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124-623: Tolkien uses the Men of Middle-earth, interacting with immortal Elves, to explore a variety of themes in The Lord of the Rings , especially death and immortality. This appears throughout, but is the central theme of an appendix, " The Tale of Aragorn and Arwen ". Where the Hobbits stand for simple, earthbound, comfort-loving people, Men are far more varied, from petty villains and slow-witted publicans to

248-781: A large amount of time and energy creating languages, especially the Elvish languages of Quenya and Sindarin , both of which appear, sometimes untranslated, in The Lord of the Rings . Tolkien had a private theory on the way that the sounds of a language convey a feeling of beauty; he felt pure pleasure in the vocabulary of the Gothic language , and indeed of Welsh . Shippey explains that "He thought that people could feel history in words, could recognise language 'styles', could extract sense (of sorts) from sound alone , could moreover make aesthetic judgements based on phonology ." Thus Tolkien has Legolas say, on hearing Aragorn singing The Lament of

372-500: A letter that "the religious element is absorbed into the story and the symbolism". Tolkien has frequently been accused of racism; however, during the Second World War , he consistently expressed an anti-racist position. Sandra Ballif Straubhaar writes that far from being racist, "a polycultured, polylingual world is absolutely central" to Middle-earth, and that readers and filmgoers will easily see that. She notes that

496-456: A newcomer like "proof", not from Old English, rightly has its plural the new way, "proofs". So, Tolkien reasoned, the proper plurals of "dwarf" and "elf" must be "dwarves" and "elves", not as the dictionary and the printers typesetting The Lord of the Rings would have them, "dwarfs" and elfs". The same went for forms like "dwarvish" and "elvish", strong and old, and avoiding any hint of dainty little "elfin" flower-fairies . Tolkien insisted on

620-417: A story of renunciation. He writes that Tolkien had lived through two world wars , the "routine bombardment " of civilians, the use of famine for political gain, concentration camps and genocide , and the development and use of chemical and nuclear weapons . Shippey states that the book raises the question of whether, if the ability of humans to produce that kind of evil could somehow be destroyed, even at

744-523: A strong connection between things, people, and language, "especially if the person who spoke the language lived on the thing." He notes that the effect of language appears again and again in The Lord of the Rings , such as when the hobbits hear the Elf Gildor singing and find that the blended sound and melody "seemed to shape itself in their thought"; when everyone at the Council of Elrond quails at

868-500: A variety of games and merchandise inspired by The Lord of the Rings . Harad is a large land in the south of Middle-earth , bordered to the north by (from west to east) the lands of Gondor , Mordor , Khand and Rhûn. Historically the border with Gondor was to be the river Harnen, but by the time of the War of the Ring all the land further north to the river Poros is under the influence of

992-695: A vassal of Gondor. By the time of the War of the Ring, the Haradrim are again under the dominion of Sauron, and the Haradrim Corsairs provide the whole of his Black Fleet; many other Haradrim join his armies, some riding mûmakil . In the Battle of the Pelennor Fields , the leader of the Haradrim army is killed by King Théoden of Rohan . Tolkien did not work out any particular languages for

1116-545: A world of Wizards and Elves, Dwarves, Rings of Power , Hobbits, Orcs, Trolls and Ringwraiths , and heroic Men with Elvish blood in their veins, and follow their history through long ages, provided that at the end he tore it all down again, leaving nothing, once again, but dim memories. By the end of The Lord of the Rings , the reader has learnt that the Elves have left for the Uttermost West, never to return, and that

1240-513: A world unknown even to the godlike Valar . Men are one of the four "free peoples" in the list-poem spoken by the Ent Treebeard ; the others being Elves, Dwarves , and Ents. Hobbits , not included on that list, were a branch of the lineage of Men. Hobbits were not known to the Ents, but on meeting Merry and Pippin , Treebeard at once worked that people into the list. The concept of

1364-598: Is Frodo's willing offer of the Ring to Gandalf, Aragorn, and Galadriel, and their willing refusal of it, not to mention Frodo's final inability to summon the will to destroy it. Thus, both will and fate play out throughout the story: from Sam's vision of old Gaffer Gamgee's wheelbarrow and the Scouring of the Shire in the Mirror of Galadriel, to Arwen Evenstar's choice of mortality. Peter Kreeft notes that divine providence, in

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1488-616: Is a courageous rejection of power and glory and personal renown. Courage in the face of overwhelming odds is a recurring theme. Tolkien stated in The Monsters and the Critics that he was inspired by the apocalyptic Norse legend of Ragnarök , where the gods know that they are doomed in their final battle for the world, but go to fight anyway. Frodo and Sam share this " northern courage ", knowing they have little prospect of returning home from their mission to Mount Doom. A major theme

1612-497: Is a mythology where even the gods can die, and it leaves the reader with a vivid sense of life's cycles, with an awareness that everything comes to an end, that, though [the evil] Sauron may go, the elves will fade as well." This fits with Tolkien's equation of Middle-earth with the real Earth at some distant epoch in the past, and with his apparent intention to create a mythology for England . He could combine medieval myths and legends, hints from poems and nearly-forgotten names to build

