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The One Ring Forums:
Tolkien Topics: Reading Room:
Writer Guy Davenport claimed that Tolkien latched on to his classmate’s tales of Kentucky.:
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Curious
Half-elven
Apr 22, 1:14am
Views: 5376
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Writer Guy Davenport claimed that Tolkien latched on to his classmate’s tales of Kentucky.
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The classmate of Tolkien’s was Allen Barnett, a Kentucky lawyer. Davenport claimed Barnett had no knowledge of Tolkien’s fiction, but remembered how much he liked tales of Kentucky. Davenport quoted Barnett saying:
“‘You know, [Tolkien] used to have the most extraordinary interest in the people here in Kentucky. He could never get enough of my tales of Kentucky folk. He used to make me repeat family names like Barefoot and Boffin and Baggins and good country names like that.’”
Davenport noted that tobacco is grown and cured in Kentucky like pipeweed is in the Shire:
“Practically all the names of Tolkien's hobbits are listed in my Lexington phone book, and those that aren't can be found over in Shelbyville. Like as not, they grow and cure pipeweed for a living. Talk with them, and their turns of phrase are pure hobbit: ‘I hear tell,’ ‘right agin,’ ‘Mr. Frodo is his first and second cousin, once removed either way,’ ‘this very month as is.’ These are English locutions, of course, but ones that are heard oftener now in Kentucky than England.”
I have never seen any corroboration of Davenport’s claim, and it may just be that the rural village in which Tolkien grew up has a lot in common with rural villages in Kentucky or, as you suggest, Iowa. But the tobacco connection is interesting, and I don’t think they cured tobacco in Tolkien’s English village.
https://www.nytimes.com/1979/02/23/archives/hobbits-in-kentucky.html
(This post was edited by Curious on Apr 22, 1:18am)
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Edit Log:
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Post edited by Curious
(Half-elven) on Apr 22, 1:14am
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Post edited by Curious
(Half-elven) on Apr 22, 1:16am
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Post edited by Curious
(Half-elven) on Apr 22, 1:17am
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Post edited by Curious
(Half-elven) on Apr 22, 1:18am
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