Switzerland in Tolkien's Middle-Earth: In the footsteps of his adventurous summer journey in 1911-with hiking suggestions

A journey in search of Middle-earth

In 1911, at the age of nineteen, J. R. R. Tolkien embarked on an adventurous journey through the Swiss Alps; with a heavy pack, he hiked over many high passes. More than fifty years later, he mentioned in a letter to his son Michael that this trip had deeply affected him. Bilbo's journey in The Hobbit from Rivendell to the other side of the Misty Mountains, he said, was based on his own adventures in 1911.

Tolkien himself named a few specific sources of inspiration, most explicitly the Silberhorn (Silverhorn). So I wondered: Was this perhaps only the tip of the iceberg? Following in Tolkien's footsteps, I myself set out into the spectacular mountain world with its stories, myths, and legends, in search of his sources of inspiration; and little by little, a vivid and mysterious world revealed itself to me: a world that helped shape Middle-earth.

More than 100 color images accompany the author's research and discovery journey, along with 11 hiking and 3 road trip suggestions that allow readers to recreate Tolkien's experience with all its impressions themselves in the Swiss mountains.

"This book is above all else an invitation to step into Tolkien's hiking shoes, shoulder his pack, and step back a century into a world which is as far from today as Middle-earth is from our world; a guidebook of impressions, a walking tour of the nature of imagination and the imagination of nature." - John Howe

Author: Martin S. Monsch
Publisher: Martin S. Monsch
Published: 07/29/2021
Pages: 296
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 1.18lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.80d
ISBN: 9783907323021

About the Author
Monsch, Martin S.: - Martin Monsch lives the life of a hobbit. He grew up on a hill in a charming little village surrounded by gardens, forests, and mystical riverlands. Adventures? In thought with pleasure. In the mysterious library of his father, a geographer, he often traveled to distant times, lands, and landscapes. But one day, the mountain spirit knocked on his door, and so Martin first found himself in the breathtaking Swiss mountain world and later in the lake-town of Zurich, where he currently keeps his head above water. Middle-earth somehow seemed familiar to him from his first immersion into Tolkien's work-which was perhaps no coincidence-and since precious inspirational treasures have always magically drawn him, the project Switzerland in Tolkien's Middle-earth was born some winters ago.

When Martin is not busy writing, he is busy writing; for documents prove, he studied law. In his profession, he is moved by individual fates and conflicts and, more generally, by questions of social organization, freedom, and chaos. He is also fascinated by technical innovations and automation processes, in the past, present, and future: how they come about and how they affect society and people's lives. He studied current issues of this kind while working on his Ph.D. thesis at the University of Zurich and later as a postdoctoral researcher at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology. Also, he is currently developing a tool, in which he lives out his passion for natural language processing and machine learning methods. And he follows with fascination, but also with concern, the developments in the field of artificial intelligence.

Apart from his travels to Middle-earth and activities as a machine teacher, Martin is now working on his first novel, in which he will take his readers into a world both familiar and foreign. It is a historical fiction work that could also suit the tastes of fantasy fans, nature lovers, and adventurers. But that is all he is currently revealing-or can perhaps anything be inferred from the fact that he writes about himself in the third person?-If you are interested, please visit my website and let me know there. It would make me very happy!

My website: msmonsch.com