3. As well as the landscapes of medieval literature, Tolkien was also influenced by his time in Switzerland
We’ve covered all but one of Tolkien’s key influences, and here’s the final one. In 1911, the 19-year-old Tolkien took a rare walking holiday in the Swiss Alps. In a group of 12, Tolkien hiked from Interlaken to the Lauterbrunnen Valley, enjoying the glorious scenery of snow-capped peaks, thick forest, and vast lakes which has inspired so many writers over the years. But where he left something of a breadcrumb-trail for his literary and Warwickshire influences, Tolkien actually acknowledged the importance of the Swiss Alps in a letter to his son, Michael, in 1967.
In the letter, Tolkien expressed delight that his son had visited a place so dear to him, and so important for Middle Earth. ‘From Rivendell to the other side of the Misty Mountains, the journey…including the glissade down the slithering stones into the pine woods…is based on my adventures in Switzerland in 1911′. The Silberhorn peak was also ‘the Silvertine [peak above the dwarven city of Moria] of my dreams’. Tolkien’s holiday in Switzerland was a rare treat in an impoverished, if studious, childhood, and so it is little wonder that it had such an effect on him.