JRR Tolkien's World Essay Example

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien's iconic series The Lord of The Rings took many inspirations from our world, Earth. Tolkien titled his world, Middle-Earth, already having a familiar resemblance with the world we live in today. There is a quote that refers to “middangeard” a word in Old English, to be Middle Earth, the land above Hell and below Heaven, we can see resemblance from the name alone. (Doughan) Of the many inspirations Tolkien took from the real world, to incorporate into his fictional world, these stood out in the series, part of which is The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings, the village for the hobbits, the hobbit holes, the ring Bilbo wears, and Rivendell and the misty mountains. A huge part of the world is the village Bilbo Baggins, the hobbit, lived in.

Furthermore, when Tolkien grew up in the Birmingham area, he was surrounded by a Warwickshire village. Which led him to take inspiration to make The Shire, the village in which hobbits lived in. He particularly took inspiration from Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee era in 1897. (Jahangir) He also took inspiration from Sarehole, a little village around the Birmingham area. Sarehole had a mill by the river which is also present in The Shire. (Jahangir) Not only did he get inspiration from the real world for the village, he also took inspiration for the holes in which the hobbits lived in. (Doughan)

Equally as important, was the home Bilbo lived in. He first came to this idea when grading examination papers and wrote down, “In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit” (Tolkien) which led him to question what a hobbit was and where they lived. After he had figured it out, he had written an incomplete version of The Hobbit, which led to it being discovered by Susan Dagnall. (Doughan) Said by Mathew Lyon, an author who wrote about Tolkien, he mentions, “There are these holes down there, which the local tradition says used to be lived in by little people [but] Tolkien didn't explicitly make that connection.” (Lyons) This refers to Dwarf’s Hill. Here we see that people had made connections that sometimes were not necessarily there but they fit the criteria in which they put it in. With this, Tolkien also not only recreated old ancient languages that had ceased to exist, but he also made his own fantasy languages getting inspirations from these extinct languages. (Doughan) This helped a lot with his world building and made his worlds more complex than most fantasy worlds. The story line was greatly inspired by Roman history, more particularly, the ring that Baggin’s holds on to during the story.

In addition, The ring and the story of the ring was significantly inspired by a dig that Tolkien took part in. In 1929, the professor visited a dig that laid on a Roman estate, which was named Dwarf’s Hill. (Jahangir) He was later informed that there was a ring discovered from a dig in a Hamshire field in 1785 and that the two were connected because that ring was deemed cursed. (Jahangir) With this information, he writes later on about a halfling who finds the ring, which is Baggins.  His name, Tolkien, is believed to come from German origin and it means foolishly clever, we can see a lot of this with the characteristics of Bilbo. Some other inspirations for his story were his children, they played a large role in the first book, The Hobbit, seeing that he wanted it to be a children's book, he had some kids read it and they had approved of it. Of course later on with The Lord of The Rings, it became more of a high fantasy story meant for people of older age (Jahangir) This may be surprising that he created all this but he wasn't the typical professor at Oxford either. He had dressed up often and done other things like paid merchants with his false teeth and chased a neighbor with an anglo costume. A student of his mentions, “He could turn a lecture room into a mead hall.” (Gottesman) This shows that he had quite a passion for what he did and that he truly enjoyed his day job and his hobby. The landscapes these species pass by were also from inspirations of Tolkien's lifetime. 

Moreover, Rivendell and the Misty Mountains were inspired by Tolkiends trip to Switzerland in the summer of 1911 for a party he had been invited to. (Doughan) There he saw landscapes that helped his visualization of Rivendell and the Misty Mountains. Tolkien recalls, “We went on foot carrying great packs practically all the way from Interlaken … to the head of Lauterbrunnenthal in a wilderness of moraines," (Jahangir) The depictions of Rivendell are very similar to the view of the Lauterbrunnen Valley. (Jahangir) To him writing was a hobby and he loved his day job significantly, he had many scholarly works done in his time. (Gottesman) There is no doubt that there have been many other inspirations for Tolkien's very complex and intricate world.

In short, Tolkien’s world-building is an inspiration to many and entertainment to others. He took inspiration for the Shire, the hobbit holes, the ring and its history, and finally, Rivendell and the Misty Mountains. He has many other great works that live up to reputation and it will be an example in the future one day for literature. If he had more time on this planet, there's no doubt in mind that he wouldn't release another hit.