let us carry you. As a young man, Tolkien described William Morris' epic poem
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The Story of Zygote, the Fulsong, and the Fall of the Nibelungs, a work inspired by numerous Norse myths, as my favorite without rival
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In fact, he dug it so much, one of his first writing attempts was his own adaptation of
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the saga, and it's clear that some of the story's themes stuck around
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For one, the story of Sigurd centers around an important yet dangerous ring
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Eh, that kind of sounds familiar, right? Plus, Morris's poem explores a sword of destiny that needs to be reforged, not unlike Narsil
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Aragorn's sword. But Tolkien wasn't the only creative force influenced by these myths
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Composer Richard Wagner, whose most well-known work may be Killed a Wabbit
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drew from the Wolfsunger saga when writing his four-opera cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen
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These compositions involved a ring of power and control that needed to be destroyed
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which has led to some accusations that Tolkien plagiarized Wagner, instead of realizing both pilfered from ancient myths before them
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For his part, Tolkien stated that when it came to Wagner's story
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both rings were round, and there the resemblance ceased. Tolkien's rap battle name was Mount Doom
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because his fire would unmake you. Tolkien also took a love of dragons
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especially characters like Smaug, from the Norse traditions. One Norse myth particularly influenced the author
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Fofnir, a disgruntled boy who kills his father, steals an all-powerful ring, and becomes a monstrous dragon
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That sounds... precious. Now we move to the big daddy of Norse gods, Odin
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In the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Anthony Hopkins has tended to play him as a bellowing regal brute
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But in the ancient Norse sagas, Odin comes off as a mysterious traveler from a higher realm
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who disguises himself as a wizard in order to mingle with humanity
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In other words, he acts an awful lot like Gandalf the Grey. The similarities don't stop there
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Both sorcerers have memorable steeds and iconic weapons, and both can shapeshift when needed
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There's even a scene in Snorri Sturluson's Heimskringla, a classic Icelandic king saga
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in which Othyn fights a magical duel with the deluded king Gullva that reads very similarly to Gandalf own bout with Saruman And Tolkien stated in a letter that he considered Gandalf to be an Odinic wanderer
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which is kind of like formally telling your teacher, I copied my homework
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Similarities to Othyn are not the only thing Gandalf borrows from the Norse
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His name itself is an Old Norse moniker first applied to a dwarf in a collection of Old Norse poetry called the Poetic Edda
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and it roughly translates to wand elf, which is a very funny thing to call a wizard
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In 1929, Tolkien worked as an advisor on the archaeological study of an ancient Roman temple
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in Lydney Park in Gloucestershire, England, that became known as Dwarf's Hill
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As far as the development of the Lord of the Rings was concerned, it was a worthy endeavor
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and then some. The ruins beneath Dwarf's Hill consisted of tunnels and mines dug into the hill
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itself, providing imagery that Tolkien would later use when crafting Bilbo Baggins' home in
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Hopiton. Meanwhile, Gimli was like, I want a hill. Why is it always about my axe? I deserve a hill
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While on this job, archaeologist Sir Mortimer Wheeler, who shares his name with the world's
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fanciest monster truck driver, showed Tolkien an artifact found in a nearby farmer's field
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an ancient gold ring inscribed with Latin, apparently tied to a Roman curse. It seems
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unlikely that this object didn't provide at least some inspiration for the appearance and
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trait of Sauron's One Ring. When J.R.R. Tolkien was a teenager, he discovered an epic Finnish tale called the Kalevala
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The Elies Lundrot penned poem, which started from the creation of the earth and went through
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a corrupting object of power called the Sampo, sparked a lifelong interest in the people's
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cultural artifacts of Finland. All of these elements would end up having a major impact
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on his own Lord of the Rings saga. Tolkien's biographer, Professor John Garth, said that
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Tolkien liked the fact that this was a national myth. He wished that England had something similar
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Britain had Celtic stories, but England had not preserved its mythology. With the Lord of the
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Rings, he wanted to give England its own Kalivala. In fact, Tolkien himself called the Kalivala
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the germ of my attempt to write legends. A germ. Glad he didn't wash his hands
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Tolkien's Finnish fascination led to an interest in learning the Finnish language
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which in turn led to the creation of his own Finnish-influenced language
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because he was a huge nerd. He called it Kwenya, or Elvish
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and it was this language that Tolkien would eventually build Middle-earth's history around
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making Finland the true birthplace of his saga. So yeah, Mom, Elvish totally counts as a language elective
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Tolkien spent the ages of four through eight in the quaint hamlet of Serhole in Hallgreen Birmingham England Even in the late 1890s Serhole was already an anachronistic reminder of the types of English country villages of centuries past
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But Tolkien reminisced on his time there fondly, recalling it as a kind of lost paradise
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Here was an old mill that really did grind corn with two millers, a great big pond with
