The Pen Is Mightier Than the Sword - a J.R.R. Tolkien Analysis

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien is the author of one of the most famous stories ever told, The Lord of the Rings. There is nothing simple about this unique epic; it is riddled with appendices, contains detailed maps, and contains languages with multiple dialects that Tolkien did not always feel the need to translate. While this epic has many idiosyncrasies found nowhere else, the most unique thing about the epic is the way it was written. Rather than start with the plot line and develop the details, Tolkien began his writings with one of his most famous details, the languages and alphabets. Although J. R. R. Tolkien is famous for the intricate plot lines he created, his linguistic passion is the true motivation reason behind his writing. From the time Tolkien was a boy, he showed a passion for philology, even if he did not yet know it. As a child, Tolkien and his cousins invented a language they named “Anamalic” (Tolkien and Anderson, 4). By the time Tolkien was old enough to go to University, he had identified his love for language and pursued it. He studied Comparative Philology, Finnish, and Welsh at Exeter College in Oxford England. While studying, Tolkien began “...creating a personal language that he would later call ‘Quenya’ or Elvish,” (Tolkien and Anderson, 2). After graduating, Tolkien helped edit and publish the Oxford English Dictionary. Of his time on staff there, Tolkien said, “I learned more in those two years than in another equal period of my lifetime,” (Oldsey, 3). Tolkien was also one of the publishers of A Middle English Vocabulary and co-edited a version of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, a popular book translated from Middle English using the dictionary Tolkien helped publish. After this, he returned to Oxford to teach and was “elected the Rawlinson and Bonsworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford,” (Tolkien and Anderson, 2). Near the end of his teaching career Tolkien wrote The Hobbit and The Lord of The Rings, which eventually were considered

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