There’s a fascinating article on my favorite World War I site about J.R.R. Tolkien’s experiences with the horrors of the Western Front. According to his daughter, he actually modelled Frodo, Sam and Gollum’s journey through the Dead Marshes in The Two Towers on the bombed out and devastated battlefields of Belgium and France.
the Journey through the Dead Marshes (in The Two Towers), looks very much like a description of the marshy and swampy battlefields in Northern France and in Flanders. In the course of the war these areas were transformed into deadly mud swamps with slithery clay and shell craters filled with water and corpses. Innumerable soldiers lost their footing and drowned in those treacherous pits.
Fascinating indeed!
The whole site is a marvel. I’ve lost entire weekends browsing the picture collections and commentary.
Wow, this was totally fascinating. I am enjoying your blog.
P-dub! I’m thrilled you’re enjoying it. 🙂
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Nice one. Newer thought of it, but now that i have read this post, everything makes perfect sense.
Be sure to read the full article because there’s a lot more in there about the parallels between Tolkien’s experience of the war and The Lord of the Rings.
Read the whole post.
Interesting facts. How the war sometimes might even bring something good to this world – though very rarely.