The Tolkien trail

It's a murky search for the roots of "Lord of the Rings" in Oxford, England

Sunday, June 27, 2004

By Ethan Gilsdorf

Contributing writer

I had vowed to take Dead Man's Walk. To sneak into Gothic-trimmed courtyards. To wander beside the shadow of J.R.R. Tolkien, the father of modern fantasy, in Oxford's medieval streets.

Alas, I heard the trail was unmarked. Shrouded in rumor and false steps. I would have to find my own path.

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien lived in Oxford for 50 years. I wanted to see the dim pubs where he drank up inspiration and to visit the homes where he scribbled "The Lord of the Rings," one of the best-selling and most beloved epics of all time.

But the university where Tolkien taught medieval languages and literature from 1925 to 1959 was not exactly promoting the association. Being a reclusive Anglo-Saxon expert was respectable; shape-shifting from frumpy Oxford don to storyteller of wizards, dragons and rings of power was not. "How is your hobbit?" his colleagues had mocked. Only the faintest trace of Tolkien's time here remains in the silhouettes of the several homes and four colleges he inhabited.

My quest was to recover and record the professor's legacy as I stumbled along. He may have eschewed the spotlight, but I believed that Tolkien, master mapmaker and quest-taker, would have approved.

Besides, his fabulous world once had rescued me. In my adolescence, I found Tolkien's imaginary Middle-earth an enticing refuge for a Dungeons and Dragons-playing nerd. Now, I admit that my total immersion in Tolkien's fantasy of fellowship among men, elves, hobbits and dwarves makes me a tad uneasy. But swords and sorcery were important to me then.

I wanted to see where they were born.

I owed Tolkien.

Hoist a pint

I began at the Bird and Baby. That's the name Tolkien cronies C.S. Lewis and Charles Williams gave the 17th-century pub where the Inklings, their literary club, met Tuesday mornings from 1939 to 1962. The sign at the pub portrays a raptor flying away with an infant. Seeing it flapping in the wind, I wondered if the image had inspired the scene from "The Hobbit" in which Bilbo and his friends are rescued by giant eagles.

But inside, the pub was disappointing: There were modern beer signs, a computer at the bar and a plaque, "The Inklings were here." At least ale and bangers and mash (sausage and mashed potatoes) hit the spot on this typically gloomy Oxford day.

I moved on to another literary hangout just down the street, the White Horse, sandwiched between two wings of Oxford's renowned Blackwell's bookshop.This was more like it: a low-ceilinged lair with rough wooden tables and a rougher clientele. In the 1940s, Tolkien received feedback here on drafts of "Rings" from his erudite beer aficionados.

Walking back to the hotel, the well-preserved masonry high and low reminded me that the Oxford Tolkien first attended as a student in 1911 had roots reaching into the 11th century. The town grew up cheek by jowl with the university. But residents weren't always synonymous with scholars, nor were the streets always this calm: A spate of 13th-century town vs. gown rioting resulted in private dormitories for the students. Hence, the fortress-like block walls and iron gates that guard students of each of the 39 colleges that make up Oxford University.

Did the university's jagged skyline of church spires stir Tolkien's visions of cities such as Minas Tirith? Did the Venetian-style Bridge of Sighs (built here in 1913) on New College Lane inspire the Bridge of Khazad-dum, which spanned the chasm that Frodo, Aragorn, Sam, Pippin, Merry, Legolas, Boromir and Gimli cross while being chased by orcs through the Mines of Moria?

A restless man

The next morning I set out again, map in hand. I assumed that a chronology of residences housing Tolkien, his wife, Edith, and their four children would offer insight. But as I walked from home to home, what I learned was that Tolkien was restless. He moved from the plain facades at 1 Pusey St. and 50 St. John's St. (1918-21) to the more spacious suburban homes at 22 and 20 Northmoor Rd. (1925-47), then the smaller row houses east of town at 3 Manor Rd. and 99 Holywell St. (1947-53), and finally to the Tudor-style house in nearby Headington (1953-1968).

In fact, his homes seemed mundane, if not dreary. I wondered if by staying put in Oxford, his wanderlust had been sated only by uprooting every few years. Or by daydreaming. While grading exams, he was known to sketch castles. Even the first lines for "The Hobbit" were scribbled on a student's paper.

Was Middle-earth his form of armchair travel?

