The Lord of the Rings and the Great War

[Guest Frillidan]

I hope this is an okay place to post this - I thought it would be interesting to give a photographic and "literary" analysis of Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings and what most of us know about WWI.

I saw this topic come up briefly under the discussion of the book Tolkien and the Great War, but I don't think it's been talked about a lot. If so, my apologies.

Anyway, I guess Tolkien himself didn't like the idea of his books being a direct allegory for the war, but the fact of the matter is, as a soldier, he must have been influenced a great deal by the things he saw and experienced. And it seems to me that Peter Jackson tried to incorporate at least a little bit of this into his movies.

For example...

[Guest Frillidan]

1. Lieutenant Baggins and his batman.

The one WWI reference Professor Tolkien has admitted to making regards the relationship between Frodo and Sam. Sam is evidently of a lower class than Frodo, and generally takes care of him, cooks for him, etc., as seen below.

[Guest Frillidan]

2. The Dead Marshes

Frodo, Sam, and Gollum traipse through the Dead Marshes on the way to Mordor very much like soldiers would have to cross large shell holes and craters filled with water when coming to or from the front line. Soldiers might also see the faces of the dead lying beneath the water in the shell holes, as the characters in Lord of the Rings see the faces of the dead warriors who fought Sauron however many years before.

[Guest Frillidan]

3. The Destruction of Fangorn

One of the major themes of Lord of the Rings is the destruction of nature by industry. Here we see the effect of Saruman's industrial endeavours: he has used the trees as fuel for his Uruk-Hai Factory, and translated that energy into evil and ironworks.

Tolkien could not have forgotten that the new technology of the Great War also had a devastating effect on the countryside, especially the trees. He would have seen evidence of this sort of industrial carnage every day, and it is therefore not presumptuous to think that the war, in this case, inspired his writing.

[Guest Frillidan]

Below, a WWI photo with the common image of water-filled shell holes and destroyed trees, illustrating the points above.

[Guest Frillidan]

4. The Front

When Frodo and Sam arrive in Mordor, in many instances they might as well be in the trenches. They must hide and crawl over a desolate landscape in order to escape the searchlight-like Eye of Sauron, much like soldiers crossing No Man's Land on patrols. When climbing up the slopes of Mount Doom, the volcano spouts embers that rise and fall slowly, reminiscent of both star-shells and certain types of artillery.

[Guest Frillidan]

More interesting (if somewhat sketchy) points:

Gandalf's famous line when fighting the Balrog is, "YOU SHALL NOT PASS!" During the Battle of Verdun, the French war cry was, "Ils ne passeront pas!" ("They will not pass!")

At the end of The Return of the King, several of the characters sail "into the West," leaving the real world, with its complications and suffering, behind them. In the British Army, if a fellow soldier died, it was said that he had "gone West." (This also relates to the movement of the stars, which seem to move from east to west; Tolkien based some of his mythology on the North Star--"Earendel"--who reaches the end of his journey in the West.)

Anyway, hope that was interesting to at least some of you. Anyone else make any other observations?

[PhilB]

1. Lieutenant Baggins and his batman.

The one WWI reference Professor Tolkien has admitted to making regards the relationship between Frodo and Sam. Sam is evidently of a lower class than Frodo, and generally takes care of him, cooks for him, etc., as seen below.

I like this one! (Though we`re in danger of opening the servant/officer string again). Sam is coarser featured, less elegant in movement and less cultured in speech. One gets the feeling that Frodo is from a family of genteel hobbits while Sam is from peasant stock. I can`t remember if that`s reflected in the book.

Phil B

PS So the elves would correlate with the Staff?

[Guest]

I am reluctant to rely on the film images as a guide to Tolkein's work, although I do agree that some of the scenes have a resemblance to WWI images.

Lord of the Rings was a long time in the writing. Begun, I believe, in the 1930s, it was not finished until well after WWII. Therefore, you have to take into account Tolkein's evolving thoughts throughout the whole of this period, particularly in relation to the struggle between good and evil. At the beginning, it very much follows on from The Hobbit, although already with a more adult tone compared to The Hobbit's "younger" outlook. By the end, it is a much more complex tale indeed.

I think that between the early chapters in the Shire and the climax of the trilogy there are several major changes in the tone of the work, which to me reflect the times he was living through, before finally we return to the simpler world of the Shire, in which, however, we see a loss of innocence. I have not seen the end of the film series, but I have been told that it ends before the return to the Shire.

Of course WWI was a big influence on Tolkein, but I think you have to see this as just a part of a much wider and longer experience.

There may be a need here to make a separation between the film trilogy and the written work.

[AndyHollinger]

I think a better analogy is the concept of Good and Evil and the monumental struggle between the two in light of the terrible wars during Tolkein's lifetime. Yes, I think WWI and the Euro front can be seen in the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings ... but more as an example of the fight within ourselves ... one must never forget that Tolkein and C S Lewis were great friends and fellow authors ... I believe the point is much more religious in nature.

[Guest Frillidan]

Fair enough, Andy and Angie - and of course, I'm not claiming that the entire work is supposed to be WWI "in a nutshell," or what have you. Just certain scenes and aspects which, though depicted in the movies, are definitely present in the books as well.

The movie version does end before the "Scouring of the Shire," but there are scenes of the hobbits returning home and having a bit of trouble going back to the way life used to be.

Two last thoughts - one from Tolkien himself:

"Personally I do not think that either war...had any influence upon either the plot or the manner of its unfolding. Perhaps in landscape. The Dead Marshes and the approaches to the Morannon owe something to Northern France after the Battle of the Somme. "

And, from C.S. Lewis:

"This war has the very quality of the war my generation knew. It is all here: the endless, unintelligibel movement, the sinister quiet of the front when 'everything is now ready', the flying civillians, the lively, vivid friendships, the background of something like despair and the merry foreground, and such heavensent windfalls as a cache of tobacco 'salvaged' from a ruin. The author has told us elsewhere that his taste for fairy-tale was wakened into maturity by active service."

(Quotes from John Garth's Tolkien and the Great War, pp. 310-311)

Later!

[Julian Dawson]

1.  Lieutenant Baggins and his batman.

The one WWI reference Professor Tolkien has admitted to making regards the relationship between Frodo and Sam.  Sam is evidently of a lower class than Frodo, and generally takes care of him, cooks for him, etc., as seen below.

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Tolkien himself wrote that Sam Gamgee was a portrait 'of the English soldier, of the private and batman I knew in the 1914 war, and is recognised as so far superior to myself.'

From J.R.R. Tolkien: A biography. By H. Carpenter, 1978.