Tolkien and the Great War: The Threshold of Middle-Earth by john garth

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

April 26,2025

0,4 estrellas

La biografía más esclarecedora en cuanto al origen real de la Tierra Media de Tolkien y la gran influencia que tuvieron sus amigos de la TCBS ( Tea Club and Barrovian Society) juntos serían "Los cuatro inmortales" Rob Gilson, G, B Smith, Cristopher Wiseman y el propio Tolkien.

"Que Dios te bendiga mi querido John Ronald, y que digas las cosas que yo he intentado decir durante mucho tiempo cuando yo ya no esté para decirlas, si tal fuera mi destino." G. B. Smith.

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opbuzz

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

April 26,2025

One has indeed personally to come under the shadow of war to feel fully its oppression; but as the years go by it seems now often forgotten that to be caught in youth by 1914 was no less hideous an experience than to be involved in 1939 and the following years. By 1918, all but one of my close friends were dead.
— J.R.R. Tolkien, forward to The Lord of the Rings

World War I represented everything Tolkien hated: the destruction of nature, the deadly application of technology, the abuse and corruption of authority, and the triumph of industrialization. It interrupted his career, separated him from his wife, and damaged his health. Yet at the same time it gave him an appreciation for the virtues of ordinary people, for friendships, and for what beauty he could find amidst ugliness.
"They lie in all the pools, pale faces, deep deep under the dark water. I saw them: grim faces and evil, noble faces and sad. Many faces proud and fair, with weeds in their silver hair. But all foul, all rotting, all dead."
- "The Passage of the Marshes", The Two Towers
The dead lying in pools of mud is a powerful image of trench warfare on the Western Front, and is something that Tolkien would have undoubtedly seen during his wartime service. As the autumn rains fell, the battlefield of the Somme turned into a stinking mire seeded with the rotting corpses of men and animals. The dead men that Frodo and Sam see are not physically present – only their ghostly shapes have been preserved –but their forms inspire horror and pity.

We are all shaped by the world in which we live.

(I used this volume for a presentation on Tolkien and The Great War. I found it very useful and insightful into Tolkien the man and the "Lost Generation")

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Lria

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

April 26,2025

Brilliant, well researched, insightful - and, at times, inspiring

Author John Garth provides a meticulous and methodical analysis of what happened to Tolkien and his friends in the years just prior to and during Work War I, showing in a clear, deeply considered way how Tolkien's love of language, ancient story and Fairy tales helped shape and transform his battlefield experiences into a unique literary, artistic voice. Put this on your bookshelf beside Tom Shippey's masterful study.

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IustinMakihige

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

April 26,2025

FYI, don’t read this if you’re unfamiliar with Tolkien’s works beyond The Lord of the Rings. Garth analyzes a lot of Tolkien’s other works (that make up The Silmarillion and The Book of Lost Tales as well as some of his other essays on Faerie) and it won’t make a lot of sense if you’re not at least a LITTLE familiar with Tolkien’s mythology.

Garth is obviously a scholar, and I tend to enjoy scholarly works, so this book was truly satisfying. I’ve been a “Tolkiendil” for years, so reading a book about how the First World War and Tolkien’s experience with it was very intriguing. I mainly read this book to get a little bit of education on the role of Catholicism in Tolkien’s life in connection with the War and how it shaped some of Tolkien’s ideas and theologies in his writings; particularly his view of theodicy. Garth definitely delivered!

I was relatively new to the biographical knowledge of Tolkien, so noting the differences between what Garth has written here and what Humphrey Carpenter wrote in his “Authorized Biography” and what we saw on the big screen in 2019’s “Tolkien” was fun. Clearly, the movie “Tolkien” only scratched the surface!

Definitely recommend for those who want to dig deep into Tolkien’s possible influences for creating his mythology for England!

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choco_m00n

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

April 26,2025

This was easily the most interesting and inspirational book I read in 2020. In fact, learning about Tolkien’s study of languages stirred up my own etymological inner geek and I found myself looking up words in the dictionary, learning their roots, and experimenting with combinations from different languages. I even tried my hand at writing an epic poem (which I’m sure—at this point anyway—is at least good for a few laughs).

This book was also good COVID therapy. Channeling Tolkien and his love of words and mythology and meant I was passing hours playing with language and story concepts dealing with elves and monsters and dragons.

