This article briefly summarizes the homo-amorous connections between members of the T.C.B.S. in the Karukoski\u27s film, Tolkien

Vaccaro, Christopher

English

ValpoScholar

Journal of Tolkien Research
Volume 6 | Issue 2 Article 11
2018
“‘Hel-heime!’: The Daring Love Between Men in
Dome Karukoski’s Tolkien”
Christopher Vaccaro
The University of Vermont, cvaccaro@uvm.edu
Follow this and additional works at: https://scholar.valpo.edu/journaloftolkienresearch
Part of the Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Commons, Film and Media Studies
Commons, and the Literature in English, British Isles Commons
This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Library Services at ValpoScholar. It has been accepted for inclusion in Journal of Tolkien
Research by an authorized administrator of ValpoScholar. For more information, please contact a ValpoScholar staff member at scholar@valpo.edu.
Recommended Citation
Vaccaro, Christopher (2018) "“‘Hel-heime!’: The Daring Love Between Men in Dome Karukoski’s Tolkien”," Journal of Tolkien
Research: Vol. 6 : Iss. 2 , Article 11.
Available at: https://scholar.valpo.edu/journaloftolkienresearch/vol6/iss2/11
“‘Hel-heime!’: The Daring Love Between Men in Dome Karukoski’s Tolkien” 
 
 
Dome Karukoski’s biopic Tolkien (Fox Searchlight 2019) is for the most part a sensitive 
representation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s early life. It does not fail to portray the passionately 
intellectual and emotional connections between the young members of the T.C.B.S. (Tea Club, 
Barrovian Society), the literary and artistic club formed by a small number of students of the 
King Edward’s School, Birmingham to which Tolkien belonged and which included Robert 
Gilson, Geoffrey Bache Smith, and Christopher Wiseman.1 Their time was spent discussing, 
among other things, favorite texts, ancient and early medieval languages and mythologies. A 
great detail provided in the film is their communal cry, “Hel-heime.” Chorused among the 
members, it promoted solidarity and courage within their circle. The young men of the T.C.B.S. 
truly believed they were a spark of truth and imagination that potentially could light the world on 
fire. 
     Nicholas Hoult’s performance as a young Tolkien is extremely satisfying. While very able to 
hold his own within Hollywood blockbuster cinema, Hoult is not afraid to take risks in his 
choices of roles and in his acting. His range of emotional expression in the film is impressive, 
especially in his relationship with the young Geoffrey Smith, played by the very competent 
Anthony Boyle. Despite the distance separating them throughout much of the film, the two 
young men maintain an undercurrent of passionate affection inextricably wound to the backdrop 
of the Great War.  
     While they never actually share a battle scene, the two appear to be simultaneously present on 
the battlefield as each calls out the other’s name, struggling in the sea of dead male bodies. 
                                                     
1 In addition to these top four, there were Thomas Barnsley, Sidney Barrowclough, Ralph and Wilfred Payton, and 
Vincent Trought. 
1
Vaccaro: “‘Hel-heime!’: The Daring Love Between Men in Dome Karukoski’s Tolkien”
Published by ValpoScholar, 2018
Geoffrey is badly wounded during battle. John Ronald searches for Geoffrey through a rain of 
artillery fire, having mentioned to his batman, Sam, that Geoffrey would do the same for him.  
On December 3rd 1916, Smith died in France of his wounds received from artillery shells. 
     Tolkien subtly reflects Geoffrey Bache Smith’s intense homo-amorous feelings for his close 
friend. In one particular instance, the two are watching other fellow Oxford students fence and 
John Ronald confides in Geoffrey, expressing his sorrows over Edith Bratt’s engagement to 
someone else. Geoffrey attempts to support “Tollers” Tolkien and in so doing appears to speak 
somewhat cryptically of his own experience of unrequited love; their hands touch in a lingering 
shot, which cements the scene’s amorous intensity. No other love interest appears to be a 
possibility for Geoffrey, who is usually alone, though John Ronald’s romantic feelings for Edith 
are centrally placed within the narrative. The overall impression of all this is that the love 
between these two men possibly exists on two separate wavelengths, and that while Tolkien 
reciprocates Smith’s love, he may not quite match the intensity of that love. Calling this love 
“homo-amorous” provides a sense of the contours of feeling between these two men, but does 
not suppose anything beyond that. It may be that Geoffrey’s love was brotherly and spiritual; it 
may be that a physical attraction and eroticism accompanied that love. If it was physical for 
Geoffrey, there appears no evidence from the published correspondences,  biographical 
scholarship, nor from “A Spring Harvest,” his collection of poetry published by Tolkien in 1918 
of any internal moral struggle; this, of course, only tells us so much. If the love was intense in a 
more Platonic way [emphasizing the Greek philosophical tradition here], the physical intimacy 
between academic men in the early twentieth century is both challenging and enticing to read in 
our more sexually liberated era. Certainly, the film calls attention to a homo-amorous  longing. 
2
Journal of Tolkien Research, Vol. 6 [2018], Iss. 2, Art. 11
https://scholar.valpo.edu/journaloftolkienresearch/vol6/iss2/11
Scholars must, of course, be careful not to project our own present-day attitudes upon earlier 
times; though we mustn’t be afraid to investigate the potential for libidinous connections either. 
     In Hoult’s sonorous voice, Tolkien declares that his work is about “what it means to love, and 
be loved.” That seems to be just as true of Karukoski’s Tolkien. Maybe Geoffrey’s love is not 
boldly announced, but it appears to be something that develops off-screen, a quieter and more 
personal “hel-heime” to which John Ronald is privy, but cannot reciprocate to the same degree. 
 
