Home› General

Profiles in Pipes –– J.R.R. Tolkien

TPLHistoryTPLHistory Enthusiast
in General

J.R.R. Tolkien––born John Ronald Reuel Tolkien in January of 1892––was one of the most famous and influential writers of the 20th century. Tolkien’s longest-enduring works, The Hobbit (1937) and The Lord of the Rings (1954-55) are international classics that have been adapted into various media over the years––including Academy-award-winning films. In addition to his impact on pop culture and English literature, Tolkien was an avid pipe smoker, and pipe smoking appears continually throughout his fiction. 


Born in South Africa, Tolkien and his family moved to a small town outside of Birmingham (UK) when he was a small boy. His father died when he was three, and his mother died nine years later. From age 12 he was raised mostly by a family friend and Roman Catholic priest who had a fondness for pipe smoking himself. It’s said that Tolkien first became interested in pipe smoking from watching the priest smoke. 


As a young man, he courted the love of his life, Edith Mary Bratt, unsuccessfully for several years. Despite concerns over his lack of money, prospects, and his religious beliefs, Bratt eventually agreed to break off a prior engagement and marry Tolkien in 1916.


By that time, Tolkien was already a second lieutenant serving Great Britain in the First World War. He experienced trench warfare firsthand and was present at the Battle of the Somme. Days before his battalion suffered heavy casualties, Tolkien was afflicted with “trench fever”––a disease carried by lice––and was sent away from the front. 


After the war, Tolkien became a professor at Leeds University and then later at Oxford. There, he struck up a friendship with another renowned fantasy writer, C.S. Lewis, and founded a small group called “The Inklings” to discuss their works. During this time, Tolkien worked on translations of classical Old English and Middle English literature. 


In 1937, Tolkien finished The Hobbit, which laid the groundwork for his three-part masterpiece, The Lord of the Rings. Tolkien’s fiction was influenced by experiences in his own life, including his service in the First World War, his studies of English and Norse myths, and, to a certain extent, his love of pipe smoking. Indeed, dozens of characters smoke pipes and pipe tobacco throughout Tolkien’s fantasy land of Middle-Earth, and pipe smoking has become heavily associated with characters from the books, such as the wizard, Gandalf. In The Lord of the Rings films, Gandalf and other characters smoke extraordinarily long, Churchwarden style pipes. Tolkien also devotes numerous sections of his books to the smoking of pipe tobacco.


In his personal life, Tolkien typically smoked using straight-stem billiard pipes, which were in vogue at the time. He was such a dedicated smoker that he compared himself to a hobbit. What’s more, he was infamous for hardly ever taking his pipe out of his mouth. This fact, combined with a slight speech impediment and a soft, lilting voice, made his university lectures notoriously difficult to understand. Tolkien was rumored to smoke Capstan and Three Nuns tobacco. 


He died in 1973, but his works have continued to delight and inspire readers for generations since.


· Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

Comments

Sign In or Register to comment.