Tolkien's Other Writings

[@jaybea68]

There were many examples in the backdrop here but Tolkien's calligraphy, designs, doodles, drawings and illustrations are worthy of their own video too. 😊

[@lida7529]

Yes!

[@chrisdaigle5410]

As a teacher assistant in an Elementary School, I used to hold a reading group and every year, I would make sure to read Farmer Giles of Ham. It has a sort of cliff hanger every 15 minutes or so and was a great time to stop and ask questions to the students about what we read and what they think will happen next. They really enjoyed it every time.

[@PrinceIsot]

Tolkien is the reason we not only have Lord of the Rings but he's really also the reason we have Dungeons and Dragons, A Song of Ice and Fire and the Elder Scrolls. Thank you Sir, for all you gave us

[@Peter-vb3dc]

Also World of Warcraft and really the entire modern fantasy genre. Tolkien left an indelible mark on all subsequent fantasy worlds, simply because everyone who developed their own fantasy world, did so after reading Tolkien. That experience invariably shaped the development of their own imagined world.

[@Jordan3DS]

Not to mention Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, SaGa, and basically every other RPG franchise!

[@Big_Tex]

Not to mention Harry Potter🤣

[@martavdz4972]

No, it wasn´t just BAM! here comes Tolkien out of thin air. And BAM! here come all the other authors and games. Tolkien had inspiration and colleague feedback. And fantasy games and authors have also been inspired by other stories. SO: Ancient myths and fairy-tales, the Bible, Lewis Carroll, George McDonald, C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien (or, all the Inklings). ALL THOSE led to what we now know as the fantasy genre. (Sorry, I have a degree in literature and wrote essays on fantasy... triggered as charged 🙂 )

[@Jebbtube]

It's fascinating how ancient classics influenced Tolkien, who in turn influenced virtually all fantasy that came after him.

[@JonBrownSherman]

It seems that a big part of Tolkien's influence is because of how he brought so many aspects of classic stories and old wisdom into his stories that it serves as a vehicle to bring all of that timeless literary greatness to the modern world.

[@martavdz4972]

Tolkien didn´t stand alone. No creator does. He was building on George McDonald´s work, and got a lot of support, inspiration and feedback from his friends, the Inklings. Who were, btw, similarly obsessed with ancient classics and wrote stories that were similar to Tolkien´s in some ways. But it was only Tolkien and C.S. Lewis who gained international fame.

[@Jordan3DS]

I notice that two of the most celebrated works of modern fiction (The Lord of the Rings and Star Wars) are both a collection of the creator's interests. I wonder if part of the reason that they're so beloved is because you can really feel the passion the creators put into those works, and the fact that they took the best parts of many stories and formed them into one tale?

[@martavdz4972]

@@Jordan3DS Absolutely. LOTR and Narnia are a pure concentrated essence of Tolkien´s and Lewis´s passions, interests, expert knowledge, life experience and wisdom, hope, faith, pains and joys. Btw it was C.S. Lewis who argued that words should have genuine value behind them. He basically wrote down the principle he and Tolkien were following and you could sense 🙂 That writing and looking at texts "from outside" - deconstructing the emotions and stories, not living them - is actually dangerous for the humankind. (Nowadays, we know it can lead to boredom, lack of purpose in life and potentially depression.) As in, "a wise old man" should mean someone who genuinely deserves respect for his age and wisdom, and the reader should read it like that. They should live the respect. Not just think "OK, he´s written as a person someone might consider wise". It´s a super-thin book called "The Abolition of Man", it´s not on Christianity, so suitable for anyone, totally recommend it 🙂

[@Kay-xb9cp]

I saw Leaf by Niggle performed at the Edinburgh Fringe, the actor read the whole book from memory….I fell in love with the book from that performance and have read it several times. It’s a story of faith and of hope and is beautifully written, as you’d expect from the great man himself.

