Tolkien 2019 Watch Online

Tolkien: A Tale of Love and Friendship

As young children being raised by a widowed mother, John Ronald Reuel Tolkien and his brother Hilary receive help from a local priest, Father Francis, who must relocate them to small apartments in Birmingham due to financial hardships. Their mother is supportive and loving, filling their minds with stories of adventure and mystery which she recites by the fireplace at night. She becomes ill, however, and one day upon returning home from school, Tolkien finds her slumped in her chair, dead.

Guardianship and Friendship

Father Francis becomes the boys’ legal guardian, and eventually finds a kindly rich woman who agrees to take them in, providing them with room and board while they continue their childhood education. There, Tolkien meets Edith Bratt, the woman’s only other ward. Tolkien is taken with Edith, whose piano playing he admires, and the two become friends.

The TCBS: A Bond of Friendship

At school, Tolkien immediately shows talent with languages, earning rough treatment from a rival classmate, Robert Gilson. When the two boys get into a fight, the headmaster — Robert’s father — orders that they spend all of their time together for the remainder of the term. While both initially resent the assignment, Tolkien is soon accepted into Robert’s small circle of friends, and the four — Tolkien, Gilson, Christopher Wiseman, and Geoffrey Smith — form a close friendship, the TCBS or “Tea Club and Barrovian Society”, which grows with the years, even as they attend separate universities.

Love and War

Meanwhile, Tolkien continues his friendship with Edith, falling in love with her. Father Francis finds out about their relationship and recognizes that it is affecting Tolkien’s grades, and so forbids him from pursuing her while under his guardianship. Tolkien is distraught, not wanting to lose the priest’s financial support of his schooling. He relates the conversation to Edith, promising they will be able to be together when he reaches 21, the age of majority, but she instead ends the relationship.

One night, Tolkien wakes his whole school, the University of Oxford, in the middle of the night when, drunk, he walks out onto the lawn, yelling in one of the many languages he invented. Several professors yell at him from the windows until Tolkien collapses into Smith’s arms, sobbing, and tells Smith that Edith wrote to him, telling him that she is engaged.

A Love Rekindled

Tolkien struggles at Oxford but attracts the attention of Professor Joseph Wright, a prominent philologist. When the First World War breaks out, he and his friends all enlist in the armed forces. Before Tolkien leaves, he finds Edith in the crowd, and Edith realises that she still loves him. She decides to break off her engagement with the other man, and the two declare their love for each other, sharing a kiss before Tolkien leaves.

At the Battle of the Somme, suffering from trench fever, Tolkien goes to look for Smith, convinced that he is calling him, but is unable to find him and collapses unconscious. He wakes in a hospital weeks later with Edith by his side, to find that Smith and Gilson have been killed; Wiseman survived but is left traumatised and unable to speak.

A New Beginning

Years later, Tolkien and Edith are married with four children. Now a professor at Oxford himself, Tolkien decides to try his hand at writing a children’s adventure book. The film ends with him inspired to write the famous opening line of The Hobbit: “In a hole in the ground, there lived a hobbit.”

Don’t miss out on the captivating tale of Tolkien. Watch online now and immerse yourself in the world of love, friendship, and adventure.