Home > Author > J.R.R. Tolkien >

" It was just as the 1914 War burst on me that I made the discovery that "legends" depend on the language to which they belong; but a living language depends equally on the "legends" which it conveys by tradition. (For example, that the Greek mythology depends far more on the marvellous aesthetic of its language and so of its nomenclature of persons and places and less on its content than people realize, though of course it depends on both. And vice versa. Volapuk, Esperanto, Ido, Novial, &C. are dead, for deader than ancient unused languages, because their authors never invented any Esperanto legends.). (letter 180) "

J.R.R. Tolkien , The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien


Image for Quotes

J.R.R. Tolkien quote : It was just as the 1914 War burst on me that I made the discovery that