
Socrates in the City Joe Loconte: The War for Middle – Earth
War Shaped Their Creative Urgency
- The Second World War created urgent pressure that shaped Tolkien and Lewis's literary callings and themes.
- Understanding their wartime context is essential to appreciating their major works.
Shared Trauma Bonded Them
- Both men carried deep scars from World War I that influenced their imaginations and friendship.
- Shared trauma and love of heroic myths drew them together at Oxford.
Their Major Works Grew During Crisis
- Tolkien wrote The Hobbit around 1933 and began The Lord of the Rings at the end of 1937, writing through the war.
- Lewis's major works like Screwtape and Narnia also emerged amid wartime crises.










































“Evil labors with vast power and perpetual success – in vain: preparing always only the soil for unexpected good to sprout in.” —J.R.R. Tolkien
What does it mean to cling to truth, beauty, and goodness in the shadow of history’s darkest hours? Can goodness truly spring forth from evil?
These questions lie at the heart of this Socrates in the City conversation with historian Joseph Loconte. The discussion focuses on J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis, two literary giants who wrote their masterpieces in the aftermath of World War II. In his latest book, The War for Middle-earth: J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis Confront the Gathering Storm, 1933–1945, Loconte—together with SITC host Eric Metaxas—traces how the devastation of World War II shaped both the friendship and the imaginations of C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien, inspiring them to create works that continue to illuminate the battle between good and evil.
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