J. R. R. Tolkien Interview about The Lord of the Rings (1964)

In this BBC-interview from 1964 (released in 1971) Tolkien sits down for a talk with Denys Gueroult.
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (3 January 1892 - 2 September 1973) was an English writer, poet, philologist, and academic, best known as the author of the high fantasy works The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.
Inspired by British adventure stories, European mythology and catholicism, Tolkien created an enormous high fantasy (epic fantasy) world with its own languages, races, geography, mythologies and both heroic, evil and complex characters.
Tolkien was also a close friend of his fellow fantasy writer C. S. Lewis. They were both members of the informal literary discussion group known as The Inklings.
Instagram: @seedsofconsciousness_
KZbin: ‪@seedsofconsciousness8940‬
Home Page: seedsoc.com

[@Huffman_Tree]

Everyone seems to hate the interviewer. I love the interviewer. He clearly loves the books and knows a lot about them and it made for a great interview overall. Interviews today are usually much more shallow. Yes, he arrived at a few incorrect interpretations of the book and especially symbolism within the book, but remember that this was 60 years ago when people generally had to make up their own mind about things and couldn't just go on the internet to read up on everything.

[@thomasbrown8468]

Agreed

[@DavetheNord]

Well said.

[@trommnorse]

Dude, I love him too. He asks valid questions, it's obvious he has read Tolkien's books, he's respectful and knowledgeable. Bless this guy, I'd like to see this level of proffessionalism in journalism nowadays.

[@Johnny-Joseph]

He is a terrible interviewer by modern standards. He has a set list of questions and is unable to explore topics as his subject moves. eg. Instead of exploring the role of sex and temptation, he received a tangential answer regarding war and then moved on. A modern interviewer would jump on this thread.

[@dalepride8671]

To great fans it kind of seems as an attack on Tolkien. But we need to take it as it is. And through all it is just amazing. After all the Professor is a Hobbit himself.

[@tughanorhun9679]

love how he casually brings out a pipe at 23:21 while still answering the question :D

[@Garbageman28]

"It seems to me as though it's this world in a different era..." ".. .Well no, at a a different stage of imagination." Genius.

[@dr.demontale3250]

Is it weird, that I find myself honored to be able to hear this interview in such good quality? This is awesome, you just made my day, after a really hard day at work, I could just sit down, and listen to this extraordinary man talking about my favorite thing. Thank you, and have a great one, everybody :D

[@nicholaspoloukhine1761]

Same!

[@nicholaspoloukhine1761]

Same!

[@mikkotuisku1254]

its made audio. whats made good really too good

[@smokesnwhisky3822]

I hope after 2 years your days have been good.

[@trinelangohr6661]

Love it that the interviewer has not only READ the books, he has questions about all kinds of details, he's really interested in this. Yeah, he grills Tolkien for inconsistencies, but that's normal in academia. That's not taken as a sign of disrespect, it's simply an MO. I bet Tolkien really enjoyed this interview. He could really geek out when he answered the guy's questions.

[@nicholaspoloukhine1761]

I could listen to him talk forever

[@michaelodwyer7641]

This is an excellently clear upload. Well done for taking the time to find such high quality audio

[@christopherquinn5899]

This is a fantastic thing to find on KZbin. Thank you very much for putting it up. I must also add that I am struck that we are listening to men of superior education, and I think our culture has declined from the one that produced them.

[@terragthegreat175]

17:36 imagine accusing a man who watched friends die in WW1 of 'having all his good characters come home like happy boys safe from the war.'

[@NinjaBusCow]

You are awesome for uploading this. More people need to here this fine man speak!

[@TheReadyz]

Brilliant. Thank you for sharing

[@spiritualseekeramor]

Good is in Aragorn, in Frodo, in Sam, in Merry and Pippin, in Galadriel, in Gandalf, in Samwise, in Farmer Cotton, in Faramir, in Eowyn, good is in them all....and in us all. Attribute it to what you will. To me that's the beauty of the tale...better than a god doing it all....they all sacrifice and work for good and take care of one another....that's what defeats evil.

[@JohnEsplana-k5t]

I really like how knowledgeable the interviewer is regarding the story and actually asked smart and sensible questions. However it seems like they really have very diff personality especially humor. 😅

[@nbme-answers]

4:40 symbolic v. emblematic (leopards of England) 5:31 **pops bottle** 5:32 haven't you?? 5:58 the shire 6:50 memory as photographic plate (how did people describe memory before invention of camera?) 8:40 the indomitable courage of quite small people against impossible odds 10:06 the races

[@AlanSmitheeman]

They probably described memory as a painting before photography.

