0381: The Lord of the Rings » Tolkien's Foreword(s)

What did Tolkien himself say The Lord of the Rings was about?In this episode of Do Not Be Hasty, we explore Tolkien’s forewords to The Lord of the Rings — because there are actually two very different versions.

00:00 — What Did Tolkien Say The Lord of the Rings Was About?
02:15 — The Original 1954 Foreword
03:43 — The Red Book of Westmarch
09:45 — Tolkien as “Translator” and Middle-earth as History
13:20 — Why Tolkien Replaced the First Foreword
15:24 — The Second-Edition Foreword
20:17 — Why Tolkien Wrote The Lord of the Rings
21:21 — No Hidden Message or World War II Allegory
22:12 — What the Story Would Look Like If It WERE About WWII
26:09 — Allegory vs. Applicability
30:11 — So What Is The Lord of the Rings About?

The First-Edition Foreword

Published with The Fellowship of the Ring in 1954
Tolkien presents The Lord of the Rings almost as an authentic historical document
The story is supposedly drawn from the Red Book of Westmarch
Bilbo and Frodo appear as memoirists whose accounts were preserved by Sam’s descendants
Tolkien plays with the idea that he is discovering or translating Middle-earth rather than simply inventing it
Why Tolkien later rejected this foreword
The role of the unauthorized Ace Books edition and the U.S. copyright situation
The first foreword’s possible spoiler concerning Frodo and Sam

The Second-Edition Foreword

How The Lord of the Rings grew out of The Hobbit
Why the story was drawn toward the older world of The Silmarillion
Tolkien’s long process of composition through the late 1930s and 1940s
The extraordinary amount of work involved in completing and revising the book
Tolkien’s stated purpose: to tell a long story that could hold readers’ attention, delight them, excite them, and move them

Was The Lord of the Rings an Allegory?

Tolkien rejects the idea that the book has a simple hidden message
Why the War of the Ring should not be read as an allegory of World War II
Tolkien imagines what the story might have looked like if WWII really had dictated the plot
His skepticism toward political power and his concern for ordinary people
Why the Scouring of the Shire is not simply commentary on contemporary England

Allegory vs. Applicability

Tolkien’s famous declaration that he “cordially” disliked allegory
Allegory depends upon the author imposing a particular meaning
Applicability depends upon the freedom of the reader
Real history and personal experience can influence storytelling without turning a story into allegory
The importance of remaining faithful to the artistic vision rather than writing merely to make a topical point

The Big TakeawayTolkien’s own explanation is surprisingly simple: he was primarily trying to tell a great story. The deeper truths of The Lord of the Rings arise organically from the story rather than from a coded attempt to comment upon specific historical events.SPECIAL THANKS

John R
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Jonathan D
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