The True Message of the Lord of the Rings

The holidays are here officially here, and with Christmas approaching, it means another recent tradition will be done - binge watching Peter Jackson's epic take on the Lord of the Rings franchise. It kind of seems appropriate to talk about fantasy around this time, since all of the Lord of the Rings movies were released stateside a week before Christmas. With the butchering that has been undertaken within the new Star Wars trilogy, it feels like the franchise has gone past the point of no return and has gone beyond the point of saving, leaving Peter Jackson's take on Middle Earth to be a new standard on timelessness.

In the past few years, however, there has been this undertone that has been advocated by those who would serve to lessen the works of both literature and film adaptations of Tolkien's work. Chiefly, how the works of Tolkien were viewed as racist because the Orcs and Goblins weren't white and the heroes of the books - Men, Elves, Dwarves, and Halflings - all were white. It's not only a stupid claim, but latching on to those notions and ignoring the true message of the films and the books does the Lord of the Rings a disservice, because there is a lot more that needs to be understood.

Tolkien's books pretty much set the foundation of fantasy books that came after it. Now, keep this in mind, just because each of the societies depicted in Middle Earth share a skin color, does not mean they share the same race. Each race has their own imperfections, each has an agenda, each has their own rhyme and reason.

Let's take the two contrasts between Elves and Dwarves. Elves are depicted as the best bowmen the world has to offer, are essentially the epitome of beauty, have an affinity with nature, live long lives/are immortal, and often are depicted as observers and have an arrogant attitude toward the world's affairs. Dwarves are widely revered with their usefulness of an axe, are often depicted as warriors or miners, live in a complex underground society, share the same long life an elf does (though not to the same degree - a few hundred years or so, give or take), and have a high tolerance of alcohol. Both of these races have a pissing contest with one another because of their world views and believe they know how the world works.

Men are often depicted as the bridge between both of these races, basically depicted as neutrality between the two and masters of the sword. Their debates and struggles are usually with other Men, be it with long held grudges or bureaucratic red tape. They are also depicted as easier to corrupt than Elves and Dwarves, and often tow the line on temptation, and their arcs basically are internal fights to resist the path where everything is easy.

Halflings are depicted as masters of sneaking, and usually are depicted as those who want to isolate themselves with the rest of the world. They prefer to keep to themselves, for the most part.

Orcs and Goblins are usually depicted as part and parcel with one another, basically representing pretty much the darkest parts of human nature in the real world. The World of Warcraft franchise changed a lot of how they were represented - originally, they were designed as engines of war, death, destruction, with their bloodlust outweighing their compassion - they're even depicted as turning on each other for shits and giggles, and will kill and eat each other for the express reason of it being the thing to do. World of Warcraft changed their outlook as being born fighters who do so because it's in their blood to see who is the strongest. I would surmise Magic: the Gathering pushed the angle of Goblins to being mischievous bastards who like to wreck things because it fucking feels like the thing to do, whilst keeping the same nihilism that was in the Tolkien books. It was demonstrated that the big bads in the Lord of the Rings, Sauruman and Sauron, take advantage of them being engines of war and use a hive mind mentality to control them - note that when Sauron was finally destroyed in Return of the King, they wanted no part with the combined forces of Rohan and Gondor and booked it. When Tolkien wrote his books, they were supposed to be parables on rampant and uncontrolled industrialization, which hit a chord with the baby boomers when the Lord of the Rings first gained notoriety during the 1960s.

I see the Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit as less about race and more about human nature. Men, Elves, Dwarves, Orcs, Goblins, Halflings, the whole thing, is a parable on human emotions and how differences divide us and make us suspect to our own demise. The bit about Elves, Men and Dwarves (white people) and Goblins and Orcs (minorities) is absolute bullshit, and detracts from the core message about how those divisions needed to be overcome for the evil to be defeated. Hell, Elrond, the father of Arwen, is clearly grinding an ax because his daughter made up her mind that she wanted to be with Aragorn, a mortal Man, and basically uses racism to try and keep them apart and guilting Arwen about wanting to live a mortal life. The eventual reunion between Aragorn and Arwen is basically Elrond swallowing his pride and letting his daughter live the life she wants. It was no accident that a Man, an Elf, and a Dwarf, together made a huge impact in the world around them, and basically developed a kinship with one another.

It makes the Lord of the Rings the masterpiece it is today, and ignoring those themes I discussed are a huge disservice. The view of it being racist, with the focus of Orcs and Goblins being persecuted, is absolute bullshit, because it makes you look like a fool painting something in black and white when there are so many shades of grey that are involved within the makeup of those two races. All great works, all great masterpieces, share these shades of grey in the makeup of their stories, and that is what makes it so that these works are remembered for long after this generation is nothing but bones and ash.

Now, keeping that in mind, I'm going to start watching the movies again, reading the books again, and enjoy what makes them so memorable in the first place.

So until next time, in the immortal words of Edward R. Murrow, "Good night and good luck".