The walls of the trench were scarred with the remnants of past battles, and every shadow seemed to conceal unseen dangers. It was a harsh world, where the constant threat of enemy gunfire echoed in the air, and the only safety was found in the tight, makeshift shelters. As James huddled in the trench, the memory of home seemed a distant dream, drowned out by the harsh reality of trench warfare in World War I.

World War I began in 1914 because different countries in Europe had a conflict and couldn’t figure out how to sort things out through negotiations, so tragically they turned to war. The major players were divided into two groups – the Allies, which included countries like Britain and France, and the Central Powers, with Germany and Austria-Hungary.

World War I took place during The Industrial Revolution, a period of massive technological change, which transformed the way things were made and powered. Those changes played a new role in how the war was fought. The Industrial Revolution had ushered in a new era of machinery and innovation. Factories churned out weapons, tanks, and airplanes at a fast pace, powered by steam and later electricity. The introduction of assembly lines made production faster and more efficient. This change, called mechanization altered the nature of warfare, as nations now had access to powerful and technologically advanced weapons. The Industrial Revolution essentially turned the gears of progress, and the impact of this transformation could be seen on the battlefields of World War I, where machines played a significant role in shaping the course of history.

During the war, soldiers on both sides had a horrible job. They fought in trenches, which were long, narrow ditches in the ground. Imagine living in a muddy, wet hole, facing constant rain, and dealing with cold weather. On top of that, there were rats, lice, and the fear of enemy attacks always hanging over their heads.

In the year 1914, during the winter, the holidays were approaching. The soldiers missed their families. They thought of how nice it would be to be home, in a warm home with those they loved. They didn’t want to be fighting and cold and suffering. This was the holidays and Christmas time for them. It was supposed to be a delightful time of year of family, friends, and giving.

On December 24th, Christmas Eve 1914, as the moon shone brightly, a British soldier named James heard the singing coming from the German side. The enemy soldiers were singing Christmas carols. James peaked his head out of the trench and saw candlelights twinkling in the distance. 

Soldiers from both sides cautiously stepped out of their trenches, meeting in the space between, called no man’s land. At first, they were cautious, but then they started sharing things. A German soldier named Franz offered James a piece of chocolate – a rare treat in those times.

In No Man’s Land, the tension between enemies faded, and soon, soldiers from both sides were sharing food and exchanging small gifts. One British soldier set up a makeshift barbershop. Someone pulled out a soccer ball and the ground in between was very icy, but both sides started playing the game together, laughing and enjoying this moment of peace. Soon a couple hundred soldiers were playing together.

One officer later wrote:

“How marvelously wonderful, yet how strange it was. The English officers felt the same way about it. Thus Christmas, the celebration of Love, managed to bring mortal enemies together as friends for a time.”

This was a Christmas truce. A truce is an agreement of peace between enemies.

One British soldier, Tommy, wrote in a letter home, “It was a Christmas miracle! We sang, we laughed, and for a brief moment, the war seemed to disappear. We realized that the men on the other side were just like us, missing their families and longing for peace.”

Word of the truce spread, and soon, other soldiers along the Western Front joined in the Christmas celebrations. The spirit of goodwill and humanity triumphed over the hatred and violence of war.

As Christmas morning arrived, the soldiers exchanged more than just gifts. They shared stories of home, pictures of loved ones, and dreams of a future where they could live without fear and anger. For a short time, the war was forgotten, and the soldiers saw each other not as enemies but as fellow human beings.

Private Albert Moren of the British 2nd Queen’s Regiment later wrote, “On Christmas morning, we stuck up a board with ‘A Merry Christmas’ on it. The enemy had stuck up a similar one. Platoons would sometimes go out for twenty-four hours’ rest – it was a day at least out of the trench and relieved the monotony a bit – and my platoon had gone out in this way the night before, but a few of us stayed behind to see what would happen. Two of our men then threw their equipment off and jumped on the parapet with their hands above their heads. Two of the Germans did the same and commenced to walk up the river bank, our two men going to meet them. They met and shook hands and then we all got out of the trench.”

