# Which Character did JRRT most identify with



## Harad (Feb 4, 2002)

You can choose a "creator" character or an "action" character. I like the idea of "Elrond" since he fought in a War and then became a Wise counselor.


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## Gnashar_the_orc (Feb 4, 2002)

*No doubt it's Bilbo*

I think it's definately Bilbo. Tolkien, being English, definately could relate to the quiet Shire which could be the equivalent of a small english village of the 1950s (though they people definately didn't live in holes!). Bilbo is definately very 'english' in his manner, as far as his tastes and habits are concerned. The fact that both him and Tolkien have/had a crave for smoking using a pipe seems to me that Tolkien wanted to put himslef in the adventure.


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## Nocturno (Feb 4, 2002)

*A hobbit, yeah*

I do remember an interview or a paper in which Tolkien actually mentioned he was the closest in character to a hobbit!
He was a marry man, fond of a good laugh, an interesting conversation for ours, good beer and a nd some tobacco.
That, and his writing activity (novels, songs, poetry, children's stories) would put him more into Bilbo's field than Frodo's.


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## Grond (Feb 7, 2002)

I see a picture of JRRT and I think of ole Mithrandir, sitting on a stool in Bag End blowing smoke rings. That's the image I have in my head.


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## Beleg Strongbow (Feb 8, 2002)

> _Originally posted by Grond _
> *I see a picture of JRRT and I think of ole Mithrandir, sitting on a stool in Bag End blowing smoke rings. That's the image I have in my head.  *




I see Tolkien relating with Eru. The supreme creator and being in all of Eá. If not him then i would see Gandalf. I watched a documenatry on Tolkien on the abc and it said how tolkien hated how everything in hist town sudenley becoming a lone paradise with everything else becoming under the strain of war and that it was a bit like the shire as everything else was preparing for war it was bye it self just going along. I think he would like to have been Gandalf wandering around trying to defeat Sauron (ww1). I'm sorry if that doesn't make sense it is just really hard 2 put into words.


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## Harad (Feb 8, 2002)

Interesting! So far the leader is Bilbo, not a bad choice. 

Someone argued with me in a private post that JRRT was Tom Bombadil. He must not have voted. Also, no Frodo's or Aragorn's so JRRT was not the heroic type...Definitely more professorial or creative.

He did "create" evil (creatures), sort of like you-know-who.


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## riyehn (Feb 10, 2002)

I remember reading something about how JRR Tolkien compared himself to Beren and his wife to Lúthien.


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## Nocturno (Feb 11, 2002)

In fact, I read that on his grave and his wife's it's written something about Beren and Luthien. I think that's how he saw his own relationship and the effort it took him to finally be with her.
But I voted Bilbo, for the reasons I wrote above.


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## Harad (Feb 11, 2002)

I had no idea! Was JRRT the guy who took the Silmaril from Kaiser Wilhem?


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## Nimawae's hope (Feb 11, 2002)

WOW!!! You mean JRRT was really a warrior type guy!! COOL!!!! I mean I always thought he seemed more like a hobbit sort. (In fact that is what he said he really was in life. Just a simple hobbit.)


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## Nocturno (Feb 12, 2002)

Ha, ha, ha.
I think it meant something about some distance in their relationship. According to a biography I must have somewhere he met is future wife at an early age and had to wait years to actually go back and marry her. He had to respect a full one or two years without seeing her. And he did, old fashioned man as he was.
Actually when he came back to her, she already had another boyfriend, and had to convince her to leave him to get married.
The biographer equalled that to the "romantic" side of Beren and Luthien, no Silmarils I'm afraid.
But it is a fact that he wrote an inscription of Beren and Luthien on their grave.
But again, I think he was a hobbit.


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## Lestfall (Mar 1, 2002)

*definitely a hobbit of some sort. from his own mouth.*

this is from a letter Tolkien wrote to Deborah Webster in october of 1958:

"I am in fact a Hobbit (in all but size). I like gardens, trees and unmechanized farmlands; I smoke a pipe, and like good plain food (unrefrigerated), but detest French cooking. I like, and even dare to wear in these doll days, ornamental waistcoats. I am fond of mushrooms (out of a field); have a very simple sense of humor (which even my appreciative critics find tiresome); I go to bed late and get up late (when possilbe). I do not travel much. I love wales" and so forth.

He seems to be a self-declared Hobbit.

-Lestfall


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