Why Tolkien Hated Shakespeare

In this video we explore Tolkien's opinions on William Shakespeare and his works, primarily Macbeth, and how the Bard influenced the development of the Lord of the Rings!

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(Some of the) Artists featured in my videos:

Daniel Jeffries
Lorenzo Colangeli
Ted Nasmith
John Howe
Greg and Tim Hildebrandt
Bohemian Weasel
Joe Gilronan
Matt Stewart
Alan Lee
Melissa Myra
John Paul Cavara
Pasi Leinonen
Alyxandria Davis
Dartxo
Franz Fdez
Alan Lee
Ludovic Bourgeois
Federico Musetti
Anato Finnstark
Ahmet Can Kahraman
Jenny Dolfen
Justin Gerard
Donato Giancola
Anna Kulisz
Stevce Lazarevski
Coliandre
Antonello Venditti
Matt DeMino
Lady Elleth
DarianaLoki
Ainave
Shalizeh
Marek Madej
Bastien Lecouffe
Sniжna Barbarian
Vladimir Kafanov
Neyrefen
Natalia Be
NastyaSkaya
Anna Butova
Dane Madgwick
Amir Zand
Andrea Guardino
William Robinson
--and many more that I will add soon!!!--

Below are the songs used in the order they are played:

Recollections by Asher Fulero

Falling Snow by Aakash Gandhi

Arms of Heaven by Aakash Gandhi

Forest Lullabye by Asher Fulero

Swans in Flight by Asher Fulero

Chapters:

0:00 Intro and Tolkien's Youth
0:47 Tolkien's Early Dislike
2:13 Tolkien's Literary Objection
6:07 Tolkien's Dislike of Shakespeare's Legacy
8:02 Shakespeare in the Lord of the Rings
11:00 Conclusion

[jlworrad]

To be fair, Tolkien probably thought it was all downhill for English literature from the Norman conquest onwards.

[johnwhelan]

Should be retitled "why Tolkien sorta disliked Shakespear a bit sometimes".

[brendancoulter]

He didnt hate Shakespeare. He may have taken issue with how the prophecy played out in Hamlet, not the same thing as hating Shakespeare.

[labrynianrebel]

"I don't like this, it *should* be like this" is pretty much the basis for anyone to create something new or interesting.

[Marshmellow]

If you write literature, poetry or theater in English, whether you know it or not you were influenced by William Shakespeare. Literally; when Shakespeare started writing English grammar & spelling still weren’t standardized and his use of language helped shape our vocabulary, spelling, grammar and manner of speaking. This is in addition to creating what we think of as modern plot structure and character archetypes, pioneering many of the techniques that are now essential to theater and creating new poetic styles. Tolkien was a once in a generation literary mind, but Shakespeare was truly a once in a millennium sort of storyteller if not rarer.

[EmperorCaligula_EC]

Overwriting the whimsical view on Elves and Dwarfs in our culture is probably one of his biggest archievements.

[AbexBroadcastingChannels]

"To Ring or not to Ring, that is the question" - Sauron Probably

[jeremykraenzlein]

Tolkien thought that Shakespeare's plays work better as performed than as just read? I doubt that Shakespeare himself would have disputed that! Shakespeare never intended for his plays to be read as literature, he wrote them to be performed on stage!

[pokerandphilosophy]

I think it's mostly sour grapes because Shakespeare wrote a terrible review of The Lord of the Rings.

[chandl]

My feed is flooded with videos about all the writers Tolkien hated. I wouldn't think too much about it.

[isaachester]

“Why Tolkien had a reasonable and thoughtful critique about Shakespeare’s way of handling fantasy, and a few of the resolutions to his stories.” I guess that title would be a little too long, but what would’ve been more accurate and less inflammatory is “Tolkien’s Problem with Shakespeare”

[LynetteTheMadScientist]

Tolkien about Shakespeare: needed more trees and less people

[thelostone]

To paraphrase Cunk on Shakespeare, Shakespeare had it much easier in school because he didn’t have to learn Shakespeare. But it is interesting to learn about Tolkien’s take on Shakespeare. I would love to know what he thought of Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus because that is dark and messed up.

[jlworrad]

I think the loophole prophecies in Macbeth work because we get to see Macbeth's arrogance beforehand. He is undone and undone cruelly and cheaply by fate. In contrast, we never look inside the Witch King's mind like we Macbeth, so cheap loopholes would carry no sting and would just look, well, cheap. Both prophecies work in both stories because they fit the essence of either story.

[Publicistvideos]

It’s incredible to consider that Tolkien’s influence has been so great that his versions of Elves and Dwarves have supplanted both Shakespeare’s and Disney’s respective interpretations in the public imagination. No mean feat!

[MatthewCaunsfield]

As always, Tolkein articulated his opinions clearly

[NR-rvrz]

The great Tolkiens objection to the trees of Burnham Woods being cut down and moved is silly.
The whole point of MacBeth not taking that prophecy serious was the common view that trees are fixed in place and can not walk.
If MacBeth lived in a world where trees could move then there would be no reason for him to let his guard down regarding that prophecy.

[Pumpkinshire]

If Shakespeare didn’t make the cut then it makes a little more sense why he didn’t like Narnia

[jimslancio]

Interesting, considering that the Witch King's warning to Eowyn, "Come not between the Nazgul and his prey!" Is a close paraphrasal of a line from King Lear.

[saladinbob]

In terms of theatre. I would agree it cannot not do Fantasy justice because of the visual limitations but Tolkien was a product of his time, it would be interesting to see if his opinion changed where he able to see fantasy in video games, or the cinema with today's technology. LoTR on stage would look ridiculous, it's too grand, too big in scale for the Theatre, but with modern technology that scale can be visualised on screen.