The Autobiographical Tolkien - 'Leaf by Niggle'...

[Estelyn Telcontar]

...and perhaps other passages, letters, etc., in which he tells us something about himself.

I was touched on reading Tolkien's short story 'Leaf by Niggle'. It begins with so much sad poignancy, telling of a life seemingly wasted, then ends with a joyous eucatastrophe. When I subsequently read Carpenter's biography and even more so Tom Shippey's J.R.R.Tolkien: Author of the Century, I realized that he was writing of himself. I'd like us to explore what Shippey calls Tolkien's "autobiographical allegory".

It begins with the character's name - Niggle. The verb "to niggle" means

to work... in a trifling, fiddling or ineffective way... to work or spend time unnecessarily on petty details; to be over-elaborate in minor points. (Oxford English Dictionary)

This was certainly a vice of which Tolkien could be accused.
It is a failing of which Tolkien was conscious, and which he ascribed to himself ('I am a natural niggler, alas!' he declared in a letter to Rayner Unwin in 1961). (Shippey)

Clearly, Tolkien and Niggle are one and the same.

Niggle's life's work as a painter and Tolkien's as an author are easily compared as well. The huge picture that began as a painting of a single leaf and grew into a tree, with an ever-increasing background landscape, is readily recognizable as Tolkien's mythology.

The journey he must make is of course death, and his stay in the Workhouse, where he must learn to work as he was not able to in his lifetime, is quite obviously purgatory. Fortunately, the story does not end there, but goes on to a heavenly paradise.

So far, so easy. But how can we interpret other aspects of Niggle/Tolkien's tale? Who, for example, is the real-life counterpart to his neighbor Parish? Who the Inspector? What is the meaning of the neglected garden, the shed, the interruptions?

And what do you think of Tolkien's evaluation of his own (un)importance and his fears that his work would not be remembered? I find it heart-rending that this great genius had so many doubts about himself and his life's work. Niggle's story

...springs from a sense of earthly tragedy: failure, anxiety, and frustration. (Shippey)

Perhaps it is precisely that which makes 'Leaf by Niggle' so touching; its author shows his humanity and becomes one of us.

[ August 06, 2002: Message edited by: Estelyn Telcontar ]