1736-707: Is absolutely central" to Middle-earth, and that readers and filmgoers will easily see that. From there, she notes that the "recurring accusations in the popular media" of a racist view of the story are "interesting". She quotes the Swedish cultural studies scholar David Tjeder who described Gollum 's account of the men of Harad ("Not nice; very cruel wicked Men they look. Almost as bad as Orcs , and much bigger." ) in Aftonbladet as "stereotypical and reflective of colonial attitudes". She argues instead that Gollum's view, with its "arbitrary and stereotypical assumptions about

1860-461: Is armed with a sword and has a corslet of brazen scales. Their standards are scarlet, and their great beasts, the mûmakil , have scarlet and gold trappings. They carry round spiked shields, painted yellow and black. Their leaders have a serpent emblem. The people of Far Harad were black-skinned; a group of them is described as "black men like half- trolls with white eyes and red tongues" and "troll-men". The Haradrim are independent peoples, but in

1984-499: Is at variance with the hopeful tone of the rest of the work, remaining cheerful even in the face of apparently insuperable odds. Kocher writes that the Rings of Power reflected the characteristics of the race that was to wear them. Those for Men "stimulated and implemented their ambition for power". Whereas the tough Dwarves resisted Sauron's domination, and the Elves hid their Rings from him, with Men his plan "works perfectly", turning

2108-564: Is both evil and addictive . Tolkien uses the two Men in the Fellowship created to destroy the Ring , Aragorn and the warrior Boromir , to show the effects of opposite reactions to that temptation. It becomes clear that, except for Men, all the peoples of Middle-earth are dwindling and fading : the Elves are leaving, and the Ents are childless. By the Fourth Age, Middle-earth is peopled with Men, and indeed Tolkien intended it to represent

2232-620: Is done". Just as Christ ascends to heaven , Frodo's life in Middle-earth comes to an end when he departs to the Undying Lands . The motif of hope is illustrated in Aragorn's successful handling of Saruman's seeing-stone or palantír . Aragorn is given the very name of "Hope" ( Sindarin "Estel"), by which he is still affectionately called by his queen, Arwen, who at the hour of his death cries out "Estel, Estel!". Only Aragorn, as

2356-592: Is evil exactly because he seeks to dominate the wills of others; the Ringwraiths, the nine fallen kings of Men, are the clearest exemplars of the process. Kocher states that the leading Man in The Lord of the Rings is Aragorn, though critics often overlooked him in favour of Frodo as protagonist . Aragorn is one of two Men in the Fellowship of the Ring , the nine walkers from the Free Peoples opposed to

2480-891: Is hellish, while Harad in the extreme South "regresses into hot savagery". Peter Jackson , in his The Lord of the Rings film trilogy , clothes the Haradrim in long red robes and turbans , and has them riding their elephants, giving them the look in Ibata's opinion of "North African or Middle Eastern tribesmen". Ibata notes that the film companion book, The Lord of the Rings: Creatures , describes them as "exotic outlanders" inspired by "12th century Saracen warriors". Jackson's Easterling soldiers are covered in armour, revealing only their "coal-black eyes" through their helmet's eye-slits. Ibata comments that they look Asian, their headgear recalling both Samurai helmets and conical "Coolie" hats. The Tolkien scholar Deborah C. Rogers compares

2604-436: Is in them. Shippey writes that Tolkien frequently comes close to what the critic John Ruskin called the pathetic fallacy , the idea that things in nature can express human emotion and conduct. However, he states, the literary theorist Northrop Frye more accurately named the function of such passages as hinting at higher literary modes . In his Anatomy of Criticism , Frye classified literature as ranging from "Ironic" at

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2728-405: Is not entirely made up." Tolkien was a professional philologist , with a deep understanding of language and etymology , the origins of words. He found a resonance with the ancient myth of the "true language", "isomorphic with reality": in that language, each word names a thing and each thing has a true name , and using that name gives the speaker power over that thing. This is seen directly in

2852-648: Is possible but only temporary. She gives multiple examples of elegiac moments in the book, such as that Bilbo is never again seen in Hobbiton, that Aragorn "came never again as living man" to Lothlórien , or that Boromir, carried down the Anduin in his funeral boat , "was not seen again in Minas Tirith, standing as he used to stand upon the White Tower in the morning". Since he was dead, Hannon writes, this

2976-584: Is probably not to be taken at face value. In a world with other intelligent and cultured races, Men in Middle-earth interact with each other and with the other races in a complex history, narrated mainly in The Silmarillion . Men are in general friendly with the other free peoples, especially Elves; they are implacable enemies of the enslaved peoples, especially Orcs . In the First Age, Men,

3100-785: Is seen in Saruman 's character and in his name: the Old English searu , or in the Old Mercian dialect saru , means "skilful, ingenious". It is associated in Beowulf with smithcraft , as in the phrase " searonet seowed, smiþes orþancum ", " ingenious-net woven, by a smith's cunning": perfect for "a cunning man", a wizard. Saruman's city of Isengard has been described as an "industrial hell ", and his "wanton destruction" of Middle-earth's trees to fuel his industrial machines as revealing his "evil ways". The chapter " The Scouring of

3224-409: Is strong enough. Aragorn replies gracefully to the tactless suggestion. Kocher comments that by being both bold and tactful, Aragorn has won all that he wanted from Boromir: the sword is genuine, as is Aragorn's claim to own it, and he has been invited back to Gondor. The Fellowship set off, temporarily united; when they reach Parth Galen , Boromir tries to seize the Ring from Frodo, causing Frodo to use