I also thought the current residents of 20 Northmoor probably couldn't wait to pry off that blue plaque declaring "J.R.R. Tolkien, author of The Lord of the Rings, lived here 1930-1947." (Likewise, at 76 Sandfield Rd., where a stone tablet with dragon motif is the only other Oxford address to mention Tolkien's 17-year struggle to write "Rings.") The home owners probably wouldn't appreciate Tolkienites lurking in the bushes and snapping pictures.

It's difficult as well to find Tolkien in the university.

Oxford's Bodleian Library contains hundreds of Middle-Earth-related papers, but its archives aren't open to visitors. However, "the Bod" shop sells Tolkien souvenir posters, books and cards.

Tolkien's alma mater was Exeter College, and he taught at Pembroke and Merton Colleges for a combined 34 years before retiring in 1959. But the author remains a scholarly shadow. He received an honorary doctorate from Oxford a year before his death in 1973. And there's a bronze bust in the English Faculty Library, practically off campus. It's the only material evidence I could find that he lived and taught here for such a long time.

Tolkien's best friend and colleague, C.S. "Jack" Lewis, author of the Narnia children's chronicles, books about the Christian faith and literary criticism, once lived at Magdalen College (pronounced "maudlin"). On Thursday evenings in the 1930s, Tolkien recited early drafts of "The Hobbit" in Lewis' dorm out back.

The dorm is off-limits to visitors, but it's possible to wander the landscaped grounds and the 15th-century cloisters before crossing the footbridge over the River Cherwell. The riverside pathway is called Addison's Walk. It was there, on Sept. 19, 1931, during an intense conversation that lasted until 3 a.m., that Tolkien convinced Lewis to become a Christian again. Lewis had lost his faith many years earlier.

"Myths are lies," Lewis said.

"Myths are not lies," Tolkien replied, according to his biographer, Humphrey Carpenter. Tolkien argued that myths reflect a fragment of the true light.

Seeking truth in all storytelling -- the Bible, Beowulf, the annals of Middle-earth -- was Tolkien's lasting gift of fellowship to us.

But I had no time for reflection: Dusk was drawing its cloak over Oxford. The last site on my tour would have to be Tolkien's final stop, too: Wolvercote Cemetery, three miles north of Oxford. Signs led past characterless tombstones to Tolkien's.

With a thick headstone and a border framing a rectangle of rosemary, pansies and roses, his and Edith's grave resembles a bed. Some fans had left offerings: a candle, a wooden rosary, a jeweled barrette. In raised black letters on the flecked granite tomb is the inscription:

Edith Mary Tolkien Luthien 1889-1971 John Ronald Reuel Tolkien Beren 1892-1973.

"Luthien" and "Beren" perhaps? They are central figures in a 1917 story Tolkien wrote about a mortal man who falls for an immortal elf-maiden. The theme bloomed again in "The Lord of the Rings," between the characters Arwen and Aragorn.

Can anyone really find the man who managed to turn himself into myth? In part.

But Tolkien also lives on in our heads, in the images we conjure from his rich mythology for us all.

. . . . . . .

Ethan Gilsdorf is a poet and journalist living in Paris. He can be reached at egilsdorf@yahoo.com.

========================================

IF YOU GO TO OXFORD, ENGLAND

Getting there:

Oxford is 56 miles northwest of London, about a 75-minute drive. By train, it's an hour from London's Paddington Station (www.nationalrail.co.uk). By bus, it's 1 hour 40 minutes from Victoria, Marble Arch, Notting Hill Gate or Shepherd's Bush stations (www.stagecoach-oxford.co.uk/oxfordtube). Another option is Mega Bus (www.megabus.com), which leaves six times a day from Gloucester Square in London.

Where to stay:

-- The Eastgate, High Street, (011-44) 8704-008201, www.macdonald-hotels.co.uk. Doubles begin at about $220 a night in this classily refurbished 17th-century coaching inn between Merton and Magdalen colleges. The Inklings hung out at the bar.

-- Best Western Linton Lodge Hotel, Linton Road, (800) 780-7234, www.lintonlodge.com. English country inn meets American chain hotel, a block from Tolkien's two homes on Northmoor Road. Doubles start at about $149. (Best Westerns are not motels in Europe; they are individually-owned hotels that form alliances with Best Western).

-- College Guest House, 103-105 Woodstock Rd., 011-44-1865-552579, www.oxfordcity.co.uk/accom/college. A humble bed and breakfast with a pleasant staff, 10-minute walk from city center. Doubles start at about; doubles from about $75.

