J.R.R. Tolkien and the First World War
Dan Snow's History Hit
00:00
Tolkien's Journey After the War
Tolkien was working on Elfish while he was in training camps in Britain. We know he wrote a few poems while out of the front line in France, not mostly published yet. Hopefully they will be one day, because I'm fascinated by what they say. He did try to express his experience through that. There are stories that examine the awfulness of an ironic situation where the hero is powerless to do anything good and effective. But nonetheless, because these heroes are medieval men or elves of great stature and ability, there was a limit to how far he could use his own experience in writing those stories.
Transcript
Play full episode
