It Can Always Get Worse

It Can Always Get Worse

Tolkien and the Evils of the Second World War

“We are attempting to conquer Sauron with the Ring”

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Kyle Orton
Nov 08, 2025
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John Ronald Reuel Tolkien in Oxford in 1972 || CAMERA PRESS/Bill Potter

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A letter from J.R.R. Tolkien to his son on 6 May 1944 (reprinted below) included an interesting section where he expresses severe criticism of the way the Allies were waging the Second World War, which is tellingly expressed in a metaphor drawn from his magnum opus, The Lord of the Rings.

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