3348-407: Is that anyone can make a difference"; they call this one of Tolkien's main themes. Tolkien contrasted courage through loyal service with arrogant desire for glory. While Sam follows Frodo out of loyalty and would die for him, Boromir is driven by pride in his desire for the Ring, and would risk the lives of others for his personal glory. Likewise the refusal of the ring by Sam, Faramir, and Galadriel

3472-632: Is the base of the Corsairs of Umbar, inspired by the Barbary pirates , who provide the Dark Lord Sauron with a sizeable fleet. The ships are different types of galleys , with both oars and sails; some are named as dromunds , others as having a deep draught (requiring a deep channel), many oars, and black sails. Elsewhere in Harad there are "many towns"; one of these is "the inland city",

3596-531: Is the corrupting influence of the One Ring through the power it offers, especially to those already powerful. Tom Shippey notes Gandalf 's statements about the corrupting influence the Ring has on its bearers. The powerful Gandalf, Elrond , Galadriel , Aragorn and Faramir all reject it, believing that it would overpower them. The Hobbits Frodo and Sam , much less ambitious for power, are less susceptible but not totally immune to its effects, as can be seen in

3720-597: Is the opposite of hobbitish: tall, not provincial, untroubled by the discomforts of the wild. At the start, in Bree, he appears as a Ranger of the North, a weatherbeaten man named Strider. Gradually the reader discovers he is heir to the throne of Gondor , engaged to be married to Arwen , an Elf-woman. Equipped with a named magical sword , he emerges as an unqualified hero , in Frye's "High Mimetic" or "Romantic" literary mode, making

3844-914: Is the second race of beings, the "younger children", created by the One God , Ilúvatar . Because they awoke in the First Age at the start of the Years of the Sun , long after the Elves , the Elves called them the "afterborn", or in Quenya the Atani , the "Second People". Like Elves, Men first awoke in the East of Middle-earth , spreading all over the continent and developing a variety of cultures and ethnicities. Unlike Tolkien's Elves, Men are mortal; when they die, they depart to

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3968-468: Is to us as a memory brought over the hills, an echo of an echo. Tolkien's environmentalism and his criticism of technology has been observed by several authors. Anne Pienciak notes that technology is only employed by the forces of evil in Tolkien's works, and that he found it to be one of "the evils of the modern world: ugliness, depersonalization, and the separation of man from nature". This technophilia

4092-615: The Edain , lived in Beleriand on the extreme West of Middle-earth. They form an alliance with the Elves and join a disastrous war against the first Dark Lord, Morgoth , which destroys Beleriand. As a reward for fighting in the war, the creator, Eru Iluvatar , gives the Edain the new island of Númenor as their home. The key difference between Men and Elves now becomes central to the story: Elves are immortal , and return to Valinor , home of

4216-673: The Lament of the Rohirrim . The Lord of the Rings presents a sharp polarity between good and evil . Orcs, the most maligned of races, are in one interpretation a corruption of the mystically exalted race of the Elves. Minas Morgul , the Tower of Sorcery, home of the Lord of the Nazgûl , the most corrupted King of Men, directly opposes Minas Tirith , the Tower of Guard and the capital of Gondor ,

4340-677: The Second Age they are caught between the ambitions of Sauron (the Dark Lord) and the Númenóreans , who often kill Haradrim or sell them as slaves, and who become rulers of Harad. Over the centuries many Haradrim fall under Sauron's dominion, and to "them Sauron was both king and god, and they feared him exceedingly". They become mixed with Númenórean settlers, some of whom fall under the sway of Sauron as "Black Númenóreans". Under King Hyarmendacil I "South-victor" of Gondor, Harad becomes

4464-490: The "petty villain", Bill Ferny ; the "loathsome" Grima Wormtongue ; the "slow-thinking" publican Barliman Butterbur of Bree ; "that portrait of damnation", Denethor , Steward of Gondor ; and at the upper end of the scale, the kingly Théoden , brought back to life from Wormtongue's corruption; the "gentle warrior" Faramir and his brother the hero-villain Boromir; and finally the ranger Aragorn, who becomes king. Aragorn

4588-480: The "recurring accusations in the popular media" of a racist view of the story are "interesting". Straubhaar quotes the Swedish cultural studies scholar David Tjeder who described Gollum's account of the men of Harad ("Not nice; very cruel wicked Men they look. Almost as bad as Orcs , and much bigger." ) in Aftonbladet as "stereotypical and reflective of colonial attitudes". She argues instead that Gollum's view, with its "arbitrary and stereotypical assumptions about

4712-432: The ' Other '", is absurd, and that Gollum cannot be taken as an authority on Tolkien's opinion. Straubhaar contrasts this with Sam Gamgee 's more humane response to the sight of a dead Harad warrior, which she finds "harder to find fault with": "He was glad that he could not see the dead face. He wondered what the man's name was and where he came from; and if he was really evil of heart, or what lies or threats had led him on

4836-433: The 'Other'", is absurd, and that Gollum cannot be taken as an authority on Tolkien's opinion. Straubhaar contrasts this with Sam Gamgee 's more humane response to the sight of a dead Harad warrior, which she finds "harder to find fault with": He was glad that he could not see the dead face. He wondered what the man's name was and where he came from; and if he was really evil of heart, or what lies or threats had led him on

