My first reading of the Lord of the Rings occurred in the winter of 1970, during my Junior year at Lafayette College, in Easton, Pennsylvania. I was a geology major, and already excitedly making plans for my geology field course to take place during the summer between my Junior and Senior years. Due to the need for me to participate in a National Science Foundation field research program obtained by my undergraduate adviser, Dr. Richard Faas, I needed to find a field course that began early in the field season (still snowy in the mountains!), and would leave me enough time to participate in the NSF summer field work supervised by Dr. Faas. Such courses were few and far between at that time, and the only one available that would allow me to get back to Easton in time for my summer research was one offered by die Freie Universität Berlin. So at the age of 19, unsupervised during my travels, my parents took me to Kennedy Airport in New York, and bundled me off to Madrid, Spain, and thence to Zurich, Switzerland, so I could take a train from there to Oberstdorf, the southernmost part of Germany, where I could take my summer field course. Of course, I had to study some German to make a success of my very first overseas experience, and I am to this day glad that I had heard Yiddish spoken so frequently around me as I grew up.
It was a heady time in the world of geology. The concept of Plate Tectonics was still a novel hypothesis, not accepted by most geologists, and its ascension from a mere hypothesis in the early 1960s to its acceptance as a theory by the early 1970s was a whip-sawing experience in the normally staid study of geology. What a time to be a young geologist!
When I first read the Lord of the Rings (LoTR), I, like many others, could not put the books down. I remember to this day reading the book on one of the winter Saturday bus trips undertaken by the Lafayette College swimming team, and Coach Lawson remonstrating with me for having the book with me on the bench alongside the pool at which we were involved in a swim meet (I believe it was Franklin and Marshall). But it was the final book of the Return of the King! How could I stop reading?
I bring all this up, because little did I realize at the time, and it has taken me decades to realize all of this, but that year brought many leitmotivs together within me for the first time that have resonated throughout my entire life. As I gazed at the map of Middle-earth portrayed inside the first few pages of my borrowed copy of the LoTR, I was already beginning to think about the ramifications of Plate Tectonic Theory for the geologic history of Middle-earth, and was wondering how the land so lovingly depicted by J.R.R. Tolkien could fit together geologically.
I understood some Yiddish from my childhood, and in preparation for my field trip to Germany, I learned some German. I enjoyed a love of Old and Middle English that had been nurtured in me by Professor James P. Lusardi at Lafayette, and reveled in the doom and gloom of Shakespeare’s middle works. I appreciated the link between the many Germanic languages, and was struck by Tolkien’s use of a more primitive English than most authors used in the Twentieth Century, yet also like many others, I did not recognize at the time how Tolkien’s brilliant use of the English language enhanced the historicity and the sublime narration of his tale of the War of the Ring. I did not understand the scope of the task that Tolkien set out for himself, nor did I fully appreciate his motivations for doing so. It took a long time for the philosophical depth of Tolkien’s masterpiece to sink into my soul, and for the multi-faceted breadth of his book to be revealed to me. I was young, and did not know then how little I knew, though I thought I knew so much; but such is not an uncommon fate for the young, I now know. Then I had to study some German…at least enough to get by, and suddenly, without my knowing it, things began to connect. Geology is a very descriptive science, and many of the ideas and discussion of geology takes place with words, not mathematical formulae, although they provide a prominent role in describing some geologic activity. Thus, a thorough grounding in English (or one’s native language!) is a prerequisite for communicating in geology, and my Lafayette professors encouraged me to go beyond the two-semester English requirement for many other majors, and I landed up taking four semesters of English while an undergraduate. I remember all of my English professors at Lafayette; I remember Professor George P. Winston, my Freshman English teacher, trying to teach me the subtlety of saying less yet saying more, and Dr. Lusardi bellowing out the lines of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales in Middle English. So there you have it: Tolkien, Middle-earth, Geology, English, German, and above all, curiosity…enough ingredients for a rich repast.
Steaming the wintry waters of the cold North Atlantic or the summer-warm Mediterranean in the years that immediately followed my graduation from Lafayette, and later standing long night watches aboard ships on the Pacific Ocean, I felt as if I was a participant in some great undertaking that combined all of these fields of interest to me, and helped me focus on even deeper issues, like the Earth, life, and death. It may all sound a bit naïve and puerile, but I am thankful to this day that I have had the chance to consider these things over the course of what is already, now, a long life.
This book is the fruit of years of thought and study, in the fields mentioned above, as well as others. It is also borne, I hope, of some increased awareness and knowledge of the passage of one’s life, and the short time we have to do something of lasting value. I hope that the essays included herein will provide you with some new ideas, some new ways of looking at a book that enthralls both you and me. As Gandalf points out to Bilbo at the Council of Elrond, “starting is too great a claim for any.” This book may, perhaps, provide a small nudge in the direction of starting, and serve as a guidepost for your future exploration of the LoTR, a masterpiece of enduring worth.
This collection of essays was written during a time of great personal anguish for me, and my parents, Dr. Lawrence J. Kaplan and Mrs. Jeanne Leon Kaplan, inspired me to keep going, and complimented me on my “scholarly” work despite great adversity. In light of their constant and enduring support for me and all of my efforts, I dedicate not only Chapter One to my parents, but this entire collection as well. I hope that they would have enjoyed the final essays written herein. As Théoden says to Saruman, “A lesser son of great sires am I,” so I say to you; but still I offer this book to you in the hope that you may find some little pleasure in considering the ideas presented herein. Errors are of course my own, and I would be glad to receive any comments you might deign to send me.
Following standard practice, the First Age of Arda is abbreviated as FA, the Second Age is SA, the Third Age is TA, and the Fourth Age is abbreviated as FO.
In almost all cases, the abbreviation “LoTR” will be used when referring to the Lord of the Rings, while other works, such as the Silmarillion or the Unfinished Tales will usually be spelled out. References to text within the LoTR shall follow the format of Volume-Book-Chapter. Thus, the Fellowship of the Ring is abbreviated as FR, The Two Towers is TT, and The Return of the King is RK. Within each volume, of course, are two books: I and II in the FR, III and IV in the TT, and V and VI in the RK. Within each book are several chapters, so a full reference for a particular quotation or comment may appear as, for example, FR-II-3, indicating that the reference comes from the Fellowship of the Ring, Book II, Chapter 3. In Chapter Two of this book, “The Last Line in Tolkien,” the reader may observe a fourth number after the chapter number. This number refers to the section within the chapter from which the reference is taken. Unfortunately, the section breaks that appear in different editions of the LoTR are not always uniform, thus, other than the writing of Chapter Two, the LoTR references are limited to the volume-book-chapter format presented above. Other books in the Legendarium may be abbreviated as UT (Unfinished Tales), or Sil (Silmarillion). References to other books will be made using their title.
The order of the chapters presented herein is somewhat whimsical, and follows the order in which they were conceived and created, although in all truth, ideas about each chapter have been circulating within me for decades.
More to come: Folk-sayings in the LoTR, the language of the LoTR, Character development in the LoTR, etc.
There is considerable repetition of some themes, ideas, or facts between some of the chapters, since each chapter was originally intended to be a “stand-alone” work. I ask your indulgence in having to re-read a point that may have already been discussed in a previous chapter. I hope that these repetitions do not intrude upon your enjoyment of the text.