[@revansecofreak394]

That’s incredible! What a cool performance to have seen

[@JenksAnro]

I would really recommend Tolkien's translation of Gawain and the Green Knight, that it reads similarly to The Lord of the Rings really helps to add some familiarity to the work, and Pearl is an utterly, utterly gorgeous poem about the loss of a daughter and the city of heaven

[@rickansell661]

A note from the 80s. A quote I remember reading in an early issue of White Dwarf magazine, before anything like the current number of works had been published: "JRR Posthumous Laundry Lists" IIRC the writer was criticising Christopher Tolkien and the Tolkien estate, but I'm not sure. But "JRR Posthumous Laundry Lists" Ronald has been to me ever since.

[@TheDesertMarmot]

I will always have a special place in my heart for Letters from Father Christmas. It was the first Tolkien I read, totally by chance. My piano teacher kept a copy on her coffee table during December and I read it while my sister was having her lesson. I really enjoyed it and saw a copy of The Hobbit in the school library not long afterwards and decided to try it. More than 25 years later I'm still hooked.

[@BaldingClamydia]

When I was growing up, my uncle used to take me to the local bookstore. We'd get in the door, split up and meet back up at some point where our book interests overlap, each with an armload of books. Mostly the limit was as many as I could carry :D Anyway, one time we found a book of Tolkien's poems ("The Adventures of Tom Bombadil"). I still have it, my favorite was "The Mewlips" a dark little poem, and my uncle's was "Perry the Winkle." It was about a giant that isn't mean like the others, but no one believes that, except Perry the Winkle. The giant loved to cook, and nearly the entire poem is descriptions of amazing sounding food. Good times, thanks for listening to me reminisce, I miss my uncle a lot

[@martavdz4972]

"Nearly the entire poem is descriptions of amazing sounding food" that sounds great 😄

[@christinecnew3268]

Robert, I cannot thank you enough for your work presenting Tolkien's work to us. You give me direction, insight, understanding. Your are so talented.

[@richardfox4803]

Smith of Wooton Major, a short but utterly beautiful piece. I saw it as Tolkien's swansong, it was his last prose piece published in his life time.

[@earthknight60]

There's a story that goes around that Tolkien initially intended LotR to be written as an epic poem and that he made several attempts at this, eventually giving up on the attempt and stickin with prose instead. The story is that many of the pieces of poetry within the LotR is from these earlier attempts. It would be interesting to have an episode about this subject.

[@mayalackman7581]

I have never heard this. I am very skeptical as it would have been documented by Christopher Tolkien in The History of Middle Earth.

[@RingsLoreMaster]

@@mayalackman7581 He could have written all the manuscripts dealing w/ Arda in posey.

[@krakentacos]

I have enjoyed "Letters from Father Christmas". I must have been amazing having a father who could or would write such wonderful correspondence from the North Pole.

[@lauramccormick194]

Letters from Father Christmas is an incredibly beautiful book. I really can't recommend it enough

[@RingsLoreMaster]

To be fair to Edith, Ronald had better have been the one who cleaned up the footprints. Though I highly suspect he didn't.

[@OlliWilkman]

I remember reading Roverandom as a teenager, probably in 1999 or 2000. I had no idea until now that it had only been published a year or two before.

[@DoctorEmpirical]

The Father Christmas Letters was a joy. It's important to remember that, for the Tolkien children, a year passed between each installment, and they were a year older, at an age when a year was an eternity and the child of a year ago was a distant stranger.

[@martavdz4972]

Good point!

[@royceflores23]

Wow. This one hit me hard and made me weepy. I have tried to be a writer so many times in my life. Starts and starts and starts of book ideas. I work on them for a few weeks, one even a few months. But then the world just escaped me and I lose the fire. Very profound stuff. Thanks Robert.