4960-699: The Black Númenóreans, good men gone wrong; and the Corsairs of Umbar , rebels of Gondor. Sandra Ballif Straubhaar notes in The J. R. R. Tolkien Encyclopedia that Faramir , son of the Steward of Gondor , makes an "arrogant" speech, of which he later "has cause to repent", classifying the types of Men as seen by the Men of Númenórean origin at the end of the Third Age ; she notes, too, that his taxonomy

5084-707: The Common Speech was not modern English but Westron. Therefore, the dialogue and names written in modern English were, in the fiction, translations from the Westron, and the language and placenames of Rohan was similarly supposedly translated from Rohirric into Old English; therefore, too, the dwarf-names written in Old Norse must have been translated from Khuzdul into Old Norse. Thus the linguistic geography of Middle-earth grew from Tolkien's purely philological or linguistic explorations. In addition, Tolkien invested

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5208-420: The Critics , suggesting that he was seeking to produce something of the same effect: For it is now to us itself ancient; and yet its maker was telling of things already old and weighted with regret, and he expended his art in making keen that touch upon the heart which sorrows have that are both poignant and remote. If the funeral of Beowulf moved once like the echo of an ancient dirge, far-off and hopeless, it

5332-546: The Haradrim on ancient Aethiopians , people of Sub-Saharan Africa , following his philological research on the Old English word Sigelwara . He deduced that this word referred to some kind of soot-black fire demon before it was applied to the Aethiopians. He based the Haradrim's use of war elephants , meanwhile, on that of Pyrrhus of Epirus in his war against Ancient Rome . Critics have debated whether Tolkien

5456-499: The Haradrim, though mûmak , "elephant", may be in the Harad language. Despite having a meaning in Quenya ("fate"), the name Umbar is adapted from the natives' language and not from Elvish or Adûnaic . Tolkien arrived at the idea of Harad, a hot Southern land, through his philological work. The Old English Biblical poem Exodus in the tenth-century Codex Junius 11 includes a passage that caught Tolkien's attention: Tolkien

5580-671: The Haradrim. The border with Mordor runs along the southern Mountains of Shadow . Harad's west coast (the nearest to Gondor) is washed by the Great Sea, the western ocean of Middle-earth . Harad's eastern shores looks out on the Eastern Sea, Middle-earth's eastern ocean. The elves named the land and its people Haradwaith , "South-folk", from the Sindarin harad , meaning "south", and gwaith , meaning "people". The Quenya word Hyarmen similarly means "south" in addition to being

5704-460: The Men of The Lord of the Rings with the Hobbits . She notes that the Hobbits are to an extent the low, simple, earthbound "clods" of the story who like beer and comfort and do not wish to go on adventures; they fit the antihero of modern literature and Northrop Frye 's lower literary modes including various forms of humour. In contrast, Tolkien's Men are not all of a piece: Rogers mentions

5828-525: The Old English version by Ælfric of the Book of Maccabees , which carefully introduces elephants to its Anglo-Saxon audience, using much the same phrase as Sam Gamgee, " māre þonne sum hūs ", "bigger than a house", before describing their use in battle; the hero stabs the elephant, which is carrying a " wīghūs ", a " battle-house ", from below. Tolkien however mentioned Pyrrhus of Epirus 's use of war elephants against Ancient Rome in 280–275 BC in his notes for

5952-518: The Past ", Gandalf discusses the possibility that Bilbo was meant to find the Ring, and that Gollum has an important part to play, the clearest testament to the role of fate in The Lord of the Rings . Beyond Gandalf's words, the story is structured in such a way that past decisions have a critical influence on current events. For instance, because Bilbo and Frodo spared Gollum, Gollum was able to destroy

6076-458: The Ring by falling into the Cracks of Doom while Frodo failed to destroy it. Thus Frodo, who is overpowered by the evil Ring, is saved by what seems to be luck. The role of fate in The Lord of the Rings is contrasted sharply with the prominent role also given to personal choice and will. Frodo's voluntary choice to bear the Ring to Mordor is central to the plot of the whole story. Also important

6200-441: The Ring to escape; the Fellowship is scattered. Orcs attack, seeking the Ring; Boromir repents, and dies trying to save the Hobbits, an act which redeems him. Aragorn gives Boromir an honourable boat-funeral . The quest eventually succeeds, and Aragorn, growing in strength through many perils and wise decisions is crowned King. Boromir gave in to the temptation of power, and fell; Aragorn responded rightfully, and rose. The status of

6324-516: The Rings was death and the human desire to escape it. The theme, which recurs throughout the work, is sharply visible in an appendix, " The Tale of Aragorn and Arwen ", in which the immortal Elf Arwen chooses mortality so that she can marry the mortal Man Aragorn . The result, as with the earlier intermarriage of their ancestors Lúthien and Beren in the First Age in Beleriand, was to make Aragorn's line exceptionally long-lived among Men, and as

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6448-408: The Rings is a story of loss and longing, punctuated by moments of humor and terror and heroic action but on the whole a lament for a world—albeit a fictional world—that has passed even as we seem to catch a last glimpse of it flickering and fading... In Hannon's view, Tolkien meant to show that beauty and joy fail and disappear before the passage of time and the onslaught of the powers of evil; victory

6572-462: The Rohirrim in Rohirric (the language of Rohan ), which Legolas does not understand: That, I guess, is the language of the Rohirrim, for it is like to this land itself, rich and rolling in part, and else hard and stern as the mountains. But I cannot guess what it means, save that it is laden with the sadness of Mortal Men. Shippey states that Tolkien liked to suppose that there really was such

