By Michael Skeparnides
To one that has read J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Hobbit", "The
Lord of the Rings", "The Silmarillion" and other affiliate
works; the sheer introduction to the wondrous world of
Middle Earth—its history and characters seem to suggest
powerful allegorical overtones on such matters as the
gender issue, race and religion. Despite Tolkien's written
insistence in the forward to "The Lord of the Rings" of
the contrary; Tokien's work is the product of a visionary
who ultimately presents us an alternate world using
factors of our own as perhaps a means of contextualizing
his themes.
As a trilogy written by a male author, one must
acknowledge Laura Mulvey's theories on gender in
literature and film, and her powerful conception of the
'male gaze'. "The Lord of the Rings" has a somewhat
definitive and chauvinistic appraisal of women as
'maidens' who must adhere to 'male' protectionism. This
can be clearly seen in the character of Eowyn who
represents the potential of rebellion against the male
value system that characterizes Tolkien's world. In
placing aside her feminism to take the guise of a male
soldier marching to the "Battle of the Pelennor Fields",
and the obvious emphasis by Tolkien on the importance
of her gender in her confrontation and defeat of the
Nazgul lord; a reader is immediately made aware of a
powerful internal contradiction between Tolkien's male
gaze; and his belief on the role of women.
"Hinder me? Thou fool. No living man may hinder me!" the
Ringwraith mocks the disguised soldier called 'Dernhelm'
who answers:
"But no living man am I! You look upon a
woman." — Eowyn
What is interesting here, is that Eowyn has to broadcast
her gender, and it is this over emphasis of her gender
that says a lot about the author's view on women.
Eowyn's "bright hair, released from its bondspale gold
upon her soldiers" again depicts the classic conventions
of the male gaze. Similarly, in William Shakespeare's, "The
Merchant Of Venice," the image of the pure, virginal and
dutiful daughter that Shakespeare paints of Portia in the
opening scenes of the play; the perfect image of a
contemporary Venetian 'Lady'; are smashed when Portia
takes it upon herself to dress up as a male lawyer in
defence of Antonio against the evil of Shylock and the
bond. Evidently, we see in both Eowyn and Portia the
unsuspected portrayal of women as social revolutionaries
who rebel against the harsh bindings of a male patriarchal
system. Tolkien and Shakespeare's reveal themselves in
the construction of these two heroines as overseers of
this male value system. In both "The Lord of the Rings
and "The Merchant of Venice" we see both the
suspected portrayal of women, such as Galadriel, Arwen
and the early representation of Portia, against the
unsuspected portrayal of women who place their
feminism aside—Eowyn and the later Portia.
Ironically, Eowyn and Portia have to take on male
characteristics in order to overcome the evil of the Lord
of the Ringwraiths and Shylock. What we alarmingly see,
is that women must become men and enter the world of
men that is 'war' in "The Lord of the Rings" for Eowyn,
and Venice for Portia; to defeat the evil of men.
Subsequently, the setting of Belmont in "The Merchant of
Venice", as a safe and established sanctuary against the
trouble of Venice represents the ordered world of women,
much like Eowyn's home at Edoras that she too leaves
behind.
Thus women in Tolkien's world are portrayed as 'pure' and
'virginal 'maidens very much in the tradition of
Shakespeare, yet Eowyn portrays a subversion of this
cultural norm, in perhaps an emphasis by Tolkien (and
Shakespeare) on the potential of women in such a rigid
patriarchal world to trick men and be able to achieve the
same, if not greater glory than their male counterparts.
Alternative gender representation can be found in David
Edding's work such as the "The Belgariad" where in such
powerful characters as the Styric Sorceress Sephrenia,
Queen Ehlahna of Elenia, and the alarming portrayal of
'the 'little girls' Princess Danae and Flute as mortal
avatars of the Child Goddess Aphreal, we see the
domination of women over the desires of men. Prince
Sparhawk responds to the wishes of these women, and in
the face of his daughter Danae as the child goddess we
see a perversion over the traditional paternal relationship
of father and child. In Danae and Flute as mortal
representatives of the Child Goddess Aphrael, Sparhawks
powerful dotage and casual acceptance of his inferiority
to his daughter suggests perhaps a sort of pedophile
perversion that is indicative to all the adult characters in
Eddings work. On another level, Sparhawk as Annakha is
revealed to be the son of the Bhelliom entity. For "The
Lord of the Rings" the role of child to parent is closely
partitioned, though made rather vague by the complex
genealogies between characters i.e.—Arwen is the
daughter of Elrond and granddaughter of Galadriel with
Celeborn in Lorien. In the "Tale of Aragorn and Arwen"
Elrond does not approve of Arwen's romance with
Aragorn on the basis of racial and cultural issues.