[@martavdz4972]

Perhaps start with loving and creating the world, and not the book? Or, try to write very short stories first? What also helps me is having a "mentor" who regularly asks me gently how the writing´s going, and gives me feedback. I used to work as a researcher in mythology and written a couple of books, but it took a lot of mentoring and very non-traditional tricks to keep myself focused. Never lose hope and never stop inventing those tricks! Totally feel you, and good luck!

[@apstrike]

Thanks for this. It was a great summary at the perfect level of detail and it made sense of a lot of the works I would otherwise never read.

[@miked3340]

I love reading Farmer Giles of Ham every now and again.

[@marieroberts5664]

"There was no getting around Queen Agatha...or at least, it was a long walk.". 😊

[@timothyprice5436]

For me, The Father Christmas Letters. Particularly because of the pictures with them

[@mch12311969]

I see that I have more than a few volumes to gather in order to complete my Tolkien library. Leaf by Niggle is one of my all-time favorite stories, and one that I happened upon purely by accident, while in a local used book shop.

[@michaelsmyth3935]

From 1960 something to 1980 my Father was the comic book, paperback, magazine agent. I had been to Middle Earth by the age of 8. To this day, as a collection, I recommend The Tolkien Reader. Oliphant indeed.

[@AEDVINtus]

I think an important lesson to take away from Tolkien is that you should write all you want and all that you can, and don't take too great of an offense to not finishing every story. If you keep writing, one day you will. Don't even look at it like failures, as they all are part of learning and plotting for your actually finished short stories, novels, and paintings.

[@Swarm509]

Further to your point readers need to remember this as well. As much as I want to see more Fire and Ice series for instance I would not fault George R. R. Martin for doing other things or deciding to start something else entirely. Also Tolkien shows that you can be inspired by, and use, great stories and themes from past works in your story. Tolkien used all that he was familiar with to create his works over his life.

[@DrunksNotDead]

I loved reading Roverandom and Farmer Giles were among the books that really got me into reading as kid. I definitely will read them for/with my children. 😊

[@OddRagnarDengLerstl]

Leaf by Nigel is my favourite. It capture so much of what faith and belief is.

[@joshuakarr-BibleMan]

Beowulf, indeed. I had a prof in college making fun of me for using a Project Gutenberg copy of Beowulf, and then when I asked a question about the hero swimming across the sea with 30 coats of mail in his arms, it became evident she had never considered the difficulty of that feat, or even noticed that's what the story tells us happens.

[@user-hw5yr1ew9c]

Why would somebody make fun of you for using a Gutenberg copy?

[@twiss9341]

Lmao if you don’t know the context, this comment is so confusing

[@vojinjankovic3940]

@@twiss9341 im very confused

[@ToothpikcOriginal]

@@twiss9341 I've read Beowulf and I'm confused

[@tzianer]

whats a better feeling then seeing u uploaded and tolkien is in the title?

[@brandonmunsen6035]

Winning the lottery. Orgasms. Eating pizza.

[@crowverra5343]

Being Isekai'd into Middle-Earth

[@Baboonery_]

I was hoping you'd do this video just as recently as a few days ago and here it is! w0o0o0o!

[@nerdbrick1012]

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight was a great Poem

[@cebolaameaca]

I would love more videos on these! I’m surprised you didn’t mention the newly published Battle of Maldon

[@themoonman-4]

Bravo Robert!

[@RingsLoreMaster]

My favorite non-canonical work is the last poem in "The Adventures of Tom Bombadil, The Sea Bell or Frodo's Dreme. My favorite letter, written to Lewis, is Mythopoeia

[@stitch3163]

Cheers, Robert! That was fun.

[@liksa111]

Amazing work! 👏 I love Tolkien and have his whole collection and many different editions too but you put it all into perspective

[@Raggmopp-xl7yf]

Smith of Wootton Major and Farmer Giles of Ham was a book I got when I'd just finished reading LOTR as a teenager. It was really my first glimpse into the real fae culture of the UK. It was shortly after that I got Grimms Fairy Tales and saw how dark these stories really were - I LOVED it!

