Lord of the Rings Criticism (Exam Practice Essay)

The following is a practice essay I wrote for my exam in Fantastic History of the 20th Century (Final year Glasgow University English Literature).Writing on such an enormous work in one hour is a daunting task. 

‘Fantasy... is a literature of desire, which seeks that which is experienced as absence and loss.’ Discuss.

  

The opening chapter to Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings is entitled “A Long Expected Party” and directly parodies the opening chapter of his previous work The Hobbit, “The Unexpected Party.” In this chapter, the hobbit in question, Bilbo Baggins, is celebrating his “eleventy-first birthday”, and promises “a party of special magnificence,” after which he plans on “going on a holiday, a very long holiday,” from which he intends never to return. A very different Bilbo to the Bilbo we met at the beginning of The Hobbit, a Bilbo who doesn’t like adventures, doesn’t like making a fuss, prefers his own home comforts, and has a healthy mistrust for the lands of the “big folk.” At the very start of the book therefore we’re introduced to two very different senses of loss, firstly that of Frodo when at the party, after Bilbo’s spectacular disappearance, “I’m leaving you now, GOOD BYE!”, he realizes quite suddenly just how dear Bilbo is to him - and then of Bilbo for the Ring. Bilbo’s need to part with the ring is vocalized by Gandalf,

“I will keep it.”“You will be a fool if you do, Bilbo. You make that clearer with every word you say. It has got far too much hold on you. Let it go... and be free.”   

It’s the prospect of the loss that agitates Bilbo to such a degree, for when he’s finally lets the Ring go, he is immediately relieved. The process of his loss echoes previous emotions associated with the Ring’s previous owners, “It is my own. I found it. It came to me.” The first shouts of Gollum’s claim, naming it his “Birthday Present,” the second, Bilbo’s, in his dubiously reported ‘discovery‘ of the Ring by accident in Gollum’s cave, and the third, Isildur, who took the ring from battle and intended to make it an heirloom of his house. His interpretation of the argument between himself and Gandalf, “I don’t know what has come over you, Gandalf... You have never been like this before.” and his dubious refusal to see in his own behaviour that which is irrational and uncharacteristic, foreshadows the moment between Frodo and Boromir at the falls of Raurus. This conversation, which hails the “breaking of the fellowship” is fueled by Boromir’s sense of loss for the strength of his people. A loss of strength arguably caused by the absence of the king and the empty throne of Gondor. The whole plot is fueled by absence and loss, but the loss the drives the plot in its entirety is Sauron’s loss of the One Ring, and the hope that that which was lost is never found by him. 

While professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford University, Tolkien sensed a lack of purely British mythology. The popular Arthurian legends originated in Northern Europe and were brought to the British Isles by the Normans in their conquest. According to the experts on the extra material that accompanies the film versions of the books by Peter Jackson, Tolkien considered the Norman Conquest 

disastrous in its effect on British literature, and had a theory that had the Anglo-Saxons had a cavalry they would not have been defeated. Which explains the nature of Rohan, a culture very similar to that of the Saxons, but horse-centric (even down to the recurring use of the word Eor, which is old English for horse). Be that as it may, Tolkien certainly felt the absence of British mythology and set about writing his own. This takes place in Middle Earth, a term certainly taken from the Old English, Middengearth, a word used to describe the world we currently live in because it lies between the heavens and the underworld.

“Those days, the Third Age of Middle-Earth, are now long past, and the shape of all the lands has been changed...”  

This, from the Prologue, clearly suggests that the world Tolkien envisioned was a world before continental drift had occurred and the British Isles had been separated from Europe. This explains the narrative voice, which in the Prologue seems to be setting out  relevant history, and in the appendices tells the stories that happen before, during and after the time of Frodo and the Ring.  

The use of The Shire as the place of origin, speaks of Tolkien’s sense of loss for the rural and pastoral scenes of Britain during Anglo-Saxon times. Indeed, the time we spend in The Shire, being acquainted with its peoples and its traditions, really builds an affection for its simplistic ways and helps us to empathise with the heroes when they encounter The Scouring. 

“They do not and did not understand or like machines more complicated than a forge-bellow, a water-mill, or a hand-loom, though they were skillful with tools.” 

