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The Letters Of J.r.r. Tolkien?
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The HoMe books are really just the collected earlier, abandoned and alternative drafts of the main 'canon' material that makes up the contents of the Silmarillion and LOTR. There are some very interesting bits and pieces that are only found in them, but yeah I'd read the main books again first. Also, if you want a quick path to a deeper understanding of the whole mythos, add to your list one more book, the Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, which does in fact touch on this and a whole lot of other fascinating core details.
i'm a huge Tolkien fan too. if you read his letters https://www.amazon.com/Letters-J-R-R-Tolkien-J-R/dp/0618056998 it discussed this and says that a different letter was probably sent to the German publisher. the one that you quoted was in Tolkien's publishers files which means it wasn't actually sent.
When somebody types Letters, in italics, they are referring to this book:
> it seems like there are some really valuable Tolkien insight into the lore.
Absolutely. There’s a tremendous wealth of info on the Legendarium buried in them.
> Is there a good reliable place for me to find them to read and take notes on?
They’re collected in *The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, edited by Humphrey Carpenter with a little help from Christopher Tolkien. You can buy it here, or from any other reputable retailer.
There is indeed! It would be this one here.
I know there are a few different listings for Tolkien that use "Tolkien+Letters" in the title, so I feel ya.
Never fear. We know how Tolkien felt on this issues... he was very vocal in his opinions & wrote many letters making his views clear.
His son Christopher once went to South Africa under apartheid during WWII & was shocked at the poverty & misery of POC & the indigenous people there.
He wrote his father, to which Tolkien replied:
"As for what you say or hint of 'local' conditions: I knew of them. I don't think they have much changed (even for the worse). I used to hear them discussed by my mother; and have ever since taken a special interest in that part of the world. The treatment of colour nearly always horrifies anyone going out from Britain & not only in South Africa." (Letter, April 19, 1944).
So he wasn't into racist, colorist apartheid at all.
He was also vocal in rejection of white supremacy & anti-Semitism. His German publisher before the war once dared wrote him to ask if he was "Aryan." Tolkien fired back (while slamming their abuse of the word Aryan): "I am not of Aryan extraction: that is Indo-Iranian... But if I am to understand that you are enquiring whether I am of Jewish origin, I can only reply that I regret that I appear to have no ancestors of that gifted people." (Letter, July 29, 1938)
Tolkien was raised & lived in a racist, imperialist & colonialist UK. He was not perfect; he was human. However for a person of his time, he was extremely progressive.
He was also an environmentalist & was against nuclear weapons from their very invention.
https://www.amazon.com/Letters-J-R-R-Tolkien-J-R/dp/0618056998
He did eventually change his tune on this, but that was changed during the revisions. I am not sure if he released versions of the books before these revisions occurred so you might have a version that pre-dates this decision by him. But, even with his change of heart it's specifically NOT allegory. That didn't change. It's just that he says its fundamentally a Catholic book.
The quote: "The Lord of the Rings is of course a fundamentally religious and Catholic work; unconsciously so at first, but consciously in the revision. That is why I have not put in, or have cut out, practically all references to anything like 'religion', to cults or practices, in the imaginary world. For the religious element is absorbed into the story and the symbolism"
This is a quote from the collection of letters published in The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien. You can buy that book and read tons of letters he wrote people covering tons of additional information on concepts or decisions he made during the writing, as well as his speculation on things that were never codified in the books themselves.
This is a thoughtful, engaging post and a unique theory.
I haven’t read the replies yet, but I’m confident that any conflicts with the wealth of established (and expanded lore) only facilitates more analysis and creative thought. Tolkien would have loved this even if it doesn’t jive with the world he was building (and constantly tweaking until the day he died, by the way).
He corresponded with friends and colleagues constantly ... answering questions and working out the details, always with the goal of ensuring the world was internally consistent (and congruent with Christian values, expressed in a secular way). If you’re interested in these correspondences, please check out The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien
I digress.
https://www.amazon.com/Letters-J-R-R-Tolkien-J-R/dp/0618056998 An Amazon link to The Letters of Tolkien Unfortunately I can't help you I asked because I plan to do the same after I finish with the Witcher and I wasn't sure about the order
Here we go: https://www.amazon.com/Letters-J-R-R-Tolkien-J-R/dp/0618056998
Also the Tolkien Estate has some of them published:
The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien https://www.amazon.com/dp/0618056998/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_i_FNNYDCW7QQRH8FSXZNNZ
Here you go. They're a gold mine. https://www.amazon.com/Letters-J-R-R-Tolkien-J-R/dp/0618056998
There is a book of 300+ of Tolkien's letters compiled by his son: The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien.
