Tolkien was there during the Battle of Somme where tanks were technically introduced to the world albeit not as devastating as they were in ww2. Still, no wonder this was the inspiration for Mordor and a few other places in lotr that I forgot the name of.

Learning about world war 1 recently makes me understand his writing process and the way lotr, at its core is a reflection of the world war that Tolkien witnessed in real life. I can’t help but wonder if there’s any other aspects of the world wars that Tolkien included but went unnoticed.

Edit: the dead marshes ya, they’re the most clear parallel. Makes me sad about Tolkiens trauma