Tolkien and Abyssinia (The Real Middle-earth by Michael Muhling)

Michael Muhling wrote:Tolkien stated that he could not identify what had inspired him to write The Lord Of The Rings.  A big problem identifying Tolkien’s inspiration was the passage of time as he began writing The Lord of the Rings in the late 1930’s but his work was not published until 1954.  It then took time for interest in his work to grow enough to prompt queries about his inspiration.  The first question put to Tolkien about Abyssinia was in 1971.  By this time Tolkien could not recall if Abyssinia had influenced him, but he clearly remembered the Italian war.  He went on to say that a writer is inspired by a ‘leaf-mould’ of submerged memories.

Even were Tolkien alive today, his source of inspiration cannot be known with absolute certainty. However, the timing of the Italian war, his intrinsic interest in Abyssinia, and the sheer extent of the connections between Abyssinia and The Lord of the Rings prove the inspiration beyond reasonable doubt.  Exactly how Tolkien was inspired is left for the reader to decide.

Pieter Collier wrote:Michael Muhling insists there is a lot more to his theory than some similar names and builds up a very strong case. He makes four key arguments as to why Tolkien’s unconscious mind resonated sharply with this ancient realm, and highlights the fact that Italy’s invasion of Abyssinia caused an international out-cry in 1935 immediately prior to Tolkien’s work. He manages to show us that it might be possible that Tolkien could have known about Abyssinia, even on a sub-conscience level, for example through the books from Sir. Ernest Alfred Thompson Wallis Budge. This was especially exciting for me, since in my collection there is a book from Wallis Budge that belonged to JRR Tolkien's personal library (so we know Tolkien did read Budge's works). Muhling identifies extensive and detailed connections between Middle-earth and Abyssinia, including incredible comparisons between the kings of Númenor/Gondor with Abyssinia’s three thousand year old Solomonic dynasty and if you read the book and come to the page where we can see a picture of the stelae of Axum you will just scream 'Isengard'. Of course you should read the book for yourself but the reign of stewards and the return of a true king in both histories is just 'to good to be true'...

There is a rich and simple logic to this theory. The Ethiopian-Italian war in 1935 created international outrage immediately before the writing of The Lord of the Rings, and Tolkien had four personal reasons to take a significant interest in it. No such connections exist with The Hobbit that was written prior to the Ethiopian-Italian war. And when you have read Michael Muhling's book you will see that the connections that are there are in fact the skeletal background to The Lord of the Rings.

Pettytyrant101 wrote:The Egypt connection is mainly Numenor- Halfwise

I though Tolkien based Numenor on Atlantis?- does he not even make an attempt to tie the two linguistically? (Lore Check please!)