JRR Tolkien - All VIDEO interview compilation - CleanCut

Tolkien VIDEO interviews are rare and scattered everywhere in different length and quality, and it's hard to keep track of them.
This CleanCut edition attempts to improve that -- Result is a short film of just Tolkien and his own words.

These footage are from 1962 & 1968 BBC, which are the only two VIDEO interviews of him that ever existed.

- 27 minutes
- collected all known released video of Tolkien from public domain [to date 2022-09]
- best video quality footage are used
- removed some irrelevant audio by other people
- between every segment is 2s blank
- subtitles: select English (not Auto Caption); now updated per the transcript. Accuracy 95%

This video is the result of 100+ hours of labor.

Credit / Source:
- Tolkien Estate, BBC, YouTube
- "Secrets of Middle-earth" docu (2003)
- "Master of the Rings" docu (2004)
- "Tolkien in Oxford Reconstruction", PDF file by Stuart Lee (transcript)

- for fan collection purposes; copyright belongs to their owners
- this video is non-monetized. I did not set google ads on it

Compiled by TalkingAboutTolkien

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MAKING of these compilations: Long-expected projects, unexpected timing

This idea first existed 20 years ago in my mind: of putting together these random footage,
so that I could finally watch them in one sitting without interruption.
20 years later, more materials had been published, but files are still scattered.

One day I just started the process, unexpectedly.

It wasn't an easy project; maybe that's why no one else had done it.
As a reader, I was already a collector of these things: docu CD's and stuff, so I had a starting point.
The real challenge was that these materials had been mixed and remixed in so many random ways over the decades. And there were so few reference data.

Some footage were not easy to be found at first; took me a while to be convinced that there were no more.
The editing process took two weeks of long nights reviewing the video and audio segments altogether.

In the end, 100+ hours had gone into the process and many more hours afterwards to improve the subtitles.

Now that it has been completed, it's nice to know that people actually appreciate the result.

Now, if BBC could release the remaining materials...

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For anyone that wishes to post their "opinions" on Tolkien's work or life: feel free to visit Reddit,
where your input will be properly greeted and nurtured by knowledgeable Tolkien readers -

Comments regarding any *adaptations*: please tread lightly (or better yet - not at all). So please stay on topic: this video and its content.

[TalkingAboutTolkien]

00:00 Hobbits
00:45 LOTR
01:07 Elvish
01:27 Allegory
02:02 Reviewer
02:10 Death
03:16 Fan mail
03:28 Escapist
03:38 When was 13
03:46 Writes Elvish
04:45 FOOD?!
05:01 Beer
05:21 Smoking
05:38 Invented Ring inscription/Black Speech
05:55 Black Speech
06:07 Cult
--- B&W ---
06:42 (no audio) pipe w/glasses
07:01 (no audio) takes off glasses
07:20 Hobbits
07:37 Roos, memory
08:04 Life after WW2
09:30 Manor Road
10:35 Recollection
11:03 Elves Dwarves Men
13:12 Silm
13:50 Silm
14:16 BBC 1962
--- Oxford Tour ---
20:45 Walks into house
21:10 Tour#1 better quality
23:30 Tour#2 low quality
25:35 Fireworks
25:45 Claps/Yeah
26:05 Aerial view
26:33 In a field

[josephjoe]

Tolkien was so immersed in his own lore that he spoke of his own elvish writing "as inferior to the elves, " as if they were a real race that actually existed. That's so badass. I love this man.

[dakotaroot_]

He's exactly as I imagined him, Gandalf incarnate with those sly little smiles and quick bright eyes

[creepyjk]

you can really tell how fast his mind worked. its like constantly bubbleing up with thought

[etienneporras]

"Oh Lord, I've made a mistake, haven't I." The sheer WEIGHT of that statement shows just how much love and devotion this man poured into his work.

[jordangroff]

God, seeing Tolkien write in Elvish himself is like watching Mozart write music, or MIchelangelo making sketches!

[romulomontes]

I think his personality is kind of a mix between Gandalf and Bilbo. Such a brilliant and nice man.

[highpsi]

I absolutely love his acceptance of the term "escapist" writing as "escaping from prison".

[Rekaert]

Tolkien: "I now wanted to try my hand at writing a really stupendously long narrative."

Also Tolkien: Goes on to write one of, if not the best, fantasy novels of all time.

[johns]

It's crazy to think that all through this time he was sitting on most of the Silmarillion and he never got a chance to see all the wonder and lore that unfolded after it was published. Imagine all the questions we could ask him.

[alexajennelle]

"No, I don't desire to go and have afternoons talking Elvish to chaps." 😂

Thank you so much for all your time and effort in putting these clips together and for writing out the transcript. It's wonderful!

[primus]

How much pleasure, joy and escapism from the mundane has this man given the world.
Magnificent to see.

[chikami]

His reply to the bbc interviewer around 20:30 was so profound :'D
"The made thing, unless it says something, won't be remembered."

[winterbas]

So... We have a student who left a blank page to thank for The Hobbit

[joepalooka]

"I'm very fond of beer" ---- LOL what an amazing and wonderful man he was. I first discovered "The Hobbit" and "Lord Of The Rings" as a teenager back in the '60s and I've loved and admired JRR Tolkien ever since.

[AS-fukd]

This man was such a precious gift to humanity

[QFGEE]

Tolkien’s ability to take the pseudo-intellectual jibber-jabber of the pretentious interviewer and give genuinely intriguing answers is great talent.

[hjpev]

This is the most English sounding man I have ever heard

[Free_Range_Hippo]

It’s like meeting an actual visitor from Middle Earth.

[jeffvannda]

I read The Hobbit in 1970..took it to school and hid it in my class books and read it non-stop..move on to The Rings...got an A in Tolkien..not so high marks in classes ..it was such a place to go for a boy so unhappy at home, school and tragedy... reading always took me away