Tolkien Died Fifty Years Ago

Two questions on quora:

Q I

What evidence is there that J.R.R. Tolkien based his world on Earth?
https://www.quora.com/What-evidence-is-there-that-J-R-R-Tolkien-based-his-world-on-Earth/answer/Hans-Georg-Lundahl-1

Hans-Georg Lundahl

avid reader back when I had better sleep than now

Tue 29.VIII.2023

Decapitation of St. John the Baptist

From Lord of the Rings, volume I, The Fellowship of the Ring, “Prologue, Concerning Hobbits”

Those days, the Third Age of Middle-earth, are now long past, and the shape of all lands has been changed; but the regions in which Hobbits then lived were doubtless the same as those in which they still linger: the North-West of the Old World, east of the Sea.

The “Old World” means what was known to Europeans without crossing the Atlantic. A k a Europe, Asia and Africa (though not all parts of the latter two were known).

In a letter, he also says that Minas Tirith was about the latitude of Rome, but further West.

Q II

Did J.R.R. Tolkien base his story about dwarves, elves and humans on real history?
https://www.quora.com/Did-J-R-R-Tolkien-base-his-story-about-dwarves-elves-and-humans-on-real-history/answer/Hans-Georg-Lundahl-1

Hans-Georg Lundahl

none/ apprx Masters in Latin (language) & Greek (language), Lund University

2.IX.2023

He based it on recurrent themes in real history.

He did not base a single story on a real event told in its own place and time, or the closest he came to it was the sinking of Númenor as the sinking of Atlantis, everything around that being reconstruction from other events.

Probably he based sinking of Númenor partly on the Flood of Noah as well, though it is a less good match, and therefore conditions in Númenor just before the sinking on what he considered pre-Flood conditions in the light of Genesis 6 and Matthew 24.

Then he based lots of more things on how that would have branched out backwards and forwards, again using unrelated material from the real world. Imagine you took an imaginary war based in part on American Civil War and in Part on World War Two … Hitler and Jefferson Davis were both “on the racist side” and yet very different - how would you handle it? That’s about how little JRRT’s stories resemble real events in their real times, but also how he came to make it so like real events in the succession of moral phases and tactics and things.

Q III

Did J.R.R. Tolkien create multiple languages for Middle-Earth?
https://www.quora.com/Did-J-R-R-Tolkien-create-multiple-languages-for-Middle-Earth/answer/Hans-Georg-Lundahl-1

Hans-Georg Lundahl

none/ apprx Masters in Latin (language) & Greek (language), Lund University

Fri, 8.IX.2023

Nativity of Our Lady

1. No, he created them for his own pleasure and then he created Middle-Earth for them, along with Aman and Númenor.
2. No, he never created full languages which one can communicate in without going beyond what he created.
3. Yes, he created Sindarin and Adûnaic and Khuzdûl separate from Quenya and from Telerin.
4. Yes, he created them for Middle-Earth, and not for instance for the Little Kingdom of Farmer Giles or for the car ride of Mister Bliss.

So, depending on the points of view, the answer is no or yes.

I find the yes points more significant than the second no point. The first no point is of course vital. He created Middle-Earth for the languages, and not the languages for Middle-Earth. At least this is true for the time when he’s just starting with Goldogrin and Qenya, what later became Sindarin and Quenya.

Hans-Georg Lundahl

Fri, 8.IX.2023

Nativity of Our Lady

A little caveat for number 4 - the elves of Father Christmas, at the North Pole, seem to be talking some kind of Eldarin language, akin to Quenya, as well.

Q IV

Did J.R.R. Tolkien have a purpose for creating Middle Earth and writing his stories about it?
https://www.quora.com/Did-J-R-R-Tolkien-have-a-purpose-for-creating-Middle-Earth-and-writing-his-stories-about-it/answer/Hans-Georg-Lundahl-1

Hans-Georg Lundahl

none/ apprx Masters in Latin (language) & Greek (language), Lund University

11.IX.2023

Yes, to enjoy himself and some of the people he liked.

Friends in TCBS, fiancée and later wife Edith.

Even later, children as well as new friends in Inklings circle.