-- Heritage Hotel The Randolph, Beaumont St. (011-44) 870-400-8200. , fax (011-44) 865- Oxford's best known traditional hotel; in the 1993 movie "Shadowlands," C.S. Lewis (Anthony Hopkins) first met his future wife, Joy (Debra Winger), for tea at this hotel. Rates begin at about $225.

-- Le Manoir aux Quat' Saisons, Church Road, Great Milton, Oxfordshire, (800) 845-4274, www.manoir.com. If money is no problem, consider this Relais & Chateau country house hotel near Oxford; Raymond Blanc is the acclaimed chef at the two-star Michelin restaurant. Standard rooms begin at $545 (yes, $545), and the set menu, seven-course dinner begins at $172 per person (without drinks). A weekday three-course lunch is $82. A "special offer" includes a seven-course dinner (no drinks) for two people, breakfast and a deluxe bedroom for one weekday night, $995.

Where to eat cheaply:

The Eagle and Child, 49 St. Giles, is a long, narrow space with typical pub food such as fish and chips, beer on tap. Entrees about $12. For a quick bite, try the sandwich and snack bars and bakeries at the Covered Market between High and Market Streets.

What to do:

Blackwell's bookshop, 48-51 Broad St., offers an Inklings walking tour every Wednesday at 11:45 a.m. from January to October, for about $10.

Some Oxford University colleges, such as Merton, are free to visitors; others, such as Magdalen, charge $3.50 to $5 admission. Details: www.ox.ac.uk/aboutoxford/colls.shtml.

The Bodleian Library's Divinity School, exhibition room and shop are open to the public (www.bodley.ox.ac.uk).

The Magdalen Bridge Boathouse is open from 10 a.m. to dusk, March through October. Boat rental is $17 to $20 per hour; www.oxfordpunting.com.

More information:

Oxford Information Centre, 15-16 Broad St., (011-44-1) 865-72-6871, www.visitoxford.org. John Dougill's "Oxford: A Literary Guide," classifies authors such as Oscar Wilde, Lewis Carroll, Iris Murdoch and Tolkien by their Oxford college. "The Scholars Guide to Oxford" (www.oxford-info.com) is also excellent for planning your visit. Other Web resources include Tolkien in Oxford (www.jrrtolkien.org.uk) and the international Tolkien Society (www.tolkiensociety.org). For information on Great Britain, www.visitbritain.comEthan Gilsdorf




