The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien himself. In letters 29 and 30, it appears that a German translation of "The Hobbit" was being negotiated in 1938. The German firm enquired whether Tolkien was of "Arisch" (Aryan) origin. Tolkien was infuriated by this, and wrote two drafts of possible replies for his publisher to choose. The first one is not present – in it Tolkien is assumed to have refused to give any declaration whatsoever of his racial origins. The second, surviving, draft included: A former signals officer at the Battle of the Somme, Tolkien frequently expressed his great dislike for war, whatever the cause. This is
Languages constructed by J. R. R. Tolkien Languages constructed by J. R. R. Tolkien The philologist and author J. R. R. Tolkien created a number of constructed languages, including languages devised for fictional settings. Inventing languages (called "glossopoeia" by Tolkien, from Greek γλῶσσα glôssa, "language, tongue" and ποιῶ poiô, "to make" paralleling his idea of "mythopoeia" or myth-making) was a lifelong occupation for Tolkien, starting in his teens. An early project of Tolkien was the reconstruction of an unrecorded early Germanic language which might have been spoken by the people of "Beowulf" in the Germanic heroic age. The most-developed project of Tolkien was his Elvish languages. He