John Steinbeck in 1939 Born

Politics and race

Main article: Tolkien and race

Tolkien's fantasy writings have often been accused of embodying outmoded attitudes to race.^[96][97] However, scholars have noted that he was influenced by Victorian attitudes to race and to a literary tradition of monsters, and that he was anti-racist both in peacetime and during the two World Wars. With the late 19th century background of eugenics and a fear of moral decline, some critics saw the mention of race mixing in The Lord of the Rings as embodying scientific racism.^[98][99] Other commentators saw in Tolkien's orcs a reflection of wartime propaganda caricatures of the Japanese.^[100] Critics have noted, too, that the work embodies a moral geography, with good in the West, evil in the East.^[101] Against this, scholars have noted that Tolkien was opposed to peacetime Nazi racial theory, while in the Second World War he was equally opposed to anti-German propaganda.^[102][103] Other scholars have stated that Tolkien's Middle-earth is definitely polycultural and polylingual, and that attacks on Tolkien based on The Lord of the Rings often omit relevant evidence from the text.^[104][105]

Nature

During most of his own life conservationism was not yet on the political agenda, and Tolkien himself did not directly express conservationist views—except in some private letters, in which he tells about his fondness for forests and sadness at tree-felling. In later years, a number of authors of biographies or literary analyses of Tolkien conclude that during his writing of The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien gained increased interest in the value of wild and untamed nature, and in protecting what wild nature was left in the industrialized world.^{[106][107][108]}

Writing

Influences

Main article: J. R. R. Tolkien's influences

Tolkien's fantasy books on Middle-earth, especially The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion, drew on a wide array of influences including his philological interest in language,^[109] Christianity,^[110][111] mythology, archaeology,^[112] ancient and modern literature, and personal experience. His philological work centred on the study of Old English literature, especially Beowulf, and he acknowledged its importance to his writings.^[113] He was a gifted linguist, influenced by Germanic,^[114] Celtic,^[115] Finnish,^[116] and Greek^[117][118] language and mythology. Commentators have attempted to identify many literary and topological antecedents for characters, places and events in Tolkien's writings. Some writers were important to him, including the Arts and Crafts polymath William Morris,^[119] and he undoubtedly made use of some real place-names, such as Bag End, the name of his aunt's home.^[120] He acknowledged, too, John Buchan and H. Rider Haggard, authors of modern adventure stories that he enjoyed.^{[121][122][123]} The effects of some specific experiences have been identified. Tolkien's childhood in the English countryside, and its urbanisation by the growth of Birmingham, influenced his creation of the Shire,^[124] while his personal experience of fighting in the trenches of the First World War affected his depiction of Mordor.^[125]