Tolkien set the standard for the cross—racial
relationships in the modern fantasy genre. The Elf/Dwarf
divide, the almost total acknowledgement of the
inferiority of both Orc and Goblins as the minions of evil
manifested in Sauruman at Orthanc and Sauron at Mordor
in "The Lord of the Rings" and the differences between
humans and Elves are made plainly clear. Tolkien
evidently subordinates the race of man to the 'light' and
immortality of the Elves, who are growing weary of Middle
Earth for their timeless Ancestral home of Aman and the
'light' of Valinor', in the forbidden West across the sea.
In "The Silmarillion" the gradual fade of the weary Elves
from Middle Earth is chronicled whilst the destructive
tendencies of man are highlighted in the Atlantean style
destruction of the continent of Numenor. In "The
Silmarillion", the Dwarves are the insubordinate creation
of the Valar Aule. Creating this race before Iluvatar's
'firstborn'—the Elves, brings the Father of the Valar great
anger. "Why hast thou done this?" Iluvatar tells Aule:
"Why dost thou attempt a thing which thou knowest is
beyond thy power and authority." And Aule interstingly
answers "As a child to his father, I offer too these
things, the work of the hands which thou hast made."
Thus we see an explanation of the friction between the
races of Elf and Dwarf as two opposing first races very
much different from one another. For the coming of man,
Tolkien states in "The Silmarillion" that they are
'usurpers', and easily led—"the strangers, and the
Inscrutable, the self cursed, the heavy handed, the Night
Fearers, the Children of the Sun."—Tolkien gives
nonetheless an interesting overview of humanity.
In Tolkien's works, the issue of race is a primary catalyst
between social friction and exploration. Aragorn's
involvement with Arwen is initially despised by her father
Elrond, who is himself Half—Elven, whilst Gimli and the Elf
Legolas overcome their racial friction by the conclusion of
the "Lord of the Rings". The Hobbits gain some sort of
world recognition. Ironically, the Hobbits and their
mannerisms are much like our own, whilst the affairs of
men—the Rohirrim and Gondor, coupled with the Elves,
Mordor and the Wizard Saruman, Bombadil, the Ents etc
seem too distant, alien and melodramatic. "Strange are
the ways of men" Legolas comments to Gimili, and later
on, both strike a 'bargain' when Legolas states that "if
we both return safe out of the perilswe will journey for a
while togetherYou shall visit Fangorn with me, and then I
will come with you to Helms Deep."
Middle Earth, like our own world has its racial instabilities.
The Orcs are the 'dark' children of the fallen Valar Melkor,
and become synomenous with evil, the products of
centuries of genetically perverse cross breeding with men
under Sauron whom; like Hitler persecuted and performed
his scientific horrors on the Jewish people in Auschwitz.
The Elves are the symbols of light and immortality, and
men (and Hobbits) have the potential of destruction and
subjugation—this is what Tolkien seems to emphasise at
the end of "The Silmarillion". The ends of both "The
Silmarillion" and "The Lord of the Rings" both make a
moving comment of an end of a phase into a new one,
that of the dominance of men whilst the Elves recede
back across the sea.
"Until the bent world of the seas of the Bent
fell away beneath it, and the round sky
troubled it no more, and borne upon the high
airs above the mists of the world it passed
into the Ancient West, and an end was come
of the Eldar of story and of song"
The conclusions of both "The Silmarillion" and "The Lord
of the Rings" are moving and provide a powerful
allegorical message. The end of the "War of the Ring" like
World War II brings about a sociopolitical and cultural
change, fascism was conquered, but the foreshadow of
the powerful tyrant of Soviet fundamentalist Marxism and
Bolshevism still survived under the incompatible pact
between the Democratic powers and the USSR which
deteriorated into cold war. The Elves begin to depart
west across the sea, Sauron like Hitler is gone, like the
"West" had overcome the shadow of Nazism, so too have
the Western Kingdoms of Middle Earth defeated the
eastern armies of Mordor. The battle for freedom against
enslavement and totalitarianism in "The Lord of the Rings"
is a direct parallel to both World Wars and human history.
Peace is achieved through diverting both cultural and
social paranoia, Denethor is established as the symbol of
this paranoia that threatens to disunify the collective
effort in "The Lord of the Rings" when he takes his own
life; like the USSR did when it signed its peace Treaty
with Nazi Germany against a Western alliance who hoped
to isolate and confine Nazism; (which Hitler betrayed in
the German invasion of the USSR in the "Operation of
Barabarossa" in 1943.)
What the "Lord of the Rings" seems to suggest, is that
social and racial differences are overcome when the
interests and freedoms of each are threatened by
invasion. Tolkien provides a fantastical parallel to both
World Wars in his novel, yet he himself states in the
prologue of the novel that this was not his intention.