6696-482: The Shire " sees the industrial technology imported by Saruman's minions as an evil threat to the natural environment, replacing the traditional crafts of the Shire hobbits with noisy polluting mills full of machinery. Andrew O'Hehir wrote in Salon that the hobbits' homeland, the Shire, was inspired by the "woods and hills" near Sarehole . Tolkien lived there during his childhood, and was horrified decades later to find

6820-450: The South. Magoun explains that Gondor is both virtuous, being West, and has problems, being South; Mordor in the Southeast is hellish, while Harad in the extreme South "regresses into hot savagery". Solopova argues that the Haradrim's mûmakil war elephants put their country far to the East, since only India and lands to its east went on using war elephants after classical times. She and Stuart D. Lee mention that Tolkien could have used

6944-422: The West". Arnor becomes fragmented, and declines until its kings become Rangers in the wilds, but they retain their memory of Númenor or "Westernesse", through many generations down to Aragorn , a protagonist in The Lord of the Rings . The line of kings in Gondor eventually dies out, and the country is ruled by Stewards , the throne empty, until Aragorn returns. Tolkien stated that the core theme of The Lord of

7068-417: The Western European "paradigm" that speakers of supposedly superior languages were "ethnically superior". In Peter Jackson 's film The Two Towers , the Haradrim appear Middle Eastern , with turbans, flowing robes, and riding mûmakil . A companion book on the film's "Creatures" states that the Haradrim were based on 12th century Saracens . The battle scene in Ithilien between the rangers of Gondor and

7192-601: The White", as a symbol of the resurrection of Christ. Like Jesus who carried his cross for the sins of mankind, Frodo carried a burden of evil on behalf of the whole world. Frodo walks his " Via Dolorosa " to Mount Doom just like Jesus who made his way to Golgotha . As Frodo approaches the Cracks of Doom, the Ring becomes a crushing weight, just as the cross was for Jesus. Sam Gamgee , Frodo's servant, who carries Frodo up to Mount Doom, parallels Simon of Cyrene , who helps Jesus by carrying his cross to Golgotha . When Frodo accomplishes his mission, like Christ, he says "it

7316-462: The ambitious kings into Ringwraiths , the nine Black Riders. With the One Ring to rule them, Sauron gains complete control over them, and they become his most powerful servants. Kocher comments that for Tolkien, the exercise of personal free will , the most precious gift, is "the distinguishing mark of his individuality". The wise, like the Wizard Gandalf and the Elf-queen Galadriel , therefore avoid putting pressure on anybody. In contrast, Sauron

7440-584: The area urbanised. O'Hehir notes that Mordor is characterised by "its slag heaps, its permanent pall of smoke, its slave-driven industries", and that Saruman is depicted as an ideological representative of technological utopianism , who forcibly industrialises the Shire. O'Hehir calls the novel a lament over the impact of the Industrial Revolution and the environmental degradation of England's formerly " green and pleasant land ". In this, in O'Hehir's view, Tolkien's sentiments are like those of Thomas Hardy , D. H. Lawrence , and William Blake . Tolkien explores

7564-605: The book carries a Christian message, and that Tolkien was consistently anti-racist in his private correspondence. The first accusation is that there are no significant female characters; or that there are few; or that their roles are tightly constrained. Against this, Wood writes that Galadriel, Éowyn , and Arwen are far from being "plaster figures": Galadriel is powerful, wise and "terrible in her beauty"; Éowyn has "extraordinary courage and valor"; and Arwen gives up her Elvish immortality to marry Aragorn. Further, Wood argues, Tolkien insists that everyone, man and woman alike, face

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7688-404: The central theme is death and immortality. In addition, some modern commentators have criticised Tolkien for supposed failings in The Lord of the Rings , such as not including significant women, not being relevant to city-dwellers, not overtly showing any religion, and for racism , though others have defended Tolkien against all these charges. The Tolkien critic Richard C. West writes that

7812-647: The changes it works in Frodo, Bilbo and Gollum. On the other hand, Boromir becomes murderously obsessed with the Ring, but never possesses it, while Sméagol kills his friend Déagol , the first Ringbearer after Isildur , to obtain it. The corrupting effect of power is, according to Shippey, a modern theme, since in earlier times, power was considered to "reveal character", not alter it. Shippey quotes Lord Acton 's 1887 statement: Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men Critics have argued that this theme can be found as far back as Plato 's The Republic , where

7936-456: The character Tom Bombadil , who can name anything, and that name then becomes that thing's name ever after; Shippey notes that this happens with the names he gives to the hobbits' ponies. This belief, Shippey states, animated Tolkien's insistence on what he considered to be the ancient, traditional, and genuine forms of words. A modern English word like loaf, deriving directly from Old English hlāf , has its plural form in 'v', "loaves", whereas

8060-469: The character Glaucon argued that doing justice to others is never to one's benefit; he cited the mythical Ring of Gyges , which could make any man who wore it invisible and thus able to get away with theft or other crime. Glaucon claimed that such power would corrupt any man, and that therefore no man truly believes that acting justly toward others is good for him. Colin Manlove criticises Tolkien's attitude towards power as inconsistent, with exceptions to

