On the Tolkien Trail: In search of Oxford's Lord of the Rings roots

read the Washington Post version: "In England, Tolkien Gestures" (Sunday December 14, 2003)

below the photos, the uncut version, or read "On the Tolkien Trail" as it appeared in the St Petersburg Times (January 4, 2004)

all photos by Ethan Gilsdorf.

(editors: Higher resolution versions available upon request.)

Merton College walk: "Dead Man's Walk" behind Merton College, where Tolkien was Merton Professor of English Language and Literature from 1945 until his retirement in 1959.

Eagle child 1: The Eagle and Child pub, where Tolkien and other "Inklings" like C.S. Lewis discussed their writings.

Eagle and Child sign close up: The sign outside the Eagle and Child pub, where Tolkien and other "Inklings" like C.S. Lewis discussed their writings. The motif may have inspired Bilbo Baggins' rescue by eagles scene in The Hobbit.

Bridge of sighs: Oxford's Bridge of Sighs, modelled after the one in Venice, spanning New College Lane.

20 Northmoor: The home at 20 Northmoor Road. The blue plaque near the roof says, "J.R.R. Tolkien, author of The Lord of the Rings, lived here 1930-1947."

22 Northmoor V2: The house at 22 Northmoor Road, where Tolkien and his family lived from 1925-30.

Holywell vertical: More humble digs at 99 Holywell Street, where the Tolkiens lived from 1950-53 once their children grew up.

Holywell long: The modest home at 99 Holywell Street (red door in the middle) where the Tolkiens lived from 1950-53.

Manor road: A humbler home at Manor Road, where a smaller family lived from 1947-50; this was one of eight homes where Tolkien lived in Oxford. The Tolkiens lived at number 3, on the left.

Gothic detail Magdalen: A Gothic-era detail on the church at Oxford University's Magdalen College.

Magdalen daffodils: On the grounds behind Magdalen College, where C.S. Lewis and Tolkien walked and discussed their works.

Magdalen flowers: The "New Building" of Magdalen College, where C.S. Lewis lived. Tolkien read drafts of The Hobbit in Lewis' second-floor dorm room.

Magdalen long: Magdalen College, founded in 1448, home of C.S. Lewis. Magdalen's Great Tower dominates the east entrance to Oxford.

Magdalen grass: The "New Building" dormitory of Magdalen College, where C.S. Lewis lived and Tolkien recited early drafts of The Hobbit. The "keep of the grass" sign probably wasn't around in their day.

Magdalen new geraniums: Red geraniums mark the window where C.S. Lewis lived at Magdalen College. In this dorm, Tolkien read from early drafts of The Hobbit.

Boats above: Looking down from Magdalen Bridge at boaters by the Magdalen Bridge Boathouse on the River Cherwell.

Punts sign: At the Magdalen Bridge Boathouse, where "punts" can be rented along the River Cherwell.

Merton college corridor: Within the warren of quads, cloisters and corridrors of Merton College, where Tolkien taught.

Merton Street long: Merton College, view from Merton Street. Tolkien taught philology here in the latter part of his career.

Merton 21 cu: The door at 21 Merton Street, where the widower J.R.R. Tolkien lived out his final days.

Gravestone: The grave of J.R.R. and Edith Tolkien in Wolvercote Cemetery, north of Oxford. "Beren" and " Lúthien " refer to characters in a 1917 fairy-story Tolkien wrote early in his career.

On the Tolkien Trail:
In search of Oxford's Lord of the Rings roots

by Ethan Gilsdorf
(photos are available to accompany this story)

1785 words

Ethan Gilsdorf (www.ethangilsdorf.com) is a poet and journalist living in Paris.

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

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 had come 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 biggest-selling and most-beloved books of all time. And lo! What better time than now, I mused. The Return of the King, the third and final installment in the well-received Rings film adaptation, was set to hit theaters world-wide on December 17.

But the university where he taught medieval languages and literature from 1925 to 1959 had not adopted this literary anomaly. 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 mocked.

Verily, only the faintest trace of Tolkien's time here remained etched in the silhouettes of the eight Oxford homes and four colleges he haunted.

