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Home , Ent, Hobbit (word), The Tolkien Society

THE -FORMING WORLD ead the following paragraph carefully; then close your eyes and remember. R"They are (or were) small people, smaller than FRODO dwarves (and they have no beards) but very much OF J.R.R.TOISIEN larger than lilliputians. There is little or no magic LI about them, except the ordinary everyday sort which helps them to disappear quickly when large stupid folk like you and me come blundering along V making a noise like elephants which they can hear An aged Englishman's saga a mile off. They are inclined to be fat in the stom- ach; they dress in bright colors (chiefly green and yellow); wear no shoes, because their feet grow nat- ural leather soles and thick warm brown hail like of , dwarves and has the stuff.on their heads (which is curly); have long clever brown fingers, good-natured faces, and laugh deep fruity laughs (especially after dinner, which they have twice a day when they can get it)." suddenly become the hottest-selling item All right. That was a degcription of , a race of "" who originated in the mind of J.R.R. Tolkien, a retired don, and play a in U.S. campus bookstores. major role in his epic . Could you begin to see them? Did you feel a warm, comfortable feeling as you thought about the prospect of two dinners a day—and no diets? Would you like to spend some time in a place where there is "less noise and more green"? If your answers to any of those questions is yes, you may By HENRY RESNIK well have a chance of becoming one of the Tolkien

90 venting his own. He pursued this linguistic pas- Buttons proclaiming that FRODO LIVES (they refer sion at college, finally settling on philology, par- to of the trilogy) are available in ticularly the study of Anglo-Saxon and other me- either English or Elvish, one of Middle-earth's dieval languages, as a career and Oxford as the native languages. place to study it. During this time, several lan- A panel of students assembled in Baltimore guages had been growing in Tolkien's imagina- recently to tape a TV book-discussion show tion, and he found that he could not resist invent- drove the show's directors into a mild frenzy with ing countries to go with them. In a matter of constant digressions about Tolkien. Two teachers years these countries grew into a whole world of English at Minnesota's Mankato State College which he called Middle-earth. Prodded by some of have announced a Tolkien Conference to be held his Oxford colleagues, he finally wrote a book there this October. At Reed College in Oregon a r : . about this world. The book, published in 1937 group of students has devoted several evenings to ,, with elaborate illustrations and maps by Tolkien reading The Hobbit, word for word, over the col- 01 himself, was called The Hobbit. lege radio station. And at the recent meeting of the 1N 1 / But, as Tolkien explains, once he had invented Tolkien Society a group called "Hobbits, Unin- this world he could never quite finish with it. hobbited" gave a command performance, " featur- Act% 4,4 "tilli 7 Middle-earth continued to grow in Tolkien's mind, ing The Ores' Marching Song and a couple of ter- and in 1956 he completed The Lord of the Rings, rible voices," according to the meticulously edited .....-I■t k 10)011 410.1 1 offering the admirers of The Hobbit a vastly ex- Tolkien Journal. (Ores are another breed of Tolk- 1Ir,4111 "'• 4 14.-attr„,„.4 ■ panded view of his unique creation. ien creature.) This is more than mere enthusiasm; .0z_b.. i 1,-, The Lord of the Rings is a 1,300-page trilogy. this is passion—uninhobbited, joyous passion. Most Tolkien fans have read it twice; five times is Since the most dazzling quality of Tolkien's •,°-.;--,av- li ft•tkb• \ I 4'0 1> not an uncommon record. One woman who fell in is the abundance of its detail—the love with the trilogy when it was first published landscape and genealogy of Middle-earth are just ldst count after her 30th reading. Tolkien fans are as elaborate as the languages—one favorite ac- I 1,11 not satisfied with merely reading, however; they tivity of Tolkien fanatics is analyzing these de- !..t, ")*■- proselytize, and their number steadily increases. tails. People have invented alphabet games to go ? Mpi We§ j g According to a spokesman at the Yale Co-op, with the languages; the two magazines publish r. An! The Lord of the Rings is selling better at Yale than articles which deal with such subjects as "The irviNit Lord of the Flies at its peak. (Lord of the Flies, a Hereditary Pattern of Immortality in -Human . 04'4 novel by another Englishman, William Golding, Crosses"; and one Tolkien scholar has even spelled 0, 00.1-0,tN led'', has had enormous popularity among students.) At out an elaborate Freudian interpretation. Gen- fikt the Harvard Coop, the Tolkien books occupy an erally, however, the activity centers on indexes, iiiiir-wro -1=. ' ( ' 40 li honored place next to the cash registers, where, dictionaries of the Elven languages, and transla- like cigarettes, they are readily available in large tions of poems which appear in their original Elvish. -3,,,...