J.R.R. Tolkien and the First World War
Dan Snow's History Hit
00:00
Lord of the Rings
Lord of the Rings is a really complex book and it works to my mind as a kind of dialogue between different views of war. There's this real motif he uses where when you feel fear, you become like a beast. And the journey of Frodo and Sam into Mordor is remarkably like a journey into a Somme landscape. The scene in front of the Black Gate and Mordor, with its poisoned mounds and blasted gaping holes and its poisonous grey mud are evocative.
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