The Tolkien trail It's a murky search for the roots of "Lord of the Rings" in Oxford, England Sunday, June 27, 2004 By Ethan Gilsdorf Contributing writer I had vowed to take Dead Man's Walk. To sneak into Gothic-trimmed courtyards. To wander beside the shadow of J.R.R. Tolkien, the father of modern fantasy, in Oxford's medieval streets. Alas, I heard the trail was unmarked. Shrouded in rumor and false steps. I would have to find my own path. John Ronald Reuel Tolkien lived in Oxford for 50 years. I wanted to see the dim pubs where he drank up inspiration and to visit the homes where he scribbled "The Lord of the Rings," one of the best-selling and most beloved epics of all time. But the university where Tolkien taught medieval languages and literature from 1925 to 1959 was not exactly promoting the association. Being a reclusive Anglo-Saxon expert was respectable; shape-shifting from frumpy Oxford don to storyteller of wizards, dragons and rings of power was not. "How is your hobbit?" his colleagues had mocked. Only the faintest trace of Tolkien's time here remains in the silhouettes of the several homes and four colleges he inhabited. My quest was to recover and record the professor's legacy as I stumbled along. He may have eschewed the spotlight, but I believed that Tolkien, master mapmaker and quest-taker, would have approved. Besides, his fabulous world once had rescued me. In my adolescence, I found Tolkien's imaginary Middle-earth an enticing refuge for a Dungeons and Dragons-playing nerd. Now, I admit that my total immersion in Tolkien's fantasy of fellowship among men, elves, hobbits and dwarves makes me a tad uneasy. But swords and sorcery were important to me then. I wanted to see where they were born. I owed Tolkien. Hoist a pint I began at the Bird and Baby. That's the name Tolkien cronies C.S. Lewis and Charles Williams gave the 17th-century pub where the Inklings, their literary club, met Tuesday mornings from 1939 to 1962. The sign at the pub portrays a raptor flying away with an infant. Seeing it flapping in the wind, I wondered if the image had inspired the scene from "The Hobbit" in which Bilbo and his friends are rescued by giant eagles. But inside, the pub was disappointing: There were modern beer signs, a computer at the bar and a plaque, "The Inklings were here." At least ale and bangers and mash (sausage and mashed potatoes) hit the spot on this typically gloomy Oxford day. I moved on to another literary hangout just down the street, the White Horse, sandwiched between two wings of Oxford's renowned Blackwell's bookshop.This was more like it: a low-ceilinged lair with rough wooden tables and a rougher clientele. In the 1940s, Tolkien received feedback here on drafts of "Rings" from his erudite beer aficionados. Walking back to the hotel, the well-preserved masonry high and low reminded me that the Oxford Tolkien first attended as a student in 1911 had roots reaching into the 11th century. The town grew up cheek by jowl with the university. But residents weren't always synonymous with scholars, nor were the streets always this calm: A spate of 13th-century town vs. gown rioting resulted in private dormitories for the students. Hence, the fortress-like block walls and iron gates that guard students of each of the 39 colleges that make up Oxford University. Did the university's jagged skyline of church spires stir Tolkien's visions of cities such as Minas Tirith? Did the Venetian-style Bridge of Sighs (built here in 1913) on New College Lane inspire the Bridge of Khazad-dum, which spanned the chasm that Frodo, Aragorn, Sam, Pippin, Merry, Legolas, Boromir and Gimli cross while being chased by orcs through the Mines of Moria? A restless man The next morning I set out again, map in hand. I assumed that a chronology of residences housing Tolkien, his wife, Edith, and their four children would offer insight. But as I walked from home to home, what I learned was that Tolkien was restless. He moved from the plain facades at 1 Pusey St. and 50 St. John's St. (1918-21) to the more spacious suburban homes at 22 and 20 Northmoor Rd. (1925-47), then the smaller row houses east of town at 3 Manor Rd. and 99 Holywell St. (1947-53), and finally to the Tudor-style house in nearby Headington (1953-1968). In fact, his homes seemed mundane, if not dreary. I wondered if by staying put in Oxford, his wanderlust had been sated only by uprooting every few years. Or by daydreaming. While grading exams, he was known to sketch castles. Even the first lines for "The Hobbit" were scribbled on a student's paper. Was Middle-earth his form of armchair travel? I also thought the current residents of 20 Northmoor probably couldn't wait to pry off that blue plaque declaring "J.R.R. Tolkien, author of The Lord of the Rings, lived here 1930-1947." (Likewise, at 76 Sandfield Rd., where a stone tablet with dragon motif is the only other Oxford address to mention Tolkien's 17-year struggle to write "Rings.") The home owners probably wouldn't appreciate Tolkienites lurking in the bushes and snapping pictures. It's difficult as well to find Tolkien in the university. Oxford's Bodleian Library contains hundreds of Middle-Earth-related papers, but its archives aren't open to visitors. However, "the Bod" shop sells Tolkien souvenir posters, books and cards. Tolkien's alma mater was Exeter College, and he taught at Pembroke and Merton Colleges for a combined 34 years before retiring in 1959. But the author remains a scholarly shadow. He received an honorary doctorate from Oxford a year before his death in 1973. And there's a bronze bust in the English Faculty Library, practically off campus. It's the only material evidence I could find that he lived and taught here for such a