Uploaded May 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
A conversation about beauty, grief, and why some stories don’t leave us.
I sat down with Professor Michael D.C. Drout to talk about Tolkien.
But like most conversations worth having, it didn’t stay where it started!
We ended up talking about why some books don’t leave you alone. Not because they make you feel better, but because they tell you the truth. Tolkien does that. He doesn’t smooth things over. He doesn’t give you a neat ending. He shows you what it costs to love anything.
Michael has spent years teaching Tolkien. He knows the material cold. But what stayed with me wasn’t merely the scholarship, but the way he talks about why this work matters in a human sense.
We talked about students. There’s this assumption now that younger people are too distracted, too ironic, too detached for something like Tolkien, but that hasn’t been his experience. He sees the opposite. He sees people who are looking for something solid. Something that isn’t just pulled apart and explained away.
And Tolkien meets them there.
We talked about beauty. Not the easy version of it. Not decoration. The harder kind. The kind that takes something out of you to make, and something out of you to really see. The kind that stays with you a little.
And we talked about loss.
Michael lost his son. That’s in the room whether you say it or not. You can hear it in how he speaks. Not in any dramatic way. Just in the steadiness of someone who has been through something that doesn’t resolve.
Tolkien knew that territory.
It’s in everything he wrote. That sense that something has already slipped away. That even when something is saved, something else is gone. That you can return home and still feel like you don’t quite belong there anymore.
Frodo comes back to the Shire, but he can’t live in it. That’s not just part of the story. That’s something true.
Michael talks about that feeling. Being at home and not at home at the same time.
We talked about ruins and what they stand for. Something broken that’s still there. Something that holds the memory of what used to be.
That may be as close as Tolkien gets to hope.
Something you can still stand in front of and recognize.
This wasn’t really a conversation about Tolkien in the usual sense.
It was about why certain stories become part of your life, and why you keep going back to them.
_____
LINK
The Tower and the Ruin: J.R.R. Tolkien's Creation
bookshop.org/a/99692/9781324093886
_____
frankschaeffer.substack.com/p/why-tolkien-still-matters-when-everything?utm_source=youtube
A conversation about beauty, grief, and why some stories don’t leave us.
I sat down with Professor Michael D.C. Drout to talk about Tolkien.
But like most conversations worth having, it didn’t stay where it started!
We ended up talking about why some books don’t leave you alone. Not because they make you feel better, but because they tell you the truth. Tolkien does that. He doesn’t smooth things over. He doesn’t give you a neat ending. He shows you what it costs to love anything.
Michael has spent years teaching Tolkien. He knows the material cold. But what stayed with me wasn’t merely the scholarship, but the way he talks about why this work matters in a human sense.
We talked about students. There’s this assumption now that younger people are too distracted, too ironic, too detached for something like Tolkien, but that hasn’t been his experience. He sees the opposite. He sees people who are looking for something solid. Something that isn’t just pulled apart and explained away.
And Tolkien meets them there.
We talked about beauty. Not the easy version of it. Not decoration. The harder kind. The kind that takes something out of you to make, and something out of you to really see. The kind that stays with you a little.
And we talked about loss.
Michael lost his son. That’s in the room whether you say it or not. You can hear it in how he speaks. Not in any dramatic way. Just in the steadiness of someone who has been through something that doesn’t resolve.
Tolkien knew that territory.
It’s in everything he wrote. That sense that something has already slipped away. That even when something is saved, something else is gone. That you can return home and still feel like you don’t quite belong there anymore.
Frodo comes back to the Shire, but he can’t live in it. That’s not just part of the story. That’s something true.
Michael talks about that feeling. Being at home and not at home at the same time.
We talked about ruins and what they stand for. Something broken that’s still there. Something that holds the memory of what used to be.
That may be as close as Tolkien gets to hope.
Something you can still stand in front of and recognize.
This wasn’t really a conversation about Tolkien in the usual sense.
It was about why certain stories become part of your life, and why you keep going back to them.
_____
LINK
The Tower and the Ruin: J.R.R. Tolkien's Creation
bookshop.org/a/99692/9781324093886
_____
frankschaeffer.substack.com/p/why-tolkien-still-matters-when-everything?utm_source=youtube