-■00,,,_ quantities. But they are selling well in almost The books are essentially an adventure story, „4„ \ ■,.„,,1/47,,... every college town in the country. "Somehow," and this certainly accounts for part of the en- says Ian Ballantine, publisher of one of the Tolkien thusiasm they generate. The adventure is founded paperback editions, "college kids have managed to on the well-known medieval convention of the get word to each other that this is the thing." , complete with hero (occasionally in armor), The Ballantine Books edition appeared in \ dragons of various sorts, treasure (or reward) at September, 1965, four months after that of its the end, and, although less important (the books competitor, Ace Books, and within 10 months the are not very sexy), a smattering of fair ladies. two firms had sold more than a quarter of a mil- In The Hobbit, which is, according to the Tolkien lion copies of the entire trilogy. This is a consid- people, a children's book—delightful, but not as erably faster sales rate than those of A Separate sophisticated or profound as The Lord of the Peace or The Catcher in the Rye, other campus best Rings—the quest involves traveling hundreds of sellers of recent years. In fact, it is a kind of ex- miles to the and killing a fear- plosion in the publishing world. The explosion is some , , who smolders quietly in a due mainly to the complete absence of any paper- subterranean lair, guarding his stolen treasure. back edition of the Tolkien books for almost 10 The quest falls to an unsuspecting hobbit, Bilbo years after Houghton Mifflin published the Amer- Baggins, who would much rather stay at home people. And, as any of the steadily growing num- ican hard-cover version in 1956; Tolkien's public where he can be sure of six solid meals a day than ber of high-school and college students who have had all this time to gather, like a crowd before the be off fighting dragons; he is persuaded to embark read The Lord of the Rings can tell you, one of the palace of a king, awaiting the bestowal of what on the journey, however, by a friendly wizard Tolkien people is just about the best thing a per- they knew must come. By the end of 1965 almost named and a boisterous company of son can be. every college student in the country had at least dwarves. Gradually the hobbit's inner courage In recent months, The Lord of the Rings has heard of The Lord of the Rings. emerges, and although he frequently longs for the been at the top of college best-seller lists across the Although the Tolkien fans rarely show herding comforts of his well-equipped hobbit hole, he country, and although the Tolkien people wince instincts and never scream, they are driven by the struggles on through terrifying dark woods, en- at the word "fad" as if it were sheer blasphemy, same subtle urge that produces water guns at the counters with huge spiders, battles with and even they will admit that their enthusiasm has first breath of spring, gives rise to the sudden, —on to an enigmatic, hobbit sort of vic- gone—perhaps inevitably—beyond all reason. The unexpected yo-yo, and squeezes crowds of stu- tory. (Bilbo does not actually kill the dragon him- Tolkien people may be less noisy than the LSD- dents into telephone booths. The vanguard of the self; this job is left to a more heroic figure.) heads, but there are more of them, and they give Tolkien movement—those who purchased the Aside from being a vivid introduction to Middle- the lie to most of the melodramatic scandal that books when they were available only in hard cover earth and its creatures, The Hobbit is significantly has emanated from the American campus within (or, better yet, in England—"The English edi- linked to The Lord of the Rings through an inci- the past year. Look into the mirror of their emo- tion knelled great," one of them said recently)- dent in Bilbo's travels: he flees at one point to an tion—the world of Tolkien—and you will prob- -tends to view the recent upsurge with a moder- underground cave, the secret lurking place of a ably fmd a clue to what today's students are really ately patronizing eye, but none of them be- despicable creature called , who had about; look into that mirror and you may even grudges either the pleasure and excitement the sought refuge there long ago after murdering his find the link that ties you to them. books afford new readers or the enlarged income brother for the possession of a beautiful ring. they have brought to Tolkien himself. Bilbo discovers this ring in the cave, and it rescues The Tolkien movement is a long history of sur- A constantly growing number of the Tolkien him from Gollum by making him invisible. prises, not the least of which is that the tales a people (800 at last count) share their fanaticism as At the beginning of The Lord of the Rings, how- quiet English scholar began writing almost 30 members of the Tolkien Society of America, which ever, we learn that the ring can do a great deal years ago to amuse his children have become the is devoted to the enjoyment and study of Tolkien more than make men (or hobbits) invisible. Sev- subject of so lively a contemporary American and related subjects. Two magazines—one in enty-five years have passed, and the aging Bilbo passion. As a youth Tolkien, who is now 74, loved California, one in New York—are published reg- (advised by the friendly wizard Gandalf) has re- languages and frequently amused himself by in- ularly in celebration of Tolkien's achievement. luctantly allowed his nephew, Frodo, to be the

