When Frodo and Sam marched through the Dead Marshes on their way to Mount Doom, J.R.R. Tolkien was in the trenches of Northern France, after fighting the Battle of the Somme in World War I.
When Gimli glimpsed Galadriel in the forest of Lothlórien, Tolkien was watching his wife dance in a glade in Yorkshire.
And when Sam married Rose and watched Frodo depart for the sea, Tolkien was himself in Britain – glad he would not have to cross the sea again to fight in Europe. Knowing that stories can have happy endings without ending.
It might seem obvious to link events in a book of fantasy to real events in the author’s life. John Ronald Reuel Tolkien took his fantasy quite seriously. Indeed, he found parallels in life that could be adapted to fiction. For him, the purpose of fiction was not to reflect these realities; rather, to subvert them, rising above them to create a happy ending that the real world cannot provide.
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