Il 30 novembre 1966, il prof. Tolkien ricevette la visita di
Charlotte e Denis Plimmer per un’intervista che sarebbe poi uscita su The Daily
Telegraph di Londra solo il 22 marzo
1968.
The Man Who Understands Hobbits
In The Daily
Telegraph Magazine
di Charlotte e Denis Plimmer
The Daily
Telegraph Ltd., Londra, pp. 31-35
22 marzo 1968
Grande formato
Magazine
Note
Su questo articolo vi è un retroscena che vede
impegnato lo stesso prof. Tolkien e che ritroviamo nella Lettera n. 294 di “La
Realtà in Trasparenza. Lettere 1914-1973.
Nella lettera 294, Tolkien ringrazia i Plimmers per
l’articolo e per la comprensione delle difficoltà che gli aveva procurato
durante l’intervista: il parlare veloce, congenito e ‘incurabile’; il suo
camminare nella stanza, una ‘scortesia’, dovuto all’artrite che si fa sentire
sulle ginocchia se resta per troppo tempo seduto; e il suo fumare la pipa che
per lui è come un sedativo.
Scrive poi che, dopo aver esaminato l’intervista,
gradirebbe modificare alcuni punti. Ricorda anche che non si è fatto
fotografare a casa e sul posto di lavoro in quanto lo riteneva troppo invadente
per la sua privacy e non aveva comunque il tempo di farlo.
Di seguito, alcuni estratti della lettera di
Tolkien, le parti in corsivo sono quelle scritte dai Plimmers.
the cramped garage that he
uses as a study
Tolkien said that it wasn't
a study, just a hastily contrived necessity after he was obliged to give up his
college room and store what he could from his library. It was now a storage
place used by his part-time secretary and he had never written anything
literary in it. His present home was forced on him and he was caught in acute
discomfort, but since removal would be too dislocating there was no solution
until he completed his contracted work. Someday he hoped to live at an address
appearing in no directory or reference book.
If they wondered why Tolkien
had received them in such a hole, he said that the only alternative was his
wife's sitting-room. A visitor from the New Yorker had described it
contemptuously, subjecting he and his wife to ridicule, and she had since
refused admittance to anybody but personal friends. Tolkien had a
"bedsitter" room when he actually did his writing but that was off
limits too.
Tolkien, tall and strongly
built
Tolkien objected, stating
that he was not tall (measuring 5 ft 8 ½), and very slightly built with notably
small hands. Most of his life he was very thin, but since his early sixties he
had become "tubby".
Tolkien let a few Oxford
friends read The Hobbit. One, the Mother Superior of a girls' hostel, lent it
to a student, Susan Dagnall… Tolkien recounted the details of The Hobbit’s
progress: The Rev. Mother was a superior of a convent at Cherwell Edge; the
women undergraduates’ hostel was one of its functions. He had lent the story to
Miss M.E. Griffiths, a former pupil of Tolkien’s and a friend, who was living
at the hostel. She lent it to Susan Dagnall, whom she was tutoring. It was lent
to the Mother Superior, but that was a side-track of the book’s journey. Susan
Dagnall was the connection to Allen and Unwin. Sadly, she had died not long
after marriage in a car accident.
The Silmarillion was turned
down by Allen and Unwin as being too dark and Celtic.
It was not turned down as
too dark and Celtic, said Tolkien, but because it needed re-writing and more
thought.
Middle-earth grew out of
Tolkien's predilection for creating languages…
Tolkien felt the reference
to the "invention of Language" had become confused and not pertinent.
Many children make up languages (he once wrote a paper about it, called A
Secret Vice) and it sometimes continues into adulthood. However, what was
important and missing from the article was how linguistic invention lead to
imaginary history. He explained that if you carry out such inventions to any
degree of completion then a suitable habitation and history is required.
"When you invent a
language," he said, "you more or less catch it out of the air. You
say boo-hoo and that means something."
