Tolkien and Hitler on the Somme
Sean_Q_
were apparently within a few miles proximity for a short time
in early October, 1916 during the Third Battle of the Somme.
And why is this significant? Perhaps it isn't. Maybe just a trivial
historical coincidence, a chance (near) meeting, as we say
in Middle Earth.
They had one thing in common at least, that they both saw part
of the same battle at the same time, even if from opposing viewpoints.
Incidentally a member of my own family had been killed in action in
the same vicinity a few weeks earlier, serving with the Canadian Army
in the Battle of Courcelette (Sept 15-22) -- notable as the first in
history in which tanks were used in combat.
The Somme was Tolkien's only combat experience. Hitler was involved
in previous and subsequent actions. But it was one of the most fiercely
contested battles in the war, and a turning point in terms of morale
for Hitler's regiment.
Of course our perceptions of the two men are a lot different. And yet
there are some more similarities. Both of them conveyed messages;
JRRT as a signal officer, AH a dispatch runner. Was this some kind
of portent? Later on they'd both continue bearing messages,
to wider audiences.
Each of them was artistic, painting colored pictures.
Both were interested in myths and legends, especially northern European
-- except that the uses to which they put them are like night and day.
It's easy to say that Hitler embraced the Dark Side. Then what is the
corresponding Bright Side? Something, perhaps, that Tolkien offers?
Hitler didn't merely exploit the Germanic myths, apparently he lived
in their dream world. His childhood friend Kubizek says:
When he listened to Wagner's music he was a changed man; his violence
left him, he became quiet, yielding and tractable. His gaze lost its
restlessness; his own destiny, however heavily it may have weighed
upon him, became unimportant. He no longer felt lonely and outlawed,
and misjudged by society. He was intoxicated and bewitched. Willingly
he let himself be carried away into that mystical universe which was
more real to him than the actual workaday world. From the stale, musty
prison of his back room, he was transported into the blissful regions
of Germanic antiquity, that ideal world which was the lofty goal for
all his endeavours. -- http://www.faem.com/books/yhik17.htm
I can relate. Sometimes I also get enthralled with Wagner's and
Tolkien's mythical worlds.
Actually I didn't know what direction this article would take when
I started it, but as I wrote the thought came that it's almost as if
Tolkien and Hitler are like complementary opposites. AH's works
fill the heart with loathing; JRRT's with more wholesome feelings.
Any yet nothing was evil in the beginning. Even Sauron was not so.
Tolkien claimed that "The real war does not resemble the legendary war
in its process or its conclusion" but I've never fully believed him on
that point. Hitler has always been a great enigma, for me a least;
and I've also thought perhaps there's something in Tolkien's works that
would shed some light on it. What it might be I haven't quite found yet,
but I'm still looking.
Anyway here's an example of what Tolkien thought about the Fuehrer:
in a letter to his son Michael he wrote, "I have in the War a burning
private grudge against Hitler, for ruining, perverting, misapplying and
making for ever accursed, that noble northern spirit, a supreme
contribution to Europe, which I have ever loved, and tried to present
in its true light." [from _Defending Middle-Earth_ by Patrick Curry]
----------- details of the near encounter, October 1916 -------------
Around the time in question, _Tolkien and the Great War_ by John Garth
(2003) says:
"Tolkien settled in on 6 October at battalion headquarters in front
of the Ferme de Mouquet..." (aka "Mucky Farm")
There is an old Roman road, running straight as a die from Albert
(east of Amiens) 20 km north-east to Bapaume. The village of Courcelette
is about half way, and a bit north of the road.
Mouquet Farm seems to be still there and visible on Google Maps.
It isn't labelled, but from the above book's map on page xi it's
a few km west of Courcelette and east of Thiepval:
http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ie=UTF8&ll=50.05014,2.715683&spn=0.040343,0.076904&t=h&z=14
Here's a Wikipedia map of the area between Albert and Bapaume:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/42/Battle_of_the_Somme_1916_map.png
Meanwhile, according to _Corporal Hitler in the Great War 1914-1918_
by John F. Williams (2005) Hitler arrived in the same combat zone
with the rest of the 16th ("List") Bavarian Reserve Infantry Regiment
on October 2 and was wounded by a shell burst around October 7
right on the front lines (there seems to be some uncertainty about
the exact date).
Part of this book is available on-line. See Chapter 11 for details:
I don't know the precise location where Hitler was wounded.
Various web sites place it "near Bapaume".
However by early October Commonwealth forces including Canadians and New
Zealanders had taken Courcelette and the German front lines would have
been a kilometer or so to the east.
Sean_Q_