 
 
 
 
3
Vaccaro: “‘Hel-heime!’: The Daring Love Between Men in Dome Karukoski’s Tolkien”
Published by ValpoScholar, 2018


“‘Hel-heime!’: The Daring Love Between Men in Dome Karukoski’s Tolkien”

Valparaiso University

Journal of Tolkien ResearchVolume 6 | Issue 2 Article 112018“‘Hel-heime!’: The Daring Love Between Men inDome Karukoski’s Tolkien”Christopher VaccaroThe University of Vermont, cvaccaro@uvm.eduFollow this and additional works at: https://scholar.valpo.edu/journaloftolkienresearchPart of the Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Commons, Film and Media StudiesCommons, and the Literature in English, British Isles CommonsThis Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Library Services at ValpoScholar. It has been accepted for inclusion in Journal of TolkienResearch by an authorized administrator of ValpoScholar. For more information, please contact a ValpoScholar staff member at scholar@valpo.edu.Recommended CitationVaccaro, Christopher (2018) "“‘Hel-heime!’: The Daring Love Between Men in Dome Karukoski’s Tolkien”," Journal of TolkienResearch: Vol. 6 : Iss. 2 , Article 11.Available at: https://scholar.valpo.edu/journaloftolkienresearch/vol6/iss2/11“‘Hel-heime!’: The Daring Love Between Men in Dome Karukoski’s Tolkien”   Dome Karukoski’s biopic Tolkien (Fox Searchlight 2019) is for the most part a sensitive representation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s early life. It does not fail to portray the passionately intellectual and emotional connections between the young members of the T.C.B.S. (Tea Club, Barrovian Society), the literary and artistic club formed by a small number of students of the King Edward’s School, Birmingham to which Tolkien belonged and which included Robert Gilson, Geoffrey Bache Smith, and Christopher Wiseman.1 Their time was spent discussing, among other things, favorite texts, ancient and early medieval languages and mythologies. A great detail provided in the film is their communal cry, “Hel-heime.” Chorused among the members, it promoted solidarity and courage within their circle. The young men of the T.C.B.S. truly believed they were a spark of truth and imagination that potentially could light the world on fire.      Nicholas Hoult’s performance as a young Tolkien is extremely satisfying. While very able to hold his own within Hollywood blockbuster cinema, Hoult is not afraid to take risks in his choices of roles and in his acting. His range of emotional expression in the film is impressive, especially in his relationship with the young Geoffrey Smith, played by the very competent Anthony Boyle. Despite the distance separating them throughout much of the film, the two young men maintain an undercurrent of passionate affection inextricably wound to the backdrop of the Great War.       While they never actually share a battle scene, the two appear to be simultaneously present on the battlefield as each calls out the other’s name, struggling in the sea of dead male bodies.                                                      1 In addition to these top four, there were Thomas Barnsley, Sidney Barrowclough, Ralph and Wilfred Payton, and Vincent Trought. 1Vaccaro: “‘Hel-heime!’: The Daring Love Between Men in Dome Karukoski’s Tolkien”Published by ValpoScholar, 2018Geoffrey is badly wounded during battle. John Ronald searches for Geoffrey through a rain of artillery fire, having mentioned to his batman, Sam, that Geoffrey would do the same for him.  On December 3rd 1916, Smith died in France of his wounds received from artillery shells.      Tolkien subtly reflects Geoffrey Bache Smith’s intense homo-amorous feelings for his close friend. In one particular instance, the two are watching other fellow Oxford students fence and John Ronald confides in Geoffrey, expressing his sorrows over Edith Bratt’s engagement to someone else. Geoffrey attempts to support “Tollers” Tolkien and in so doing appears to speak somewhat cryptically of his own experience of unrequited love; their hands touch in a lingering shot, which cements the scene’s amorous intensity. No other love interest appears to be a possibility for Geoffrey, who is usually alone, though John Ronald’s romantic feelings for Edith are centrally placed within the narrative. The overall impression of all this is that the love between these two men possibly exists on two separate wavelengths, and that while Tolkien reciprocates Smith’s love, he may not quite match the intensity of that love. Calling this love “homo-amorous” provides a sense of the contours of feeling between these two men, but does not suppose anything beyond that. It may be that Geoffrey’s love was brotherly and spiritual; it may be that a physical attraction and eroticism accompanied that love. If it was physical for Geoffrey, there appears no evidence from the published correspondences,  biographical scholarship, nor from “A Spring Harvest,” his collection of poetry published by Tolkien in 1918 of any internal moral struggle; this, of course, only tells us so much. If the love was intense in a more Platonic way [emphasizing the Greek philosophical tradition here], the physical intimacy between academic men in the early twentieth century is both challenging and enticing to read in our more sexually liberated era. Certainly, the film calls attention to a homo-amorous  longing. 2Journal of Tolkien Research, Vol. 6 [2018], Iss. 2, Art. 11https://scholar.valpo.edu/journaloftolkienresearch/vol6/iss2/11Scholars must, of course, be careful not to project our own present-day attitudes upon earlier times; though we mustn’t be afraid to investigate the potential for libidinous connections either.      In Hoult’s sonorous voice, Tolkien declares that his work is about “what it means to love, and be loved.” That seems to be just as true of Karukoski’s Tolkien. Maybe Geoffrey’s love is not boldly announced, but it appears to be something that develops off-screen, a quieter and more personal “hel-heime” to which John Ronald is privy, but cannot reciprocate to the same degree.      3Vaccaro: “‘Hel-heime!’: The Daring Love Between Men in Dome Karukoski’s Tolkien”Published by ValpoScholar, 2018

https://scholar.valpo.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1128&context=journaloftolkienresearch

“‘Hel-heime!’: The Daring Love Between Men in Dome Karukoski’s Tolkien”

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