Imagery In The Hobbit

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, best known for being the author of the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings, has captivated the hearts of millions with his stories of Middle Earth, and is considered to be one of the most accomplished authors of his time. Tolkien once said that “the investigation of an author’s biography… is an entirely vain and false approach to his works - especially to a work of narrative art” (Tolkien, letter 414). However, researching Tolkien’s background does in fact show common trends between experiences in the author’s life and his writing. J.R.R. Tolkien’s poem “I Sit and Think” does in fact summarize the different chapters of his life through the use of a nostalgic tone and beautiful imagery, and it provides an outline for

He was born in Cape Town, South Africa in 1892, but after his father’s death in 1896, Tolkien moved with his mother, Mabel, and younger brother to a small village outside of Birmingham, England. The family lived in poverty, and faced ridicule as a result of Mabel Tolkien’s conversion to Catholicism, yet Mabel made sure that her children received an education, exposing Tolkien to many languages at a young age. They moved multiple times in the next 8 years, until Mabel’s death in 1904. Each location offered new scenery and situations for Ronald that would have impact on various parts of “Middle Earth.” The event, however, that was “the defining experience” behind J. R. R. Tolkien’s writing was his “witnessing of the horrors of the front” when he served in World War I (Taylor, 6). During the Battle of the Somme, Tolkien fell ill with trench fever - allowing him to avoid the action - but two of his close friends died, and he “would mourn their passing all his days (Taylor, 6 ). Tolkien believed that World War I did not have a valid purpose and that it was a waste of human life. This led him to write stories that centered around warfare that involved sacrifice and good triumphing over evil. World War I had other indirect effects on Tolkien, including the transformation of his home village of Sarehole into an industrial city as a result of the technological advances that followed the war. The culmination of these

R. R. Tolkien is considered by many to be one of the most accomplished fantasy authors of all time. He was able to build a concrete world complete with myths, histories, and language, that has been able to “live in the human imagination forever” (Johansen, 5). A key feature that made his writing so successful was that he wrote many stories about Middle Earth “as poetry, both rhyming and alliterative” (Johansen, 1) that draw from medieval European legends and seem as though they could have actually taken place. Like most advanced poetry, these poems contain multiple meanings; they both give history lessons about the history of Middle Earth, and teach valuable lessons that Tolkien learned throughout the course of his life. “I Sit and Think” is a perfect example of a poem embedded in Tolkien’s writing that has further meaning. It was recited by Bilbo Baggins and may initially seem as a reflection on his life, but it is also a reflection on the events of Tolkien’s life and how he came to realize that it is important to not solely dwell on the past, but rather continue to “listen” (Tolkien 23) to what is going on around