91 TOLKIEN'S WORLD only as shapeless abstractions of evil) consents, and a fellowship of nine is the Rings appeals so strongly to high- in search of Frodo's ring, and they are named to accomplish the seemingly school and college students is that to keeper of the ring. But one day Gandalf getting close. impossible task. On their quest hangs them the ring represents the power of comes to (the idyllic country Gandalf calls a council of hobbits, the fate of Middle-earth. destruction which threatens and haunts very much like rural England, where dwarves, men and elves to discuss the What follows is a series of struggles, them—the bomb. This sort of easy generations of hobbits have lived) to problem. The only solution, he an- battles, wars, tests and horrors so nu- thinking raises problems, however. tell Frodo that he may no longer keep nounces, is to destroy the ring by re- merous and grand that they have First, apparently all the Tolkien peo- the ring; he has discovered that it is the turning it to the mighty fire in which it prompted one critic to call The Lord of ple have rejected the allegorical inter- ancient creation of , an evil wiz- was forged, the fire that burns in the the Rings the only "true epic of our pretation as pointless and uninterest- ard, and so great is the power of the Cracks of Doom in the heart of Mor- time." Finally, the ring is destroyed. ing (some admittedly prompted by ring that if Sauron can ever find it, he dor, Sauron's fortress-like country. Ev- and peace comes to Middle-earth. Tolkien's own distaste for ). will rule the world. Sauron has already eryone seems to agree that Frodo is Second, high-school and college stu- dispatched his nine henchmen (glimpsed fated to bear the ring, he reluctantly The easy answer to why The Lord of dents seem rarely to think about the bomb these days, much less construct allegorical connections concerning it. ("We're more worried about the draft," says one.) The younger Tolkien fans, in fact, claim they read the books for the sheer "fun" of it. A Columbia freshman speaks eloquently for his fel- Are these 9 low fanatics: "I'd be downcast if there were a social meaning." Yet here there is a certain division among the Tolkien people. The older ones readily grant theft spots protected that the books are a powerful and hope- ful affirmation about , filled with philosophical import, but even they do not think this is a good reason for read- around your home? ing the books. To all readers, however, the world of Tolkien seems to offer a delicious, ❑ Garage Doors vintage-wine sort of escape. "I read it during Christmas vaca- ❑ Gun Rack tion," comments a teacher of English ❑ Tool Box at Long Island's Adelphi University, "when I'd had about all the reality I ❑ Garden Shed could stand." ❑ Gates "Middle-earth is a beautiful place to visit," the Columbia freshman says, ❑ Boat and Motor his eyes beginning to cloud with rem- ❑ Mail Box iniscence. "and I go there as often as ❑ Trailer I can." Some of the high-school and college ❑ Storage Locker people are willing to admit, when pressed, that they admire certain val- ( Get these 3 easy solutions to your protection problems at your hardware store or locksmith ) ues presented in The Lord of the Rings. "The elves attract me most," offers the Columbia freshman. (In Tolkien, elves are not "little people"; they are as big as men, twice as beautiful and infinitely more noble.) The most sophisticated evaluation of the fad inevitably turns, however, to the imaginative scope of Tolkien's world. The poet W. H. Auden, one of Tolkien's most prominent American admirers and a former student of Tolkien's at Oxford ("He was a mar- velous lecturer; he made things so ex- citing that you wanted to learn"), be- lieves that the greatest strength of the books lies in Tolkien's ability to create . But myths do not have uni- versal appeal. "Either one loves the books." Auden says, "or one doesn't." Tolkien's power of imagination seems to be, at any rate, the single element which all the Tolkien people praise. whatever their terminology. But none of the Tolkien people have observed an important quality in them- The Case for Strength: Master The Case for Security: The world's The Case for Protection: Crime sta- Laminated Padlocks are built like most popular combination padlock! tistics show there's now a burglary selves which may explain the explo- bank vault doors. 