Tolkien's second 'R'

Tolkien getting faded. Image source: amazon.com

J.R.R. Tokien. The name is so iconic as it is. As if the initials J.R. & R. were full names in themselves, constituent parts of one of the 20th century's greatest writers' moniker. Lucky for us, just about any source will reveal his full name to be John Ronald Reuel Tolkien.  

Reuel (in Hebrew, רְעוּאֵל) is certainly a rare name. In fact the only modern figures listed in that link who share it are Tolkien himself and his son Christopher. 

But the name is shared by one of the most important people in Biblical history. Reuel was a name associated with Yitro, Sheikh of Midian (also referred to as Jethro), the father of Zipporah, who married Moses, liberator and greatest prophet of the Israelites.

Anyone with in-laws understands how influential they can be in our lives - whether we like it or not. In fact, without Yitro's intervention, the early cohesion of the Israelite community may very well have disintegrated. From Exodus, chapter 18:

יג וַיְהִי, מִמָּחֳרָת, וַיֵּשֶׁב מֹשֶׁה, לִשְׁפֹּט אֶת-הָעָם; וַיַּעֲמֹד הָעָם עַל-מֹשֶׁה, מִן-הַבֹּקֶר עַד-הָעָרֶב.
13 And it came to pass on the morrow, that Moses sat to judge the people; and the people stood about Moses from the morning unto the evening.

יד וַיַּרְא חֹתֵן מֹשֶׁה, אֵת כָּל-אֲשֶׁר-הוּא עֹשֶׂה לָעָם; וַיֹּאמֶר, מָה-הַדָּבָר הַזֶּה אֲשֶׁר אַתָּה עֹשֶׂה לָעָם--מַדּוּעַ אַתָּה יוֹשֵׁב לְבַדֶּךָ, וְכָל-הָעָם נִצָּב עָלֶיךָ מִן-בֹּקֶר עַד-עָרֶב.
14 And when Moses' father-in-law saw all that he did to the people, he said: 'What is this thing that thou doest to the people? why sittest thou thyself alone, and all the people stand about thee from morning unto even?'

טו וַיֹּאמֶר מֹשֶׁה, לְחֹתְנוֹ: כִּי-יָבֹא אֵלַי הָעָם, לִדְרֹשׁ אֱלֹהִים.
15 And Moses said unto his father-in-law: 'Because the people come unto me to inquire of God;

טז כִּי-יִהְיֶה לָהֶם דָּבָר, בָּא אֵלַי, וְשָׁפַטְתִּי, בֵּין אִישׁ וּבֵין רֵעֵהוּ; וְהוֹדַעְתִּי אֶת-חֻקֵּי הָאֱלֹהִים, וְאֶת-תּוֹרֹתָיו.
16 when they have a matter, it cometh unto me; and I judge between a man and his neighbor, and I make them know the statutes of God, and His laws.'

יז וַיֹּאמֶר חֹתֵן מֹשֶׁה, אֵלָיו: לֹא-טוֹב, הַדָּבָר, אֲשֶׁר אַתָּה, עֹשֶׂה.
17 And Moses' father-in-law said unto him: 'The thing that thou doest is not good.

יח נָבֹל תִּבֹּל--גַּם-אַתָּה, גַּם-הָעָם הַזֶּה אֲשֶׁר עִמָּךְ: כִּי-כָבֵד מִמְּךָ הַדָּבָר, לֹא-תוּכַל עֲשֹׂהוּ לְבַדֶּךָ.
18 Thou wilt surely wear away, both thou, and this people that is with thee; for the thing is too heavy for thee; thou art not able to perform it thyself alone.

יט עַתָּה שְׁמַע בְּקֹלִי, אִיעָצְךָ, וִיהִי אֱלֹהִים, עִמָּךְ; הֱיֵה אַתָּה לָעָם, מוּל הָאֱלֹהִים, וְהֵבֵאתָ אַתָּה אֶת-הַדְּבָרִים, אֶל-הָאֱלֹהִים.
19 Hearken now unto my voice, I will give thee counsel, and God be with thee: be thou for the people before God, and bring thou the causes unto God.

כ וְהִזְהַרְתָּה אֶתְהֶם, אֶת-הַחֻקִּים וְאֶת-הַתּוֹרֹת; וְהוֹדַעְתָּ לָהֶם, אֶת-הַדֶּרֶךְ יֵלְכוּ בָהּ, וְאֶת-הַמַּעֲשֶׂה, אֲשֶׁר יַעֲשׂוּן.
20 And thou shalt teach them the statutes and the laws, and shalt show them the way wherein they must walk, and the work that they must do.

כא וְאַתָּה תֶחֱזֶה מִכָּל-הָעָם אַנְשֵׁי-חַיִל יִרְאֵי אֱלֹהִים, אַנְשֵׁי אֱמֶת--שֹׂנְאֵי בָצַע; וְשַׂמְתָּ עֲלֵהֶם, שָׂרֵי אֲלָפִים שָׂרֵי מֵאוֹת, שָׂרֵי חֲמִשִּׁים, וְשָׂרֵי עֲשָׂרֹת.
21 Moreover thou shalt provide out of all the people able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating unjust gain; and place such over them, to be rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens.

