Was Tolkien a driver?

Question

J.R.R Tolkien is renowned (and occasionally mocked) for his Lord of the Ring novels in which his characters spend a very considerable time walking (and occasionally flying and riding horses) but never do we see them in a carriage, horseless or otherwise.

In real life, did Tolkien drive an automobile, and did he have a driving licence?

score 27 · Accepted Answer · edited Jun 16 '20 at 09:31

27

According to his biography, JRR Tolkien was indeed a driver, but not a good one.

In 1932, Tolkien purchased an automobile: a Morris Crowley. The car was called "Jo" after the first two letters of its license plate, and Tolkien had a tendency to drive it like a knight on his prancing charger. On the family's first long-distance road trip, to visit Hilary Tolkien on his Evesham fruit farm, the car's tires punctured twice (a rather common hazard of the time) and Tolkien managed to knock down a stone wall near Chipping Norton (for which he had no one to blame but himself).

Tolkien's technique for navigating busy intersections was to ignore all other vehicles and floor it, yelling "Charge'em and they scatter!" as he blasted his way through traffic.

_{^{J.R.R. Tolkien: A Biography}}

He evidently sold his car in the 1940s, stating that they were turning his beloved Oxford into something resembling Mordor

"Though, the spirit of ‘Isengard’, if not of Mordor, is of course always cropping up. The present design of destroying Oxford in order to accommodate motor-cars is a case."

_{^{Letter #181}}

and

“It is full Maytime by the trees and grass now. But the heavens are full of roar and riot. You cannot even hold a shouting conversation in the garden now, save about 1 a.m. and 7 p.m. – unless the day is too foul to be out. How I wish the 'infernal combustion' engine had never been invented. Or (more difficult still since humanity and engineers in special are both nitwitted and malicious as a rule) that it could have been put to rational uses — if any.”

_{^{Letter #64 to Christopher Tolkien}}

As an aside, it's worth noting that since he began driving before 1932, he wouldn't have held a driving licence since they were only introduced in 1934 and stopped driving before they became mandatory for all drivers.

edited Jun 16 '20 at 09:31

Community

1

answered Sep 19 '16 at 16:04

Valorum

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I think probably a lot of people who have grown up accustomed to good highways, SUVs, and mass-transit wouldn't understand how much this aspect could affect the writer's spatial and temporal concepts. – Cascabel_StandWithUkraine_ Sep 19 '16 at 17:06
@Cascabel - Indeed. The distance from Mordor to Hobbiton was scarcely 500 miles, but sufficient to fill three books with walking. Nowadays that would be a long train journey taking less than 12 hours. – Valorum Sep 19 '16 at 17:29
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^ OK, there is a bit of relevant insight into the story, which makes this look less like silly trivia. – Molag Bal Sep 19 '16 at 17:36
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@amaranth - Fandom questions (including questions about authors) are also explicitly allowed by the site's rules on topicality. Those voting to close may wish to take that into account. Personally, I think that both his eccentricity and love for Oxford are likely to be of genuine interest to a fan of his works. – Valorum Sep 19 '16 at 17:48
@amaranth - The question has attracted a number of close votes. – Valorum Sep 19 '16 at 17:49
I'm not sure the mode of transportation was without carriage simply for reasons that "Tolkien didn't like cars". In the 30's he actually had a car for a while, which would mean he likes cars better than most folks of the era. Discrete carriage travel would be severely poor over unkempt terrain, especially anything remotely forested, mountainous, or flooded. – Gorchestopher H Sep 19 '16 at 18:09
@Valorum - "...a long train journey taking less than 12 hours" - or you could fly. – void_ptr Sep 19 '16 at 19:28
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@void_ptr - Hence Gandalf's admonition, "*Fly, you fools!*" – Valorum Sep 19 '16 at 19:37
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Next question -- did he ever bicycle or roller skate? – Hack-R Sep 20 '16 at 02:45
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@Hack-R More importantly, did he ever ride a fell beast? – Molag Bal Sep 20 '16 at 03:39
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@hack-r - According to his biography he most certainly rode a bicycle, especially during the war when petrol was closely rationed and when he was working at Oxford as a professor. He met/wooed his future wife while on bike rides to Church. History doesn't record if he roller-skated. – Valorum Sep 20 '16 at 09:45

Was Tolkien a driver?

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