The Lord of the Rings is a "Mythical Prehistory" of Europe

a lot of people think that the Lord of the Rings happens in a fantasy world but it doesn't it happens in our [Music] world many fantasy worlds don't seem to exist anywhere they happen in like a parallel universe that I don't know but Middle Earth isn't like that it's intended to be what tolken calls a mythical prehistory of Europe you'll find people on the internet who think it's ambiguous that tolken wrote a mythology for England but not about Eng but they're just wrong tolken made many statements otherwise and you can find them all throughout his life let's just start with this quote Middle Earth is our world I have of course placed the action in a purely imaginary though not wholly impossible period of antiquity in which the shape of the Continental masses was different some people might say well he started out that way but he changed his intention by the time the Lord of the Rings came out but like I said he made these statements all throughout his life let's just go through a few by year by the way the Fellowship of the Ring came out in 1954 The Two Towers came out in 1954 and the Return of the King came out in 1955 okay here's a quote from 1955 Middle Earth by the way is not a name of a never Neverland without relation to the world we live in and though I have not attempted to relate the shape of the mountains and land masses to what geologists may say or surmise about the nearer past imaginatively this history is supposed to take place in a period of the actual old world of this Planet 1956 mine is not an imaginary world but imaginary historical moment on Middle Earth which is our habitation 1956 the theater of my tale is this Earth the one in which we now live but the historical period is imaginary the essentials of that Abiding Place are all there at any rate for inhabitants of Northwestern Europe so naturally it feels familiar even if a little glorified by the Enchantment of distance in time 1958 the Lord of the Rings May be a fairy story but it takes place in the northern hemisphere of this Earth miles are Miles days are days weather is weather 1967 the action of the story takes place in the northwest of Middle Earth equivalent in Latitude to the coastlands of Europe and the North Shores of the Mediterranean the next question is why why did he do this and why should we care to answer that question we need to go back to why tolken created Middle Earth in the first place there's a really famous letter that tolken wrote to a publisher in which he explains his intention for creating Middle Earth and writing Lord of the Rings I was from early days grieved by the poverty of my own Beloved Country it had no stories of its own bound up with its tongue and soil not of the quality that I sought and found as an ingredient in legends of other lands but once upon a time my Crest has long since Fallen I had a mind to make a body of more or less connected Legend ranging from the large and cosmogonic to the level of romantic fairy story which I could dedicate simply to to England to my country the way tolken did this was to create Middle Earth which is what he called a mythical prehistory we even get geographical and chronological connections with Europe he admittedly said I do sometimes wish that I had made some sort of agreement between the imaginations or theories of the geologists and my map a little more possible despite that he did attempt some geological connections the action of the story takes place in the northwest of Middle Earth equival and latitude to the coastlands of Europe and the North Shores of the Mediterranean if hobbiton and Rivendell are taken as intended to be about the latitude of Oxford then minus tith 600 M South is at about the latitude of Florence the mouths of anduin in the ancient city of pelar are at about the latitude of ancient Troy here are some chronological connections as well the story is really a story of what happened in BC year X I hope the evidently long but undefined Gap in in time between the fall of Barra dur and our days is sufficient for literary credibility even for readers acquainted with what is known or surmised of prehistory and as a note he says I imagine the Gap to be about 6,000 years the reason for these connections is that tolken viewed Middle Earth and the Lord of the Rings as myth passing into ordinary history that's why the Elves leave at the end of The Lord of the Rings because it represents the realm of myth passing into the realm of ordinary history I know what some of you are thinking but the cultures of middlee Earth are clearly medieval they have chain mail plate armor sturs medieval style masonry Etc and tolken acknowledged these inconsistencies which is why he called it an imaginary historical moment but he was still intending Middle Earth to contain real world cultures and Landscapes he even edited the feather in Tom bombadil's cap from a peacock to a king fisher because peacocks are not native to England but King Fishers are tolken identified the beu tapestry depicting events in 1066 as a good representation of the Riders of Rohan so overall Middle Earth is intended to be a mythical prehistory of Europe representing the realm of myth passing into the realm of ordinary history let me point out one example of this in The Lord of the Rings In The Fellowship of the Ring froto and the hobbits are sitting at the end of the prancing pony the crowd gets Rowdy and starts to asking the hobbits for a song for a moment froto stood gaping then in desperation he began a ridiculous song that Bilbo had been rather fond of and indeed rather proud of for he had made up the words himself it was about an inn and that is probably why it came into Frodo's mind just then here it is in full only a few words of it are now as a rule remembered this song is about 2 pages long and so I I'm going to spare you and just read two verses so the cat on his fiddle played hey didd didd a jig that would wake the dead he squeaked in sod and quicked the tune while the landlord shook the man in the moon it's after three he said with a a ping and a pong the fiddle string broke the cow jumped over the moon and the little dog laughed To see such fun and the Saturday dish went off at a run with a silver sunde spoon that sounds an awful lot like a very certain English nursery rhyme and if we understand Middle Earth as a mythical prehistory of Europe then this makes perfect sense billb wrote the original version of hey DD DD and then centuries of oral tradition compressed it into the nursery rind that we know today tolken even introduced it by saying here it is in full only a few words of it are now as a rule remembered well that's all I have for you today hit the button hit the Bell catch you [Music] later a