The name's Tolkien, JRR Tolkien

[Aravar]

It seems that JRRT was trained in the expectation of his joining in the codebreaking effort at Bletchley Park during the Second World War.

Telegraph Article

[vison]

"Its staff - which included Alan Turing, the gay codebreaker - would later decipher the 'impenetrable' Enigma machines."

Therein lies a very sad tale. The British government has recently issued an apology for its treatment of Mr. Turing.

One of the great minds of the 20th century, hounded to suicide by the era's homophobia.

[yovargas]

Turing was gay?!? Wow!!

[Primula Baggins]

What they did to him is a horror story.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turing

[solicitr]

One does wonder why Tolkien turned the offer down. The pay was very good- probably much better than he got as a don.

[Pearly Di]

What they did to him is a horror story.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turing

I had no idea, until Gordon Brown's recent apology. Absolutely awful. Poor man. And what this country owes him!!!!!!!!!!


But, wow, that is too cool about Tolkien. :):):):):)

Gosh, imagine how different things would have been if he had accepted the job!

I would absolutely love to know why he turned it down.

He could have become one of our most famous spies or code-breakers, like Turing.

And we still could have got LotR.

[Alatar]

Yeah but think of the field day people would have trying to draw analogies between Fëanor and Goering...

[Primula Baggins]

And the various Ring metaphors would be even more tiresome.

[solicitr]

And if Tolkien had gone to Bletchley, I expect that he personally would have been as unconcerned with Turing's orientation as he was with Auden's.

One wonders why Tolkien was on the list, besides his obvious intellect. I doubt he was needed as a mere translator; perhaps it was thought a linguistician could help the codebreakig process through pattern recognition or some such.

Britain's recruitment for intelligence purposes (and the US' as well, since OSS was patterned after the Brits) covered a remarkable range of people. Noel Coward was a spy, as were Julia Child and Red Sox catcher Moe Berg. Greta Garbo and Cary Grant. Malcolm Muggeridge and Somerset Maugham.

[Aravar]

One wonders why Tolkien was on the list, besides his obvious intellect. I doubt he was needed as a mere translator; perhaps it was thought a linguistician could help the codebreakig process through pattern recognition or some such.

That's what I would have thought. Many years ago (90s) the Telegraph ran an article about how recruitment to Bletchley was done through a crossword competition, with the crossword included in the article.

[River]

One wonders why Tolkien was on the list, besides his obvious intellect. I doubt he was needed as a mere translator; perhaps it was thought a linguistician could help the codebreakig process through pattern recognition or some such.

I'm almost certain it was this. Most of the linguists (both the trained professionals and the hobbyists) I've personally known also had very good math skills and a childhood history of playing with codes, so I wouldn't be surprised if Tolkien also had a head for numbers.

[ToshoftheWuffingas]

Does anyone know what contributions to the war effort Tolkien actually made? I mean his skills with language were a valuable resource. At the very least I would have expected his ability with Germanic languages to be used.
The fact that I can't remember reading anything almost points towards some secret service. A lot of people who did give secret service had still not told even their husbands or wives decades later.

[Aravar]

There's references to being in the Home Guard in Letters. But I agree with you Tosh. I had always vaguely speculated about this, but the news seemd to militate aginast any service.

That does not quie stnad with his expressed desire in one of the Letters to have a go himself.

[ToshoftheWuffingas]

I just read the Telegraph article and it almost poses more questions than it answered. I was also a little shocked at the shoddiness of the article - not quite what I expected of the Telegraph but standards have slipped.

I'm even more persuaded that Tolkien did secret work after that.

[solicitr]

Unfortunately I doubt that if Tolkien did any secret work he would ever have committed mention of it to paper.

[N.E. Brigand]

As I briefly mentioned elsewhere in response to this news, we've known for 28 years that Tolkien was recruited for cryptography work in 1939. What's notable in this article is the claim that he turned them down. The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien (1981) says just the opposite:

In January 1939 Tolkien was asked whether in the event of a national emergency (i.e. war) he would be prepared to work in the cryptographical department of the Foreign Office. He agreed, and apparently attended a four-day course of instruction at the Foreign Office beginning on 27 March. But in October 1939 he was informed that his services would not be required for the present, and in the event he never worked as a cryptographer.

That's endnote 1 to letter #35. That letter, dated 2 Feb. 1939 and addressed to C.A. Furth at Allen & Unwin, includes this comment by Tolkien:

I may get part of the Easter Vac. free. Not all -- I shall have some papers to set; and some work in preparation for a possible 'National Emergency' (which will take a week out).

Letters was edited by the late Humphrey Carpenter, with the assistance of Christopher Tolkien. Douglas A. Anderson wrote some of the notes.

[solicitr]

Yes, but-

"cryptographical department of the Forign Office" didn't imply Bletchley Park. It's sort of like "He's in the Army" vs. "He's in Delta Force."

[N.E. Brigand]

Yes, but- "cryptographical department of the Forign Office" didn't imply Bletchley Park. It's sort of like "He's in the Army" vs. "He's in Delta Force."

No doubt you are right, but for this reader without much knowledge of cryptography, Bletchley Park is precisely what came to mind. When I saw the film, Enigma, I thought, "imagine if Tolkien had been there" on the basis of the note in Letters.

I wonder on what basis Letters says that it was not Tolkien but the Foreign Office who decided he wouldn't be working there.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

I would believe Letters over the Telegraph.

[BrianIsSmilingAtYou]

I suspect that the reason Tolkien was initially asked but ultimately not needed was due to changes in the perceived need.

The view of cryptography that had existed previously was in the form of a linguistic game; however, it became known that the Germans were using mechanical encryption devices, which is essentially a mathematical problem to solve.

The Allies abandoned the linguistic approach in favor of the mathematical approach, though certain simple heuristics were used (like letter frequency counts and expectation of common words in things, like references to weather and tide conditions).

BrianIs AtYou