J. R. R. Tolkien was fascinated with different languages and cultures. He learned Latin, French and German at home, and decided to study Finnish, Welsh and Old Norse. He believed in the almost magical power of words to change the world as someone who loved language. He also, however, grew up in a time that saw horrors of violence; being born in the Orange Free State, fighting in the World War I, and serving as a codebreaker in World War II, Tolkien saw the effects of war and imperialism on other cultures. Tolkien therefore created in his fiction a universe where cultures are under threat from an imperial power, using his crafted languages to throw the tragedy into high relief using the magic power of words. For example, when the Fellowship was trying to enter Moria, they had to “Speak friend and enter” (Fellowship of the Ring). Only Gandalf knew the old Elvish language that was disappearing from Middle-Earth, but when Frodo finally helped him arrive at the Elvish word for friend, that lost knowledge gave them the magical power to enter. This scene can be viewed as the ways knowledge of lost languages and cultures can unlock knowledge and paths that one would not otherwise be able to take, like Tolkien’s Latin studies and codebreaking. Tolkien also showed how words could be used destructively: Gandalf uses the “Black Speech of Mordor” in front of a council deciding what to do with the ring, and the entire area is described to grow darker and the others at the council cower in fear (Fellowship of the Ring). Tolkien is commenting on how powerful some speech with dark purposes can be with “one ring to rule them all” echoing Germany’s designs on the world that Tolkien had already lived through twice.
Scholars, linguists, anthropologists and geographers even have taken notice of Tolkien’s use of culture and Language in Lord of the Rings. A National Geographic article explains that the loss of a culture, “the collective intellect, memory, and values of a people… language, stories, and art and other objects,” is equivalent to the extinction of a species (para 2). The Middle-Earth universe shows Tolkien’s despair over differing culture and language: “The Elves are disappearing from Middle-earth; … languages that few outside of the Elves speak or understand, are vanishing along with thousands of years of culture and knowledge” (para 4). Tolkien’s study of languages that have died out combined with his witnessing of British imperialism in the Orange Free State with the Afrikaans, indigenous, and British culture fighting contributed to his creation of dying cultures in his literature. He tries to send a message about the significant loss that comes with the end of a culture and a language, and the immense power preserving them has.
“Lord of the Rings in Language Conservation.” National Geographic. National Geographic, 15 Mar. 2007. Web. 16 Oct. 2014. <http://www.nationalgeographic.com/ngbeyond/rings/language.html>.
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