Week 1: Visions of War – Tuesday 28 February 2023
#TolkienTrewsday #TolkienTuesday #Tolkien
Welcome to #TolkienTrewsday #TolkienTuesday.
The hub for this Twitter-based event can be found here.
Tolkien Trewsday (the Hobbit name for Tuesday!) invites the #Tolkien community to form a fellowship to collectively tweet about a pre-selected theme about Tolkien, his works and his life.
Each week a new theme will be selected, often via a poll or by a guest host/curator, and together we will build a collective outpouring of creativity, knowledge and love for J.R.R. Tolkien and the adaptions based on his works.
The inspiration for this comes from the highly successful #FolkloreThursday which engaged lovers of Folklore, academics, artists and more to use Twitter to discuss it.
We only ask that if you are joining in, please do so with courtesy and kindness in your tweets. This is a positive-action community event, open to all and supportive of fan diversity. Intolerance, racism, bigotry have no place here.
💬 This week’s theme
Week 1: “Visions of War” - Tuesday
28 February 2023
From Tolkien’s personal experience of World War One to the battlefields of Middle-earth, the first theme goes back to the start and where the spark of many stories began.
Ideas: Tolkien & WW1, depictions of war in Middle-earth, character quotes about war and its affects, academic work on representations of war in the works of Tolkien and the Inklings, etc.
How to contribute
We are keeping it very simple. All you need to do to join is tweet something about the current week’s theme and use the following hashtags in your tweet: #TolkienTrewsday #TolkienTuesday #Tolkien
Your tweet, besides following the theme, can be anything. Examples include:
- Art you have made
- Art you appreciate
- Cosplay
- A blog you have written about theme
- Thoughts about the theme
- Tolkien quotes on the theme
- Academic work on the theme
- Poetry
- Other writings
It’s your choice!
The poison gas and fires on the battlefields in the War of the Three Peaks in
Elderslade from “The Lord of the Rings Online”.
Visions of War: “But No Man's
Land is a goblin sight”
“No Man's Land is an eerie sight
At early dawn in the pale gray light.
Never a house and never a hedge
In No Man's Land from edge to edge,
And never a living soul walks there
To taste the fresh of the morning air; -
Only some lumps of rotting clay,
That were friends or foemen yesterday.”-- “No Man's Land” (1917?) by Captain James H. Knight-Adkin (Full poem here)
I wanted to start #TolkienTrewsday
with a theme that goes back to the start and also the core of J.R.R. Tolkien. His
experiences of the First World War shaped him and also his stories. John Garth
remarked about how the dragons involved with the Fall of Gondolin
resemble the tanks at the Somme.
The utter futility of war and the destructive nature of people play as themes in Tolkien’s works. The effects of the destruction seen on the battle-scarred landscapes with shrapnel-blasted trees and bloody mud-filled pools were part of Tolkien’s experience of No Man’s Land and the trenches of the Somme. Here technological horrors churn away at nature. Poison gas wrecks havoc on the bodies of soldiers and fires burn away foliage and architecture.
Often in Tolkien adaptions (film, television and game) we see these elements that hark back to the WW1 experience of Tolkien. In “The Lord of the Rings Online”, the War of the Three Peaks expansion (Update 28: 2020) set in the region of Elderslade (Rhovanion) sees the Dwarves face armies of orcs for control of Gundabad.
As the Dwarves march towards Gundabad, their movement staggers and, just like during World War One, the opposing sides build defensive trenches between the main battlefield. In a nod to the deadly poison gas of World War One, “Noxious fumes” drift across the war-scarred land and affects players if they aren’t quick to avoid.
Dwarven trenches and the poison gas on the battlefields in the War of the Three
Peaks in Elderslade from “The Lord of the Rings Online”.
The orcs hold the tunnel system of Ushkútoz underneath Zudramdân. It’s dark and dank, water dripping from the ceiling forming muddy pools. It was these conditions that led Tolkien to contract trench fever and eventually get sent back to England.
The orc-held Ushkútoz tunnel system in the War of the Three Peaks
in Elderslade from “The Lord of the Rings Online”.
In Amazon Studio’s “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” we see several instances of destroyed landscape – one from war and one from orc invasion.
In Episode One (“A Shadow of the Past”) we see Galadriel’s brother Finrod and the elven army in close combat with orcs whilst dragons and eagles clash above. Later the aftermath of these battles is revealed, Galadriel holding a soldier’s helmet amid the ruined and scarred landscape. Around her are the fallen and the injured, two elves carry another on a stretcher in a scene reminiscent of photographs from World War One, the video footage from Peter Jackson’s 2018 documentary, “They Shall Not Grow Old” and also recently-made war movies. We’ll return to this scene at the end of this blog.
Galadriel on a battlefield in “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power”
(Episode 1: A Shadow of the Past)
In Episode Three (“Adar”), the Silvan elf Arondir and his comrades are captured and put to work in an orc camp between Tirharad and Hordern in the Southlands. The landscape around them again is reminiscent of the World War One battlefields with blasted trees, muddy pools, fires with clouds of smoke.
The landscape around the orc camps in “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power”
(Episode 3: Adar)
The tunnels the orcs are getting their slave labour to create visually link to the WW1 trenches between “No Man’s Land”.