From the German side, Lieutenant Kurt Zehmisch later wrote, “How marvelously wonderful, yet how strange it was. The English officers felt the same way about it. Thus Christmas, the celebration of Love, managed to bring mortal enemies together as friends for a time.”

These accounts offer a glimpse into the unique and unexpected moments of camaraderie and humanity that emerged during the Christmas truce of 1914.

But as the sun set on that magical Christmas day, the soldiers knew they had to return to their trenches to fight. The war would continue for another 4 long years, and the truce would become a memory. Yet, the Christmas truce of 1914 left a lasting mark on those who experienced it.

As the war continued, the soldiers carried the memory of that special Christmas with them. They remembered the warmth of friendship, the joy of shared laughter, and the hope that even in the darkest times, humanity could prevail.

The story of the Christmas truce teaches us that even in the middle of a conflict, there is room for kindness and understanding. It reminds us that, despite our differences, we are all human, with the same hopes and dreams for a better world.

So, as you spend time with your family and friends during the holiday season, think about the Christmas truce of 1914. Consider how a simple act of kindness can bring people together. Is there someone you have had disagreements with but want to be close to again? Or someone you need to forgive? Finding harmony in life isn’t easy but something we should work toward and just like those brave soldiers on the Western Front, let the spirit of peace and goodwill fill your heart.

And who knows, maybe, just maybe, the inspiration from the Christmas truce will encourage a world where kindness triumphs over hatred, and where the spirit of unity prevails, not just during the holidays but every day of the year.

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Do you ever imagine your own worlds, where you meet strange creatures, fight goblins, or go on heroic quests? Maybe you’ve given your world a name, drawn maps of it, named and drawn the creatures who live there or even invented languages spoken there. Maybe you’ve even made up stories about your world. It can be fun to create fantasy worlds that are all your own, whether in your head or on the page. 

If you’ve ever let your imagination run wild, you’ll understand why an invented world became such an obsession for John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, better known as JRR Tolkien. He was the author of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings books. Maybe you’ve read these, or seen the stunning movies that were based on them. Tolkien creates a whole new world called Middle Earth, alive with many fantastical creatures such as elves, wizards, goblins, dwarves, giant spiders … and tiny people called hobbits.  

JRR Tolkien was known as Ronald to his friends and family. He was born in 1892 in South Africa, where his father worked at a British bank. Ronald didn’t remember much from his time in South Africa, because he didn’t live there for long. One of his few memories of South Africa was being bitten by a large spider in his family’s garden. This may have inspired the giant spiders he included in his books later in life.

Sadly though, Ronald’s father passed away when he was four, and his mother moved with him and his brother back to England. There, they lived near his mother’s family, near the city of Birmingham. Mabel taught her boys at home for a time, and Ronald showed an early fascination with languages. When they moved to Birmingham itself, their house backed up to a railroad, where he would study the Welsh writing on the passing train cars. His mother taught him Latin at a young age as well.  

When Ronald was eight, his mother converted to Catholicism. Her family was against this change and stopped talking to her and her sons. Things became even worse in a few years when Mabel became sick and passed away. Fortunately, a local priest, Father Morgan had become a good friend and supporter of the family, and he took care of Ronald and Hilary.  Father Morgan arranged for the boys to live at a boarding house and go to school. Ronald would later say of Father Morgan “I first learned charity and forgiveness from him.”

As a teenager, Ronald spent much of his time learning languages. He studied Latin, Greek, Finnish, and Gothic. Gothic is a language that, like Latin, is no longer spoken, but it was spoken in Germany a very long time ago. Over his lifetime, he would learn about 35 different real languages! I say “real languages”, because as a teenager, Ronald also began making up his own languages.  Many of his constructed languages were inspired by the real languages he spent so much time studying. He invented many languages, though the most well-known are the languages of the Elves in Lord of the Rings. If you watch the Lord of the Rings movies closely, you can see examples of writing in these languages, and hear them spoken at times. These were languages created by Tolkien. 

