226. The Lord of the Rings

Context:

The hosts read the opening passage and discuss this 1937 book as a children's story about Bilbo Baggins going on a quest with dwarves

Context:

Discussed extensively as the sequel to The Hobbit, commissioned by publisher Stanley Unwin in 1937, taking 17 years to write

Context:

Mentioned as one of the imperial adventure stories Tolkien read as a boy, written in the mid-1880s, about people going to Africa and discovering lost cities

Context:

Mentioned alongside King Solomon's Mines as another of Ryder Haggard's imperial adventure stories from the 1880s that influenced Tolkien

Context:

Mentioned as an example of other authors wrestling with questions about evil and power in the mid-20th century, written in the middle of the 1950s

Context:

Discussed in connection with Little Gidding, comparing Eliot's imagery of air raids and the blowing of horns to similar imagery in Lord of the Rings

Context:

Specifically quoted passage about a ghostly figure during an air raid, compared to Tolkien's description of the Nazgul attack and the horns of Rohan

Context:

Mentioned as contrast to Lord of the Rings, noting that people criticize Lewis's book as pure Christian apologetics while Tolkien's Christianity is more subtle

Context:

Mentioned as Tolkien's great academic obsession, with the character Gollum compared to Grendel from this Old English epic

Context:

Described as a fabulous book where the author follows in Tolkien's footsteps, revealing details like how Tolkien's first draft included a chocolate factory being built in the Shire

Context:

Mentioned as a book Tolkien translated which portrays Moses as a great warrior, referenced in discussion of how Tolkien drew on Old English poetry