8184-514: The core theme of The Lord of the Rings is death and the human desire to escape it: But I should say, if asked, the tale is not really about Power and Dominion: that only sets the wheels going; it is about Death and the desire for deathlessness. Which is hardly more than to say it is a tale written by a Man! He commented further: It is mainly concerned with Death, and Immortality; and the 'escapes': serial longevity, and hoarding memory. An appendix tells The Tale of Aragorn and Arwen , in which

8308-476: The cost of sacrificing something, this would be worth doing. "No careful reader of Tolkien's fiction can fail to be aware of the polarities that give it form and fiction," writes Verlyn Flieger . Tolkien's extensive use of duality and parallelism, contrast and opposition is found throughout the novel, in pairings such as hope and despair, knowledge and enlightenment, death and immortality, fate and free will, good and evil. Tolkien stated in his Letters that

8432-429: The creation: in the realm of fire, Muspell , the jötunn Surt was even then awaiting the end of the world. Burns comments that "Here is a mythology where even the gods can die, and it leaves the reader with a vivid sense of life's cycles, with an awareness that everything comes to an end, that, though [the evil] Sauron may go, the elves will fade as well." Patrice Hannon, also in Mythlore , states that: The Lord of

8556-406: The danger of power , and various aspects of Christianity such as the presence of three Christ figures, for prophet, priest, and king , as well as elements like hope and redemptive suffering. There is also a strong thread throughout the work of language , its sound, and its relationship to peoples and places, along with moralisation from descriptions of landscape. Out of these, Tolkien stated that

8680-421: The early stages, as with Bilbo and Sam, the addiction can be shaken off easily enough, while for those who are not yet addicted, as with Aragorn and indeed others like Galadriel and Faramir, its pull is like any other temptation. What Gandalf could not do to Frodo, Shippey writes, is make him want to hand the Ring over. And for the owner of the Ring, the destructive aspect is the urge to use it, no matter how good

8804-498: The example of Leaf by Niggle , and that there is meant to be some relationship between his fiction and fact. He notes, too, that Tolkien deliberately "approach[ed] to the edge of Christian reference" by placing the destruction of the Ring and the fall of Sauron on 25 March, the traditional Anglo-Saxon date of the crucifixion of Christ and of the annunciation , and of the last day of the Genesis creation . Other commentators have noted further echoes of Christian themes, including

8928-658: The expensive reversion of all such typographical "corrections" at the galley proof stage. Tolkien devoted enormous effort to place-names, for example making those in The Shire such as Nobottle, Bucklebury, and Tuckborough obviously English in sound and by etymology. Shippey comments that even though many of these names do not enter the book's plot, they contribute a feeling of reality and depth, giving "Middle-earth that air of solidity and extent both in space and time which its successors [in fantasy literature] so conspicuously lack." Tolkien wrote in one of his letters that his work

9052-482: The extent and nature of Tolkien's moralisations from landscape" in the many passages where he ambiguously writes about landscape, such as Frodo's reflections on the Dead Marshes : They lie in all the pools, pale faces deep deep under the dark water, I saw them: grim faces and evil, and noble faces and sad. Many faces proud and fair, and weeds in their silver hair. But all foul, all rotting, all dead. A fell light

9176-575: The figure of Jesus Christ in three protagonists of The Lord of the Rings : Gandalf, Frodo and Aragorn. While Chausse found "facets of the personality of Jesus" in them, Kreeft wrote that "they exemplify the Old Testament threefold Messianic symbolism of prophet (Gandalf), priest (Frodo), and king (Aragorn)". Several commentators have seen Gandalf's passage through the Mines of Moria, dying to save his companions and returning as "Gandalf

9300-788: The form of the will of the Valar , expressing the will of Eru Ilúvatar , can determine fate. Gandalf says, for example, that a hidden power was at work when Bilbo found the One Ring as it was attempting to return to its master. The Tolkien scholar Marjorie Burns notes in Mythlore that the book's "sense of inevitable disintegration" is borrowed from the Nordic world view which emphasises "imminent or threatening destruction". She writes that in Norse mythology , this process seemed to have started during

9424-559: The free peoples is shared by Elrond . The Tolkien scholar Paul H. Kocher writes that, in the style of the medieval Great Chain of Being , this list places Men and the other speaking peoples higher than the beasts, birds, and reptiles which he lists next. "Man the mortal, master of horses" is listed last among the free peoples, who were created separately. Although all Men in Tolkien's legendarium are related to one another, there are many different groups with different cultures. Those on

9548-488: The friendly races has been debated by critics. David Ibata, writing in The Chicago Tribune , asserts that the protagonists in The Lord of the Rings all have fair skin, and they are mainly blond-haired and blue-eyed as well. Ibata suggests that having the "good guys" white and their opponents of other races, in both book and film, is uncomfortably close to racism. The theologian Fleming Rutledge states that

9672-406: The gentle warrior Faramir and the genuinely heroic Aragorn ; Tolkien had wanted to create a heroic romance suitable for the modern age. Scholars have identified real-world analogues for each of the varied races of Men, whether from medieval times or classical antiquity . The weakness of Men, The Lord of the Rings asserts, is the desire for power; the One Ring promises enormous power, but

9796-400: The godlike Valar , when they become weary of Middle-earth, or are killed in battle. Men, however, are mortal. Morgoth's servant, Sauron , tempts the Men of Númenor to attack Valinor, in their search for immortality: Sauron has falsely insinuated that Men can become immortal just by being in that place. The Men and Númenor are destroyed: the island is drowned, Atlantis -like, beneath the waves;

