J.R.R. Tolkien passed away three dozen years ago today. The great writer wrote in a letter to Christopher Tolkien:
My political beliefs lean more and more to Anarchy (philosophically understood, meaning abolition of control not whiskered men with bombs) – or to 'unconstitutional' Monarchy ... Give me a king whose chief interest in life is stamps, railways, or race-horses; and who has the power to sack his Vizier (or whatever you care to call him) if he does not like the cut of his trousers.Mr. Theodore Harvey has a collection of links and yours truly did a piece a few years ago; The Return of the King.
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2 comments:
Tolkien is a curious figure for people who are anti-war to invoke. He volunteered to serve in the Great War and his youngest son Christopher served during the War in the RAF. Tolkien's fiction too tends to feature war as a moral necessity even when it is also a material and cultural tragedy.
Dear Sir:
Lt.-Col. Strutt too served in the Great War.
The Jacobites thought it necessary to fight a war. The Confederates thought it necessary to defend themselves in a war.
That said, Tolkien may have had sympathies this blogger does not agree with, but that does not imply that I should not quote him.
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