Entrance to one of the orc tunnels in “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power”
(Episode 3: Adar)
In pre-production artwork of the orc tunnels by Rodolfo Damaggio you can see this even more. It looks almost like a rabbit warren.
Pre-production artwork by Rodolfo Damaggio for the orc tunnel system in
“The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power”.
Pre-production artwork by Rodolfo Damaggio for the orc tunnel entrance
in “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power”
Another Tolkien adaption that directly recreates the battlefield of the Somme is the 2019 Fox Searchlight Pictures film “Tolkien” directed by Dome Karukoski and starring Nicholas Hoult (J.R.R. Tolkien) and Lily Collins (Edith Bratt). This biopic looks at Tolkien’s early life including his courtship and marriage to Edith Bratt, his World War One experiences and his relationship to his friends in “The Tea Club, Barrovian Society” (T.C.B.S.). There are many scenes of the devasted landscapes of the war.
Scene of the Somme from “Tolkien” (2019) by Fox Searchlight Pictures.
Finally, we return back to Galadriel on the battlefield, a helmet of a fallen soldier in her hands. She walks towards an ominous pile which turns out to be a multitude of helmets, a monument to the fallen in the wars against Morgoth.
Galadriel and the helmet monument in “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power”
(Episode 1: A Shadow of the Past)
This is an obvious nod to an event in the Silmarillion known as the battle of Nirnaeth Arnoediad. Note “The Rings of Power” cannot directly reference this as it is outside their access. The orcs at the end of this horrific battle piled the bodies of the slain on top of each other and a mound was formed. It holds many names: The Hill of the Slain (Sindarin: Haudh-en-Ndengin), Hill of Tears (Sindarin: Haudh-en-Nirnaeth) and in Dor-Lómin it is called the “Great Mound”.
In New York in 1919 there was an interesting parallel to the Galadriel monument but in reverse. Outside Grand Central Terminal, employees of the New York Central Railroad held a celebration on “Victory Way” in front of a pyramid made of 12,000 German Pickelhaubes. These had been stored in warehouses and sent from Germany at the end of the war. They weren’t piled on top of each other like in the Galadriel monument, instead fitted to a hollow structure.
The pyramid of German helmets in front of the Grand Central Terminal on
“Victory Way” in New York City (1919). Source.
The warzones of Middle-earth
and the Somme that Tolkien trod in his lifetime, filled with horror and ruin,
are places no one should ever have to witness. It is a truth when Captain James
H. Knight-Adkin wrote, “But No Man's Land is a goblin sight”.
📜 Resources
Below are some resources
to understand the landscapes of World War One and his experiences.
On the 14 February 2023 I
finally started my “pilgrimage” to places relevant to J.R.R. Tolkien in the UK
and further afield. My first trip was to the Imperial War Museum North in
Salford (Manchester) to see an object donated by Tolkien’s family – his WW1
revolver. You can read more about it on the following Twitter threads and blog
post:
📌 Twitter thread: Tolkien, his revolver and WW1
📌 Twitter thread: The Tolkien Randír - Trip 1: J.R.R. #Tolkien's revolver at the Imperial War Museum North (Salford Quays, Manchester)
📌 Blog: In the Footsteps of J.R.R. Tolkien – the revolver at the Imperial War Museum North
The Imperial War Museum online archives have some great material to read. Below are some relevant pages:
The Somme
📌 https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/what-happened-during-the-battle-of-the-somme
📌 https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/key-facts-about-the-battle-of-the-somme
📌 https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/what-happened-on-the-first-day-of-the-battle-of-the-somme
Trench Warfare
📌 https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/voices-of-the-first-world-war-trench-life
📌 https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/everything-you-need-to-know-about-trench-raids-in-the-first-world-war
📌 https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/trench-art
Poison gas
📌 https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/how-gas-became-a-terror-weapon-in-the-first-world-war
📌 https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/10-things-that-could-have-saved-your-life-in-the-trenches
📜 Bibliography
Below are some recommended books
about Tolkien and WW1:
📗 Blackham, Robert S. (2011) “Tolkien and the Peril of War”
📗 Croft, Janet Brennan and Röttinger, Annika. (2019) "'Something Has Gone Crack': New Perspectives on J.R.R.Tolkien in the Great War" (Cormarë 41)
📗 Croft, Janet Brennan. (2015) "Baptism of Fire: The Birth of the Modern British Fantastic in World War I"
📗 Garth, John. (2020) "The Worlds of J.R.R. Tolkien: The Places that Inspired Middle-earth"
📗 Garth, John. (2004) “Tolkien and the Great War: The Threshold of Middle-earth"
📗 Richards, Anthony. (2016) "TheSomme: A Visual History"
📜 Films
Some of the films referencing J.R.R.
Tolkien’s WW1 experiences or of revelance include:
🎥 “Tolkien” (2019). Fox Searchlight Pictures. Director: Dome Karukoski
🎥 “They Shall Not Grow Old” (2018). Warner Bros. Pictures/WingNut Films. Director: Peter Jackson.
🎥 “Fellowship: Tolkien and Lewis” or “Perilous Realm” (2023). Roarlight. Director: unknown.
*In production – filming starts 28 February 2023*
🔖 Currently reading
📗 Erich Maria Remarque’s “All Quiet on the Western Front” (1928) in preparation to watch the Netflix adaption of his book.
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