For it was in the trenches that Tolkien realized the significance of faerie and myth. “The war made me poignantly aware of the beauty of the world I remember,” Tolkien said in 1968. “I remember miles and miles of seething, tortured earth, perhaps best described in the chapters about the approaches to Mordor. It was a searing experience.”Read the whole thing. There's a great deal here that is worth your time, and careful thought.
For men such as Tolkien, World War I only increased their belief that England must save western civilization.
For Tolkien, remembrance of beauty undid much of the horror and terror of the world.
With thanks to Dad29.
5 comments:
Meh. The old order started that war.
They did it to themselves.
Spot on about the power of myth and legend. How can we dare to be less than those who came before? The emotive power is... truly amazing bordering on the miraculous.
Untouched by the article was that it is a power that can be harnessed by both good and evil. True belief is inspired by myth, reinforced by myth/legend can serve as inspiration to any belief and, therefore it can (should?) be argued that it's importance in any conflict (from a simple disagreement through warfare) can not be overstated. Could it be that the seriousness and intensity we bestow upon government appointments and elections should instead be vested in the selection of the National Poet? While politicians drive the machine to it's own ends, The Poet is one of the few posts that could provide some resistance and refocusing of awareness.
Or they could simply serve the machine with their visions and prose....
The old order started that war.
Which old order started it, though? Not Tolkien's. It wasn't the old monarchy or aristocracy, or the Catholic Church. It was a system of military alliances built around France and Germany.
These were the two most modern states in Europe at that time. Both the German Empire and the Third Republic were founded in the early 1870s. The French government in particular was a modernizing government, starting with the Paris Commune and ending with the "Radicals" who kept power from 1879 until the war. The Germans were actively and intentionally modernizing and industrializing as they went.
So was it the old order? Not like the Tsar was, or like the British parliamentary system (itself only two hundred or so years old, if we date from 1689, but still much older than thirty or forty!). The alliance system was organized by states that were the newest thing going on that side of the Atlantic.
Now the German state did incorporate some of the traditional levers of power -- the aristocracy had an especial role in leadership of the military, for example. Actually, that was true for the French, too, though they'd gotten rid of the aristocracy as such; but aristocratic privilege v. upstarts and Jews was behind the Dreyfus affair, for example.
"Could it be that the seriousness and intensity we bestow upon government appointments and elections should instead be vested in the selection of the National Poet?"
Alas, we (as a society) don't bestow much seriousness upon government appointments (or we'd not have the 'leadership' we have now) and vest much in our 'poets', but unfortunately, they're hardly worthy of the title.
I think your point is well taken, though.
Sorry Grim, it was indeed Tolkien's old order that started that war.
And the monarchies, and the aristocrats. (I'll give a pass to the Catholic Church, but note that it certainly didn't condemn it in strong enough terms.)
They manned the governments and officered the armies, thought up the alliances in the first place and generally led those countries where they went, in the end.
Do not think otherwise.
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