This article is from page 12 of the 2014-07-22 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 12 JPG
A SOLID link connecting the Burren and the Lord of the Rings may finally have been established following extensive research by a Northern Irish scholar.
Dr Liam Campbell has studied a number of edits undertaken on JRR Tolkien classic fantasy novel between 1949 and 1954, when it was first published. By painstakingly cross-referencing the individual edits with known visits by JRR Tolkien to North Clare, Campbell believes he has, for once and for all, proved the connection.
According to Dr Campbell, who will speak at next month’s Burren Tolkien Society Festival, some of the discovered passages read like a virtual road map to the Burren.
“I have evidence of late passages which were put into the book in the 1950s by Tolkien. Once you are aware of the chronology of the book, and when he edited certain section, you can see some of the later edits which when written up read like a road map to the Burren,” said Dr Campbell.
“Many people say that the Lord of the Ring was finished in 1948, before his visits to Ireland, but I also uncovered a letter between Tolkien and his editor from April of 1953 in which he says ‘at last I have finished the book’.
“I know that he did a major rewrite of the whole book in 1952 with his son, and that took place after he came to the Burren and experienced the place.”
Dr Campbell will reveal specific passages from the book, which is the second most published book of all time, which have a distinctive Burren influence, and is keeping the exact details close to his chest until the Burren Tolkien Society Festival in August.
“It is true to say that if I was to read some passages to you, and told you it was a tourist guide to the Burren, you would not bat an eye lid. I can’t speak on which sections of the book have these passages but I will reveal that during the talk,” continued Dr Campbell.
“There is a deep connection between the book and the Celtic mythology. I would almost say that so much of the information about the Elves in the book comes almost directly from Celtic mythology.”
For more on the Burren Tolkien Society visit www.burrentolkiensociety.ie.