The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien: Letter 5
Summary
Date: August 12, 1916
To: Geoffrey (G.B.) Smith
Background: While attending grade school at King Edward’s in Birmingham, Tolkien formed a semi-secret literary group, the TCBS, with close friends Rob Gilson, Geoffrey Smith, and Christopher Wiseman. All four men would later serve in WWI, which would claim the lives of Gilson and Smith. Gilson fell July 1, 1916, which Tolkien learned from a note left for him by Smith. Smith also passed Tolkien a letter written by Wiseman.
Summary: Tolkien struggles with the loss of Smith in relation to his understanding of what he thought the TCBS would accomplish in the world. He believed it was destined for greatness. His struggle is brought into direct view as he writes:
What I meant, and thought Chris meant, and am almost sure you meant, was that the TCBS had been granted some spark of fire - certainly as a body if not singly - that was destined to kindle a new light, or, what is the same thing, rekindle an old light in the world; that the TCBS was destined to testify for God and Truth in a more direct way even than by laying down its several lives in this war (which is for all the evil on our own side with large view against evil).
He notes that Smith has certainly achieved greatness, but of a different kind than the TCBS expected. He then questions whether the group was only meant to provide some inspiration and had now run its course.
Reflection
I’ve been reading Humphrey Carpenter’s biography of Tolkien, which has been fascinating, heartbreaking, and inspiring. Among other tragedies, Tolkien lost both parents at an early age and at least two of his close friends in WWI. He knew deep sorrow, but, just as his soul was acquainted with the underworld, so too was it tied to hope above this world. After all, as we saw in Letter 2, the very beginning of this mythology is Éarendel the Mariner, the forlorn hero who shines above Middle-earth with hope. We see this idea at play throughout his legendarium, but perhaps no more keenly than with one of my all-time favorite Tolkien quotes, which comes from The Silmarillion: “For if joyful is the fountain that rises in the sun, its springs are in the wells of sorrow unfathomed at the foundations of the Earth.” For the Christian, sorrow and joy are dear companions in this life. The dreadful cross of Christ is the true world tree, which unites the underworld, this mid-world, and the heavens. This is the fulness of reality, and this is the fulness of our hope.
Next, I want to briefly comment on Tolkien’s belief that the TCBS was destined “to kindle a new light, or, what is the same thing, rekindle an old light in the world…” Tolkien is not a secular humanist. He is not an optimistic progressive who looks forward to man’s great creative achievements. For Tolkien, real progress is not new and innovative, but a retrieval of goodness that has been lost. Consider this well-known verse from The Fellowship of the Ring:
All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.
From the ashes a fire shall be woken,
A light from the shadows shall spring;
Renewed shall be blade that was broken,
The crownless again shall be king.
Here we see a poem/prophecy written of Aragorn that is based around the idea that future hope is directly tied to past glories. Tolkien isn’t looking forward to some new innovation that fix all of our problems. He isn’t suggesting some kind of new educational drive to create a more peaceful Middle-earth. No, he’s looking back to the old line of kings with the expectation that the line will be restored. That is the hope of Middle-earth and it is the biblical longing for the awaited king to return and make all things new, or rather, to make all things old again, which is the same thing in this case. Tolkien is a conservative through-and-through. I don’t say this in a superficial, political sense, but as something much deeper. He’s interested in harkening back to, and then preserving, a primordial goodness. As he writes in Letter 96, “… certainly there was an Eden on this very unhappy earth. We all long for it, and we are constantly glimpsing it: our whole nature at its best and least corrupted, it’s gentlest and most humane, is still soaked with the sense of ‘exile.’” Inescapably, we all know of the Eden that has been lost. We know things have gone awry, which means that they must have once been right. Our future hope, consequently, is in the light that springs from the shadows of the past and sees the good king of old sitting on his throne.
I conclude with a poem written by Geoffrey Smith, which was posthumously published in a collection edited by Tolkien.
Intercessional
There is a place where voices
Of great guns do not come,
Where rifle, mine, and mortar
For evermore are dumb:
Where there is only silence,
And peace eternal and rest,
Set somewhere in the quiet isles
Beyond Death’s starry West.
O God, the God of battles,
To us who intercede,
Give only strength to follow
Until there’s no more need,
And grant us at that ending
Of the unkindly quest
To come unto the quiet isles
Beyond Death’s starry West.
I hope you will join me on this journey through all 354 letters! I also hope that you will consider supporting my work financially to help me afford the time to keep up the schedule. In addition to working a 9-5 day job, adjunct teaching, and hosting the Mythic Mind podcast, I’m a husband and father, so it’s important that I can afford the time to keep this going as planned.
With that being said, here is the current plan:
These posts will available for free every other week. Simply subscribe to have them delivered to your inbox accordingly.
To receive every post (one a week), you can subscribe at just $5/month.
To gain access to exclusive text and podcast content, as well as everything else the Mythic Mind Fellowship has to offer, you can lend your support on Patreon.
For links to all of my current platforms, check out my LinkTree!