https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/j-r-r-tolkien/id1537788786?i=1000577613968
Tolkien’s early life
- Quite precocious
- Speaking old languages at school plays at 17
- Had a love of languages from ~15
- T.C.B.S club: took literature and the work that they were doing very seriously
- Speaking old languages at school plays at 17
Echoes from Tolkien’s life
- Nazgul and the omnipresent threat in the air
- Council of Elrond
- How far can you go in trying to defeat something evil before you turn evil (using the ring against Sauron)
- Interesting head-canon from me: it seems like the description of Frodo after being stabbed by the Morgul-knife echoes Tolkien’s own experiences being ill.
- Tolkien grows up in an idyllic place that was always being encroached on by industrialization
- Beren and Luthien
- Ideas about intense male friendship and camaraderie probably come from his experiences at school