Wednesday 29 January 2014

More Tolkien...


I found this video on YouTube about a year ago. It's well worth watching. It is 1968 (or the winter of 1967) and J.R.R Tolkien is interviewed in his retirement by the Verger of Merton College and is seen at times to walk about the gardens and quadrangle with what seems to be a tour. Also, of note, are the views expressed by the many young people on Tolkien's works. Not all of them are on the ball (there's one young man, the one with the moustache and spectacles, who derides Tolkien's work as lacking in political credibility!) but one young woman understands Tolkien with great clarity. One of the most heartwarming (to me) moments is where Tolkien is sat at a desk with pint of ale and his pipe. That's really what life is all about, isn't it! And, of course, these simple things are almost ennobled in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. I guess that's one quality that makes them so readable.

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