There is, of course, the heartbreak of the war and all the people close to Tolkien who died. He had three very close friends, Christopher Wiseman, Rob Gilson and G.B. Smith, the famous TCBS—Tea Club, Barrovian Society—all young men of tremendous potential, like Tolkien. Together, they made ambitious and idyllic plans to change the world. Even as they were all sent to different parts of the war in different services, they kept in close contact and it is clear from their letters how much they needed and loved one another. Rob Gilson and G.B. Smith both died. Here is a snippet of the letter from Smith to Tolkien just after hearing of Gilson’s death (Smith would not die until the very end of the war). “Do please stick to me, you and Christopher. I am very tired and most frightfully depressed at this worst of news. Now one realises in despair what the TCBS really was. O my dear Ronald what are we going to do?”

I think we all have a sense of the immense waste and stupidity of WWI, but reading the account of Tolkien and his friends really brings it home. What I found shocking was that even after two years and more than 10 million dead, the soldiers in the trenches still did what they were told. Such was the case with Rob Gilson, a lieutenant who was given orders in July 1916 to take his men across No Man’s Land. Even though he himself had witnessed so much carnage and waste, and must have known the action would almost certainly mean his death and the death of most of his men for almost no purpose, he still did it. I have a hard time envisioning modern soldiers (from a democratic society at least) doing the same, which I think is a good thing.

Reading about the suffering of WWI during the current pandemic was also oddly therapeutic. It put our crisis in perspective and helped me see how, despite tragedy and loss, the long human experiment goes on, and that out of the madness and chaos, beautiful and magical things can be made.

Highly recommended.

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Lostnekoo

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

April 26,2025

This book was even better the second time through. It’s absolutely full of information and thoughtful dot-connecting.
When I first read it three years ago, I’m sure I didn’t even absorb half of all the excellent content. In the ensuing years I’ve accrued a lot more knowledge about Tolkien’s life and works from other sources, enabling the content of Garth’s book to shine out even more clearly.
Garth’s description of the TCBS members, their ideas, and their experiences in the Great War is moving as well as enlightening, and provides a crucial context for Tolkien and his work.
I’m sure I’ll read it again in a few years when it will seem even more significant!

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annacarabuena

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

April 26,2025

This is, for me, not just as my favourite history of WWI, and not simply one of the strongest Tolkien studies books I know, but a model for me as a writer.
The audiobook is also quite excellently done, autumnal in quality giving the material a heartful melancholic atmosphere.

See a partial review here: https://apilgriminnarnia.com/2019/05/...

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ClownOnACloud

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

April 26,2025

Note: I decided to pair the physical copy of this book with the audio version and found reading and listening at the same time was very helpful in keeping my focus and helping me progress through this book without getting slowed down or distracted. The author of the book actually narrates the audiobook, which is something I always really enjoy.

An excellent read for this Tolkien fan! Thanks again for recommending and gifting it to me, Mary! :) <3

This being non-fiction, and me not reading non-fiction nearly as much as fiction, I’m always a little unsure how to write my review. I guess I’ll start by saying that I thought it was very well-written, well-researched, well-paced, and interesting enough that I never once got bored or wanted to skip ahead even though I already knew some of the things being conveyed. There were some new things too, though, such as more details about the TCBS (a close-knit group of friends and writing critique partners Tolkien was a part of in his college days) than I ever knew before and enjoyed learning. I also loved that the author included excerpts of Tolkien’s poetry where appropriate to make points and show how Tolkien’s writings developed over time, and I very much enjoyed reading them and discovering his inspiration for them.

Overall, this was a highly enjoyable non-fiction read for me and I happily give it 5 stars.

I would recommend this book both to long time Tolkien fans who are curious about his life, especially his experiences in WWI and their influence on his writings, and to people who are new fans, or maybe not even fans at all, but are still curious about this well-known person and his life. You don’t necessarily have to have read any, much less all of Tolkien’s works in order to get something from this book (though knowing at least some of his works will certainly add depth to what you learn here) as the author tells the audience just as much as is needed in order to show what he’s wanting to show.

Content advisory: I personally would recommend this book for ages 12+ simply because of how intellectual it is and the fact that, unless they were very curious and at an advanced reading level, children younger than that simply probably wouldn’t be interested in a book like this or be able to fully comprehend it to appreciate it. Otherwise, there is very little content of concern for younger readers.

Language: One instance of the word d****d in a brief quote from Tolkien. I don’t recall any other swear words.

Violence: There is talk of war and combat throughout, but the author keeps it very matter-of-fact, never going into icky detail, while still communicating what happened in various battles and such.

Worldviews: Again, the author simply reports the facts and doesn’t give his own opinion on things.

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Tolkien and the Great War: The Threshold of Middle-Earth

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