Italy’s far-right claim The Lord of the Rings – but they’ve misread Tolkien’s message: Region of Mordor on the map of Middle-earth. Erman Gunes/Shutterstock Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni and I have precious little in common. But one important thing we share is The Lord of the Rings. Both she and I regard the J.R.R. …
How J.R.R. Tolkien’s novels were inspired by Medieval poems of ‘northern bravery’: Knights travel to battle in an illustration from a Medieval manuscript. British Library, CC BY-SA In a moment of distraction from the laborious work of marking an “enormous pile of examination papers”, J.R.R. Tolkien flipped to a blank page on a student essay …
J.R.R. Tolkien’s Christmas letters to his children bring echoes of Middle-earth to the North Pole: First letter and illustration from Father Christmas, 1920. © The Tolkien Estate Ltd, 1976. Like parents the world over, J.R.R. Tolkien dedicated considerable time and effort to making Christmas a joyful time for his young children. Yet this was a …