Our friend Dale Nelson has sent me the text of an article he wrote for the Tolkien ‘zine, Beyond Bree. I know of no way for you to get it without subscribing, but I can quote a bit here (I hope), and point you to his source material, the book Austerity Britain, by David Kynaston.
Everybody knows that hobbits love to eat good food. Tolkien’s attention to butter, bread, strawberries, potatoes, and other good things has bothered some readers. It isn’t just that hobbits display a childish greediness, but that the author seems mostly to approve of their passion for food. Moreover, some readers may feel that Tolkien makes too much of other creature comforts, such as hot baths, tobacco, and comfortable beds….
Kynaston’s book, drawing on diaries, letters, Mass Observation interviews, and other documents, superbly evokes the dismal condition of postwar Britain (1945-1951). This is the period in which Tolkien was finishing the writing of The Lord of the Rings…. The postwar austerity period became so grim that, in spring 1948, “as many as 42 percent of people wanted to emigrate, compared with 19 percent immediately after the war” (p. 249). I don’t suggest that this is the reason that departure (from the Shire; from Middle-earth itself) is such an important theme of LOTR, but I do think the theme would have a poignancy for Tolkien and his fellow citizens that readers today, especially Americans, would not suspect….
Reading Austerity Britain may prompt Tolkien’s readers to reconsider before criticizing or mocking his celebration of the creature comforts that were in such short supply while The Lord of the Rings was being written. And although the Shire is restored by the book’s end, I now see that LOTR is a book about emigration—think of the Elves’ departure, but especially of Frodo’s, at the Grey Havens. I will always think of The Lord of the Rings, hereafter, as an “austerity” book.
Shouldn’t you title this post “A Shortcut to Mushrooms”?
Neville Shute is another post-war writer for whom the deprivations of post-war Britain were a literary springboard, but he wrote about the plenty of Australia in contrast to Britain. Enid Blyton, another food obsessive – the Famous Five were forever sitting down to scrumptious teas.
Who said food porn was modern?
An historical note – New Zealand stayed on voluntary food rationing until 1954, to aid Britian’s post-war recovery.
The contextual problem I have in conveying Tolkien to the next generation is not the food, it’s the smoking. It’s now impossible to convey to a child the whole comfortable ambience of seeing a man puffing away contentedly on a pipe.
I think the book may lose a little for those who don’t have happy memories of loved male relatives pipe-smoking.
Thanks, Lars, for giving folks a preview of my article. I think it will appear in the August issue of Beyond Bree. I’ve been receiving BB for about ten years now — faithfully arriving every month. One thing I like about it is that little or none of the artwork in BB is based on Peter Jackson’s movies. (This contrasts with the Tolkien Society’s monthly ‘zine, Amon Hen.) BB doesn’t ignore the movies, but it is certainly oriented towards people for whom “Tolkien” means books. It often features interesting articles on sidelights: for example, Mark Hooker, author of at least two books of essays on Tolkienian topics, contributed a piece on pocket handkerchiefs. Remember how Bilbo is upset because he forgets his, in The Hobbit — ? Mark came up with some remarkable literary evidence on the cultural significance thereof. (Lars, with your interest in the significance of another item of apparel — hats — this article might have appealed to you.)
As for me — I figure my next piece, after the Austerity one, will be on one day in Tolkien’s life. Scull and Hammond don’t report as much about it, in their superb Chronology, as is known….