Around the same time, he began inventing languages, Ronald and his school friends formed a club called the Tea Club and Barrovian Society. The  “Barrovian” part was after Barrows Store, a department store where they went to drink tea and hold their meetings. The friends would share stories they’d written. These friends would keep in touch for many years, and the special bonds of friendship come up again and again in his later writing.  It was the first of several special groups of friends and writers that Ronald would join. If you’ve read the Lord of the Rings, just think about the special friendships between the members of the Fellowship of the Ring!

When he was 16, Ronald met Edith Bratt. The two became close friends and began to fall in love. However, Father Morgan didn’t approve of the relationship and forbade Ronald from seeing, talking, or writing to Edith until he was 21. He didn’t like that she was Protestant (not Catholic) and that she was older than him.

Ronald respected his old priest’s wishes, even though it made him very unhappy. But, on his 21st birthday, he wrote Edith a letter saying he still loved her and asking her to marry him. It was almost too late! Edith had just gotten engaged to someone else because she thought Ronald no longer felt anything for her. But his letter changed everything: she quickly decided to marry Ronald instead. Later, Ronald would write a love story set in Middle Earth, in which he was a mortal man named Beren who married Edith, who was an elf named Luthien.

But before the couple could marry, the history of the real world would change in a dramatic way. World War I started in 1914, the biggest war the world had ever seen. Young men like Ronald were expected to become soldiers and fight for their country. For a while, Ronald delayed enlisting in the army in order to finish school, but in the summer of 1915, he had to enlist. For nearly a year, he trained in England and remained close to Edith. They married in March of 1916, during his training. 

But when training was over, Ronald had to leave England and Edith. This was very difficult, as both of them worried that Ronald might not return from the war. The military sent him to France, just as one of the longest and most terrible battles of the war was starting. This was called The Battle of the Somme (Som). And Ronald was sent directly into the heart of the battle. Life in the middle of this battle was chaotic and scary. The soldiers dug huge trenches in order to protect themselves. There they basically lived underground in dark, muddy, cramped spaces to protect themselves from enemy gunfire and poison gases. The Battle of the Somme dragged on for months. Many soldiers died, and many others got sick in the filthy conditions of the trenches.

Ronald was luckier than other soldiers: he got sick and had to go to the hospital. Sadly many of his friends from school didn’t survive the war. Ronald spent the rest of the war in and out of hospitals, too weak to fight. But his experiences in battle did influence his writing: during his time in the war, he began writing stories of the wars and battles of Middle Earth, which were dark and scary just like his time during World War I.

After the war, J.R.R Tolkien worked as a professor and eventually settled at Oxford University. At Oxford, he again formed a group of friends who enjoyed talking about writing, philosophy, and literature. They called themselves “The Inklings.” Tolkien and the other writers would share their work with the group. Not all of the Inklings were writers, but JRR Tolkien wasn’t the only famous author. C.S. Lewis, who wrote The Chronicles of Narnia, was also part of the Inklings and a close friend of Tolkien! 

Over time, Tolkien and Edith’s family grew to include three sons and one daughter. Tolkien kept adding to the legends of Middle Earth, but now he began to tell these stories to his own children at bedtime. These bedtime stories grew into the book The Hobbit, published in 1937. As you may know, a hobbit is a tiny person he invented, about three feet tall, with large hairy feet, who lives in a hole in the side of a hill. The story follows the unlikely hero, a hobbit named Bilbo Baggins, as he sets off with a group of dwarves on a quest to find stolen treasure guarded by a ferocious dragon. The group doesn’t trust each other at first, but as they help each other through countless perils, adventures, and battles, they develop a strong friendship. 

