I need LOTR so much. It remains my favorite life book, besides the Bible. The depth that JRR went to in crafting the characters with flaws and yet strengths, it never fails to move me to tears and to deep reflection. Fatty Bolger carried on in Frodo's absence and he was a hero in his own manner. The call of Aragorn to the fearful men at the Black Gate, was also a masterful presence of humanity. All have a part to play. I am in the Winter of my life at nearly 72 and I find the quiet ones (like me) also have a part to play in the grand play of human history. Blessings to you for this wonderful site, Breanne.
Oh wow, I think i really needed to read this right now. I'm at a point in my life where my idealized courage vs my reality are truly butting heads. I'm not able to do nearly half of what my heart yearns to do, and the cognitive dissonance is staggering. I'm doing what I can and it just never feels like it's enough. ANYWAY, thank you so much for this post. I can't wait for the next one.
I really hadn't paid much attention to this character at first, being a book-newbie (simply most familiar with Frodo, Sam, Merry and Pippin) but I love having this context! I didn't realize just how important of a role Fatty has, so I look forward to his later mention, and my re-read of The Fellowship! Thank you for another great post!
Your comment about how Tolkien writes with empathy for those overwhelmed by fear reminded me that he was a veteran of WW1 and one the most terrible battles of that war. He would’ve had first-hand experience with facing those kinds of fears. I haven’t read his letters but I wonder if he connects those two scenes you mention with his war experiences.
In his letters, he repeatedly denies that his personal experiences in the war were something he tried to translate into The Lord of the Rings. But at the same time, I don't see how going through what he did wouldn't have subconsciously influenced his writing. Maybe he didn't have the language and research available to us to articulate that. But I do respect that he attempted to make a "fairy-story" without his own perspective influencing every part of it.
Brand new subscriber here, courtesy of a recommendation from Jokien with Tolkien. I quite enjoyed your article on Fatty, who is absolutely one of the forgotten little garden heroes of LOTR, along with Tolman (Tom) Cotton and Farmer Maggot.
I agree that, while Tolkien desired to not write his personal experiences with war into his books, he absolutely did so—but not in the way most people would expect.
Like so many other trench soldiers from WW I—CS Lewis and Remarque, or less well-known writers like Myrivilis and Charles Yale Harrison—Tolkien was not only able to paint the broad canvas of despair “hoping against hope”), but he was also adept at using simple things like a song or the taste of good food to make pinpricks of light through his shroud of darkness.
I think that the trench soldiers learned how to seize a moment of delight in their own darkness as a survival technique. And so many of them, when they took pen to paper, could not help but show this in their work. And that is how Tolkien’s war experience bled into his writing.
I agree that it’s hard to imagine that his own experiences didn’t have some influence on his writing, conscious or unconscious, especially as he wrote LOTR during WW2. I’m happy enough if it’s my own head canon that his compassion comes from his experiences in war.
I need LOTR so much. It remains my favorite life book, besides the Bible. The depth that JRR went to in crafting the characters with flaws and yet strengths, it never fails to move me to tears and to deep reflection. Fatty Bolger carried on in Frodo's absence and he was a hero in his own manner. The call of Aragorn to the fearful men at the Black Gate, was also a masterful presence of humanity. All have a part to play. I am in the Winter of my life at nearly 72 and I find the quiet ones (like me) also have a part to play in the grand play of human history. Blessings to you for this wonderful site, Breanne.
Oh wow, I think i really needed to read this right now. I'm at a point in my life where my idealized courage vs my reality are truly butting heads. I'm not able to do nearly half of what my heart yearns to do, and the cognitive dissonance is staggering. I'm doing what I can and it just never feels like it's enough. ANYWAY, thank you so much for this post. I can't wait for the next one.
I really hadn't paid much attention to this character at first, being a book-newbie (simply most familiar with Frodo, Sam, Merry and Pippin) but I love having this context! I didn't realize just how important of a role Fatty has, so I look forward to his later mention, and my re-read of The Fellowship! Thank you for another great post!
Your comment about how Tolkien writes with empathy for those overwhelmed by fear reminded me that he was a veteran of WW1 and one the most terrible battles of that war. He would’ve had first-hand experience with facing those kinds of fears. I haven’t read his letters but I wonder if he connects those two scenes you mention with his war experiences.
In his letters, he repeatedly denies that his personal experiences in the war were something he tried to translate into The Lord of the Rings. But at the same time, I don't see how going through what he did wouldn't have subconsciously influenced his writing. Maybe he didn't have the language and research available to us to articulate that. But I do respect that he attempted to make a "fairy-story" without his own perspective influencing every part of it.
Brand new subscriber here, courtesy of a recommendation from Jokien with Tolkien. I quite enjoyed your article on Fatty, who is absolutely one of the forgotten little garden heroes of LOTR, along with Tolman (Tom) Cotton and Farmer Maggot.
I agree that, while Tolkien desired to not write his personal experiences with war into his books, he absolutely did so—but not in the way most people would expect.
Like so many other trench soldiers from WW I—CS Lewis and Remarque, or less well-known writers like Myrivilis and Charles Yale Harrison—Tolkien was not only able to paint the broad canvas of despair “hoping against hope”), but he was also adept at using simple things like a song or the taste of good food to make pinpricks of light through his shroud of darkness.
I think that the trench soldiers learned how to seize a moment of delight in their own darkness as a survival technique. And so many of them, when they took pen to paper, could not help but show this in their work. And that is how Tolkien’s war experience bled into his writing.
I agree that it’s hard to imagine that his own experiences didn’t have some influence on his writing, conscious or unconscious, especially as he wrote LOTR during WW2. I’m happy enough if it’s my own head canon that his compassion comes from his experiences in war.