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Originally Posted by Rumil
I'd disagree with Galadriel re British use of the word dugout, probably because I'm older (yet another birthday has just passed, but a very enjoyable one!). Dugout would certainly have a military connotation, and more than likely be associated with the First World War, where the front lines were relatively static for so long. This would be a familiar word to Tolkien's generation, to the Second World War generation, and likely their children (due to war films, comics etc).
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Thanks for correcting me. I must admit that I haven't been reading too many WW1 books (compared to the number of WW2 books I've read), but that's probably because in my original country's WW1 contributions were overshadowed by the revolution in literature...
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Originally Posted by Rumil
In the early Fall of Gondolin Morgoth unleashes monstrous machines, that have some similarities with tanks and armoured carriers. This reflects JRRT's antipathy for the 'machine', also remember Saruman's devices, including the ent-killling flamethrower-like contrivance.
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Just a question for anyone who knows - wasn't this one of the first tales that Tolkien started to write from The Sil -to-be? If yes, this couldn't have been coincidence.
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Originally Posted by Rumil
Tolkien was also dismayed by aerial warfare (despite CT joining the RAF), and I have a theory that the terrifying wails of the Nazgul were suggested by the sirens of Nazi Stuka dive-bombers that demoralised the defenders of France in 1940.
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Nice find. Thinking about it, though, it might have older roots, going down to the sound shells make as they fly, and shell-shock (or simply the reflex reaction of taking cover). But your theory works just as well.
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Originally Posted by Rumil
There are also some interesting parallels between the writing of LoTR and course of the Second World War.
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Yet another great find!
What do you think about some of Bilbo's lines in Rivendell when he volunteered to take the Ring? Doesn't that also scream "personal experience"? Just like JRRT in WW2 accepted to take a position, but was told in the end that his services were not required, and that he had his share of the war... And also, he wrote "about" a war ("about" in quotation marks because, as we all know, legendarium is not exactly set in the 1900s
) he fought in and considered lucky to survive, but had to watch another war from the side...