Tolkien, like Wagner and Lang, went on to create a Gesamtkunstwerk of his own, which pushed his own medium to new heights, and which, not unlike Wagner’s Musikdrama, led to the birth of a new literary genre: High Fantasy.
I begin this chapter by situating Tolkien in the context of his time and providing details about his life, specifically leading up to the point when he began publishing his Middle-earth writings, and by providing an overview of the Middle-earth writings in question. The following section details the long journey of publication, which was, for Tolkien, a process of discovering what he truly wanted to write, which was not what he set out to write. The next section explores the nature and elements of Tolkien’s Middle-earth, with an eye toward his goals for his work and the motivating factors in his writing. It also looks at the basis of his work: the invented
languages. The final section considers the Middle-earth writings as a Gesamtkunstwerk, and brings them into conversation with Lang and Wagner.
near Birmingham (around Sarehole) had a lasting impact on young Tolkien’s ideas of rural, idyllic landscapes.135
Even as a small boy, Tolkien enjoyed inventing made-up languages with his brother. He could read by the age four, and soon was soon learning Latin and French from his mother, proving to be an adept pupil (Carpenter, 21). He especially enjoyed reading Arthurian legends, and stories of fairies and goblins, in particular those of George Macdonald. At some point he also came across the Fairy Books by Andrew Lang. Carpenter notes:
[…] especially the Red Fairy Book, for tucked away in its closing pages was the best story he had ever read. This was the tale of Sigurd who slew the dragon Fafnir: a strange and powerful tale set in the nameless North. Whenever he read it, Ronald found it absorbing. ‘I desired dragons with a profound desire,’ he said long afterwards. ‘Of course, I in my timid body did not wish to have them in the neighbourhood. But the world that contained even the imagination of Fafnir was richer and more beautiful, at whatever cost of peril.’ (Carpenter, 22-23)
In June of 1900, Mabel Tolkien converted to Catholicism, and her sons were baptized not long after. This unfortunately led most of her extended family on both sides to cut off what little support they had been providing, leaving the Tolkiens nearly destitute. Because of this, the family was forced to move again, to the town of Moseley, a suburb of Birmingham. This abrupt change from idyllic countryside to a bustling urban environment clearly made an impression on Tolkien, who missed the countryside. Around this time, the young boy was exposed to the Welsh language for the first time, a language that he clearly found fascinating (Carpenter, 28). Mabel’s health was beginning to deteriorate, however, and in 1904 she was diagnosed with diabetes. The
135 Carpenter, Humphrey. Tolkien: A Biography. Houghton Mifflin Company, 1977. Pg. 20. Hereafter cited in the text with author’s name and page number.
three moved to a more rural residence again in June of 1904, with the help of a priest, Father Francis Morgan, who had found a country postal worker’s wife able to give them a room and cook for them during Mabel’s convalescence. The boys benefitted from the change of air and scenery, but Mabel’s condition worsened. In November of 1904, she fell into a diabetic coma and died (Carpenter, 29-30). Tolkien was 12 years old.
The circumstances of his childhood, and particularly of his mother’s death, made a lasting impression on Tolkien, and almost certainly contributed to his deeply held Catholic faith, which remained with him throughout his life. Carpenter quotes Tolkien on his mother:
My own dear mother was a martyr indeed, and it is not to everybody that God grants so easy a way to his great gifts as he did to [my younger brother] Hilary and myself, giving us a mother who killed herself with labour and trouble to ensure us keeping the faith.
(Carpenter, 31)
Tolkien clearly associates the strength of his faith with what he saw as his mother’s sacrifice, and sacrificial mothers appear in small but important places throughout his Middle-earth writings.136 Carpenter felt that “his religion took the place in his affections that she had previously occupied.
The consolation that it provided was emotional as well as spiritual” (Carpenter, 31).
After his mother’s death, Tolkien (who was sometimes called Ronald and sometimes called John) and Hilary came into the care of Father Francis Morgan. Tolkien excelled in school, despite his difficult personal and family situations, and by his teen years had studied Latin, Greek, French, and German. He was deeply intrigued by the Welsh language, and also began
136 Gilraen, for instance, the mother of Aragorn (who was also named Hope – in Elvish, of course), who, in preserving his life and giving him into the care of Elrond, “I gave hope to [men], I have kept none for myself”
(Rings 1036). Also notable would be Aredhel Ar-Feiniel (the wife of Eöl, mother of Maeglin), and the tragic allusions to Celebrian (Silmarillion 161; Rings 221). Melian is also an interesting mother figure – although not tragic, her Girdle of Protection around her land ensures the safety of her child and her people (Silmarillion 107).