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Here's a fun one - a rather frank interview with J.R.R. #Tolkien from 1962, courtesy of BBC Archive. In this less well-known interview, he calls himself a "meticulous sort of bloke" and shrugs his shoulders when asked why he invented his world before writing The Hobbit.

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Tolkien Society

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27,964 Aufrufe • vor 1 Jahr •via X (Twitter)

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7 Kommentare

Profilbild von Heather
Heathervor 1 Jahr

@BBCArchive Having him for a professor would have been incredible.

Profilbild von Mobile Scanner
Mobile Scannervor 1 Jahr

Scan any documents, convert images into text, PDF files, etc. 👍

Profilbild von Sorensencj27
Sorensencj27vor 1 Jahr

@BBCArchive I love the way he talks. Like he writes. So thought out so precise. He wants to explain so much. But dosent at the same time. Beautiful thank you for sharing.

Profilbild von Jan Halbersztat
Jan Halbersztatvor 1 Jahr

@BBCArchive @TolkienPolska

Profilbild von Brad davies
Brad daviesvor 1 Jahr

@BBCArchive “A made thing, unless it says something, won’t be remembered”…

Profilbild von artemiswrites 🏹
artemiswrites 🏹vor 1 Jahr

@BBCArchive oh I wish we had subtitles on this video! There are some parts where the audio isn't as good so it's tough to understand either of them!

Profilbild von chrismaiorana
chrismaioranavor 1 Jahr

@BBCArchive Splendid.

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J.R.R. Tolkien explains why he spent years building Middle-earth before writing The Lord of the Rings. In a rare interview, Tolkien is asked why he devoted more than a decade to creating the world behind his stories before writing them. He rejects the idea that Middle-earth emerged purely from his unconscious, describing himself instead as “a meticulous sort of bloke” who spent years working out timelines, languages, histories, customs, and genealogies until everything fit together. For Tolkien, the world existed before the story. He even says The Hobbit began almost by accident, explaining that the larger mythology was already in place and that the novel simply became absorbed into it. When asked why anyone would build an entire fictional world before telling a story, Tolkien points to what he calls “subcreation.” As creations of a Creator, he argues, humans naturally desire to create. Since we cannot create something from nothing, we instead reshape existing reality into new forms that are both imaginative and aesthetically satisfying. Tolkien also rejects the idea that art should be driven solely by moral purpose, insisting that beauty and aesthetics are just as fundamental to human creativity. Discussing good and evil, he explains that Sauron was not evil from the beginning but fell from grace, much like Lucifer. The One Ring, he says, symbolizes a power so absolute that even someone with good intentions would inevitably be corrupted by wielding it. He adds that this idea long predates the atomic age, noting that the foundations of his mythology were developed while he was still an undergraduate, not as an allegory for modern events. At the end of the interview, Tolkien is asked whether he would rather be remembered for what he said or for what he made. He dismisses the distinction, arguing that lasting creations endure precisely because they have something meaningful to say. Source: The Tolkien Professor interview with J.R.R. Tolkien (BBC, 1968), “J.R.R. Tolkien Interview (1968).
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J.R.R. Tolkien explains why he spent years building Middle-earth before writing The Lord of the Rings. In a rare interview, Tolkien is asked why he devoted more than a decade to creating the world behind his stories before writing them. He rejects the idea that Middle-earth emerged purely from his unconscious, describing himself instead as “a meticulous sort of bloke” who spent years working out timelines, languages, histories, customs, and genealogies until everything fit together. For Tolkien, the world existed before the story. He even says The Hobbit began almost by accident, explaining that the larger mythology was already in place and that the novel simply became absorbed into it. When asked why anyone would build an entire fictional world before telling a story, Tolkien points to what he calls “subcreation.” As creations of a Creator, he argues, humans naturally desire to create. Since we cannot create something from nothing, we instead reshape existing reality into new forms that are both imaginative and aesthetically satisfying. Tolkien also rejects the idea that art should be driven solely by moral purpose, insisting that beauty and aesthetics are just as fundamental to human creativity. Discussing good and evil, he explains that Sauron was not evil from the beginning but fell from grace, much like Lucifer. The One Ring, he says, symbolizes a power so absolute that even someone with good intentions would inevitably be corrupted by wielding it. He adds that this idea long predates the atomic age, noting that the foundations of his mythology were developed while he was still an undergraduate, not as an allegory for modern events. At the end of the interview, Tolkien is asked whether he would rather be remembered for what he said or for what he made. He dismisses the distinction, arguing that lasting creations endure precisely because they have something meaningful to say. Source: The Tolkien Professor interview with J.R.R. Tolkien (BBC, 1968), “J.R.R. Tolkien Interview (1968).