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

Besides, his world of Middle-earth had once rescued me. I owed him.

So, charged with mission high and mighty, I set off on my pilgrimage. Alone.

Naturally, then, five minutes after my London train screeched into the Oxford railway station, I didn't expect to run into David. But there he was, walking down George Street.

"David?"

"Ethan!"

We stared at each other, flabbergasted.

"What are you doing here?" we more-or-less blurted simultaneously. I explained my lofty undertaking.

David told me he was in town for an Oxfam meeting. He lives in Ontario, when not flitting off to the Sudan or Bangladesh doing humanitarian good deeds.

We hugged, regarded each other again, and agreed that after checking into our guest houses, we'd find each other that evening at The Eagle and Child, one of Tolkien's regular drinking spots.

I took David's presence as an omen. And I wondered if a fellowship was enigmatically gathering for my Oxford quest.


* * * * *

Seven o'clock. I waited outside the "Bird and Baby."

That's the name Tolkien cronies C.S. Lewis and Charles Williams gave the 17-century pub where The Inklings, their literary club, met Tuesdays mornings from 1939-62 to discuss their writings. I looked up at the pub's sign: a raptor flying away with an infant. Seeing it flapping in the wind, I wondered if the image had inspired a famous scene from The Hobbit (chapter 6), Bilbo and company's rescue by giant eagles.

Then David arrived, smiling, and together, we pushed through the door. But the pub came as a disappointment: modern beer signs, a computer at the bar and a plaque marking "The Inklings were here." Alas, The Eagle and Child had been remodeled since Tolkien and Co. warmed their toes by the fire. However, pub food like bangers and mash (sausage and mashed potatoes) hit the spot after this typically gloomy Oxford day.

We relocated to another literary hangout just down the street, The White Horse, sandwiched between two wings of Oxford's famous Blackwell's bookshop. Ah, this was more like it: a low-ceilinged lair with rough wooden tables and a rougher clientelle. In the 1940s, Tolkien received feedback on drafts of Rings from his erudite beer aficionados.

I ordered a pint and David got a brandy. We raised our glasses. "To the Professor," I said.

David has known me since my Reagan-era, adolescent days, back when Tolkien's imaginary Middle-earth was an enticing refuge for a Dungeons and Dragons-playing nerd too chicken to try out for basketball or kiss girls.

David said he read the bootleg, Ace paperback edition of Rings as a 1960s Canadian college kid --- but not since. I admitted that my total immersion in Tolkien's fantasy of fellowship among men, elves, hobbits and dwarves now made me a tad uneasy. But swords-and-sorcery WAS important to me then, I told him. I wanted to understand why.

So, I said, I'm drawn to wander the same backdrop of medieval streets that Tolkien did.

David said he was leaving in the morning. We had another round, then bid farewell as we headed to our separate hotels. The Fellowship was broken.

On the walk back, marveling at the well-preserved masonry high and low, I was reminded 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 demanded private dormitories. Hence, the fortress-like block walls and iron gates that guard students of each college (39 independent colleges make up Oxford University).

Before sleep, I speculated whether the University's jagged skyline of church spires stirred Tolkien's visions of cities like Minas Tirith. Or if the reproduction Venetian Bridge of Sighs led to the Bridge of Khazad-dûm spanning the chasm that Frodo, Aragorn, Sam, Pippin, Merry, Legolas, Boromir and Gimli cross while chased by orcs through the Mines of Moria.

There, on this bridge, Gandalf the wizard strikes down the foul Balrog. "But even as it fell it swung its whip, and the thongs lashed and curled around the wizard's knees, dragging him to the brink," Tolkien wrote on page 434 of The Fellowship of the Ring. "He staggered and fell, grasped vainly at the stone, and slid into the abyss. 'Fly, you fools!' he cried, and was gone."

And I slid off into sleep.


* * * * *

Quest: day two. Map? Check. Elvish lembas? Check (technically, English breakfast). Umbrella? Check. Hangover? Check. Off, then, into the mists.

