Letter 165

The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien
Letter 165
Recipient	Houghton Mifflin Company
Date	Undated, written in June 1955
Subject(s)	Origins and inspirations for The Lord of the Rings

Letter 165 is a letter written by J.R.R. Tolkien and published in The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien.

Background

On 5 June 1955 in the New York Times Book Review, the columnist Harvey Breit devoted part of his weekly article 'In and Out of Books' to an account of Tolkien and his writing. This article included misrepresentations of Tolkien's views and personal remarks prompting Tolkien to write to to the Houghton Mifflin Company, his American publishers, to clarify several points about his life and work.

Summary

In his letter Tolkien expressed dissatisfaction with the way Harvey Breit had presented his words. Tolkien explained that he had been asked a series of questions, with a request to answer “briefly, brightly, and quotably”. He indicated that Breit's article had misrepresented his thoughts, and he urged Houghton Mifflin not to blame him for how the text was portrayed. Tolkien enclosed a few personal notes to provide further clarification.

Linguistic Inspiration

Tolkien emphasised that his work is fundamentally linguistic in inspiration. He referred to the misconception that his stories, such as The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, were hobbies unrelated to his professional work. He rejected this explaining “The invention of languages is the foundation. The 'stones' were made rather to provide a world for the languages than the reverse”. He elaborated on his process, noting that for him “a name comes first and the story follows”.

He also described the linguistic construction of the Elvish languages in The Lord of the Rings, with Sindarin deliberately designed to resemble Welsh, both phonologically and in its relationship to High Elven, much like the relationship between British Celtic and Latin. Tolkien's lifelong fascination with philology, especially Germanic languages and alliterative verse, is evident in his detailed explanation of how these influences shaped his work.

Personal Influences

Tolkien provided an overview of his background, clarifying some of the misleading "facts" about his heritage. He stated that while his surname, Tolkien, is of German origin (derived from Tollkühn meaning "foolhardy"), he identified far more with his maternal side, the Suffield family, who came from Worcestershire. He credited his mother with fostering his love for languages and philology; he recalled when about six he tried to write about a dragon and was told that "a green great dragon" should be written as "a great green dragon". He described himself as a "West-midiander”, feeling most at home in the counties along the Welsh Marches, and explained that his affinity for Anglo-Saxon and Middle English alliterative verse was due to both his ancestry and professional focus.

Tolkien also mentioned his academic achievements, including receiving a Doctor of Literature from University College Dublin in 1954, and a Docteur en Lettres from the University of Liège in 1955. He humorously remarked on the surprise of being introduced in French as “le createur de M. Bilbo Baggins” during his time in Belgium.

The Nature of The Lord of the Rings

Tolkien addressed several misconceptions about The Lord of the Rings and its world. He firmly stated that the work had no allegorical intentions, neither moral, religious, nor political “It is not 'about' anything but itself”. He responded to criticism that the book contained “no religion” by explaining that the world of Middle-earth was monotheistic but lacked formal religious institutions as a reflection of the historical period it represented. He noted that this would become clearer if the Silmarillion and other legends from the First and Second Ages were published.

Tolkien corrected another widespread misunderstanding; the notion that The Lord of the Rings was a trilogy. He explained that the division into three volumes was a practical decision made due to length and cost considerations. He clarified “There is no real division into 3, nor is any one part intelligible alone. The story was conceived and written as a whole”.

Views on Fairy Stories

Tolkien expressed his deep personal connection to certain themes and elements in his work, including the relationship between the “noble” and the “simple”, and his enduring love for trees. He remarked on his sensitivity to the mistreatment of plants, stating that it affected him as deeply as the ill-treatment of animals might affect others.

He also defended the literary merit of fairy stories, which were often dismissed as children's literature. He regarded them as “one of the highest forms of literature” and clarified his views in an essay titled "On Fairy-Stories”, originally delivered as a lecture and later published in Essays Presented to Charles Williams. Although this essay had gone out of print, Tolkien encouraged its rediscovery as a valuable work for anyone interested in his views.

The Lord of the Rings Reception

Tolkien expressed his surprise and gratitude for the success of The Lord of the Rings. He admitted that the book was originally written to satisfy himself, though he estimated that he only succeeded in fulfilling about 75 percent of his intentions. Despite this, he took great consolation and pleasure in the positive reception of the book, describing it as a “piece of singular good fortune, much envied by some of my contemporaries”.

Tolkien reflected on his emotional connection to certain passages in The Lord of the Rings, particularly the description of Cerin Amroth and the sound of the Rohirrim’s horses. He also mentioned his lingering grief over Gollum’s failure to repent, seeing this as a reflection of the complexity of the real world, where “the instruments of just retribution are seldom themselves just or holy”.