long time. Tolkien's best friend and colleague, C.S. "Jack" Lewis, author of the Narnia children's chronicles, books about the Christian faith and literary criticism, once lived at Magdalen College (pronounced "maudlin"). On Thursday evenings in the 1930s, Tolkien recited early drafts of "The Hobbit" in Lewis' dorm out back. The dorm is off-limits to visitors, but it's possible to wander the landscaped grounds and the 15th-century cloisters before crossing the footbridge over the River Cherwell. The riverside pathway is called Addison's Walk. It was there, on Sept. 19, 1931, during an intense conversation that lasted until 3 a.m., that Tolkien convinced Lewis to become a Christian again. Lewis had lost his faith many years earlier. "Myths are lies," Lewis said. "Myths are not lies," Tolkien replied, according to his biographer, Humphrey Carpenter. Tolkien argued that myths reflect a fragment of the true light. Seeking truth in all storytelling -- the Bible, Beowulf, the annals of Middle-earth -- was Tolkien's lasting gift of fellowship to us. But I had no time for reflection: Dusk was drawing its cloak over Oxford. The last site on my tour would have to be Tolkien's final stop, too: Wolvercote Cemetery, three miles north of Oxford. Signs led past characterless tombstones to Tolkien's. With a thick headstone and a border framing a rectangle of rosemary, pansies and roses, his and Edith's grave resembles a bed. Some fans had left offerings: a candle, a wooden rosary, a jeweled barrette. In raised black letters on the flecked granite tomb is the inscription: Edith Mary Tolkien Luthien 1889-1971 John Ronald Reuel Tolkien Beren 1892-1973. "Luthien" and "Beren" perhaps? They are central figures in a 1917 story Tolkien wrote about a mortal man who falls for an immortal elf-maiden. The theme bloomed again in "The Lord of the Rings," between the characters Arwen and Aragorn. Can anyone really find the man who managed to turn himself into myth? In part. But Tolkien also lives on in our heads, in the images we conjure from his rich mythology for us all. . . . . . . . Ethan Gilsdorf is a poet and journalist living in Paris. He can be reached at egilsdorf@yahoo.com. ======================================== IF YOU GO TO OXFORD, ENGLAND Getting there: Oxford is 56 miles northwest of London, about a 75-minute drive. By train, it's an hour from London's Paddington Station (www.nationalrail.co.uk). By bus, it's 1 hour 40 minutes from Victoria, Marble Arch, Notting Hill Gate or Shepherd's Bush stations (www.stagecoach-oxford.co.uk/oxfordtube). Another option is Mega Bus (www.megabus.com), which leaves six times a day from Gloucester Square in London. Where to stay: -- The Eastgate, High Street, (011-44) 8704-008201, www.macdonald-hotels.co.uk. Doubles begin at about $220 a night in this classily refurbished 17th-century coaching inn between Merton and Magdalen colleges. The Inklings hung out at the bar. -- Best Western Linton Lodge Hotel, Linton Road, (800) 780-7234, www.lintonlodge.com. English country inn meets American chain hotel, a block from Tolkien's two homes on Northmoor Road. Doubles start at about $149. (Best Westerns are not motels in Europe; they are individually-owned hotels that form alliances with Best Western). -- College Guest House, 103-105 Woodstock Rd., 011-44-1865-552579, www.oxfordcity.co.uk/accom/college. A humble bed and breakfast with a pleasant staff, 10-minute walk from city center. Doubles start at about; doubles from about $75. -- Heritage Hotel The Randolph, Beaumont St. (011-44) 870-400-8200. , fax (011-44) 865- Oxford's best known traditional hotel; in the 1993 movie "Shadowlands," C.S. Lewis (Anthony Hopkins) first met his future wife, Joy (Debra Winger), for tea at this hotel. Rates begin at about $225. -- Le Manoir aux Quat' Saisons, Church Road, Great Milton, Oxfordshire, (800) 845-4274, www.manoir.com. If money is no problem, consider this Relais & Chateau country house hotel near Oxford; Raymond Blanc is the acclaimed chef at the two-star Michelin restaurant. Standard rooms begin at $545 (yes, $545), and the set menu, seven-course dinner begins at $172 per person (without drinks). A weekday three-course lunch is $82. A "special offer" includes a seven-course dinner (no drinks) for two people, breakfast and a deluxe bedroom for one weekday night, $995. Where to eat cheaply: The Eagle and Child, 49 St. Giles, is a long, narrow space with typical pub food such as fish and chips, beer on tap. Entrees about $12. For a quick bite, try the sandwich and snack bars and bakeries at the Covered Market between High and Market Streets. What to do: Blackwell's bookshop, 48-51 Broad St., offers an Inklings walking tour every Wednesday at 11:45 a.m. from January to October, for about $10. Some Oxford University colleges, such as Merton, are free to visitors; others, such as Magdalen, charge $3.50 to $5 admission. Details: www.ox.ac.uk/aboutoxford/colls.shtml. The Bodleian Library's Divinity School, exhibition room and shop are open to the public (www.bodley.ox.ac.uk). The Magdalen Bridge Boathouse is open from 10 a.m. to dusk, March through October. Boat rental is $17 to $20 per hour; www.oxfordpunting.com. More information: Oxford Information Centre, 15-16 Broad St., (011-44-1) 865-72-6871, www.visitoxford.org. John Dougill's "Oxford: A Literary Guide," classifies authors such as Oscar Wilde, Lewis Carroll, Iris Murdoch and Tolkien by their Oxford college. "The Scholars Guide to Oxford" (www.oxford-info.com) is also excellent for planning your visit. Other Web resources include Tolkien in Oxford (www.jrrtolkien.org.uk) and the international Tolkien Society (www.tolkiensociety.org). For information on Great Britain, www.visitbritain.comEthan Gilsdorf