כב וְשָׁפְטוּ אֶת-הָעָם, בְּכָל-עֵת, וְהָיָה כָּל-הַדָּבָר הַגָּדֹל יָבִיאוּ אֵלֶיךָ, וְכָל-הַדָּבָר הַקָּטֹן יִשְׁפְּטוּ-הֵם; וְהָקֵל, מֵעָלֶיךָ, וְנָשְׂאוּ, אִתָּךְ.
22 And let them judge the people at all seasons; and it shall be, that every great matter they shall bring unto thee, but every small matter they shall judge themselves; so shall they make it easier for thee and bear the burden with thee.

כג אִם אֶת-הַדָּבָר הַזֶּה, תַּעֲשֶׂה, וְצִוְּךָ אֱלֹהִים, וְיָכָלְתָּ עֲמֹד; וְגַם כָּל-הָעָם הַזֶּה, עַל-מְקֹמוֹ יָבֹא בְשָׁלוֹם.
23 If thou shalt do this thing, and God command thee so, then thou shalt be able to endure, and all this people also shall go to their place in peace.'

כד וַיִּשְׁמַע מֹשֶׁה, לְקוֹל חֹתְנוֹ; וַיַּעַשׂ, כֹּל אֲשֶׁר אָמָר.
24 So Moses hearkened to the voice of his father-in-law, and did all that he had said.

The Only Perfect Allegory is a Real Life: Tolkien On His Writing

When discussing books and stories, many people like to say, "The author meant to say this," or "The author was referring to this historical event."

If you said this kind of thing to J.R.R Tolkien about his Middle-Earth tales, he might have bopped you on the head with his long-stemmed pipe, or simply slapped you across the face and cursed you in ancient Finnish.

I know that Tolkien did not appreciate those who tried to extrapolate lessons from his stories. He wrote so many times in his Letters:

The following is a quote from a letter to Tolkien's publisher Stanley Unwin regarding a sequel to The Hobbit, which I assume is the Fellowship of the Ring. This letter was written in 1937, as Germany was disenfranchising Jews and gearing up for war. Tolkien was explaining to the less whimsical nature of the sequel: 

The darkness of the present days has had some effect on it (The Hobbit). Though it is not an 'allegory'. (I have already had one letter from America asking for an authoritative exposition of the allegory of The Hobbit).

What does it mean to contain universals, yet not represent them as such? Regarding an early version of FOTR in which his publisher Rayner Unwin expressed that the darker nature of this Hobbit sequel was an allegory of the eternal battle between light and dark:

But in spite of this, do not let Rayner suspect 'Allegory'. There is a 'moral', I suppose, in any tale worth telling. But that is not the same thing. Even the struggle between darkness and light (as he calls it, not me) is for me just a particular phase of history, one example of its pattern, perhaps, but not The Pattern; and the actors are individuals – they each, of course, contain universals, or they would not live at all, but they never represent them as such...the only perfect allegory is a real life.

After the Unwin brothers refused to publish The Silmarillion and The Lord of the Rings as a single volume, which would have run over 2000 pages by my guess, Tolkien approached some dude named Milt Waldman about doing so.

I dislike Allegory – the conscious and intentional allegory – yet any attempt to explain the purport of myth or fairytale must use allegorical language. (And, of course, the more 'life' a story has the more readily will it be susceptible of allegorical interpretations: while the better a deliberate allegory is made the more nearly will it be acceptable just as a story.) 

re: Tom Bombadil (my favorite Tolkien character)

I do not mean him to be an allegory – or I should not have given him so particular, individual, and ridiculous a name – 

re: LOTR

The Lord of the Rings as a story was finished so long  ago now that I can take a largelyimpersonal view of it, and find 'interpretations' quite amusing; even those that I might make myself,which are mostly post scriptum: I had very little particular, conscious, intellectual, intention in mind at any point. 

To the editor of the New Republic re: LOTR:

Thank you for your letter. I hope that you have enjoyed The Lord of the Rings? Enjoyed is thekey-word. For it was written to amuse (in the highest sense): to be readable. There is no 'allegory',moral, political, or contemporary in the work at all. 

And this:

There is no 'symbolism' or conscious allegory in my story. Allegory of the sort 'five wizards =
five senses' is wholly foreign to my way of thinking. There were five wizards and that is just a
unique part of history. To ask if the Orcs 'are'  Communists is to me as sensible as asking if
Communists are Orcs. That there is no allegory does not, of course, say there is no applicability. There always is....But I should say, if asked, the tale is not really about Power and Dominion: that only sets the wheels going; it is about Death and the desire for deathlessness. Which is hardly more than to say it is a tale written by a Man!

On Sauron as an allegory for Stalin:

There is no 'perhaps' about it.  I utterly repudiate any such 'reading', which angers me. The situation was conceived long before the Russian revolution. Such allegory is entirely foreign to my thought. 

 To Tolkien, The Hobbit was a whimsical tale about an individual placed in certain situations. That is all.

Tolkien Hated Disney

This man felt a "heartfelt loathing" for all Disney productions

Ever wonder why Disney never made a Hobbit movie? It seems right up their alley, with all the orphans and magic and fantastic narratives.

Turns out Tolkien hated Disney. Not just hated, but felt a loathing for everything they produced. And that was during the Golden Age of Disney in the late thirties, early forties.

Here's the quote from Tolkien's letters. The letter was referring to the American publication of The Hobbit and discussed Tolkien's thoughts on what kind of illustration's belonged in the book.

It might be advisable, rather than lose the American interest, to let the Americans do what seems good to them – as long as it was possible (I should like to add) to veto anything from or influenced by the Disney studios (for all whose works I have a heartfelt loathing).