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00:00Where is it? It must be here. It must be... Ah-ha! My precious!
00:21Dear Tim and Moby, what can you tell me about J.R.R. Tolkien?
00:27John Ronald Rule Tolkien was an English writer, scholar, and professor.
00:32He's best known as the author of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, two of the most influential works of fantasy ever written.
00:39Stories in this genre usually take place in imaginary lands filled with sword-wielding heroes, creatures like elves and dragons, and plenty of magic.
00:51No, Tolkien didn't invent fantasy, but he did make it respectable.
00:56Before him, fantasy was viewed as childish entertainment, not serious literature.
01:01But the depth and quality of Tolkien's writing almost single-handedly changed people's minds.
01:06He built an entire world from scratch, complete with the histories of various kingdoms and the unique traits of races like dwarves and goblins.
01:15He even invented different languages for his characters to speak.
01:20Tolkien called his world Middle-Earth, an imaginary period in Earth's history when magical beings lived alongside people.
01:28Tolkien was born in 1892.
01:31He grew up with a passion for reading and a love of languages.
01:34He especially liked the myths and legends of other European cultures and wished England had more of its own.
01:40He began his life's work of filling that gap during World War I, when he served as a soldier.
01:46While recovering from a serious illness, Tolkien wrote down his earliest story ideas, which later became the basis for his Middle-Earth mythology.
01:54After the war, he became a professor of Old English, an early form of English spoken more than a thousand years ago.
02:01He was also an expert on Old English literature like Beowulf, the story of a king who fights a dragon and other scary monsters.
02:08These influences found their way into Tolkien's fantasy tales, which he continued to work on in his spare time.
02:16His big break came in 1937, when he published his children's book, The Hobbit.
02:21In it, a hobbit named Bilbo Baggins sets off on a quest to recover treasure from an evil dragon.
02:27He's accompanied by the wizard Gandalf and a band of dwarves.
02:32No, hobbits aren't just short humans.
02:35They're... well, they're hobbits, a fictional race known for their love of nature, big appetites, and, um, hairy feet.
02:43Bilbo is an especially likable hero, a simple fellow who relies on his courage and wits to get home.
02:49The book's tone is lighthearted, and the narrator speaks directly to the reader, almost like he's telling the story in person.
02:55But The Hobbit also deals with some serious themes.
02:59Bilbo is snatched from his tranquil, comfortable life and tossed into hostile surroundings.
03:05This could be a reflection of Tolkien's World War I experience, when he and his friends were sent far from home to fight on foreign battlefields.
03:13The Hobbit was such a huge success that the publisher asked Tolkien to write a sequel.
03:18It took him over ten years to finish, but the epic novel The Lord of the Rings finally came out in 1954 and 55.
03:26It was actually published in three separate volumes, The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and The Return of the King.
03:34And, unlike The Hobbit, these were definitely not children's books.
03:38Instead, the story is much darker and more complex.
03:42It follows up on a small scene from The Hobbit in which Bilbo met a skulking creature named Gollum.
03:48Bilbo had just found a magic ring that turns its wearer invisible.
03:53The ring had been Gollum's most prized possession.
03:57In The Lord of the Rings, we find out that it's the One Ring, a powerful weapon created by the villain Sauron to conquer all of Middle-earth.
04:05The ring passes to Bilbo's nephew Frodo, who sets out on a mission to destroy it before Sauron can reclaim it.
04:12But Gollum still lurks in the background, obsessed with getting his most precious possession back at all costs.
04:19As Gollum demonstrates, the ring is a symbol for the corrupting influence of power.
04:25Anyone who seeks to control it winds up falling under the spell of evil.
04:30The struggle between good and evil also plays out on a much bigger stage as Sauron's army of monsters invades the kingdoms of Middle-earth.
04:37Some scholars compare this to the fascist aggression that started World War II, which was raging while Tolkien wrote.
04:44The wartime destruction of Europe's great cities is echoed in Sauron's ravaging of Middle-earth.
04:50So, even though it's a fantasy, The Lord of the Rings is emotionally rooted in the real world.
04:56That may explain why Tolkien's works continue to resonate after all these years.
05:02The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings rank among the most beloved books of the 20th century, and its characters have become pop culture icons around the world.
05:11But Tolkien's legacy goes beyond his own work.
05:14He single-handedly raised the profile of the fantasy genre, paving the way for future writers to be recognized as respected authors.
05:23Joke's on you. It's just a decoder ring.
05:28I knew it! The Ring of Power!
05:30Moby! Wait! Come back!