[@DeadToTheWorld92]

Interesting topic for a video!

[@markp6062]

Very good! I knew there was stuff outside LOTR, like Beowulf, but had no idea there was so much of it.

[@midimusicforever]

I am just like that too. There's always a new shiny interesting thing to get started on!

[@18edu]

Fantastic vídeo!!

[@somedude6161]

My favourite of his other books was "Farmer Giles of Ham", since the protagonist shares my last name! I like to think he's a distant ancestor 🤔🤔

[@ericgeddes3353]

Thank you Robert . This is great.

[@strykerdh]

god your voice is so fucking soothing

[@LarisaBayaMomo]

So very interesting.

[@random22026]

14:37 Robert: does this bookshop actually exist?!?!? ♥🥰🥰🤗🤗❤❤ BRILLIANT SYNOPSIS, by the way! :D 🥳👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏

[@joannemoore3976]

I love Smith of Wootton Major, it's beautiful. The scene with the Queen of Fairie is transcendent.

[@comesahorseman]

👍👍 Thank you!

[@phnompenhandy]

Sounds like GRR Martin could do with (re)reading Leaf by Niggle.

[@istari0]

I read a few of his other works many years ago and hope to revisit them and read some of the newer ones one of these years.

[@nilspeereboom3000]

Interesting, thank you!

[@HeimburgerMusic]

I see Smith of Wootton Major not just as a melancholy tale of a man who can no longer travel to Fairyland, but as a passing on of that gift. Especially since he wrote it near the end of his career. Smith has been able to travel to a magical other world since he received a special gift as a boy. As an adult we even see that his family feels a bit neglected by his travels away. Finally he must return this gift so that another child may receive it. It’s a fantasy passing of the torch as he, himself was preparing to pass the torch of his work to his son and the genre of fantasy literature to other authors.

[@meganofsherwood3665]

Yes! Exactly! There is a melancholy that he will no longer be able to go, but peace and hope in that he is able to pass that magic onto another child

[@RingsLoreMaster]

And, beside that, is his belief, expressed in a long end note in 'On Fairy Story' that the Gospels are Fairy Story, a Fairy Story that came true. Heaven then is his. The sadness is of the Elven quality, for he is dwindling, yet, as you say, the fire lives on.

[@christina3512]

I thoroughly enjoy Farmer Giles of Ham and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, but I think my favourite has to be Smith of Wooton Major. It is a sad story, but it's beautifully told and it manages to bring a lot of the magic of the legendarium to a story set in a world a lot like ours, with the faerie realm just out of reach for most of us, but still providing a little magic.

[@AskMia411]

8:46 Sounds like me doing anything 😅 makes me wonder if Tolkien had ADHD, since that’s a major symptom- hyper focus that then transfers to a different subject/activity after a while. (I’m a writer with ADHD, and despite working on several different projects for years I’ve yet to finish any for this exact reason.) Obviously there are many other symptoms and I have no way of knowing if Tolkien had any of them, it’s just interesting to wonder.

[@veraglauben]

That's what I immediately thought too! (Fellow adhd-er myself). Tolkien is our king!

[@sr2291]

Or high functioning Ausism.

[@martavdz4972]

@@sr2291 Nothing in Tolkien´s biography suggests he was autistic. He was pretty conventional in his lifestyle, a good communicator with a large family. C.S. Lewis might have had some degree of autism. I´ve read his biography and most of his works, and some things ring a bell, they remind me of the autistic people I know. But he was an extrovert, so it didn´t stand out that much.

[@martavdz4972]

Agreed, but more precisely, attention deficit disorder (ADD), not attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Or, I think there´s a new standard, in which he would be ADHD, the Inattentive subtype. Lots of creative people have ADD or ADHD.

[@AskMia411]

@@martavdz4972 Yeah, my diagnosis as a kid was add, but most people didn’t/still don’t know the difference so I eventually just simplified it to ADHD when talking about it. But yeah, it seems like that distinction isn’t there anymore in psychology, like you said it’s just different subtypes of ADHD now.