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Did you know? There is a well known audio recording in which J.R.R. Tolkien personally narrates “The Ride of the Rohirrim.” This recording was made in 1952 at a friend’s house using a then new technologya tape recorder. During a period when Tolkien had not yet found a publisher for The Lord of the Rings and had begun to lose confidence in himself as a writer. When Tolkien listened to the recording, he rediscovered the power of his own prose, which encouraged him to continue writing. 📚
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Did you know? There is a well known audio recording in which J.R.R. Tolkien personally narrates “The Ride of the Rohirrim.” This recording was made in 1952 at a friend’s house using a then new technologya tape recorder. During a period when Tolkien had not yet found a publisher for The Lord of the Rings and had begun to lose confidence in himself as a writer. When Tolkien listened to the recording, he rediscovered the power of his own prose, which encouraged him to continue writing. 📚

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J.R.R. Tolkien originally conceived Aragorn (Strider) as a Hobbit named "Trotter" in the early drafts of the story. In the earliest drafts of The Lord of the Rings, the character we know as Aragorn and Strider was a Hobbit named Trotter. His name came from the fact that he either had wooden feet or wore wooden shoes after being tortured in Mordor. In some versions of the story, his real name was Peregrin Boffin, a cousin of Bilbo Baggins, and he was even present at the Council of Elrond as a member of the Fellowship. As Tolkien continued writing, Trotter gradually evolved into a Man whose true name was Aragorn. During the writing of the Lothlórien chapters, Tolkien even briefly considered other names such as Elfstone and Ingold. Despite this, "Trotter" remained Aragorn's alias for much of the writing process and was not finally replaced with "Strider" until 1948, when Tolkien revised the drafts of the final chapters. It's fascinating to think that one of fantasy's greatest heroes began life as a Hobbit in wooden shoes.
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J.R.R. Tolkien originally conceived Aragorn (Strider) as a Hobbit named "Trotter" in the early drafts of the story. In the earliest drafts of The Lord of the Rings, the character we know as Aragorn and Strider was a Hobbit named Trotter. His name came from the fact that he either had wooden feet or wore wooden shoes after being tortured in Mordor. In some versions of the story, his real name was Peregrin Boffin, a cousin of Bilbo Baggins, and he was even present at the Council of Elrond as a member of the Fellowship. As Tolkien continued writing, Trotter gradually evolved into a Man whose true name was Aragorn. During the writing of the Lothlórien chapters, Tolkien even briefly considered other names such as Elfstone and Ingold. Despite this, "Trotter" remained Aragorn's alias for much of the writing process and was not finally replaced with "Strider" until 1948, when Tolkien revised the drafts of the final chapters. It's fascinating to think that one of fantasy's greatest heroes began life as a Hobbit in wooden shoes.

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The man who invented modern fantasy didn't publish his first novel until he was forty-five. By that age, J.R.R. Tolkien had already built a respectable life. He was an Oxford professor, an expert in ancient languages, with a wife and four children and a settled academic career. He was exactly the kind of man who might reasonably have decided that the shape of his life was already fixed. The work he would be remembered for, he had not yet even begun... The story, which Tolkien told himself, is that one summer he was grading examination papers, when he turned a page and found that a student had left it blank. Without quite knowing why, he wrote a single sentence on it: "In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit." He did not know what a hobbit was. He had spent years inventing languages and mythologies as a private passion, and telling stories to his own children, never imagining any of it would reach the world. But that one line began to grow. It became a story, and then a book, and in 1937, at the age of forty-five, Tolkien published The Hobbit. It was a success, and his publisher asked for a sequel. Tolkien warned them it might take some time. It took 17 years... He wrote it in the margins of a demanding full-time job, revising endlessly, doubting it often. When The Lord of the Rings was finally published, in 1954 and 1955, he was in his early sixties. That book, begun as a middle-aged professor's private side project, went on to sell well over a hundred million copies, to invent modern fantasy as we know it, and to reshape the imagination of the entire world. Tolkien already had a full and respectable life behind him. And still, the thing he is remembered for, the thing that outlived him and reached hundreds of millions of people, was something he began at forty-five, at an age when it would have been the easiest thing in the world to tell himself he had already missed his chance. He didn't. It's never as late as it feels.
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