I could not find a more suitable forum for this topic and i really think we should have just one, but please correct me if this is totally out of place...
Tolkien is amazing - this is a forum where i think we could discuss Tolkien's life.
He had lost both his parents by the age of 12, and became Signalling Officer in the First WW, because of his great knowledge languages etc...
Do you lot think that the suffering he had in his life influenced his writing all that much?

You opinions are valued a lot!

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WOW! I never studied Tolkien's history, but C.S. Lewis's, and I'd heard theirs were much the same.

That's so... well, not cool, I mean... suffering's not cool. But how he could pull out of it and write all that great stuff. Kudos to Tolkien!

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Yep I definitely think that going through so much pain at such a young age influenced his writing a lot. I mean all of his main characters go through some kind of suffering and many of them really suffer a lot and yet most of his stories have a happy ending. I think that is one of the reasons why his stories give people hope.

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that's really nice - do you know any people that his stories have given hope to? Anyone in your family? Cos its really nice and i never thought about it like that...

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Nah, unfortunately my family hate LotR. And so do most of my friends. I've only talked to people online who think the same way I do.

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ah, that's sad, fortunatly i have been able to convert my parents from other stuff...
d'you wanna get back on topic?

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Yep I sure do
I think that him going through all this suffering made his stories very realistic, because he knew what being at war and losing your friends/relatives feels like, so I think he was very good at describing the characters' feelings and also the athmosphere during the different parts of the story.

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yeah, I think that's what separates him from other writers - his own knowledge and depth of insight is really strong and comes through really well in all the characters in his books.
i love the way he had the names Luthien and Beren enscribed on his and his wife's tombstones. It really shows he has thought about his characters if he can relate them to him and him wife.
It also shows he loves them... Have you been to any Tokien sites? I hear that you can visit his grave in Oxford - people leave flowers and other gifts like jewellery... i think that's lovely...

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No, unfortunately I haven't been to any. Maybe I'll be able to visit some when I go to England this summer..
I also love the way how he could relate to the story of Beren and Lúthien and how he based their story and his and Edith's relationship. I shows that he really cared about his work.

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Yep, just to have written so much about such an in depth topic is amazing and a real credit to him - dunno why, but somehow i don;t think he gets the recognition he deserves...

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Yeah I don't think he does. But I think that's partly because most people don't even know anything about his life and also LotR has so much in it that you have to find first. Some people just find that too hard and don't want a in depth story I guess, which is a shame, because they miss out on such much.

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And while they're missing so much, at least we've found something we like, eh!
Y'know what, i found out that when he was called up for ww1 and he married his girlfriend Edith because he was almost certain he wouldn't return! That's so sad, but i bet loads of people were doing that then. he tried to get a bunch of his stories published but they were rejected with criticism. Imagine if he had got killed and his poems or books never got published...
That thought scares me a lot, dunno about you...

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yeah that would've been absolutely fatal. I mean, what would we have left without his works?? It just wouldn't be the same.

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I can't imagine my life without Tolkien's work, it would be completely different...

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yeah same here. His works have already given me so much and without him this forum here wouldn't exist either. I couldn't imagine it. A-U has become quite an important part of my life, because I don't know any LotR fans in real life.

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know what, niether do i! they don't seem to exist in my world; its all harry potter this, harry potter that... the reason that it plays such an important part in people's lives is why it is loved so much...
If only Tolkien knew it!

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