[@Ubermensch201]

Pops Bottle 😆😆😆🤣🤣🤣

[@TruSciencePro]

This man was a genius

[@simonidastankovic2627]

He still is....

[@robertdiaconeasa7460]

Thank you for this one 👍

[@RingwraithReborn]

This is simply fantastic. Thank you!

[@AlbertAlbertB.]

Thank you so very much for this. And it's clarity!

[@kamion53]

In a pre draft of the Sillmarilion, nl the story of Aelfwine, Tolkien tried to connect the ages of Middle Earth with real history. Aelfwine was cast as an Anglosaxon traveling to Tol Eressëa. When working out the landscape of the Sillmarilion he obvious dropped that idea.

[@chrismusix5669]

And Sauron was originally an evil cat named Tevildo.

[@FERALDOG4]

Love Tolkien’s voice

[@ab.7272]

Like Bilbo and Radagast had a nice chat in Bag End.

[@trommnorse]

At one point one can hear a match being fired and I instantly thought of Tolkien smoking Old Toby, the finest leaf in the Southfarthing.

[@Sari36YT]

Very interesting to hear Tolkien kind of bat aside the Tom Bombadil mention. I do wonder what is going on there...

[@lesromanchuk1293]

Arda existed in Tolkien's mind and in the minds of those who read of it. Perhaps in-between ice ages long ago then the world was reshaped and the Valar moved on into the vast universe

[@ParappatheRapper]

I always imagined the 3rd theme where "Elves aren't around" but "Men will have a role to play" are what we're living right now and that's why we don't see Elves and the other races are bound to the fate of Arda. Why we don't see dwarves? Well maybe they've all dug far below, haha. Anyway, it's all in good fun and nothing to be taken as true.

[@lesromanchuk1293]

@@ParappatheRapper That third theme would be quite noisy I'm thinking if it involved the 21 century. We're weird

[@sophiakiedrowski587]

Man, I wished Tolkien got to see Peter Jackson bring his epic LOTR books to the big screen

[@tfs7033]

He wouldn't of liked it. Its why he didnt like Shakespeare theatre plays. He believed books and writings should be left in the imagination.

[@SuperNovaJinckUFO]

Interviewer: *asks question* Tolkien: *gives clear answer* Interviewer: "With all due respect, I don't think that's actually what you really mean"

[@madmarx9539]

The interviewer is infuriatingly arrogant, Tolkien showed infinite patience with him. Imagine trying to pull that kind of thing now, you'd be lucky to get a second chance.

[@lioleigh9791]

@Shoenheim it's sheep* just as "Deer" isn't "Deers." We are social creatures. Do you wear pants and socks, use a toothbrush and sleep with a pillow? By your logic that makes you a sheep along with the rest of us. Please take your ill will and attitude to another place. Disrespectful to Tolkien, the atmosphere he created, and the love amongst men that he cherished.

[@Deadflower20xx]

@@lioleigh9791 I think calling this interviewer a dick or arrogant is just as disrespectful if not more lmao. Tolkien was a straight shooter and you would know immediately if you got him angry, but Tolkien laughed and joyfully responded to all the questions and some clarifications even made him give deep thought to his work. I think it pleased him someone was asking him questions out of the ordinary and not really insisting on anything. To say this interview was "Tolkien vs an Asshole" is massive disrespect.

[@thechitownclown8972]

Well, that's what people who ask the questions are supposed to do. It's funny that everyone that has read something by Tolkien act like like they knew that shit already. That's why it's called an interview, so questions can be explained so people that weren't that familiar with him and his work can get to know the details.

[@feno8104]

He sounds like Jerma doing the byeah voice

[@isaaclawson2097]

I can see where Lewis got the professor.

[@mariopinot9187]

Nice

[@rma3_3_3]

♡♡♡

[@Sagittarius-81]

1 The Tao that can be trodden is not the enduring and unchanging Tao. The name that can be named is not the enduring and unchanging name. (Conceived of as) having no name, it is the Originator of heaven and earth; (conceived of as) having a name, it is the Mother of all things. Always without desire we must be found, If its deep mystery we would sound; But if desire always within us be, Its outer fringe is all that we shall see. Under these two aspects, it is really the same; but as development takes place, it receives the different names. Together we call them the Mystery. Where the Mystery is the deepest is the gate of all that is subtle and wonderful.

