J. R. R. Tolkien MBTI Personality Type
Personality
What personality type is J. R. R. Tolkien? J. R. R. Tolkien is an INFP personality type in MBTI, 6w5 - sp/sx - 649 in Enneagram, RCUAI in Big 5, EII in Socionics.
Yes, Tolkien is VERY detail oriented and meticulous. I see why people type him as ISTJ. However most of the arguments I see for this is that he appears to have either high Si or highly developed Si. However, I haven't seen a single argument for auxiliary Te. Where is the strong Te? I find it hard to believe that someone with high Te would write a book as inefficient as The Lord of the Rings. The first book especially rambles into side quests before you get to the main plot. Treebeard's chapter is another example of this. What you guys have to remember is INFP's can be very meticulous and detail oriented as well. The difference is we are that way only about what we're interested in or what is precious to us. You can see in his writing as well he gives details about the names of specific trees. Tolkien was known to love trees. He goes into the history of names of characters and words. Tolkien was known to love names and the history of words. He describes food in detail as well. He also will focus a lot on themes that don't really relate to the main plot. If you read the chapter on Tom Bombadil or Treebeard there's stuff about the evil of machines and the importance of craft or nature. Again he is writing not what fits into the main plot or the context but what he personally finds important or interesting. The other INFP sign is how highly Tolkien's writing in the Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit emphasizes the importance of comfort. Si child can never have enough comfort. Over and over again you see Tolkien's value of comfort. It's in the Shire, it's in Goldsberry's house, it's in the rabbit stew Sam makes. ""If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world" I think this quote also emphasizes Fi because he uses the word "valued" food, cheer, and song are precious to Tolkien and he thinks they'll make the world a better place. That's the other thing the whole book is also Tolkien meditating on how the world can be made better despite endless evils, that is very Fi. Another argument I keep seeing is that Tolkien is an ISTJ because he was conservative. This isn't a good argument however because Tolkien could have very well been conservative because it was part of his Fi value system not because it was his duty or tried and true. Tolkien also throughout his writing will take these conservative values and put a twist on them which is more INFP then ISTJ, because of the higher Ne. I'm willing to give more specific examples and quotes to back my arguments up if anyone asks in the comments. Thanks for reading:)
Biography
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien CBE FRSL ( 3 January 1892 – 2 September 1973) was an English writer and philologist. He was the author of the high fantasy works The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.
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