When the book The Hobbit was published it was a great success. Tolkien’s publisher asked for a sequel. He agreed and began writing The Lord of the Rings. It took him 16 years to complete, and instead of one book, it was published as three. The books tell the story of a different hobbit, Frodo Baggins, who must destroy a powerful ring that threatens to destroy Middle Earth. Along the way, he joins with dwarves, elves, men, and a future king to move the ring across the map all while an epic battle between good and evil plays out across Middle Earth. The dark Lord Sauron has been building his forces of orcs and other dark creatures to steal back the ring so he can rule all races and have ultimate power. 

Not only did Tolkien tell the amazing, epic story, he also drew maps of Middle Earth and wrote parts of the text in Elvish and other languages he invented. These details helped readers enter the world of Middle Earth and feel like it was a real place. Readers loved it, but the books became even more successful when they were released in the United States a few years later.

Tolkien’s books triggered a new obsession with all kinds of fantasy literature. Readers were inspired to write similar stories or make fantasy films or games. Many of the popular fantasy books over the years have been influenced by Tolkien’s stories of wizards, dwarves, elves, and magic. After Tolkien passed away, his son Christopher continued to publish his stories about Middle Earth, so people could read more about the amazing world he’d imagined. 

Starting in 2001, Tolkien’s books were turned into several popular films, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings trilogies directed by Peter Jackson. The films were a huge hit, some of the highest-grossing movies of all time, and the 3rd movie, The Return of the King won several Academy Awards including best picture and best director. The trilogies introduced Tolkein’s books to a whole new generation of fans.

All this happened because one person couldn’t stop thinking about his invented world. JRR Tolkien used his imagination to explore all the possibilities of this world–its people, landscapes, creatures, and languages and kept exploring even when he was a grown-up. 

I hope learning about Tolkien’s life inspires you to imagine new worlds and new adventures, but if you need more inspiration, I definitely recommend reading his books! The Hobbit is a great place to start. If you could invent your own imagined world, what would it look like? Would it be science fiction or fantasy? What would the characters be like? What would be their superpowers? In what kind of places would they live? It’s fun to exercise your creative powers and imagination to build entirely new worlds.

Sources

https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-i/battle-of-the-somme

https://www.mprnews.org/story/2015/03/31/books-bcst-question-tolkien-languages

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beren_and_L%C3%BAthien

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._R._R._Tolkien

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quenya

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Close your eyes and imagine you are on a battlefield. You are in a trench with other soldiers waiting for the battle to begin. Night has fallen and you and the others are very cold. You look around at the other soldiers. They look nervous, too. Everyone knows the enemy isn’t far away.  Above the trench the sky is filled with dark smoke and small airplanes in battle. You tighten your grip on your rifle. 

In the distance you hear a loud “boom.” You duck into the trench as an enemy round explodes above you. You fall over and look at your arm, and realize you’ve been hurt. Others soldiers on your team have been hurt too. You close your eyes and lie back wondering how you are going to survive. Soon someone lifts you up and carries you to a nearby hospital. You lie on a clean bed with your eyes closed, just hoping you will be alright. Then you hear a kind voice and open your eyes. It’s a woman, a nurse wearing white uniform with a red cross on the front of her hat. “Everything will be alright,” she says, lying a warm cloth on your forehead. She looks at the wound on your arm and starts to work cleaning it. Then she bandages it and gives you a drink of water and some medicine. “I’ll be back in a minute,” she says. “Don’t worry, you’re in good hands now.” You feel relaxed and happy that someone is taking care of you.

All over the world, nurses play an important role in health care.  They help take care of people when they are sick or injured.  Their job can be very difficult and stressful.  But nurses are brave and they work very hard to take care of their patients.  This is true now and was true in the old days as well, and especially during World War 1.

Nursing has always been a difficult job. But it was especially difficult and dangerous work during World War 1. World War 1 was a war between Germany and the allied forces of England, France and America. Both sides had allies, or friends, so many countries were involved in the war. This is why it was called a “world war.” 

