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The Wars of Tolkien: Trauma and War Commentary in the Lord of the Rings

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The Wars of Tolkien: Trauma and War Commentary in the Lord of the Rings THE WARS OF TOLKIEN: TRAUMA AND WAR COMMENTARY IN THE LORD OF THE RINGS by MIKE FIELDEN A THESIS Presented to the Department of English and the Robert D. Clark Honors College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Arts June 2019 An Abstract of the Thesis of Mike Fielden for the degree of Bachelor of Arts in the Department of English to be taken June 2019. Title: The Wars of Tolkien: Trauma and War Commentary in The Lord of the Rings Approved: _______________________________________ Dr. Paul Peppis This thesis examines the connection between J.R.R. Tolkien’s trilogy The Lord of the Rings and World War I. It argues that Tolkien’s trilogy was influenced by his experience in the Great War and that by depicting a narrative that resonates so closely with modern war experience, Tolkien creates a critical commentary on the ways war can be justified and must be conducted. I trace the particular forms of trauma that Tolkien’s protagonist Frodo Baggins suffers and use the poetry of prominent British trench poets to highlight the parallels between his trauma and the trauma of British soldiers in the First World War. I examine Tolkien’s descriptions of battle in the trilogy, analyzing how he avoids glorifying combat, instead depicting the harsh realities of war. I argue that Tolkien emphasizes the importance of innocent people and unblemished natural spaces and that in showing how war destroys those things, the trilogy confirms that just war must defend them. I also argue that the trilogy depicts the responsible use of powerful weaponry through the portrayal of the One Ring and its use. In this thesis, I define the critical commentary on war in The Lord of the Rings: war can only be justified if it serves to defeat evil, defend innocent people, protect untouched natural spaces, and is conducted with a responsible use of powerful weaponry. ii Acknowledgements I would like to express my sincerest gratitude to Professor Paul Peppis for his guidance throughout the entire thesis process, providing me with ideas for research and repeatedly correcting and refining my prose. His belief in my project was inspirational and his constant support pushed me to complete this thesis. Thank you to Professor Anne Laskaya for her eagerness in joining this project and her guidance on the presence of medieval romance in Tolkien. Thank you to Professor Elizabeth Raisanen for helping me navigate the Honors College Thesis process and for her consistent encouragement from this project’s beginning. I would like to thank my parents for helping me afford the books for research and for their continual moral support. Thank you to all my friends who encouraged me and expressed interest in my thesis. Lastly, I would like to thank Professor J.R.R. Tolkien for creating such a rich and wonderful world that has inspired me so deeply. iii Table of Contents Introduction 1 Chapter 1: The Trauma of Frodo Baggins: Tolkien’s World War I Experience Evoked in the Hobbits of the Shire 7 Chapter 2: The War of the Ring: Tolkien’s Grim Depictions of Battle and the Requirements for Just War and Moral Military Leadership 56 Chapter 3: Nature’s Significance and the Necessity of Protecting Natural Spaces from War 99 Chapter 4: The Ring’s Corruptive Powers and Military Significance 131 Conclusion 155 Glossary 159 Bibliography 167 iv “All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us” -Gandalf v Introduction Synopsis The Lord of the Rings narrates the story of the Third Age of Middle-earth, a fantastical world that resembles earth but whose creation and history is entirely different. The story follows the Hobbit Frodo Baggins and his three friends, Sam, Merry, and Pippin, as they are forced to leave their home, a region called the Shire, to secretly transport the One Ring, a ring of power created by the Dark Lord Sauron to help rule all of Middle-earth. Hobbits, who occupy the role of the central protagonists in the narrative, are diminutive people who live simple and comfortable lives and rarely, if ever, leave their homeland. The Shire is an isolated region in the northwest of Middle- earth and in it the Hobbits live a pre-industrial lifestyle. Sauron is the major antagonist of The Lord of the Rings. He is a powerful spirit, essentially a demi-god, who was corrupted long before the events of the trilogy and seeks dominion over all of Middle-earth. He is cruel, compassionless, merciless, and calculating. He was defeated once before by a coalition known as the Last Alliance