Letter 226

The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien
Letter 226
Recipient	L.W. Forster
Date	31 December 1960
Subject(s)	Influences

Letter 226 is a letter written by J.R.R. Tolkien and published in The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien.

Summary

Tolkien told L.W. Forster of his influences. Since the writing of The Lord of the Rings had already reached Bree in 1937, the Second World War and the atomic bomb had no influence on the writing. Neither did World War I, though the Dead Marshes owed something to Northern France after the Battle of the Somme. However, it owed more to William Morris' The House of the Wolfings and The Roots of the Mountains.

Notes

• Though not identified, professor Forster was likely L.W. Forster, Schröder professor in German at Cambridge University.