Most war nurses were ordinary women that signed up for the job because they wanted to help their country during the war.  Many women became nurses after losing someone special to them, such as a brother or their husband. Some women decided that instead of just being sad, they were going to take action and help out at the battlegrounds.  This was one way that they could help others who were similar to the people that they lost.  It was one way that they could help and also heal their sadness.

During WW1 many nurses didn’t have an education, so they couldn’t write.  Because they couldn’t write there’s not a lot of information about what actually happened to them. Those who told the stories of these nurses amazed others, and so their stories spread and likely changed, sort of like a game of telephone. This is how legends, stories that aren’t always true, often start.  

When the war started in 1914, everyone thought it was going to be short.  Women were expected to wait at home patiently for the men to return.  They were told to, “keep the home fires burning.”  This was a common expression at the time.  Some poorer women went to work in factories. These are a few reasons there weren’t many women at the battlefields to help the wounded soldiers.

But as more young men started dying, more young women wanted to help out.  American women, British women and women from other friendly countries joined in to help.  When women started signing up to become military nurses, they would go to a nursing service near where they lived and ask to join.  These were often in cities where they didn’t live, so they would have to leave home to get training.  They got some basic nursing training and after that, they were sent to the war.  This meant that most of the nurses at the battlefields during WW1 were untrained and therefore, didn’t know a lot about medicine.  That is very different than today, where nurses study at universities and colleges and get clinical training before they are allowed to practice.  At the time of WW1, there were some trained nurses, but it was still very difficult, since most of them had never worked with soldiers before.

Some of the first women to go to the war were wealthy and had the money to start military hospitals.  The most famous of the women that opened and ran a military hospital was the Duchess of Sutherland from England.  Her nickname was Meddlesome Millie, because at the time, some people did not think that women should get jobs and work outside of the home.  They did not want women to be nurses and they resisted the change that was happening.  “Resisted” means to try to stop something from happening.  

But the Duchess of Sutherland and other women like her continued to run their military hospitals and train other women to be nurses.  As more military hospitals were set up and the war continued, more and more women signed up to become nurses. With all their hearts they wanted to do what they could to help. 

In 1915, there was a large battle in Belgium in an area that was very important to both sides in the war. In this battle a lot of men got hurt or killed.  It was the first time an army used poison gas to against the other side, and many, many men were hurt. After this British and American armies started to let more women join the military as nurses.

Today when we see pictures of nurses from that time, with white hats and red crosses on their uniforms, we think of the work as being very clean and exciting.  But in reality, it was very tiring and sometimes disgusting work.  They were very brave women, but it was not a job that got a lot of attention. Nurses worked very hard every day and it was very stressful for them. Also, most women thought World War 1 was going to be short. Instead the war dragged on and on, but the nurses kept helping for many years. 

There were a lot of difficult things that nurses had to deal with at war that they did not have to deal with at hospitals back home.  Soldiers often suffered bullet wounds which were difficult to treat. There were many soldiers who were scared or sad, so the nurses not only fixed their wounds but also comforted them and did what they could to keep them calm and happy. 

Towards the end of the war, a new invention came out to help the soldiers. This invention helped a patient who was out of blood get more blood from someone else. When the healthy person donated the blood, it was shared with the sick person by using a long tube. This invention is still used today and is called a blood transfusion. During the war transfusions were used often and saved many people’s lives. 

When the war ended in 1918, most war nurses left the war service and went home. But back home there were not very many men still alive and well.  Many had died or gotten hurt in the war.  Because of this, many women replaced men in jobs and other roles usually held by men.  These women were very important in helping make things work again. Let us always remember and be grateful to those women and men who sacrificed so much and put their lives at risk to protect their countries and each other.Have you ever thought about the ways that you are brave?  Do you think that bravery is something that develops in people when times are tough?  Or is bravery something that we can all practice?  Like the nurses of WW1, we can all show bravery and try our best to being good to each other.  Helping others when it is needed and taking care of each other is one of the most important things we can all do.

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