Tolkien and Hope

The Return of the King is a DARK Book
First Timers | 18 Sept. 2025
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOTuGGoQAG0

7:23 "and banners still streaming in the breeze"

I think Tolkien, unpatriotic from "a Brit" (or Englishman) as it may be, may have made an oblique reference to a 14th of September in 1814 when in the morning, the British ships had not taken down the barred and star spangled banner. I'll always recall actually understanding your National Hymn (you aren't Canadian, eh?) for the first time when hearing El pendón estrellado in a video recounting the history from the referenced occasion to the official translation into Spanish. Up to then, I had just taken it as random, jumbled, war imagery. Epics tell stories. Lyrics reflect on salient things, including salient aspects of stories ... but they are not always great explainers of the story they reflect on.

Tolkien would not have referred to himself as a Brit, to him Brits are the guys in Cardiff or that placename which counted in letters is the longest place name in the world.

7:42 "if only on one leg"

Reference to the Gaulish cock. As in, you know, rooster.

8:20 / 8:40 And "valley, where the grass is green" would seem to refer to Wales, via "How Green was my valley" by Richard Llewelyn (novel appeared 1939).

Tolkien would certainly have referred to Richard Llewelyn as a Brit ... or a Cymro.

[Other US Reference, Beacons of Gondor:

Ancient Military Communication System used during the American Revolution 🔥
All Revolutionary War, All The Time! | 20 Sept. 2025
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N60VnVF_afs ]