Ultimately, a fantasy world like Middle Earth can only be
formed from the characteristics of the real world in order
for the author to convey his message to an
understanding and sympathetic reader.
Viewed in a religious context, Tolkien's Middle Earth has
many powerful assumptions on the nature of religion that
serve as a powerful mixture of both Western Christianity
and classical mythology. In "the Silmarillion" The long war
between Melkor and the Valar bears a powerful
resemblance to Satan's downfall from heaven and the
desire to rule the world in darkness as applicable to the
Apocalypse. In Sauron and Saruman, we see the desire
for power and establishment of ritualistic 'cultism'. In
Angmar, there is the Cult of the Dark Lord, pagan
sacrificial offerings to Sauron and the Cult of the
Mor—Sereg. The desire for absolute power and aspiration
to a God like status forms the basis if the ideology behind
'The War of the Ring' Sauron wants to be like Melkor, (his
former master), and Saruman like Sauron. The corruption
of power forms an integral part of the narrative of "The
Lord of the Rings" and Tolkien's works. Galadriel herself
admits to her powerful temptation in Frodo's ring: "...For
many long years I had pondered what I might do, should
the Great Ring come into my hands, and Behold! It was
brought within my grasp," she confides to Frodo. "You
would give me the Ring freely! In place of the Dark Lord
you will set up a Queenbeautiful and terrible... Stronger
than the foundations of the earth"
Thus is Tolkien's work, we are presented with a
somewhat vague exploration of divinity and religion. The
Elves are immortal, beautiful—almost Godlike. In "The
Silmarillion", we are immediately introduced to the enigma
that is Eru, "the One", who created the Valar from the
"offspring of his thought" Eru is configured by Tolkien in
the same light of our understanding of God—as an
unknown and all powerful universal source—like Brahma,
the supreme spirit in the Hindi religion or the forgiving
God in the New Testament. Yet Eru and his Valar also
bear a powerful classical parallel to Zeus—King of the
Gods on Mount Olympus in Greek mythology. In more
recent fantasy novels like Melanie Rawne's "Dragon Prince
Trilogy" we see the manifestation of 'The Goddess' from
Celtic and Western European (British) Druidic myth and
further reinforced in Stephen Lawhead's "Pendragon
Cycle" that amongst other things represents the conflict
between the Druidic belief and the spreading Christian
Gospel in post Roman Britain.
"The Lord of the Rings" is a kaleidoscope of Celtic, Norse
and Teutonic myth, as well as embracing medieval and
gothic techniques. In the construction of the Hobbits,
Tolkien very much celebrates the British rural culture,
whilst the Elves and Dwarves and even 'humans' are
given by Tolkien their own cultural autonomy, language
and detailed history. Nevertheless, Middle Earth, is a
world in its own right created using factors of our own
world which we respond to time and time again when one
re-reads Tolkien's works on Middle Earth. "The Lord of
the Rings" is an epic novel depicting the important role of
otherwise unimportant Hobbits in defeating Sauron. We
may not understand the culture of the Elves, Dwarves
and the men of Gondor and Rohan; but in the Hobbits,
Tolkien has created one of the most intimate characters
in English literature. A reader responds through them,
because they perhaps are the literal link for a reader in
Tolkien's world. As they learn many new and wondrous
things about their world, so does a reader—and because
of this, the Hobbits are perhaps the representatives of
the reader in Tolkien's fantasy world. Without them, "The
Hobbit" and "The Lord of the Rings" would otherwise be a
confusing and complex place.
Ultimately, in Tolkien's work, a reader can interpret many
parallels to our own world. Tolkien wrote almost the
entire bulk of "The Lord of the Rings" throughout two
world wars, and surely the awesome reality of war must
have inspired Tolkien to write about the 'War of the Ring'.
Ostensibly, Middle Earth provides an escape from the
reality of our own world, yet this essay has only briefly
touched upon the surface of many allegorical links and
similarities to contemporary society. In one respect a
reader can find solace and escapism in "The Hobbit" and
"The Lord of the Rings"; but the problems of the world of
Middle Earth are and have been the problems of our own
world—and this perhaps would make a reader uneasy.
What Tolkien has given us is a world not much unlike our
own, but different nonetheless. True, allegory was not
perhaps the intention of Tokien in his work; but it is
there nonetheless making a reader part of that world.
Tolkien in "The Hobbit" and "The Lord of the Rings"
successfully guides a reader through his world, retaining
a position of power in manipulating our sympathies and
emotions. Like the classical narrative system, the
equilibrium is shattered, yet it is not totally restored to
its former state and the novel ends in an air of
uncertainty. Finally, Tolkien's Middle Earth is a powerful
and intimate experience, yet no matter how wondrous
and far fetched it may be, it is the product of the human
mind, and inevitably, of the real human world.