John Garth on Tolkien’s life and works

Why do Fili and Kili die?

One of Tolkien’s last changes to The Hobbit was surely his hardest – to kill off the young dwarves Fili and Kili. And it's hard for his readers too. So why did he do it?

July 1, 2026 15 Reactions

Interrogating Tolkien on the inspiration for Crickhollow

In a newly revealed letter, Tolkien says ‘Crickhollow’ in Buckland is modelled on ‘Crickhowell’ in Wales. But what he meant is not so plain…

June 26, 2026 5 Reactions

Tolkien’s land of the dead and ‘going west’ in 1914–18

‘Going west’ was a new English phrase for dying as the First World War raged. Did it help to shape Tolkien’s wartime idea that the souls of the dead go into the West?

March 8, 2026 9 Reactions

‘Going west’: How war in 1914 resurrected an ancient image for dying

War changes language. The use of “go west” to mean “die” entered recorded English in the trenches – and inspired a packed postbag of ideas about its origins.

February 28, 2026 5 Reactions

‘Mounted on the monster’: Tolkien and the motor-car

To mark the publication of The Bovadium Fragments, let’s explore the background to Tolkien’s satire on the motor-car and Oxford…

October 11, 2025

Mordor on the Oxford express

Did England's Black Country inspire Mordor? Now we have Tolkien's own description of the real place, from a train to Oxford shortly before he created Sauron's dark realm…

February 22, 2025 4 Reactions

Storm Éowyn and the ghost gale in Tolkien’s ‘Notion Club Papers’

A terrible storm, Ireland, and Tolkien – that’s a suggestive combination. I’m inevitably drawn back to the storm in The Notion Club Papers…

January 23, 2025

A mathom on Tolkien’s birthday

One of Tolkien’s gifts to us is the word mathom. It seems a good topic for the Professor’s birthday. Let’s unwrap the word and find out what more it has to offer us…

January 3, 2025 2 Reactions

Where did Tolkien’s Silmarillion hero Beren get his name?

Beren is a name etched in the memories of Middle-earth fans. And it is literally carved beneath Tolkien’s own name on his Oxford gravestone. There was never a clearer…

March 22, 2024 2 Reactions

Did Tolkien help the Queen of Denmark to abdicate?

I wrote this article for Weekendavisen in Denmark to mark the abdication of Queen Margrethe – fan, correspondent, and illustrator of Tolkien. Here it is in English…

January 3, 2024 6 Reactions

Goblin caves, ancient scripts and Tolkien’s gift for invention

Goblin caves at the North Pole! A goblin alphabet! Tolkien's 1932 letter from Father Christmas is a real treat. But did he just pull his ideas out of nowhere?

December 23, 2023 1 Reaction

Sound and vision

Amon Hen and Amon Lhaw are Middle-earth’s hills of seeing and hearing. Tolkien first contemplated a single hill combining both powers – but changed his mind. Why?

December 9, 2023 5 Reactions

Wetwang revisited, part four

Part four: visions of the battlefield Everything that Tolkien said or knew about Wetwang, a place-name both in Yorkshire and in Middle-earth, fell into three different…

November 27, 2023

Wetwang revisited, part three

A story like The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien said, ‘grows like a seed in the dark out of the leaf-mould of the mind' …

November 5, 2023 2 Reactions

Wetwang revisited, part two

En route to Wetwang in Middle-earth, Tolkien’s 1934 paper ‘Chaucer as a Philologist’ takes us into the lost English language of molars, sideburns and weeping.

October 28, 2023 2 Reactions

Wetwang revisited, part one

I’ve been quiet for too long. I aim to give you a catch-up soon, but first I want to share something that’s hot off the press…

October 21, 2023 3 Reactions

Old Joe Sauron?

Dear supporters, I’ve just returned from delivering the Annual Tolkien Lecture at the University of Birmingham. I chose to talk about ‘The Houses of Healing: Tolkien,…

May 14, 2023 3 Reactions

Inspirations