Reverend Dr. Malcolm Guite

political statement at some cost to himself from Tolkien comes in the 1930s. It was 38 or something like that when somebody decided it'd be great to have a German translation of the Hobbit, right? So whoever the Nazi apparatchik that was dealing with the licensing of books in that state writes this letter to Tolkien, literally trying to double check that he's fully Aryan.

Because he has a German name and they just want to know. And talking, he writes a private letter to his publisher saying he's absolutely outraged by this. But then he writes, I took this out because I thought it might be amusing to you. So he writes this letter back to this hapless Nancy Aparachik. says, you're asking if I am Irish, i.e. Aryan.

Because he has a German name and they just want to know. And talking, he writes a private letter to his publisher saying he's absolutely outraged by this. But then he writes, I took this out because I thought it might be amusing to you. So he writes this letter back to this hapless Nancy Aparachik. says, you're asking if I am Irish, i.e. Aryan.

Because he has a German name and they just want to know. And talking, he writes a private letter to his publisher saying he's absolutely outraged by this. But then he writes, I took this out because I thought it might be amusing to you. So he writes this letter back to this hapless Nancy Aparachik. says, you're asking if I am Irish, i.e. Aryan.

He says, I'm not Aryan by extraction, I'm not Indo-Iranian, my ancestors spoke no Hindustani, Persian, or Gypsy, and then he comes to the point, but if I am to understand that you are inquiring whether I am of Jewish origin, I can only reply that I regret that I appear to have no ancestors of that gifted people. So it's just kind of like, up yours.

He says, I'm not Aryan by extraction, I'm not Indo-Iranian, my ancestors spoke no Hindustani, Persian, or Gypsy, and then he comes to the point, but if I am to understand that you are inquiring whether I am of Jewish origin, I can only reply that I regret that I appear to have no ancestors of that gifted people. So it's just kind of like, up yours.

He says, I'm not Aryan by extraction, I'm not Indo-Iranian, my ancestors spoke no Hindustani, Persian, or Gypsy, and then he comes to the point, but if I am to understand that you are inquiring whether I am of Jewish origin, I can only reply that I regret that I appear to have no ancestors of that gifted people. So it's just kind of like, up yours.

And he completely refused to have his book translated into German. He wrote a letter to his son, Christopher, which is great, in which he says he calls Hitler that ruddy little ignoramus. And what he hated about him, this is before anything, was that Tolkien loved the Teutonic legends. He loved the great Germanic people legends. He loved the language.

And he completely refused to have his book translated into German. He wrote a letter to his son, Christopher, which is great, in which he says he calls Hitler that ruddy little ignoramus. And what he hated about him, this is before anything, was that Tolkien loved the Teutonic legends. He loved the great Germanic people legends. He loved the language.

And he completely refused to have his book translated into German. He wrote a letter to his son, Christopher, which is great, in which he says he calls Hitler that ruddy little ignoramus. And what he hated about him, this is before anything, was that Tolkien loved the Teutonic legends. He loved the great Germanic people legends. He loved the language.

He loved all that Nordic stuff and the stuff that Wagner had written about and so on. And he saw Hitler as taking a kind of comic book version of that and perverting it further. And he thought Hitler was tainting these beautiful Nordic pagan legends that he wanted to draw on. And so what he did with them in The Lord of the Rings is a little bit better than what...

He loved all that Nordic stuff and the stuff that Wagner had written about and so on. And he saw Hitler as taking a kind of comic book version of that and perverting it further. And he thought Hitler was tainting these beautiful Nordic pagan legends that he wanted to draw on. And so what he did with them in The Lord of the Rings is a little bit better than what...

He loved all that Nordic stuff and the stuff that Wagner had written about and so on. And he saw Hitler as taking a kind of comic book version of that and perverting it further. And he thought Hitler was tainting these beautiful Nordic pagan legends that he wanted to draw on. And so what he did with them in The Lord of the Rings is a little bit better than what...

what Hitler did with them in the Reichstag.

what Hitler did with them in the Reichstag.

what Hitler did with them in the Reichstag.

Like, the first one where you're just going around Hobbiton, I love that long. Like, I could have watched the whole movie of that. So no, they do get a bit longer as he goes along. I don't think the movies are too long. I mean, I could have done with more. Tom Bombadil is a whole other subject and he's very important. But By contrast, I think he totally misunderstood what The Hobbit was.

Like, the first one where you're just going around Hobbiton, I love that long. Like, I could have watched the whole movie of that. So no, they do get a bit longer as he goes along. I don't think the movies are too long. I mean, I could have done with more. Tom Bombadil is a whole other subject and he's very important. But By contrast, I think he totally misunderstood what The Hobbit was.

Like, the first one where you're just going around Hobbiton, I love that long. Like, I could have watched the whole movie of that. So no, they do get a bit longer as he goes along. I don't think the movies are too long. I mean, I could have done with more. Tom Bombadil is a whole other subject and he's very important. But By contrast, I think he totally misunderstood what The Hobbit was.

The Hobbit is a little children's story, and it could have been one great movie. So I don't know if you remember in the movie, this is in the book as well, in the movie The Lord of the Rings, when Gandalf is trying to figure out what effect, if anything, the ring has been having on Bilbo, he asks him how he feels.