Switzerland in Tolkien's
Middle-Earth

With these words, J. R. R. Tolkien began a letter to his son Michael in 1968.[1] In it, he told him in great detail about the trip to Switzerland he had undertaken as a 19-year-old in the summer of 1911 before beginning his studies in Oxford. When reading the letter, it is easy to forget that the events took place 57 years ago and that Tolkien was now 76 years old—yes, Bilbo was getting on in years, but this adventure was deeply engraved in his memory. Although his memories were no longer clear in sequence, he said, the journey had left many vivid pictures “as clear as yesterday”—“that is as clear as an old man’s remoter memories become.”

Tolkien mentioned in this and another letter from 1961[2] specific places and events that had served as sources of inspiration for his novels. Thus, he himself linked places in Middle-earth with concrete locations in Switzerland. He also mentioned that the size of the travel party corresponded roughly to that in The Hobbit, and he even described one member of the group as “one of the hobbits.” But there is a limited amount of information we can draw from Tolkien’s letters, and so he left us a riddle: was this journey merely a vague source of inspiration for Bilbo’s crossing of the Misty Mountains, or did Tolkien, over large parts, autobiographically describe his own journey through Switzerland in both The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings?

The first step to solving this riddle is to reconstruct Tolkien’s exact journey. For this, Tolkien’s travel companion at the time, Colin Brookes-Smith, also gave us some information in his unpublished memoirs.[3] The trip probably began at the end of July and lasted at least until the end of August, but perhaps into September. Tolkien’s last school day was July 26; after that, he must have left pretty soon—maybe head over heels like in The Hobbit.[4] For two dates of the journey are known: on Saturday, August 5, Tolkien signed the guestbook in the Obersteinberg mountain inn in the rearmost Lauterbrunnen Valley, and on Friday, August 25, he put his name in the guestbook of the Bertol Hut near Arolla.[5] But these were neither the beginning nor the end of the journey: assuming that the group traveled on weekends, they probably spent at least the time between July 29/30 and September 2/3 in Switzerland; but a later return would also be conceivable.[6]

Regarding the route, I believe that Tolkien chose the way shown in Figure 1.[7] The first part of the journey to the Aletsch Glacier and the detour to Zermatt are based on his own remarks, the second part to Sion on those of Colin Brookes-Smith, and the reasoning for a possible third part back to Lake Thun I will discuss later. Surprisingly, there is little overlap between the travel accounts of Tolkien and Brookes-Smith, but Tolkien mentioned that his memories of the trip through the Valais were less clear, and his presence at the Obersteinberg mountain inn and the Bertol Hut near Arolla is now documented. However, whether Tolkien was indeed in Zermatt is not entirely certain since the route depicted by Brookes-Smith does not lead to Zermatt and Tolkien’s recollections of it may refer to Arolla.

Looking at this route, one thing seems clear: at least five weeks were necessary. The distance from Interlaken to Sion alone was over 150 miles (250 km), and according to Tolkien, the group covered this distance mainly on foot and with heavy packs.[8] The additional tours the group undertook from the various places where they stayed longer, such as Belalp and Arolla, are not even yet included. And many more miles they had to cover if they, as I suspect, returned to Lake Thun at the end of the trip. But regardless of this, it was a forced march.