Beren tweeted about a TV Interview that I did at the end of last year for the Ukrainian TV channel (INTER TV) on Tolkien. The interview was shown on Tolkien's Birthday (3rd January 2012).

You can see it here (dubbed into Russian) but if you look at the link below then you can see below the clip a translation into English of the commentary. If anyone can speak or read Russian I would appreciate a proper translation.

http://translate.google.com/translate ... 2%2F01%2F03%2F813066.html

One of the members of another forum who can read Russian, kindly translated the text on the web page.


The World marks the 120th anniversary of Tolkien’s birth

3 January 2012

It was a New Year story that began the creative work of one of the most original writers of the 20th century. John Ronald Reuel Tolkien created a new genre: “fantasy”, based on the adventures of Santa Claus. At least, this is the opinion of many literary scholars. Today is the 120th anniversary of Tolkien’s birth. His “Lord of the Rings” continues to be read both by children and adults. How did Christmas cards become a masterpiece of European literature? Yelena Gnes’.

“The end? No, life does not end with death. Death is only a continuation of the journey”

Gandalf the Grey Pilgrim, the wise wizard and valiant White Rider, is one of the main heroes of the epic “the Lord of the Rings”. Many Tolkien scholars suggest that his prototype was Santa Claus. He is remarkably similar to the old man with the presents, whom Tolkien described to his children.

Yelena Gnes’ correspondent:

Every Christmas Professor Tolkien write his children letters as if from Santa Claus. He put real stamps on the envelopes and posted them to his own address.

Every letter contained a short story with pictures from the North Pole. There were elves, dwarves and other fairytale creatures that recall the heroes of “The Hobbit” and “The Lord of the Rings.” But even the author, when he wrote these letters, did not suspect that by entertaining his children he was creating a whole world called Middle-earth. Tolkien became the father of the fantasy genre out of his love for his children and for philology.

Andrew Ferguson, Tolkienist and Tolkien collector:

He was a philologist, a professor of English language and literature. He was very interested in the origin of words, and aspired to learn independently how to create new languages. In consequence, Tolkien decided to invent a whole new world and people it with beings who would speak in these invented languages.

Tolkien began to write his first masterpiece, “the Hobbit, or There and Back Again”, quite unexpectedly, when marking students’ examination papers

Unfortunately, marking exam papers is a pretty boring job. I took the next paper and found one sheet was absolutely blank. I did not have to mark it. And I wrote straight onto the sheet: “In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.”

In a year’s time a film is due to appear on the theme of “The Hobbit, or There and Back Again”. Its director is Peter Jackson, who directed “The Lord of the Rings”. The new picture promises to be as successful.

Andrew Ferguson, Tolkienist and Tolkien collector:

Nowadays, with the development of technology, we have computer games and films based on Tolkien’s work. Nevertheless the best thing is to read his books. It’s not enough to watch Tolkien films – you have to read Tolkien. He is fantastic.

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BTW, the name of the site, "Podrobnosti", means "details". Go, as they say, figure

Tolkienist reminds me of cultist, not sure if that is good or bad

I'd like to point out here that the suggestions in this piece that Tolkien's fantasy is based on Santa Claus, did not come from me.

I'd also like to point out my personal regret in the inaccuracies in the parts of the interview that I did not contribute to, but I was given no editorial control or input on the final version that was broadcast

I will go officially on the record and say that I believe you didn't say this. I can't vouch for the other forum members though :) Also Santa Claus exists right, or are you denying that too?

Still cool having your collection on the TV--even if it was in Russian.

BH