9920-679: The heir of Isildur, can rightfully use the palantír, while Saruman and Denethor, who have both also made extensive use of palantírs, have fallen into presumption or despair. These latter traits have been identified as the two distinct sins "against the virtue of Hope". A specifically Catholic theme is the redemptive and penitential nature of suffering , apparent in the dreadful ordeal of Sam and Frodo in Mordor. As another example, Boromir atones for his assault on Frodo by single-handedly but vainly defending Merry and Pippin from orcs, which illustrates also another significant Christian theme: immortality of

10044-403: The hero is not seeking a treasure, but is hoping to destroy one. He notes that from Sauron's point of view, the tale is indeed a quest, and his evil Black Riders replace the traditional " errant knights seeking the holy of holies", while the Fellowship keeping the Ring from him cannot use it: thus there are multiple reversals. The Tolkien critic Tom Shippey concurs that it is "an anti-quest",

10168-407: The hobbits' name for Harad, Sunland , suggests a similar link. The Germanic studies scholar Sandra Ballif Straubhaar notes that it is not clear whether Tolkien meant the Haradrim to be grouped with his "Wild Men", though he named them as ancient enemies of Gondor. They are " ethnic others but not as ugly", they have a rich culture and well-trained elephants. The exception would be, she suggests,

10292-546: The home of Queen Berúthiel (mentioned by Tolkien in an interview). The Harad Road is the main overland route between Gondor and Harad. Harad possesses jungles with apes, grasslands, and deserts. Gondor described Harad as consisting of Near Harad and Far Harad. Near Harad corresponds loosely with North Africa or the Maghreb , while Far Harad, the vastly larger of the two regions, corresponds loosely with sub-Saharan Africa . Tolkien's own annotated map of Middle-earth, used by

10416-585: The illustrator Pauline Baynes to construct her iconic map, suggests that "Elephants appear in the great battle outside Minas Tirith (as they did in Italy under Pyrrhus ) but they would be in place in the blank squares of Harad – also camels." The Men of Harad are called Haradrim ("South-multitude"), Haradwaith , or Southrons by the people of Gondor. The Haradrim are of various ethnicities and cultures; some are organized into kingdoms. Frodo and Sam meet Faramir and his Rangers of Ithilien just before

10540-522: The illustrator Pauline Baynes . Commentators such as Anderson Rearick and Stephen Shapiro have identified the Haradrim as a recognisably foreign race as well as the enemy, and have accused Tolkien of racism. Conversely, scholars such as Straubhaar have come to Tolkien's defence on the matter, noting that during the Second World War Tolkien expressed an anti-racist position. Straubhaar writes that "a polycultured, polylingual world

10664-511: The immortal elf Arwen chooses mortality so that she can marry the mortal man Aragorn . After more than two hundred years of life, Aragorn chooses the time of his death, leaving behind a heartbroken and now-mortal Arwen. She travels to the faded remains of Lothlórien, where she was once blissfully happy, to die on the green hill of Cerin Amroth . This theme recurs throughout the book, and in specific sayings and poems such as Gilraen 's linnod and

10788-438: The intentions of the owner might be at the start. Tolkien stated in the foreword to the second edition of The Lord of the Rings that "it is neither allegorical nor topical ... I cordially dislike allegory in all its manifestations ... I much prefer history, true or feigned, with its varied applicability to the thought and experience of readers." Shippey comments that Tolkien certainly did sometimes write allegories, giving

10912-426: The last visible remnant of the ancient kingdom of Men in the Third Age . Mordor , the land of the Dark Lord Sauron , is opposed to Gondor and to all free peoples. These antitheses, though pronounced and prolific, are sometimes considered to be too polarizing, but they have also been argued to be at the heart of the structure of the entire story. Tolkien's technique has been seen to "confer literality on what would in

11036-461: The latter ambush a company of Haradrim on the North Road. Frodo and Sam do not see much of the battle, since they are positioned elsewhere, but they hear the sounds of fighting, and a slain Haradrim warrior crashes at their feet. This warrior is described as having "brown" skin, with black plaits of hair braided with gold. He wears a scarlet tunic , as do the other Haradrim, and a gold collar. He

11160-705: The leader of the Drúedain, Ghân-buri-Ghân, is treated as a noble savage . Michael N. Stanton writes in The J. R. R. Tolkien Encyclopedia that Hobbits were "a distinctive form of human beings", and notes that their speech contains "vestigial elements" which hint that they originated in the North of Middle-earth. The scholar Margaret Sinex states that Tolkiens' construction of the Easterlings and Southrons draws on centuries of Christian tradition of creating an "imaginary Saracen". Zakarya Anwar judges that while Tolkien himself

11284-500: The long march from his home. Haradrim In J. R. R. Tolkien 's high fantasy The Lord of the Rings , Harad is the immense land south of Gondor and Mordor . Its main port is Umbar , the base of the Corsairs of Umbar whose ships serve as the Dark Lord Sauron 's fleet. Its people are the dark-skinned Haradrim or Southrons; their warriors wear scarlet and gold, and are armed with swords and round shields; some ride gigantic elephants called mûmakil . Tolkien based

