“Tolkien’s major achievement, one could argue, was in fact to create a new-style image of heroism for an uncertain and dispirited age.”
Shippey and Bourney: A Steep Learning Curve: Tolkien and the British Army on the Somme
World War One left its mark in Tolkien’s works as the source of motifs and imagery, like philosophical and historical themes, contemplation on death and destructions, and reflection on relationships between people of different roles and groups. Additionally, the elements of personal experiences and daily observations helped bridging the gap between the image of the Great War and the realities of being in one. In Something Has Gone Crack: New Perspectives on J.R.R. Tolkien in the Great War (2019), notable contributors in Tolkien studies provide sixteen essays exploring different perspectives regarding of war and its effects on Tolkien’s works and personal life.
The book is split into four sections; starting from the grander theme of World War One as a whole regarding Tolkien, and becoming more incisive and personal as we read further. A Steep Learning Curve: Tolkien and the British Army of the Somme by Tom Shippey and John Bourne starts the book by describing the broad war landscape and various aspects that likely affected Tolkien’s writing in Middle-earth legendarium. The next essay, however, drew me in with its focus on strategic alliances and blunders, comparing the dynamics of alliances during the World War and the ones in the First Age of the legendarium.
In Strategic Blunders in the First Age Great Battles, Glenn E. Peterson described how alliances in World War One were formally forged between countries, while the ones in legendarium were more family-oriented and less formal, yet no less binding. Interestingly, both had similar motivators: from murdered leaders to nationality, imperialism, and racial superiority.
With The Great War in Middle-earth and Aspects of Total War in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, Annika Röttinger and Tal Tovy carried the rest of the first section with the examinations on modern warfare and total war. There are comparisons between Tolkien and other war veteran authors such as Siegfried Sassoon and Robert Graves, where it was noted that Tolkien seemed to lack the cynicism and ironic tones that colored the others’ works.
We got more personal in the second and third sections, where the essays start to focus on how personal experiences during the Great War transformed into works of art and major literary themes. I am especially fascinated with Michael Flowers’ Tolkien in East Yorkshire, 1917 – 18. His essay is full of great details and intimate knowledge about how Tolkien’s brief stay in East Yorkshire influences the aspects of some of his greatest tales, down to the details of the landscape, like its vegetations. As someone who is not familiar with the area, I really enjoy his explanation of the flowering period of local flora and the iconic scene of Lúthien dancing in the forest where she met Beren for the first time.
This essay is also an interesting read since it gives a sense of traveling when you read further. Flowers took us to the journey to each place in East Yorkshire where Tolkien resided or spent time in, using the names of the areas such as Hornsea, Roos, Halsham, and Withernsea; describing the details of Tolkien’s experiences and possible connections with his works in great details. Reading this article feels like being on a walk with a knowledgeable guide.
Lukasz Neubauer’s Worried in Silence: Some Possible Resonances of Combat-related Stress in The Lord of the Rings is another favorite of mine. I am always fascinated about the depictions of psychological impact of trauma in Tolkien’s stories, but the one that struck me the most the first time was the opening part, where Neubauer described a vivid scene from Wilfred Owen’s Exposure (published posthumously in 1920): a group of soldiers sitting in trench, waiting in fear of whatever disaster would strike them next. The paper alternates between depictions of real-life battle accounts and descriptions from works like The Lord of the Rings and The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth Beorhthelm’s Son seamlessly.
I can’t talk about this book without mentioning my absolute favorite section, which is the last one. This is where you find essays that delve into oft-neglected topics related to the Great War. Lynn Schlesinger’s Angels of Care and Houses of Healing in World War I almost made me jump to this particular chapter right away when I opened the book for the first time (I finished all the previous chapters first because I’m not into living on the edge, I guess). I love her depictions of all the trauma and brushes of death experienced by nurses and caregivers during the war, how their accounts of war were often more accurate and less glorified. One wrote: “War was no romantic, heroic epic, only this dreary gaping wounds and quivering flesh.”
The part that touched me the most was perhaps when Schlesinger described the danger that overseas nurses faced even before they arrived at the hospital. There is a nice comparison between the lines from The Lonely Isle poem by Tolkien and an account by Kathleen C. Bottomley, as her beloved homeland slowly disappeared when she was on the departing ship. More specifically, she noted the similar sentiment between Tolkien’s line of, “O lonely, sparkling isle, farewell!” with Bottomley’s quote:
“The ship began to move, and I shall never forget the awful feeling I had as I saw my beloved country slipping away from view. It was the first time I’d been away from England.”
There is also a part that discusses a problem as old as time: the clashing between the social activism and empowerment and gender role expectations that colored the life of nurses and caregivers during the Great War. On one side, these nurses were expected to become a beacon for women empowerment and opening the door for more women professionals in various work fields. On the other hand, while women stepped into wider fields of works, including the ones deemed as traditionally men’s works, they were also expected to “keep the home fires burning”. The essay also examined the popular enduring wartime image of women or nurses as these “girls behind the men with the guns” figures, comparing it with the realities of women who dealt with suffering, death, blood, grime, and despair as nurses and caregivers, with similar risks of injuries, death, and psychological trauma.
Gender norms and gender politics are always interesting subjects related to the Great War. In Mighty Men of War, Felicity Gilbert deconstructed the title by exploring how rigid socio-cultural gender structure affected Tolkien’s choices of life (with all the stress, consequences, and later disillusionment that came with the pressure to become a strong, patriotic young man). I love her criticism of how placing women characters peripheral to the battlefield actions made readers know them less intimately, despite having their femininity and status as “sublime mythical being” emphasized, with Eowyn as the exception. However, here, she delved more deeply into the intimate relationship between soldiers, such as describing tactile relationship as a source of comfort amidst horror and trauma. Also, for those interested in more examination on Frodo and Sam’s relationship, Alicia Fox-Lenz’s Contemporary Reflections of War is a nice read that focuses on the soldier-servant relationships in The Lord of the Rings and…Downtown Abbey.
This book is another editing masterpiece by Janet Brennan Croft alongside Annika Röttinger, and a great addition to your shelf if you are interested in nuanced analysis of Tolkien’s works in relation with World War One. The multiple perspectives presented in this book make it a well-rounded read for scholars and non-scholars alike.
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