"That is rather like like asking of Man when language started... It has always been with me: the sensibility to linguistic pattern which affects me emotionally like colour or music; and the passionate love of growing things; and the deep response to legends (for lack of a better word) that have what I would call the North-western temper and temperature.... with the Shoreless Sea ... to the West, and the endless lands (out of which enemies mostly come) to the East ....the rumour all along the coasts of the Men out of the Sea".
Later in the same letter, Tolkien shared this:
"I first tried to write a story when I was about seven. It was about a dragon. I remember nothing about it except a philological fact. My mother said nothing about the dragon, but pointed out that one could not say 'a green great dragon', but had to say 'a great green dragon'. I wondered why, and still do. The fact that I remember this is possibly significant, as I do not think I ever tried to write a story again for may years, and was taken up with language."
I am not ready to be a writer. I always believed I had to 'learn more' first. So in a strange way I relate to Tolkien's 'great green dragon' moment, all those years ago, a simple gift of learning from his mother, which led him to appreciate the cultural vitality of language. And look what the world has gained from that seven year old boy's moment of wonder and curiosity.