[@robertbrown3413]

Smith of Wooton Major is my favourite and free to download. "The time has come, let him choose".

[@random22026]

0:32 0:34 0:37 0:44 0:50 to 1:12 to 1:45 2:33 to 2:44 3:47 to 4:24 4:24 to 4:47 to 4:56 to 5:01 5:07 to 5:23 6:18 to 6:45 7:02 7:11 7:14 7:51 to 8:45 9:10 to 9:20 9:24 to 11:40 11:42 to 12:17 12:17 to 13:51 14:04 on :D

[@denniscattell]

It's interesting to compare Leaf By Niggle with C S Lewis' The Great Divorce as both works are the authors attempting to tell in a story or allegory their thoughts on life after death.

[@martavdz4972]

Interesting thought, it was The Last Battle by Lewis that came to my mind, but this is a good point, too.

[@JohanHolmbergMalmo]

Whoever illustrated the Beowulf map was certainly generous with the mountains around Öresund.

[@stoner36s]

I was torn on whether to get The Lenticular Facsimile of The Hobbit or the Deluxe Edition of Tales From the Perilous Realm next, you just convinced me.

[@the_real_littlepinkhousefly]

I know a ton of people rag on Rings of Power, but -- even though I have been a Tolkien "fan" for decades, my personal interest up until RoP came out was only in LOTR and the Silmarillion. My son had several other Tolkien books, but I wasn't interested. After RoP came out I found myself wanting to know more about the history, more lore from the overall legendarium, so I started reading books like Unfinished Tales, The Fall of Gondolin and The Fall of Númenor. I've been adding new legendarium books to my Tolkien pile, but I hadn't been all that interested in the non-legendarium works until this video. Now there are several I want to read. So, whatever anyone thinks of Rings of Power (I happen to very much enjoy it, imperfect as it is), it has piqued my personal interest in more of Tolkien's writings, and I know many other people have said the same. I likely wouldn't have been all that interested in the content of this video were it not for RoP fanning my Tolkien spark into flame, so between RoP, and Robert's bringing these books to our attention, there is much more I want to read, and for that I am very grateful.

[@HelciusCabral]

Would love your take on George R R Martin's other works! His sci-fi stories are so underrated nowadays!

[@Swarm509]

One thing that is interesting is how many of Tolkien's works appear to be meant to be read aloud, be it to children or a group of people. I think it is missed how much he enjoyed the oral story tradition, even if he had to use writing as his primary tool. His books lend themselves to audiobook so well.

[@martavdz4972]

Exactly! This isn´t stressed often enough. Most of his works were read aloud to the Inklings and edited based on their feedback.

[@davinhunt7558]

Awesome

[@jeremystevens2045]

I do hope that I can read the new writings about Middle Earth from Tolkien in the afterlife.

[@dawnchanguit5536]

I love Leaf by Niggle for its Hope. Smith of Wooten Major for its Magic. And Farmer Giles for its Humor.

[@bacul165]

There are lovely audiobooks of many of these stories read by Derek Jacobi

[@waccooga]

Another vote for the Father Christmas Letters!

[@snakes3425]

Part of me wants to say that Rover went on to dwell in Valinor

[@karlsweeney2328]

I've read Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and Sigurd and Gudrun. Love those but I think they're the only non Legy that I've read.

[@heath_deadgerpvp1161]

Tolkien's life reflects that of the Master Storyteller; what a great role model.

[@marieroberts5664]

There's a heck of a list, but the Tolkien Reader, which has both of the Adventures of Tom Bombadill, is my favorite.

[@jabuhrer1]

Leaf by Niggle is the most moving story I’ve ever read.

[@aztec0112]

Farmer Giles of Ham is pure gold!