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92 TOLKIEN'S WORLD plans to spend two years as a Peace strongest qualities.) And there is the At times, however, Tolkien becomes Corpsman teaching English in Ethi- golden-haired sylph of a girl at Rad- as bold and plucky as Frodo when con- mediately prodded his classmates to opia—" I'm attracted by its ancient cliffe, who as a child played in the fronted by the Shadow of . In join him. "You want to discuss them civilization." In the university's recent Brooklyn Botanical Gardens, imagin- Tolkien's case the Shadow is not Sau- with people," he says, "and talk about Ugly Man Contest, Diana reports, ing that she was in Middle-earth, whose ron but what he considers the cant and the good times you've had running Gollum placed eighth, "coming in friends were the (" I had other ignorance that have surrounded his around Middle-earth." Apparently, ahead of Carol Doda, the famous top- friends too"), and who used to read the creation. He has frequently voiced his however, none of the classmates was less dancer.'" books "on Friday nights before I went contempt for the various scholarly sufficiently hobbitlike to share his en- Dave Wilson, who lives in Cam- to bed so I could sort of draw it out theses about The Lord of the Rings, for thusiasm, and for a time Dick limited bridge, Mass., and publishes Broad- and savor it over the weekend." Hob- example, considering most of them his proselytizing to leaving announce- side, a coffeehouse-folk-music maga- bits can be found in every major city "rather vain efforts." (Tolkien approves ments that "Frodo lives" on black- zine, says: "The sort of people who and college town across the country; of the alphabet-seekers and genealo- boards, bulletin boards and walls. One take to Tolkien have some love for apparently the only thing one needs to gists, on the other hand, finding their day, however, he noticed some Elvish themselves and love for their fellow- look for is passionate devotion to The efforts part of a highly amusing game.) writing on a poster in the Columbia man. Anyone who likes the trilogy can't Lord of the Rings, and there one will He also views with distaste the idea University subway station. At the be all bad." One wall in Wilson's apart- also find the hobbit spirit. that he is some kind of antiquated time he couldn't understand Elvish, ment is decorated with a drawing The fount of this spirit is an out- medievalist, burying himself in a fan- and when he had studied it sufficiently entitled "Disgruntled Debat- spoken, pipe-smoking father of four tasy world because he finds the present to attempt a translation, he returned ing the Desirability of Entering Upon (the oldest is now 48, the youngest so unbearable. "My opinion of current to Columbia only to find that the poster the Desolation of Smaug"; another 36), who enjoys long hikes in the affairs is not as depressed as some peo- was gone. Someone had written on the displays a large, dignond-shaped con- country and who tends to be exces- ple's," he says. "I should say I'm a bit new poster " is probably struction of wood frames and colorful sively modest about his literary achieve- frightened that the Greeks hadn't a fake," and someone else had crossed thread called a God's-eye. " It's a re- ments. W. H. Auden has illustrated got something in the saying that out part of this, substituting "two those whom the gods wish to destroy fakes." The following week Dick saw they first drive mad. Our modern "Down with " (one of the world is like the tower of Babel—wild bad ), and at this point he Hazel by —CcA noise and confusion. But I think joined the fray by crossing out "Saru- that a little history cures you. Living man" and substituting "Gandalf." at the end of the sixteenth century "There was a running conversation would have been just as bad, but there in that subway station for weeks," weren't so many people around." He Dick remembers. "I decided I had to grants that "certain things that were find out who else was doing it. I put good, were beautiful, were more nour- up a notice: 'Tolkien Club meets at ishing to the human person," have Alma Mater statue, 2:00, February been. sacrificed to machines. "But 27th.' Six students showed up. No one I don't think you can refuse knowl- knew who anyone else was, but we edge; I don't think there's a way talked for an hour, just standing there out." in the cold; it was twenty degrees." Tolkien was born in South Africa. The thrill of this encounter urged Dick His father died when be was four, and to further action, and he placed the fol- his mother brought the family back to lowing ad in The New Republic: "Join her native . "I found I had Tolkien Club. Discuss Hobbit-lore, for the countryside of England both learn Elvish. Frodo, 159 Marlborough, the native feeling and the personal Brooklyn, N.Y." The result was 70 wonder of