If you're read or seen "The Fellowship of the Ring", you'll remember that when Frodo noticed they were being stalked by Gollum in the Mines of Moria he said to Gandalf, "It's a pity that Bilbo didn't kill him when he had the chance."
To which Gandalf replied:
>>Pity? It was pity that stayed Bilbo’s hand. Many that live deserve death. Some that die deserve life. Can you give it them, Frodo? Do not be too eager to deal out death and judgment. Even the very wise cannot see all ends. My heart tells me that Gollum has some part to play yet, for good or ill before this is over. The pity of Bilbo may rule the fate of many.
In his letters, Tolkien writes concerning the "Passion" of Frodo:
>>Frodo ‘failed’. It is possible that once the ring was destroyed he had little recollection of the last scene. But one must face the fact: the power of Evil in the world is not finally resistible by incarnate creatures, however ‘good’; and the Writer of the Story is not one of us.
And in another place he wrote:
>>In this case the cause (not the ‘hero’) was triumphant, because by the exercise of pity, mercy, and forgiveness of injury, a situation was produced in which all was redressed and disaster averted. Gandalf certainly foresaw this. See Vol. I p. 68-9. Of course, he did not mean to say that one must be merciful, for it may prove useful later – it would not then be mercy or pity, which are only truly present when contrary to prudence. Not ours to plan! But we are assured that we must be ourselves extravagantly generous, if we are to hope for the extravagant generosity which the slightest easing of, or escape from, the consequences of our own follies and errors represents. And that mercy does sometimes occur in this life.
And just one more quote:
>>[Gollum] did rob him and injure [Frodo] in the end – but by a ‘grace’, that last betrayal was at a precise juncture when the final evil deed was the most beneficial thing any one cd. have done for Frodo! By a situation created by ‘forgiveness’, he was saved himself, and relieved of his burden.
What may we take from this?
One, that "pity" or "forgiveness", in order to be worthy of the name, must be something done contrary to prudence, contrary to our "best interests".
In Luke's Gospel, Jesus says:
>>If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. And if you lend to those from whom you hope to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to receive as much again. But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return...Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.
You write:
>I tell my friend that I can forgive people who honestly apologize (something my father never has) and who make a true effort to better themselves. I can forgive people who ask for help and seek help when their problems become too much for them or their family.
But that's just as much as to say you can forgive the forgivable--as if forgiveness, as if mercy (pity), is something that has to be earned. But is that forgiveness? Is that love? To love only the lovable?
And you write:
>From a humanistic perspective, I think there is very little reason to forgive my father for the decades of hell and unnecessary stress he has put us through. My mom has wished several times that he would die soon - but God must have other plans because he will be in his mid-70s in 2017.
Indeed. Plans that we can neither imagine nor foresee. But just as the pity of Bilbo created a situation in which the Cause (though not the "hero") was successful, so your own forgiveness of your father--even though he doesn't deserve it, even if he hasn't merited it through genuine repentance--may have positive effects that you can't predict.
None of this is to excuse your father's behavior or to minimize the consequences of the pain your father's behavior has brought upon you, your mother, or your family. But hopefully I've shown why maybe you should forgiven him--not that by doing so you might hope for some positive outcome in a utilitarian sense, but simply for the ultimate belief in the "value-in-itself of pity and generosity even if disastrous in the world of time."
(Quotes taken from <strong>The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien</strong>, edited by Humphrey Carpenter and Christopher Tolkien, and <strong>The Fellowship of the Ring</strong> by J.R.R. Tolkien)
Yes, they were published as a book (The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien), which I'm sure many libraries have copies of.
Tolkien got a letter about this and gave an answer. It's a bit too long to quote here, but if you can find The Letters of JRR Tolkien it's letter 214.
Simply because it is not an allegorical text does not imply in the least that the Lord of the Rings is not profoundly influenced and pervaded with Christian symbolism and appeals to Christian truth, this is noted by basically every serious commentator on his work (there's a reason it's commonly cited as one of the greatest Catholic novels of all time) and was acknowledged openly by Tolkien himself. From Tolkien's letters (specifically number 142, addressed to Robert Murray, a priest and close friend of Tolkien who proofed The Lord of the Rings and regularly corresponded with Tolkien on religious matters):
>The Lord of the Rings is of course a fundamentally religious and Catholic work, unconsciously so at first, but consciously in the revision. That is why I have not put in, or have cut out, practically all references to anything like "religion", to cults or practices, in the Imaginary world. For the religious element is absorbed into the story and the symbolism
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