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Tag Archives: First World War
The mood music of G.B. Smith, T.C.B.S.
In a guest post, Allan Turner, Tolkien scholar and formerly Lecturer in English at the University of Jena, Germany, provides a musical insight into A Spring Harvest, the 1918 anthology of Geoffrey Bache Smith’s poetry co-edited by his friend J.R.R, … Continue reading
Tolkien’s last friend in Oxford when the world went to war
‘Not a single man I know is up except Cullis,’ Tolkien lamented at the start of his final year as an Oxford student. It was 1914, war had just broken out, and their friends had left in droves to enlist … Continue reading
Win over £1,000/$1,000 worth of Tolkien books and help Oxford University preserve First World War history
I’ve donated five signed copies of Tolkien and the Great War to help raise money for this appeal. There are some substantially more valuable prizes too. It is only thanks to the personal letters and photographs preserved by various Great … Continue reading
Posted in Research tangents, Tolkien in the First World War
Tagged First World War, J.R.R. Tolkien
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Gardening the corner of a foreign field
As the Commonwealth War Graves Commission marks its centenary, I recall a 2014 visit to Flanders and northern France when I spoke to the gardeners who keep the cemeteries pristine. With its postcards of poppies and memorials, its hotels and … Continue reading
Tolkien at Exeter College: Birth of a legend
In which I blow my own trumpet… When you picture J.R.R. Tolkien, it’s probably as a member of Oxford’s Inklings, writing The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings in the 1930s and ’40s, or in old age when fame … Continue reading
Posted in 100 years of Middle-earth, Book news and reviews, John Garth’s writing, Tolkien in the First World War, Uncategorized
Tagged Beowulf, Biography, Exeter College, First World War, J.R.R. Tolkien, Middle-earth, Oxford, Silmarillion, Tolkien's college friends, Tolkien's life, Tolkien's writing
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Tanks at Gondolin
Here’s an excerpt from my book Tolkien and the Great War to mark the centenary of Tolkien’s discharge on 9 December 1916 from military hospital, where he had begun writing his first ‘lost tale’ of Middle-earth, ‘The Fall of Gondolin’. … Continue reading
Beren and Lúthien, a centenary publication
Note, 2 June 2017: Since writing this, Tolkien’s Beren and Lúthien has been published, so the speculations below regarding its content are out of date. My New Statesman review of the book as published can be read here. In … Continue reading
Robert Quilter Gilson, TCBS – a documentary
When Tolkien writes in the Foreword to The Lord of the Rings that ‘by 1918 all but one of my close friends were dead’, he is referring to his friends in a clique formed at school but later bonded by … Continue reading
A turbulent darkness: Tolkien’s first story
Here’s a short review of Tolkien’s The Story of Kullervo that I wrote for the Mail On Sunday when the book came out in September 2015. I reproduce it here, with permission, as the book becomes available in the USA, … Continue reading
Tolkien’s ‘immortal four’ meet for the last time
Best Article, Tolkien Society Awards 2016 Also available in Spanish and Portuguese. One hundred years ago today, four young men convened in an English town, not having seen each other for some time. What makes this trivial event significant is … Continue reading
John Garth 