While reading any of J. R. R. Tolkien’s major works, be it The Hobbit, The Silmarillion, or The Lord of the Rings, one cannot help but notice the amount of attention that is given to nature. There are numerous details given to describe each location, each character, even each tree. Tolkien did not claim to be an environmentalist, but by spending so much time in his books explaining the importance of nature, it is hard to say that he did not care about it. About the fantasy world that Tolkien recreated, Sherry Turkle argues, “The question is whether that prepares us to live in a world that's complex, where we need to be able to work in a structure where there are no rules and where we have to be really attentive to other people's cultures and other people's ways of seeing things” (qtd. in Grossman 4). Lev Grossman counters this point when he says, “If The Lord of the Rings is a fantasy, it's ultimately a fantasy about growing up and putting childish things aside” (5). Grossman believes that LOTR is a fantasy, but unlike Turkle, he thinks that the reader benefits with a lesson about growing up and sacrifice.
Tolkien placed a great value on the relationship between the characters and nature: from the elves protecting the forest to the hobbits cultivating the ground and living off the earth. He emphasized stewardship and the importance of working with nature, rather than against it. Lucas P. Niiler agrees with this point when he says, “In particular, Tolkien’s work demonstrates one form such an ethic can take: land stewardship, as is modeled by Bombadil and later practiced by the hobbits” (284). Stewardship is evident in how each of the characters relate to their home in LOTR. For example, the Hobbits live in the Shire, a small, q...
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...ronment, and he wanted to save it by destroying the Ring. Through these examples, and ones that I have given previously, we can see that Tolkien truly cared for the environment.
Works Cited
Bowman, Mary R. "The Story Was Already Written: Narrative Theory in The Lord of the Rings." Narrative 14.3 (2006): 272-293.
Grossman, Lev. "Feeding on Fantasy." Time 02 December 2002: 1-5.
Niiler, Lucas P. "Green Reading: Tolkien, Leopold and the Land Ethic." Journal fo the Fantastic in the Arts (1999): 276-285.
Reeder, Ike. "The Silence of Trees: Environmental Agency and the Politics of Power in J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion." (n.d.): 107-115.
Tolkien, J. R. R. The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien. Ed. Humphrey Carpenter (Boston, New York: Houchton Mifflin 2000).
---. The Lord of the Rings. (Boston, New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1994).
· Urang, Gunnar. "J. R. R. Tolkien: Fantasy and the Phenomenology of Hope" Religion and Fantasy in the Writing of C. S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and J. R. R. Tolkien. United Church Press, 1971
Bal, Mieke. Narratology: Introduction to the Theory of Narrative. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1985.
Perceptions of the natural world have fluctuated throughout humanity’s short time on this earth, going in and out of style as societies and technologies have grown and died. As is the the very nature of literature itself, literature and its authors have managed to capture these shifting views, expressed and illustrated by the art of written word. Naturally, the literature chosen for us to read based on this fluid theme of nature encompasses an array of perspectives. One of these views is that nature is sublime and above all else, a reflection of all that which is perfection. Another is that nature is cold, uncaring, and indifferent to the vanities of humanity.
The paper will begin with a look at the life of Tolkien. This will serve the purpose of providing some context for the novel. Looking into the life of Tolkien will also serve to give the reader some insight into the mind that gave birth to such a rich land and why the novel may have some importance for sufferers of mental illness. Next will likely be a short summation of the
Tolkien, J. R. R., and Douglas A. Anderson. The Lord of the Rings. Boston: Houghton Mifflin,
The Hobbit shows J.R.R. Tolkien’s belief in the ancient heroic tales of the Anglo-Saxon and Scandinavian epics. He asserts that a being goes through many adventures with the help of friends who believe that anything can happen. Tolkien reveals how bravery and courage make ordinary individuals succeed at ordinary tasks.
The Lord of the Rings, by J.R.R. Tolkien, has been called by some one of the greatest books of all time and has recently earned the claim of "greatest book of the 20th century" in a poll by Britain's Channel 4 (O'hehir). Yet at the same time scholars have often dismissed The Lord of the Rings as a fanciful children's story. While the validity of either claim can be equally well disputed, the The Lord of the Rings and related works by Tolkien nevertheless embody a very clear and consistent set of ethical themes. These themes define good and evil in terms of nature and provide a framework on which the ethical decisions of individual characters in Tolkien's stories are based.
Print. The. Tolkien, J. R. R. The Fellowship of the Ring. First Ballantine Books Ed.
Tolkien, J. R. R. The Hobbit, Or, There and Back Again. New York: Ballantine, 1982. Print
Tolkien, J.R.R. Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. New York, New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1954. Print.
Habermann and Kuhn discuss J.R.R. Tolkien The Lord of the Rings is one of the creation texts of fantasy writings and the focus of a number of writings about the history, geography, and mythology of ‘Middle-earth’, which has long become an unusual phenomenon. The authors try to argue that Tolkien texts offer a fictional study of sustainability where they try to combine an application of geographic information system technique with documented analysis and understanding text to show that there is a systematic fluctuating distance between our real world and Tolkien’s secondary world as a respect to climate.
Amid the shadows and darkness befalling Middle Earth, Tolkien’s medieval influences can be felt throughout The Lord of the Rings trilogy. The movies, particularly The Two Towers, reflect this theme in the form of the actions of characters, especially in times of great adversity. One of the most recognizable aspects of Tolkien’s medievalist sentiment is the medieval morality and respectability expressed by leaders and fighters during those times of darkness and their role in the ultimate downfall of the domination of Sauron. Friendships, honor, and hope prove to be tools greater then swords and arrows in the destruction of the destructive, the corrosion of the corrupt, for the men, hobbits, elves, and other mystical creatures that face a war far worse then any waged on Middle Earth before.
Tolkien, J. R. R., and Christopher Tolkien. The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2009. Print.
Nature plays an important and powerful role in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings. Often, it is used to Shakespearean effects, in order to foreshadow doom. At other times, descriptions of the “green earth,” in particular, are used to render Middle-Earth into an almost maternal, life-giving persona. One could argue that these descriptions of “green earth” take on a life of their own, treating place as character. After all, places in Lord of the Rings often possess multi-dimensional qualities and are capable of change. In Aragon’s words, the “green earth” is “a mighty matter of legend” (The Two Towers 424). “Mighty” is not always the most appropriate word for places or objects, except when they hold power—perhaps even autonomously so. For example,
When I think of the perfect place, I imagine a cascading waterfall, a vast forest, a stunning mountainside, or a warm sunset on the beach. I look up around me, mesmerized by the vastness of the natural world and breathe in the fresh air. Over the course of my life, I have come to respect the environment and the earth’s natural surroundings in ways that most others do not in the industrialized and technological era of today. I can appreciate the beauty of the Earth and of all the different landscapes and organisms that surround me. The way in which I value and treasure the environment has evolved just as I have. I see the environment as something to be preserved and admired, not destroyed or exploited. My relationship with the environment is