I assumed a chronology of residences housing J.R.R., his wife Edith and their four children would lead me to insight. But as I walked from home to home --- from the plain facades at 1 Pusey Street and 50 St Johns Street (1918-21) to the more spacious suburban homes at 22 and 20 Northmoor Road (1925-47), then the smaller row houses east of town at 3 Manor Road and 99 Holywell Street (1947-53), and finally to the post-Lord of the Rings Tudor-style house in nearby Headington (1953-1968)--- I learned, well, Tolkien was restless.

In fact, his homes seemed mundane to me, if not dreary. I wondered if by staying put in Oxford, his wanderlust was 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 one of his student's papers. Was Middle-earth, the unfinished kingdom whose stories Tolkien began even before becoming an Oxford undergrad and tinkered with for his entire career, his ultimate form of armchair travel?

I also figured the current residents of 20 Northmoor 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 Road, whose stone tablet with Smaug the dragon motif is the only other Oxford address to mention Tolkien's 17-year struggle to write Rings.). The homeowners probably wouldn't appreciate Tolkienites lurking in the bushes and snapping pictures, either. I didn't linger long, but not before imagining the author staring into the fire, pipe in hand, his family asleep, then dipping his pen to write, in longhand, a line of Gandalf's dialogue or invent a few words for an Elvish song.

Back in town, I wondered what Tolkien's academic side would reveal. How had Exeter College, his alma mater, and Pembroke and Merton Colleges, his employers, chosen to remember him?

Other than conferring an honorary Doctorate of Letters upon him a year before his death in '73, hardly at all. The Bodleian Library does contain hundreds of Middle-earth-related papers, but its archives aren't open to visitors. But "the Bod" shop is, where I was tempted by Tolkien souvenir posters, books and cards. (I later read that Tolkien modeled evil Sauron's temple to Morgoth after the Bodleian's domed Radcliffe Camera. Touché!)+

Despite teaching at Pembroke for 20 years, then at Merton for another 14 before retiring in 1959, Tolkien remains a scholarly shadow. The only material evidence is a bronze bust of Tolkien's likeness sculpted by his daughter-in-law Faith Tolkien. It's in the English Faculty Library, practically off campus.

I realized conjuring the Professor would require imagination. I headed to Magdalen College (pronounced "maudlin"), where Tolkien's best friend and colleague, C.S. "Jack" Lewis, lived. Thursday evenings in the '30s, in Lewis's dorm out back, Tolkien recited early drafts of The Hobbit.

I couldn't enter dorm itself, so I wandered the landscaped grounds and the 15th century cloisters. I then crossed the footbridge bridge over the River Cherwell. The riverside pathway is called Addison's Walk. Here, on September 19, 1931, during an intense conversation that lasted until 3am, Tolkien convinced Lewis, who couldn't grasp Christian symbols like the Resurrection, to accept Christ's sacrifice.

"Myths are lies," Lewis said.

"Myths are not lies," Tolkien replied, among the swaying trees of Magdalen Grove. Materialistic progress leads only to the abyss, Tolkien argued, but the myths we tell 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. I recalled my pub conversations with David. Me grasping why heroic tales were so crucial to me in high school. And now.

But I had no time for reflection: dusk drew its cloak over Oxford. The last site on my tour would have to be Tolkien's final stop, too: I took the bus about three miles north of Oxford, to Wolvercote Cemetery.

Little brown signs led me past characterless tombstones to Tolkien's. With a thick headstone and a stone border framing a rectangle of rosemary, pansies and roses, his and Edith's grave resembled a bed. Some fans had left offerings: a candle, a wooden rosary, a jeweled barrette. In raised black letters on the flecked granite tomb, I read:

"+
Edith Mary Tolkien
Luthien
1889-1971

John Ronald
Reuel Tolkien
Beren
1892-1973"

"Lúthien" and "Beren"? They are heroes of a 1917 fairy-story Tolkien wrote about a mortal man who falls for an immortal elven-maiden. This theme bloomed later, in The Lord of the Rings, between the characters Arwen and Aragorn.

Had I found the man who had 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, Middle-earth.