All of these items were in great use in Britain up until the Industrial Revolution, a time that paved the way towards further mechanization, which in turn led to the introduction of tanks in warfare, first encountered on the Somme in WW1, during which Tolkien was a soldier. After the battle of the Somme Tolkien began writing a piece called “The Fall of Gondolin”, on the back of sheet music for a military marching song. The story tells of the founding of the Elven city of Gondolin (Where Thorin’s sword and Gandalf’s Glamdring were forged), of the arrival of Tuor, a prince of the Edain, of the betrayal of the city to Morgoth by Turgon’s nephew Maeglin, and of its subsequent destruction by Morgoth’s armies. Those armies drove mechanisms of war that laid waste to the beautiful city. In this story, later recovered and used in the completion of The Silmarillion, we see a preamble to the mechanized mass production of the armies of Saruman. In this way, the destruction of Saruman becomes one of the main ideological focuses of the text, because even after his defeat at Helms Deep and in Isengard by the Ents (a powerful image if ever there was one, a center of industry burning up wood to fuel the fires of production, being torn to pieces by sentient trees), the vestiges of industrialism hang on and next take a hold in the beloved Shire, and begin to transform the homely beauties of Britain into the industrial center that it is today. In Tolkien’s creation he has his worldly heroes return home and begin to heal their land, reclaiming the losses of the time they’ve lived through.

“I shan’t call it the end, till we’ve cleared up the mess... And that’ll take a lot of time and work.”

Saruman’s nickname in The Shire of Sharkey, is also indicative of Tolkien’s attitude towards industrialism as a great voracious predator, grim, gray and powerful, eating through the peaceful pastures of the earth, bleeding the world dry of life. 

An ever present sense of loss in Middle Earth comes from the passage of the Elves to the Gray Havens

and beyond. The sense of a time drawing to a close, of a great people leaving is strengthened by the recurring nature of the war being fought; in the last battle between Sauron and the ‘Free Peoples‘, Elves battled alongside men in “The Last Alliance of Elves and Men.” That great effort was all brought to nought when Isildur failed to destroy the Ring in Orodruin, and this time men must fight the battle alone. This battle, too, might be seen as a reclamation of Middle Earth from the grip of the Rings of Power, of which the One Ring was just one - the master ring for sure - but to be master there had to be other rings for it to be master of. None of these rings are meant for mortals, and mortal souls are easily corrupted by them, as shown by all who have been bearers of the One. The three remaining elven rings, Nenya, Vilya, and Narya, are an important presence providing strongholds against Sauron’s influence in Rivendell, in Caras Galadhon, and Gandalf who, as a Maiar, is himself a stronghold against evil and whose great task it is to aid in the destruction of the dark powers. Once the One Ring is destroyed, however, the power of the three rings would only exist for powers sake, with no function for good or for evil. Without a function they must “diminish and go into the west,” along with their bearers.

This creates a new absence, an absence of magic, an absence of a race of guardians who had been present to aid and protect middle earth. This absence, however, leaves room for a new presence, that of Aragorn who fills the long empty throne of Gondor. A throne that not all wish to see filled. Denethor, the steward of Gondor, tasked with guarding the throne, is so unwilling to accept change that he kills himself in the middle of the battle of the Pelennor Fields. He has allowed himself to succumb to loss as he grieves for his son, Boromir, and he prematurely grieves for the loss of Middle-Earth having misunderstood the visions provided by the Palantir, “Do you think the eyes of the white tower are blind, Mithrandir?” He has so given in to his sense of loss that he is incapable of seeing hope in his living son, Faramir, and in the remaining strength of men when led by a true king.

Aragorn’s tale is also littered with losses. He is last of the line of Numenorian Kings, a race that succumbed to the evils of Morgoth, and whose land was lost, like Atlantis, under an all-consuming wave (A wave Tolkien dreamt of like the dream recounted by Faramir to Frodo in Ithilien). He is descendent from a line of people who, but for himself, are absent from Middle Earth, lost to history and weakness. He wants to marry Arwen, but before he does he must defeat Sauron and take his throne. In marrying Aragorn, however, Arwen must sacrifice immortality and the company of her kindred. This relationship of loss and death is echoed in the tale of Luthien and Beren, which in turn was partly inspired by Tolkien’s wife Edith, who tragically died aged 55, Tolkien then inscribed “Luthien” on her gravestone. 

Ultimately, The Lord of the Rings is a tale of a world that, like all complex worlds involving multiple peoples, races, histories, and individual interests, is fueled partly by loss. I believe that fantasy is often enabled by a desire to fill an absence or loss, but in an attempt to not succumb to Denathor’s mistake I will say that the possitive additions that fantasy makes far outweigh those losses. Tolkien may have felt an absence of British mythology, but in that absence he created the Middle Earth.