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“Wingless fluttering”: Some Personal Connections in Tolkien’s Formative Years

I may be bold to say that the approaches to the work of J.R.R. Tolkien based chiefly on the biographical aspect have been infrequent. This statement does not mean that it is unusual to find a sketch of the author in the studies referred to him, nor that there are not any specifically biographical books. However, in the first case most authors usually depend on the same source, the authorized biography by Humphrey Carpenter published in 1977 which, despite being valuable, is by no means complete or free of errors. On the other hand, other works that could be described as biographical, often focus on very specific matters about the life of Tolkien, for example, his participation in World War I or his connection to the Inklings.1 Going against this tide, the present essay concentrates mainly on biographical issues and personal relationships of Tolkien from his formative period. It seems unwise to minimize or ignore the importance of Tolkien’s circumstances in his childhood and youth because doing so would deny the important role played by certain events and people in the shaping of his personality and world view. In fact, the relevance of these years in the further development of the personality and the fictive world of Tolkien is highlighted within his family environment. Adam Tolkien (J.R.R. Tolkien’s grandson and son of Christopher Tolkien) explicitly emphasizes the importance of this period on the author:2