Published : 21 Sep 2026, 06:45 PM
Updated : 21 Sep 2026, 06:45 PM
A long-hidden recording of JRR Tolkien’s final interview has shed new light on his view of The Lord of the Rings’ “most tragic moment”, the BBC reports.
The 1968 interview, filmed by the BBC, was largely kept from the public until it was rediscovered decades later for a 2019 radio programme.
In the interview, Tolkien discussed the scene in which Gollum, on the verge of repenting and reverting to his gentler self, Smeagol, is interrupted by Sam, Frodo's loyal companion.
"People have often asked me what moves me most," Tolkien was quoted as saying by the BBC.
"I think the most tragic point in the whole story is the terrible irony that good often does evil. The most tragic moment is when Sam in his protectiveness says, 'Take your hands off'. And therefore defeats Gollum's repentance. Because that seems to be very true to life."
Stuart Lee, a professor of English at the University of Oxford, told the BBC in 2019 that the moment captured how, in Tolkien's mythology, "good can sometimes do excessive evil unintentionally".
The interview also touched on the origins of The Hobbit, first published on Sept 21, 1937.
Tolkien said the story was inspired by a hiking trip he took through Switzerland in 1911, aged 19, recalling narrow escapes and long treks that shaped Bilbo's journey, though he added, "We met no goblin."
The report also noted Tolkien’s fascination with languages, tracing the invented tongues of Middle-earth to his early study of Finnish while at Oxford, which he said left him "quite intoxicated" and distracted from his classics coursework.
He further recalled his time working on etymologies at the Oxford English Dictionary after returning from the First World War, describing it as a "wonderful place" for uncovering unexpected word histories, BBC reported.
Reflecting on the moral complexity of his work, Tolkien said the lines between good and evil in his books were not as simple as they might first appear.
"You see evil on the good side," he said. "It isn't just goodies against baddies, as they call it in modern parlance.