*****


GETTING THERE:

Oxford is 56 miles northwest of London, about a 75-minute drive. By car, take the M40 to Junction 8. By train, it's an hour from London's Paddington Station; a Cheap Day Return ticket is about $25. By bus, it's an hour-and-40 minute ride from Victoria, Marble Arch, Notting Hill Gate or Shepard's Bush. Round-trip ticket about $19; bus details: www.stagecoach-oxford.co.uk/oxfordtube


WHERE TO STAY:

The Eastgate, The High Street, Oxford OX1 4BE, tel: +44 (0)8704 008201, e-mail: eastgate@macdonald-hotels.co.uk, www.macdonald-hotels.co.uk. Doubles from $170. Classily refurbished old 17th century coaching inn, right downtown between Merton and Magdalen Colleges. The Inklings hung out at the bar.

Best Western Linton Lodge Hotel, Linton Road, Oxford, OX2 6UJ, tel: +44 (0)1865 553461, e-mail: sales@lintonlodge.com, www.lintonlodge.com. Doubles from $129. English country inn meets American chain hotel. Modern, clean rooms, garden in rear, away from town center, only one block from Tolkien's two homes on Northmoor Road.

College Guest House, 103-105 Woodstock Road, Oxford, OX2 6HL, tel: +44 (0)1865 552579, e-mail: r.pal@ukonline.co.uk, www.oxfordcity.co.uk/accom/college. Doubles from $68. Humble B&B, pleasant staff, 10 minute walk from city center. Not far from several Tolkien homes.


WHERE TO EAT:

The Eagle and Child, 49 St Giles, tel: +44 (0)1865 302925, open 11.30-11, Sun 12-10.30. Dishes about $12. Long, narrow space with typical pub food like fish and chips, beer on tap. Best rooms are in front.

For a quick bite, the Covered Market between High and Market Streets has several sandwich and snack bars and bakeries. Open Mon-Sat 8:30-5:30.


WHAT TO DO:

Blackwell's bookshop, 48-51 Broad Street, tel: +44 (0)1865 333606, e-mail oxford@blackwell.co.uk, offers "Inklings" walking tour every Wednesday at 11:45am from January to October. About $10.

Oxford University. Some of colleges, like Merton, are free to visitors, others like Magdalen charge $3.50-5. Details at: www.ox.ac.uk/aboutoxford/colls.shtml. The Bodleian Library's Divinity School, exhibition room and shop are open to the public, info: www.bodley.ox.ac.uk.

Magdalen Bridge Boathouse, Magdalen Bridge, tel: +44 (0)1865 202643, open 10am-dusk, Mar-Oct, e-mail: info@oxfordpunting.com, www.oxfordpunting.com. Boat rental: $17-20 per hour.


INFORMATION:

Oxford Information Centre, 15-16 Broad Street, Oxford OX1 3AS, open Mon-Sat, 9:30-5; Sun and holidays from Apr 20th-Oct 26, 10-3:30; tel: +44 (0)1865 726871, e-mail: tic@oxford.gov.uk, www.visitoxford.org. Pick up a free street map, info on lodging, and the Oxford Cycle Map for details on bike rental shops and routes. On sale is John Dougill's Oxford: A Literary Guide which classifies authors, such as Wilde, Shelley, Hopkins, Lewis Carroll, Iris Murdoch and Tolkien, by their appropriate 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 "Tolkien's Oxford"(http://users.ox.ac.uk/~tolksoc/TolkiensOxford). If you join Taruithorn, the Oxford Tolkien Society (http://users.ox.ac.uk/~tolksoc/) or the international Tolkien Society (www.tolkiensociety.org), you can attend special Tolkien events like Oxonmoot, held at Oxford University each September.

If passing through London, it's worth seeing The Lord of the Rings Motion Picture Trilogy: The Exhibition at the Science Museum in London. The exhibit has over 700 props (costumes, weapons, jewellery, etc.), and exhibits and demonstrations on special effects and advanced cinema techniques. The show runs until January 11, 2004. Tickets and more info at: www.sciencemuseum.org.uk