[@higginswalsan]

I’m so thankful Tolkien did a translation of Beowulf so I don’t have to research which one is considered the best

[@12345.......]

To quote Amos from The Expanse: Everyone leaves unfinished business, that's what dying is.

[@sulljoh1]

Wait a minute, some of that sounds familiar to Der Ring des Nibelungen I thought Tolkien denied any connection to that story, saying "Both rings were round, and there the resemblance ceases." 🤔

[@Luziferrum]

Tolkien did write a translation of Sigurd's Saga from old Icelandic to what he considered contemporary english. He was influenced a lot by the saga as was Wagner. In the anglophone world only the opera is famous. I can imagine why Tolkien wanted to distance himself from Wagner.

[@davidannderson9796]

Lord of the Rings and Wagner's Ring cycle share a very similar spirit- the spirit of traditional mythic fantasy, which both share with Star Wars- but are completely different in almost every detail of their plot, including the rings in question, which are quite different. I believe that this is what Tolkien meant.

[@sulljoh1]

@@davidannderson9796 TY! - and this might be the most polite, scholarly comments section on KZbin 😆

[@olixpatdo8181]

That's why I am not worried about Grrm

[@ryanjohnson3615]

I'd like to see a decent Earthsea trilogy someday.

[@SHARKVADERS]

I D G !!!!!

[@annalieff-saxby568]

Top "other" Tolkien writings: "On Fairy Stories" from "Tree and Leaf" (non-fiction) Farmer Giles of Ham (children's book - utterly hilarious!) Sir Gawaine and the Green Knight (translation). Youre welcome!

[@RingsLoreMaster]

Leaving out 'On Fairy Stories' while including "Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics" seems strange in that those 2 are his best known acadmic works. Unless u take Shippey's standpoint and believe that the works of and on Arda are an outgrowth of his academic career.

[@annalieff-saxby568]

@@RingsLoreMaster I think you mistyped. I included "On Fairy Stories" and excluded Beowulf. The reason? I wasn't listing Tolkein's complete works, but the ones I _personally_ felt were top reads. I didn't mention "Pearl" or "Smith of Wooton Major" either.

[@RingsLoreMaster]

I was talking about Robert, or Rob

[@annalieff-saxby568]

@@RingsLoreMaster Robert or Rob who?

[@RingsLoreMaster]

@@annalieff-saxby568 Robert is the creator of this vlog.

[@CloudslnMyCoffee]

Okay now we are going to need a mythical/true history (especially of subRoman Britian). King Cole was a real figure other than a merry ole soul? How does he fit in with Arthur? Where does Robin Hood fit in?

[@taintedstrike7513]

❤

[@one-for-sorrow]

I must make a correction here, Sir Gawain was first published in 1925. I own a 1952 edition.

[@Raphaeldo3]

make one about George rr Martin other books!

[@robertmoye7565]

Farmer GIles of Ham is a brilliant story and a favorite. Smith of Wooten Major is also a favorite but I disagree with your analysis. The passing of the fairy star is not a depressing loss but a passing on of the gift of the fairy king to select mortals.

[@superodfx]

One great story ends where another begins….

[@mrmeowmeow710]

👍👍👍👍

[@chables74]

Algormancy!

[@brianc9374]

Farmer giles was the best

[@USERNAMEfieldempty]

Didn't he write numerous articles for, ''Hot Girls With No Clothes Or Limits'' when he was a struggling young author?

[@sourisvoleur4854]

You may be thinking of someone else.

[@stephaniefrederick1180]

🌝

[@user-ot1dv6ri4f]

Sounds like Tolkien had ADHD

[@manuelsepulveda2692]

Everything else you did was amazing - Thank You for that. "Arthur's Nephew Mordred" from ANYONE as educated and understanding STARKLY ILLUSTRATES utilizing "mispronunciation to get comments(provocation for the sake of the Alogrithm rather than GENUINE ENGAGEMENT.)" Goodbye good sir. Perhaps, another day.