Tolkien and the Great War

To be caught in youth by 1914 was no less hideous an experience than in 1939... by 1918 all but one of my close friends were dead.' So J.R.R. Tolkien responded to critics who saw The Lord of the Rings as a reaction to the Second World War. Tolkien and the Great War tells for the first time the full story of how he embarked on the creation of Middle-earth in his youth as the world around him was plunged into catastrophe. Drawing on Tolkien's personal papers, this major biography reveals the horror and heroism that he experienced as a signals officer in the battle of the Somme and introduces the circle of close friends who spurred his mythology into life. John Garth argues that the experience of the First World War is key to Middle-earth's enduring power, and that Tolkien used his mythic imagination to reflect the cataclysm of his generation, reshaping a literary tradition that resonates to this day.