somebody who comes to it," letters and the Tolkien Society, whose he says. He readily admits that the members now represent 44 states and a Shire of his trilogy has its roots in the number of professions, though most English countryside and that Middle- are either students, teachers, scien- earth itself is simply his own view of tists or psychologists. The society is Europe. Tolkien's long acquaintance evenly divided according to sex, but with Norse and Germanic myths has only about one third are adults. " I be- inspired the chillier, more menacing lieve in the books," says Dick Plotz. landscapes of Middle-earth, and he Unlike a large number of Tolkien makes no secret of having deliberately people, Plotz is not a science-fiction shaped the two major interests of his fanatic. Since fantasy is closely al- life—rural England and the northern lied with , and since myths—to his own literary purposes. both Ballantine and Ace are leading "In The Lord of the Rings," Tolkien science-fiction publishers, the members says, "I have tried to modernize the of "fandom" (the name that science- THE SATURDAY EVENING POST myths and make them credible." fiction fans use to describe themselves "Hut-two-three-four ! Hut-two-three-four ! . . ." corporately) were quick to adopt The What place will the hobbit from Ox- Lord of the Rings. The fandom people ford be given in literary history? The were also quick to spread the message distinguished American essayist Ed- across the country, for many of them ligious article of a native American this modesty in recalling that for years mund Wilson maintains that the tril- publish mimeographed records of their church," Dave explains. "As long as most of the people who knew Tolkien ogy is no more than "an overgrown activities and ideas called "fanzines." the eye of God is on you, no harm can at Oxford had no idea he was writing story, a philological curiosity." By now most of the fanzines include come to you." about Middle-earth; finally the late C. In general, however, critics agree that regular articles on Tolkien, and one Others who show signs of pure hob- S. Lewis, a noted novelist-philosopher- The Lord of the Rings will outlast our fanzine publisher, a 17-year-old Cali- bit include Alexis Levitin, a graduate critic and one of Tolkien's closest time. "There are very few works of fornian named Greg Shaw, initiated student in English at Columbia and friends, persuaded him to send The genius in recent literature," writes the second Tolkien publication, - publisher of a new literary magazine Hobbit to a publisher. Many Tolkien critic Michael Straight. "This is one." moot. (Translation: a gathering of ; called The Quest. In his master's thesis scholars suggest that without Lewis's A good many people still have not yet the oldest, wisest, and in many ways on Tolkien Levitin stresses the deep constant prodding, The Lord of the read The Lord of the Rings, of course, noblest of all Tolkien's creatures, they Christian spirit of The Lord of the Rings would never have reached print. but the time cannot be far away when strongly resemble trees.) Rings. He talks volubly, sitting on the Tolkien himself has called his books on not having read it will be, in most Diana Paxson, a 23-year-old grad- floor of his small living room, foot- Middle-earth merely a philological game literary and academic circles, tanta- uate student of,,the University of Cali- noting his observations with references (he has also denied that he called them mount to complete boorishness. Al- fornia at Berkeley, has found an outlet to volumes quickly snatched from anything of the kind), and he dismisses ready the signs of such attitudes can for her Tolkien enthusiasm in the Elves, nearby shelves, pausing to think, then the possibility of their being a "clas- be seen. At a cocktail party given re- Gnomes and Little Men Science- resuming the conversation with an ex- sic," saying that the very idea of a cently in Greenwich Village a well-read Fiction and Fantasy Chowder and plosive "but" or "and." His arms living man writing a classic seems woman in her late twenties exclaimed Marching Society, a fandomish group whirl windmill-fashion as he reaches for somehow wrong to him. He recently to a group of friends, " I saw a sign in centered in San Francisco. Last Sep- more books to prove his point, and told an American friend that he is still the subway near N. Y.U. the other day— tember Diana and a group of friends there can be no doubt that Alexis Lev- working diligently away on the Silma- `Judy and Phil loveveonly J. itin is the fastest hobbit alive. (Speed R. R. Tolkien.' honored the mutual birthday of Bilbo rillion, his next book about Middle- Now what do you suppose that means?" and Frodo with a party, serving malt is generally alien to hobbits, of course, earth, adding dourly, "if any of the Her affriends rei nn look on with cider and "hobbit cookies." Diana but determination is one of their Silmarillion is worth publishing." deep sympathy. 94