of Elves and Men, an alliance between the Kingdom of Gondor and the Elves. These two forces fought a great war against Sauron thousands of years before the events of The Lord of the Rings which culminated in a final battle known as the Battle of Dagorlad featuring Sauron’s defeat and the cutting of the Ring from his hand by Isildur, the son of Gondor’s king Elendil. However, the Ring was not destroyed as Isildur chose to keep it for himself, and Sauron’s spirit lived on. Isildur died soon after when he was ambushed by a party of Orcs, the evil creatures that serve Sauron and populate his armies. The Ring then fell into the Anduin River, the major eastern river in Middle- earth, where it stayed until it was found by Déagol and his cousin Sméagol, two Hobbit- like people who lived in the area. Desiring the Ring, Sméagol strangled Déagol and took it for himself. The Ring’s corruptive power transformed Sméagol into the creature Gollum, a pitiful and vile former version of himself whose mind was wholly consumed by the Ring. However, Gollum lost the Ring in the caves underneath the Misty Mountains where it was found by Bilbo Baggins, Frodo’s relative, during the events of Tolkien’s first novel The Hobbit. The Lord of the Rings, beginning with The Fellowship of the Ring, begins with Bilbo’s 111th birthday party, where he announces he will be leaving the Shire on an indefinite holiday. Before Bilbo leaves, the wizard Gandalf talks him into leaving the Ring behind for Frodo to inherit along with the rest of Bilbo’s belongings, since Bilbo had named Frodo as his heir. Gandalf is one of five wizards who work in Middle-earth and is extremely influential in both The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, lending aid to Bilbo and Frodo as they travel on their adventures. Gandalf is kind, wise, patient, and very powerful, and without him, none of the events of The Lord of the Rings would be possible. And so, the Ring passes to Frodo, and listening to the advice of Gandalf, Frodo leaves the Shire with the intended destination of Rivendell, one of the last houses of the Elves in Middle-earth and a relative safe-haven from Sauron and his servants. Frodo is accompanied by his gardener Samwise Gamgee, and his friends Meriadoc Brandybuck, also called Merry, and Peregrin Took, nicknamed Pippin. The Hobbits receive significant help and companionship along the way, initially and foremostly from Gandalf. However, Gandalf leaves the Shire before Frodo and is not seen again until Frodo arrives in Rivendell. Upon leaving the Shire, the Hobbits 2 travel through the Old Forest, briefly receiving refuge from a strange being named Tom Bombadil, before reaching a town called Bree. There they meet Aragorn, the heir to the throne of the last great kingdom of men Gondor, although he is disguised as a grizzled ranger named Strider. Aragorn escorts them to Rivendell, where the Council of Elrond is held, during which it is decided that Frodo, as the Ring-bearer, must travel into the dominion of Sauron, a land called Mordor, to destroy the One Ring once and for all and destroy evil forever. This decision forms The Fellowship of the Ring which consists of Frodo and nine companions: his three Hobbit friends, Gandalf, Aragorn, an Elf named Legolas, a Dwarf named Gimli, and a man named Boromir who hails from Gondor. Over the course of their journey, the Hobbits and their companions become separated and Frodo and Sam travel to Mordor alone, with Gollum as their guide. The rest of the Fellowship fight in the climactic War of the Ring against the evil forces of Sauron. Frodo and Sam reach Mount Doom, but it is Gollum who destroys the Ring, falling into the lava after stealing the Ring from Frodo. Nevertheless, Sauron is destroyed, albeit at a terrible cost of life to the kingdoms of men. The Hobbits return home to the Shire to find that war has penetrated its once isolated and safe borders, and they must deal with one last enemy before they can live out the rest of their lives wholly and irrevocably changed by their experiences. Preface In the Foreword of The Fellowship of the Ring, J.R.R. Tolkien writes, “An author cannot of course remain wholly unaffected by his experience, but the ways in which a story-germ uses the soil of experience are extremely complex, and attempts to define the process are at best guesses from evidence that is inadequate and ambiguous” 3 (The Fellowship of the Ring xi). This foreword was written for the second edition of The Lord of the Rings, published in 1966, and it is in large part a response to the belief that The Lord of the Rings was a direct allegory for World War II and that the One Ring represented the atom bomb.
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