How Tolkien found “applicability” in his own story

… Very much love to you, and all my thoughts and prayers.  How much I wish to know! “When you return to the lands of the living, and we re-tell our tales, sitting by a wall in the sun, laughing at old grief, you shall tell me then” (Faramir to Frodo).

So wrote J. R. R. Tolkien to his son Christopher on May 12, 1944.  Tolkien insisted his stories were neither allegorical nor even topical.  This seems interesting since he so easily invoked his own writing to explain or illuminate situations in his own life.

I think his point was that he wanted all his readers to be able to do the same as he did without feeling constrained by his own “topical” use of his text.  That, at least, is the best I can do to make sense of his “anti-allegoricalism.”

One thought on “How Tolkien found “applicability” in his own story

  1. pentamom

    Yes, I think he perceived himself as writing about realities that hold true whether they are embodied in the events of and specific characteristics of Middle Earth or those of our own world. That’s rather different from a “this is that” kind of allegory, or writing a story to make a particular point about a particular thing going on in our world. I think that’s also the way the Christian imagery works in Harry Potter — Harry’s story isn’t supposed to trace to the gospel as though Harry were the savior or something, but it works because it shares certain realities.

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