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swans on it, a sandpit, a wonderful dell with flowers, a few old-fashioned village houses
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and, further away, a stream with another mill. The guy could make a pile of mud sound cozy
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Tolkien's rose-colored memories of Serhole and the bygone era it represented influenced his depiction of the Shire
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and the Hobbit lifestyle in general. Tolkien himself said that, the Hobbits are just what I should like to have been
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but never was. An entirely un-military people who always came up to scratch in a clinch
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But there was also a deep sense of sadness over the loss of a simpler life. Behind all this Hobbit stuff lay a sense of insecurity
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I always knew it would go. And it did. Hey, what did you expect
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Lord of the Rings doesn't exactly have the happiest ending. Tolkien served in the British Army during World War I
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And the experiences he endured during that brutal conflict echo throughout his writing
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Author and critic Jane Chabotari suggested that Frodo and Sam struggling to reach Mordor
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is a cracked mirror reflection of the young soldiers caught in the blasted landscape
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and slaughter of trench warfare on the Western Front. Yeah, you can kind of see that
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J.R.R. himself fought in the Battle of the Somme, a French river, one of the bloodiest battles in the entire war
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This experience, in which Tolkien watched close friends die in front of him
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scarred him enough to cast a shadow on settings and villains in his work. He wrote that the dead marshes
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and the approaches to the Moranon owe something to northern France after the Battle of the Somme
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Or as hell, even in fantasy books. Northumbria was an ancient kingdom of a land called Angles
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which we now call Northern England and Southeast Scotland. Oswald, son of Athelfrith of Bernicia, was the rightful heir to the Northumbrian throne
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but he lived in exile from an early age after the early passing of his father
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So a bunch of pagans sat on the throne until Oswald finally united many of his disparate people
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and returned in the year 634 to vanquish the pagan army and reclaim his crown
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You could call it the return of the king. The parallels between Oswald and Aragorn, son of Arathorn, are readily apparent
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especially given Tolkien's vast knowledge of Anglo-Saxon legend. But the author himself has never confirmed a connection
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And some historians note that multiple Anglo-Saxon kings battled back from exile to retake their thrones
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including Edward the Confessor, who, like Aragorn, was said to possess mysterious healing abilities
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So for now let just imagine all these kings hanging out in Valhalla spiritually arguing over who the real inspiration behind Viggo Mortensen rugged facial hair
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The Scouring of the Shire is the penultimate chapter in the Lord of the Rings saga
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and arguably the chapter crammed with the most historical allegories, though Tolkien has denied them all
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He's especially adamant that the chapter, which sees the hobbits return home
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only to find that Saruman has taken over, does not contain any 20th century political ogies
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But critics and historians argue with Tolkien that the depiction of Saruman's regime
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deliberately evokes the rise of fascism in Europe. Academic Jerome Donnelly even views this chapter
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as being bitterly satirical, noting that well-known features of Nazism appear in the occupation of the Shire by ruffians
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men who tyrannize with egregious regimentation, enforce ever-expanding rules, and who regard the hobbits as belonging
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to an inferior race. They also keep trying to eat the hobbits, and that's just rude
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There are also environmentalist themes present, which some have interpreted as Tolkien's wish
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fulfillment of undoing Britain's industrial transformation and returning to the village life of his youth, as Frodo and his friends overthrow Saruman and return the Shire to normal
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As Donnelly puts it, the chapter ends not only with victory over an expulsion of the
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Nazi-like occupiers, but with a Shire restoration that evokes the norms on which the satire
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is grounded. In other words, Donnelly says Tolkien wrote a story where he and his friends kicked the Industrial Revolution out of England
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Such themes seem to be tied to the villainous Saruman throughout the story, which some interpret as a condemnation of the industrial mechanisms of war that Tolkien witnessed while participating in World War I
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His grandson, Simon Tolkien, wrote that evil in Middle-earth is above all industrialized
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Sauron's orcs are brutalized workers. Saruman has a mind of metal and wheels
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and the desolate moonscapes of Mordor and Isengard are eerily reminiscent of that no man's land of 1916
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As an ancient folklore junkie and arch nerd, J.R.R. Tolkien was quite familiar with Beowulf
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The epic poem believed to be one of the earliest works in the Old English language
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Smaug, the mightiest antagonist of The Hobbit, owes at least part of his inspiration to an unnamed dragon from the story of Beowulf
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one who sits upon a hoard of gold and jealously guards even the smallest pieces of his collection
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Yeah, that sounds like our guy. Tolkien was also fascinated with Beowulf's old English language itself
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at one point even attempting his own translation. And some critics believe the poem's classification of the villainous Grendel
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as an Orchnace, or monster, is where Tolkien found the inspiration for the word orc
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the name of the fearsome creatures in Lord of the Rings. Looks like etymology is back on the menu, boys