Hello, and welcome to Mythic Mind, where we pursue wisdom in the past
between primary secondary worlds. I'm your host, dangerwh Snyder, and I am
always grateful for your company. Some time ago, I started a substack on
Tolkien's letters as I go through each one, providing brief background, summaries,
and reflections. I've unfortunately had to put that on the back burner a number
of times, but I'm still working on it as I am able. I
make posts on odd numbered letters free for everyone, and posts on even numbered
letters are behind a small paywall. But for a while I was giving subscriptions
to ten dollars a month patrons, but that was becoming a tedious process to
manage, and I really just can't afford the time to be overly tedious.
However, I'm not working around this in a new way. I'm going to
be reading these articles and dropping them into the Patreon exclusive podcast feed for all
Tier three patrons or higher, and so that's again ten dollars a month or
higher. This means that you're going to have access to all of these posts
in audio form, the odd and even numbered, and of course you'll also
have all episodes of the Mythic Mind Legacy podcast and the Mythic Mind Fellowship podcast
add free, all put into one feed for you. Now, I am
providing the recording of the post on the first letter for everyone. It's that
way you have some sense of how it goes. But if you like the
other recordings, you should join the Mythic Mind Patreon or up your subscription to
the ten dollars a month tier. But now let's go ahead and get to
it. Introduction. I am so grateful to bring you the inaugural post of
this series on the letters of J. R. R. Tolkien, edited
by Humphrey Carpenter. These letters are charming for so many reasons. Some of
the letters delve deeply into his literary struggles and the decisions that he faced in
crafting his legendarium. Others reveal some of his major literary influences and sourceman.
Others deal with some topic of theology or philosophy. Others provide insights into his
relationship with his family. Some like this first one, are engaging precisely because
they are so mundane. Now why might that be of some benefit to us?
Well, for now, let's just take a brief look at the letter
and then we'll come back to that question when we get to the reflection.
All right, now the summary, So, this letter was written in October
of nineteen fourteen to Edith Bratt, and Tolkien was engaged to Edith. At
this time, he was in his final year as an undergraduate at Oxford,
and he was in the University Officer's Training Corps in preparation for joining the army.
Now, as for the content of the letter, Tolkien had recently received
a letter from Edith and was returning the favor. He apologizes for being so
busy lately, and he recounts some of the things that have been taking up
so much of his time. It had been particularly rainy for the last few
days, including during his drills, and so it took ages to clean his
rifle. Fortunately, however, he was able to spend much of his time
reading. He was forbid from doing work on the Sabbath, and he attended
high Mass, which he enjoyed. He found far less enjoyment, however,
in an obligatory visit with the Rector, which quote was very boring. Furthermore,
Tolkien recounts, quote, his wife is really appalling. I got away
as soon as possible, and fled back in the rain to my books end
quote, and talking I can always relate to that impulse desiring to flee social
engagements to get back to my books. Finally, Tolkien mentions that he is
working on making a short story out of the Khalivala, the great Finnish epic
compiled in the nineteenth century. He doesn't go into more details here, but
this would become the story of Kalervo, which unfortunately wouldn't be published until twenty
fifteen. This will come up again in reference to other letters, but as
a teaser is worth noting that this story, this finished tale, would be
instrumental in writing the story of Turinturnbar as told in The Silmarillion and in the
Children of Huron reflection. It is so easy to put our heroes on pedestals
and almost class them as superhuman. This is particularly true of Tolkien, who
is known for his masterful stories and as well as his penetrating insights that we
get in his essays and his literary criticism and whatnot. However, JR.
Tolkien is first and foremost a man amongst men, with the same frustrations,
boredoms, and busyness that we all face. In some way or another.
In recognizing his very real humanity, we come to find that we two can
rise to great heights. Maybe he'll never be a Tolkien, but you don't
need to be. We've already had one Tolkien, yes, and we don't
need second Tolkien. However, we can certainly learn from his patterns of life
to discover what made this ordinary man so unordinary. And there are a couple
elements from this letter that particularly stand out to me. First, he obviously
holds his beloved Edioth in great esteem. One line from the beginning particularly stands
out to me. Quote, you do write splendid letters to me, little
one. I am such pig to you. Though I'm certain this is not
mere rhetoric, he seems to genuinely feel shamed by her goodness to him.
Later on, we'll see that she was his inspiration for the character of Luthian,
the fairest elf maiden who ever lived this. Ability to appreciate true beauty,
particularly in the one to whom you are mundanely committed, is critical to
receiving the right kind of inspiration. The poet is only as skilled as his
ability to cherish his muse In the day today, and secondly, it doesn't
take great study to discover that Tolkien was given to great study. He spent
rainy days reading, He dodged social engagements reading. He familiarized himself with epic
stories and poetry. And one of the primary reasons he was able to produce
magnificent stories is that he himself was immersed in magnificent stories. If you want
to be great in your field, whether in the arts, the sciences,
or whatever else, make sure that you are intimately acquainted with the greats who
have come before you. Regardless of your domain, you are almost certainly operating
in a domain that was carved out by these greats, and they continue to
shape the way that you operate, whether you realize it or not. And
so make this influence intentional. Go to the foundations, and if this is
too broad, start with the foundational voices that interest you. The more that
you befriend them and make your relationship with them intentional, the more that you'll
be able to harness the same spirit that they did to accomplish great things in
your own right. Tolkien's legendarium is not the same as the epics that came
before him, but it most certainly would not reach its own epic greatness without
them. Thank you for listening, and I hope that you found this worthwhile.
If you did, be sure to go to patreon dot com slash Mythic
Mind and join the ten dollars a month here. Whether we're talking about one
of these more mundane letters or one that does a bit more heavy lifting,
I think that you'll find that there is a richness in Tolkien's thought, there's
a richness in his family life, there is a richness that just exudes from
his personal correspondence with those around him. But until next time, I wish
you many meaningful roads ahead. All music, including this episode is owned by
Newline Productions, and please don't sue me.