Tolkien on Rings mythology

Posted by admin on April 21st, 2009 and filed under myth god |

Previously unbroadcast clips from a 1968 interview with JRR Tolkien in which he outlines some of the mythology from Lord of the Rings. Transcription: Everybody, including divine

Duration : 0:2:6


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25 Responses

  1. roac7777 Says:

    These people who …
    These people who read into nonsensical imaginings that Tolkien was racist, must have a boring life.

    Describing the Black Riders from the Black Lands is nothing to do with Africans or any black skinned people. It is to do with evil folk, who have evil personalities not the colour of skin

  2. altazul Says:

    para mi este carajo …
    para mi este carajo es unico!!!!

  3. DamianRavenblood Says:

    Demiurgic gods not …
    Demiurgic gods not ‘emerging?’.

  4. blaarp Says:

    Also remember that …
    Also remember that the actual language the characters spoke is quite different than the quasi-English it’s turned into, as Tolkien takes pains to point out. For example “hobbit” is actually “kuduk.” “Sam Gamgee” and “Meriadoc Brandybuck” are really named “Banazir Galpsi” and “Kalimac Braldagamba,” respectively. To an English speaker, those names are also pretty “foreign.”

  5. blaarp Says:

    Not sure where you …
    Not sure where you get Orkish = Turkish. There’s very few actual passages of Orkish in the novels and they hardly sound Turkish. He much more reflects the casual racism of his time and upbringing in describing the “Easterlings” and “Swarthy Men” who fight for Sauron (though it’s worth noting that Hobbits are generally also described as brown-skinned and dark haired, and various types of Orcs are described as black, pale white, or even green-skinned).

  6. sklss Says:

    I did not know him …
    I did not know him personally, so I have no way of telling what he really was like. But considering the characters of LotR. Frodo , Aragorn and Gandalf. Their respect for all living, and their humble being, I have a hard time finding any kind of hatred or disrespect towards Africans or any other people.

  7. B7Scorpio Says:

    I love LotR, but …
    I love LotR, but don’t you think it’s just possible that Tolkien was unconsciously expressing some racial associations with the words black and white that he had picked up in his early childhood?
    And of course he associates the ‘Enemy’ with historical cultures from the East. Tarters, Mongols, the armies of Islam - they’re all in there. And the language of Orcish is obviously related to Turkish. Doesn’t mean it’s not a good story though.

  8. MajorityRights Says:

    You are such a …
    You are such a worthless waste of space. The night is black thats why it is associated with evil. All cultures of the world use white to depict good and black evil. Your a paranoid retarded twatface.

  9. sklss Says:

    was born in …
    was born in Bloemfontein, S.A., on 3 January 1892

  10. Jhoxi1972 Says:

    Could you perhaps …
    Could you perhaps tell me where Tolkien was born? I too would like to know.

  11. sklss Says:

    Well, that is your …
    Well, that is your opinion. Hardly qualified as facts.

  12. stealspell Says:

    A Outstanding …
    A Outstanding Genius. The man who wrote a great tale.

    Three facts about LOTR Trilogy: More enjoyable then the Bible, More believable than the Bible, and More Genius.

  13. sklss Says:

    So the man was born …
    So the man was born in Africa, I fail to see how that automatically makes him a Nazi or a racist. If what you say is proof of that LoTR is racial discrimination, than 90 percent of every story and fairytale also is. Black and white has always been used to symbolize good and evil. The bible was written by Jews and people from the Middle East. They often used black and white, darkness and light in the same way Tolkien did.

  14. B7Scorpio Says:

    So you see there’s …
    So you see there’s this evil guy called Sauron, and he lives in the Black Lands, behind the Black Gate, where they use the Black Speech, and he has these Black Riders, whose chief uses the Black Breath, and then there’s these other guys, these good guys, who live in the White City, whose symbol is the White Tree, and the White Flower, and they’re led by the White Wizard, who’s also known as the White Rider and they ….. wait a minute, is there some kind of theme here?

    Where was JRRT born?

  15. Beocca Says:

    How can Tolkien’s …
    How can Tolkien’s letters be written by Tolkien ‘fan-bois’?

