Tolkien slept here

[wellinghall]

"Biographer Joseph Pearce says the famous South African poet Roy Campbell saw the Spanish Civil War as a religious conflict between Christianity and atheistic modernism.

In a recent interview with CNA, Pearce said Campbell – who was the inspiration behind the character Aragorn in Tolkien's Lord of the Rings – believes 'the war in Spain was a battle between Christian tradition and atheistic modernism. In other words, he saw it as a religious conflict.'"

http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/spanish-civil-war-seen-as-religious-conflict-biographer-says/

Comments

[scribblerworks.livejournal.com]

Is there a comment somewhere by JRRT that Campbell was an influence on the character of Aragorn? I haven't read all of the History of Middle-earth, so I don't know if there's something like that lurking about. But really?

And who is making the assertion? Pearce or the article writer?

[inzilbeth-liz.livejournal.com]

I've left Campbell out of my book as I decided that meeting was a bit late to really be an inspiration. Others obviously think differently!

Also, I took the same view as Jason!

[dreiviertel.livejournal.com]

Oh dear! Didn't Tolkien meet Campbell once?
(after doing some digging) It's in Letter 83, and 1944 was mercifully too late for him to have much impact on the character of Aragorn. I thought the description in the letter pretty much states that it was the other way round.