Echoes of African influences in J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings

Abstract

In this thesis I extrapolate the African influences on J.R.R. Tolkien’s (1892-1973) main literary project The Lord of the Rings written between 1939 and 1950. I take as a starting point Tolkien’s adolescent reading of the ‘imperial gothic’ material of the late nineteenth century, specifically the works of Rider Haggard King Solomon’s Mines (1885) and She: A Tale of Adventure (1887) which Tolkien acknowledged as being influential.

I also examine that part of his school and initial university education in the classics, which provided Tolkien with some of his literary ideas about African tropes. Certainly, his study of Old English contributed to his knowledge of medieval writing on Africa with regard to elephants and the ‘Ethiopian’ peoples.

I also draw attention to the fact that, during the Second World War, Tolkien’s correspondence with his son Christopher, who was stationed in South Africa training as a pilot, elucidated the progress of The Lord of the Rings and articulated ideas about race and the geography of South Africa. The issue of ‘race’ needs a more nuanced approach in the context of Tolkien’s letters and thus forms a chapter of the thesis. The ideas on African landscapes and geography formed a discourse of travel writing during Tolkien’s lifetime and this forms the penultimate chapter of the thesis.