Hobbits can be seen as the proxies for Tolkien\u2019s children, but as with all things with the author, there\u2019s also something much darker at play here. Tolkien abhorred any attempts to turn his Middle Earth books into simple allegories for the two world wars he lived and wrote through. Still it\u2019s very hard not to see his hobbits as the \u201ceveryman\u201d analogues for the pastoral Brits who were drawn into the horrors of the First World War and then the even greater terrors of WWII, as Tolkien and his sons were, respectively. In that way, Bilbo of The Hobbit\u2014who is press-ganged into leaving his cozy hobbit hole by a wizard and a pack of dwarves\u2014reminds us of the young J.R.R. Tolkien, who was so reluctant to go off to war at the tender age of 22 he used an academic deferral to delay enlisting. <\/p>
In a 1941 letter to his son Michael, Tolkien recalled: \u201cIn those days chaps joined up, or were scorned publicly. It was a nasty cleft to be in for a young man with too much imagination and little physical courage.\u201d A few years later Tolkien did, reluctantly, go to war. He wrote: \u201cJunior officers were being killed off, a dozen a minute. Parting from my wife then \u2026 it was like a death.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
It’s a thought-provoking read. Go check it out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Read a Field Guide to The Rings of Power Pt 1: Concerning Hobbits<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n
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