[@guileweaver1574]

The impulse is being called reactionary now, but lovers of Middle-earth want to go there. I would myself, like a shot. For in the end it is Middle-earth and its dwellers that we love, not Tolkien’s considerable gifts in showing it to us. I said once that the world he charts was there long before him, and I still believe it. He is a great enough magician to tap our most common nightmares, daydreams and twilight fancies, but he never invented them either: he found them a place to live, a green alternative to each day’s madness here in a poisoned world. We are raised to honor all the wrong explorers and discoverers-thieves planting flags, murderers carrying crosses. Let us at last praise the colonizers of dreams. Peter S. Beagle

[@pfeifenderleidender7320]

22:03

[@mikkotuisku1254]

anything or anyone on story you should ask christopher tolkien now

[@chrismusix5669]

The interviewer had Tolkien on the ropes a few times, but J.R.R. came out swinging in the end :3

[@TheKoboldHoard]

24:30

[@strydyrhellzrydyr1345]

I think he said strode instead of using stride

[@danieltatman3803]

Bestrode

[@Mk-xy2hd]

@@danieltatman3803 Bestride

[@Johnny-Joseph]

'The immense warlike capacity of the Jews to which we tend to forget these days"... Pressing 😅

[@mikkotuisku1254]

Im just to pissed. people think but there is not any interview nor speak of J.R.R tolkien in any media

[@theguywhoisaustralian1465]

It's pretty amusing to me that the journalist had clearly done his research and is a big fan, but nearly conclusion he arrived at was wrong

[@senhordoutorprofessormestr8629]

I think Mr Tolkien would enjoy watching Star Wars, a fantasy story as far in the space as Middle Earth is in the time.

[@lioleigh9791]

Yes but I see him being more into Star Trek as it delves more into philosophy and sociology, seems more up his alley. But we'll never know.

[@senhordoutorprofessormestr8629]

@@lioleigh9791 maybe

[@ogbee9690]

Star wars is overrated as hell

[@dado82]

...he lights the match at the 23:22 and the pipe enters at 23:34 What is J.R.R.T. whitout a pipe and tobacco, right? :)

[@entwistlefromthewho]

Mr Gueroult dislikes Finnish, I assume.

[@cosmicman621]

...always dancing around..Tolkien’s vision of..Far Memory..his lifelong..Atlantis Dream...wherefore this axial..UNDEAD...with Heart-Song said...Needs BE ..OUR SINGING..TO WED 🐝🌈

[@TheDrexxus]

The interviewer doesn't seem to understand what a work of fantasy actually is. He keeps trying to ask how it fits chronologically with the real world and Tolkien is like "dude, its not the real world"

[@lordlightning2339]

Exactly and this is the trouble of fiction today. We have to have add a kind of realism to it.

[@Deadflower20xx]

I don't think that's unfair to think that...especially since it's very vague when Tolkien has said in the past Lord of the Rings is a sort of ancient history or mythology of England, that means it would have to take place in some sort of time that aligns with us, logically. But the fantastical elements muddy that and so it's not our world and yet is our world at the same time. Not exactly an easy thing to grasp, seems fitting to me that he asked for further clarification.

[@mikkotuisku1254]

Some just make good to sound to these like real

[@pajamarock]

The interviewer is pulling the answers outta him..just doin his job

[@TheHolyMongolEmpire]

Clearly black people were everywhere in ancient England…

[@ravenhill_firelord_1968]

No they weren’t.

[@TheHolyMongolEmpire]

@@ravenhill_firelord_1968 obviously, I was being sarcastic.

[@ravenhill_firelord_1968]

back to a time when england was actually english and britain was british.

[@blackcoffeeinbed]

What are you trying to say?

[@john_6232]

@@blackcoffeeinbed It was better back then

[@tomtaylor5623]

@@blackcoffeeinbed the all-seeing eye is using mindless orcs to take over the british shires and destroy everything that is good. it's almost as tho LotR is based on this exact event happening in the past when 'fair folk' used to live in middle earth... you might want to look up the etymology of elf.

[@prltqdf9]

@@blackcoffeeinbed Uncontrolled immigration from third-world countries and Middle-East has ruined England, Britain... and every country it has been carried out in.

[@lioleigh9791]

Wow. Didn't realize there were so many racist & xenophobic Tolkien fans lol this is crazy. What is wrong with all of you 😕

[@pollydebeaufort4840]

haha.I also dislike this interviewer-Tolkein also sounds irritated. The interviewer has a bossy attitude

[@mikkotuisku1254]

Get it real. Its not tolkien speaking there. its from the christopher photo he took to grave fathers grave

[@Huffman_Tree]

Please clarify - you're saying this is not Tolkien but someone else speaking?

[@lioleigh9791]

Someone speaking from a photo? This must be a bot