Tolkien and the Great War

John Garth, 2003 — the war years and the birth of the mythology

ca. 1 min

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In briefanswer capsule

John Garth's study covers the years 1914 to 1918 month by month: the T.C.B.S., the Somme, the trench fever, the hospital notebooks in which The Fall of Gondolin was written. It is the fullest account of how the war and the earliest legends belong together, and the source this encyclopedia cites for that period alongside Tolkien's own letters.

Sources

The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien — Letter 165
The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien — Letter 226

Cite this page

Legendarium (2026): „Tolkien and the Great War“. Last updated September 3, 2026. https://www.legendarium.page/tolkien/garth-tolkien-and-the-great-war/

APA

Legendarium. (2026). Tolkien and the Great War. Last updated September 3, 2026. https://www.legendarium.page/tolkien/garth-tolkien-and-the-great-war/

MLA

„Tolkien and the Great War“. Legendarium, 2026, https://www.legendarium.page/tolkien/garth-tolkien-and-the-great-war/. Last updated September 3, 2026.

BibTeX

@misc{legendarium-garth-tolkien-and-the-great-war-en,
  title        = {Tolkien and the Great War},
  author       = {{Legendarium}},
  year         = {2026},
  howpublished = {\url{https://www.legendarium.page/tolkien/garth-tolkien-and-the-great-war/}},
  note         = {Last updated September 3, 2026}
}