Tolkien said he did not
remember exactly what he said but it was unlikely that he said anything like
this, contrary to considered opinions. An inventor does not catch noises out of
the air; it comes from his linguistic equipment and threads of connexion with
other words. Vocal noises mean nothing in themselves without attribution of a
human mind.
Middle-earth…corresponds
spiritually to Nordic Europe.
Tolkien disliked Nordic,
associated as it was with racialist theories and said Northern would be better.
But even that was inapplicable (geographically or spiritually) to
“Middle-earth”. It was an old word that meant the habitable lands of our world
amid the surrounding Ocean. The action of the story takes place in the
North-west of “Middle-earth”, approximating Europe and the north shores of the
Mediterranean, not a purely "Nordic" area in any sense. Hobbiton and
Rivendell are intended to be at about the latitude of Oxford. Minas Tirith, 600
miles south, is at about the latitude of Florence [Italy]. The Mouths of Anduin
and Pelargir are about the latitude of ancient Troy.
Auden had asserted that for
Tolkien "the North is a sacred direction", which was untrue. The
North-west of Europe had his affection as him home, but it was not
"sacred" and did not exhaust his affections. In his stories, Tolkien
remarked, the North was the seat of the Devil and at the end of The Lord of the
Rings it is more like the re-establishment of an effective Holy Roman Empire
with its seat in Rome, not anything a "Nordic" would devise.
[Of C.S. Lewis's comments on
The Lord of the Rings:] "When he would say, 'You can do better than that.
Better, Tolkien, please!' I would try. I'd sit down and write the section over
and over. That happened with the scene I think is the best in the book, the
confrontation between Gandalf and Saruman."
Tolkien clarified that he
did not think the Saruman passage the best in the book, it was just better than
the first draft. It was one of the few places where he found Lewis' detailed
criticisms to be useful and just. Tolkien cut out some light-hearted hobbit
conversation that Lewis had found tiresome, fearing that other readers would
feel the same. Lewis never liked hobbits much, especially Merry and Pippin.
What moved him most were the end of the chapter Lothlórien and the horns of the
Rohirrim at cockcrow
His taste for Nordic
languages stems from the fact that he had German ancestors who migrated to
England two centuries ago.
Tolkien called this the
reverse of the truth. First, Nordic was not a linguistic term, Germanic is what
appears to be meant. Second, his taste for Germanic languages had no connexion
to the history of his surname. His father and kin had been extremely
"British" and had shown no interest in linguistics. His interest in
languages derived from his mother, a Suffield.
Dante…"doesn't attract
me. He's full of spite and malice. I don't care for his petty relations with
petty people in petty cities."
Tolkien said his reference
to Dante was outrageous and did not seriously dream of being measured against
him. He did say that there was a "pettiness" that was a sad blemish
in places.
"I don’t read much now,
except for fairy-stories."
Change "except" to
"not even", said Tolkien, for few modern books held his attention. He
had read all that E.R. Eddison wrote, was greatly taken by Death of Grass, and
enjoyed the science fiction of Isaac Azimov. He had been deeply engaged in the
books of Mary Renault (receiving a card of appreciation from her was perhaps
the piece of "Fan-mail" that had given him the most pleasure). Mostly
Tolkien did not read much because he was trying to finish his own work.
"I’m always looking for
something I can’t find…Something like what I wrote myself. There’s nothing like being vain, is there?"
Tolkien apologized for
seeming to speak out of vanity. Actually it all arose out of the humility of
amateurs (Tolkien and Lewis) in a world of great writers. They agreed to write
what they really liked in stories, with Lewis trying "space-travel"
and Tolkien attempting "time-travel". Lewis' result was well known
while Tolkien's effort finally ended up in The Downfall of Númenor. In the
large parts each liked what the other had written.
Tolkien…is among the
"principal collaborators" of the newly translated Jerusalem Bible.
The editor of the Jerusalem
Bible had paid him an undeserved courtesy, said Tolkien, since he was only
consulted on some points of style and criticized some contributions of others.
He only completed "Jonah", one of the shortest books before resigning
due to other work pressure.
Fonte: tolkiengateway.net