    It’s known what Tolkien felt about the most overt racists of his time because a draft exists of a letter he composed to his German publishers after they wrote to find out if he was of Aryan descent. His response made it clear that he found their ideology repugnant (and their knowledge of history and language somewhat lacking). In another letter he writes of his hatred of aparthied. Hardly the actions of a white supremacist nazi.

  16. sklss Says:

    Why do people …
    Why do people always try to interpret books and songs, trying to find hidden messages. I greatly enjoyed Tolkiens books about Middle earth, and I have read everyone. He was a brilliant writer, and I believe he wrote them out of his love for great stories, not as a Nazi manifesto or credo

  17. Hoopermazing Says:

    You haven’t a clue …
    You haven’t a clue what I know about Tolkien, little boy/girl. I’ve read Tolkien biographies. I’ve read Tolkien’s letters; all written by Tolkien fan-bois.

    Look up the definition of chauvinism. It’s plainly obvious how it applies to your defense of Tolkien’s overt racism.

    Tolkien wrote an epic with a nazi subtext, which has been foisted off on a willfully obtuse public–yourself including–as a benign fantasy instead of the hateful paean to white supremacism that it so clearly is.

  18. Beocca Says:

    How can you profess …
    How can you profess to ’see it’ when you know absolutely nothing about Tolkien?

    ‘chauvinistic and sycophantic fan-boi reasons’

    That made me laugh. Why would i be a chauvinist? A sycophantic fan-boi? I enjoyed the Simarillion, the hobbit and LoTR. However, that hardly makes me a sycophant.

    Tell me, what has Tolkien done to anger you?

  19. Hoopermazing Says:

    I’d already read …
    I’d already read LoTR and The Silmarillion a couple of times before you were born. I don’t give a rat’s about the life of Tolkien or his apologists. As I’ve said previously, all that matters are the words on the page. It’s all right there in black and white. You, for chauvinistic and sycophantic fan-boi reasons, simply refuse to see it.

  20. Beocca Says:

    Hoopskidoodle, you …
    Hoopskidoodle, you don’t know what you’re talking about. But your posts are rather amusing.

    Try reading Joseph Pearce’s literary life of Tolkien. It’s very good and you may begin to start challenging some of the strange views you hold.

  21. erminnocent2007 Says:

    uhuhuh
    u guys talk …

    uhuhuh
    u guys talk funny

  22. roac7777 Says:

    To Hoopskidoodle: …
    To Hoopskidoodle: Tolkien was influenced by Nordic myths. His Middle Earth is loosely based on 10th,11th, 12th centuries Northern Europe, when there were hardly any, if any at all, black men. That is why the Numenorians and elves are white. It has nothing to do with being racist at all.

    If Hoopetc. wants to spit poison like some Benzadrine puff adder, at ~Tolkien then I pity him/her. I was angry at first but with good reason

  23. roac7777 Says:

    Another clue to …
    Another clue to JRRT’s humanity is when Gandalf replies to Frodo’s retort, “What a pity Bilbo did not kill him when he had the chance”

    ” Pity, it was pity that stayed Bilbo’s hand. Pity and Mercy: not too strike without need. And he has been well rewarded, Frodo. Be sure that he took so little hurt from the evil, and escaped in the end, because he began his ownership of the Ring so. With Pity. ”

    Is that the mind of a nazi Hoopskidoodle, I think not

  24. Hoopskidoodle Says:

    First of all, that …
    First of all, that analogy doesn’t hold water because the real life Nazi’s had no intentions toward that end. They, like Aragorn, wanted to rule the world, not destroy it. Secondly–and you would know this if you’d read the epilogue to RotK–Aragorn, as King Elessar, waged war on Easterlings and Haradrim and, for all intents and purposes, enslaved them.

    Here’s a thought, why don’t you actually read the books?

  25. roac7777 Says:

    If Tolkien was such …
    If Tolkien was such a nazi, then why did Aragorn pardon the Easterlings and Haradrim after the fall of Barad dur. He would have slaughtered these races if he was a nazi

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