2 ms·

> salt mine of Wieliczka was really the inspiration for Moria (the guides do imply so, based AFAIK on a visit by Tolkien there) Hmmm. Not heard this one. That

> salt mine of Wieliczka was really the inspiration for Moria (the guides do imply so, based AFAIK on a visit by Tolkien there) Hmmm. Not heard this one. That said, I've read quite a lot of Tolkien biographic material, and I'm not aware that he ever visited southern Poland before writing the Lord of the Rings. He wasn't particularly well travelled before he became famous, and as far as I know he had only visited South Africa (where he was born and left as a very young child), Switzerland (walking holiday) and France (WW1) before the bulk of the LOTR writing occurred. After 1939 a trip to Wieliczka would have involved him entering a WW2 war zone or crossing the Iron Curtain, something I'm certain he didn't do before LOTR was published in 1955.

p_l 6y ago
The suggestion was that he visited it on a trip before WW1, possibly related to the Switzerland trip? And most importantly, it would be marked as Austro-Hungary territory at the time.
- KineticLensman 6y ago
  > The suggestion was that he visited it on a trip before WW1, possibly related to the Switzerland trip? Again, I don't think so. I just re-read the relevant chapter in Humphrey Carpenter's biography of Tolkien. The 1911 Switzerland trip (when he was aged 19) was just that; and the group of 12 returned to England as soon as the walking was done.
  - p_l 6y ago
    I guess that it can be marked as untrue tale then. Pity, because it really would fit ;)