11408-699: The long march from his home." Straubhaar quotes Shapiro, who wrote in The Scotsman that "Put simply, Tolkien's good guys are white and the bad guys are black, slant-eyed, unattractive, inarticulate, and a psychologically undeveloped horde". Straubhaar concedes that Shapiro may have had a point with "slant-eyed", but comments that this was milder than that of many of his contemporary novelists such as John Buchan , and notes that Tolkien had in fact made "appalled objection" when people had misapplied his story to current events. She similarly observes that Tjeder had failed to notice Tolkien's "concerted effort" to change

11532-468: The lowest, via "Low Mimetic" (such as humorous descriptions), "High Mimetic" (accurate descriptions), and "Romantic" (idealised accounts) to "Mythic" as the highest mode; and modern literature is generally at a lower level than literature of past centuries. In Shippey's view, most of The Lord of the Rings is in Romantic mode, with occasional touches of myth , and moments of high and low mimesis to relieve

11656-467: The men of Far [Southern] Harad whom the people of Gondor saw as "black men like half-trolls with white eyes and red tongues". With his "Southrons" from Harad, Tolkien had – in the view of John Magoun, writing in The J. R. R. Tolkien Encyclopedia – constructed a "fully expressed moral geography", from the hobbits' home in the Northwest, evil in the East, and "imperial sophistication and decadence" in

11780-686: The men of Harad was shot at the Twelve Mile Delta near Queenstown , New Zealand . The Haradrim and the Corsairs of Umbar appear in merchandise for the film trilogy, such as toys, The Lord of the Rings Trading Card Game , and the computer game The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth II . "Haradrim Slayers" feature in the computer game The Lord of the Rings: War of the Ring , while in

11904-435: The mood; and Tolkien's ability to present multiple modes at once is a major reason for his success. The Lord of the Rings has repeatedly been attacked, as scholars such as Ralph Wood write, on the grounds that it is a story about men for boys, with no significant women, that it omits religion from its societies, and that it appears to be racist. Against this, scholars have noted that women do play significant roles, that

12028-464: The name of the country. The hobbits called the area the Sunlands , and the people Swertings . Aragorn briefly describes his journeys in the land as being in "Harad where the stars are strange". Tolkien confirmed that this meant that Aragorn had travelled "some distance into the southern hemisphere " in Harad. The great harbour city of Umbar lies on Harad's north-west coast; its natural harbour

12152-649: The nine Black Riders. The other is Boromir , elder son of the Steward of Gondor, and the two Men are sharply opposed. Both are ambitious, and both intend one day to rule Gondor. Boromir means to fight valiantly, to save Gondor, with any help he can get, and to inherit the Stewardship. Aragorn knows he is in the line of kings by his ancestry, but he is unknown in Gondor. When they meet at the Council of Elrond , they dispute who has been holding back Sauron. Aragorn presents

12276-551: The other peoples, Dwarves, Hobbits, Ents and all the rest, are dwindling and fading, leaving only a world of Men. Kocher writes that the furthest look into Man's future in The Lord of the Rings is the conversation between the Elf Legolas and the Dwarf Gimli , close friends, at the moment when they first visit Minas Tirith , the capital city of the Men of Gondor, "and see the marks of decay around them". Gimli says that

12400-399: The presence of Christ figures, the resurrection, hope, and redemptive suffering. The philosopher Peter Kreeft , like Tolkien a Roman Catholic , observes that there is no one complete, concrete, visible Christ figure in The Lord of the Rings comparable to Aslan in C. S. Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia series. However, Kreeft and Jean Chausse have identified reflections of

12524-412: The primary world be called metaphor and then to illustrate [in his secondary world] the process by which the literal becomes metaphoric". The theologian Fleming Rutledge argues, on the other hand, that Tolkien aims instead to show that no definite line can be drawn between good and evil, because "'good' people can be and are capable of evil under certain circumstances". In the chapter " The Shadow of

12648-536: The question by analysing the two parts of the word. Sigel meant, according to Tolkien, "both sun and jewel ", the former as it was the Old English name of the Sun rune , Proto-Germanic : *sowilō (ᛋ), the latter connotation from Latin sigillum , a seal . Tolkien decided that Hearwa was related to the Old English heorð , meaning " hearth ", and ultimately to the Latin carbo , meaning "soot". The resulting meaning for Sigelhearwan , Tolkien decided tentatively,

12772-474: The real world in the distant past. Commentators have questioned Tolkien's attitude to race, given that good peoples are white and live in the West, while enemies may be dark and live in the East and South. However, others note that Tolkien was strongly anti-racist in real life. The race of Men in J. R. R. Tolkien 's fictional world, in his books The Hobbit , The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion ,

12896-408: The royal family intermarried with other people of Gondor, to maintain or extend the lifespan of the entire race. The overall feeling in The Lord of the Rings , however, despite the victories and Aragorn's long-awaited kingship and marriage, is of decline and fall , echoing the view of Norse mythology that everything will inevitably be destroyed. As the Tolkien scholar Marjorie Burns put it, "Here

13020-417: The same kinds of temptation, hope, and desire. Ann Basso argues in Mythlore that the female characters, including figures like Goldberry , are "diverse, well drawn, and worthy of respect", while Katherine Hasser argues in the J. R. R. Tolkien Encyclopedia that gender roles in the Shire are not sharply separated, as males like Bilbo carry out domestic duties like cooking and cleaning. Wood notes that

13144-576: The shards of the broken sword of his ancestor, Elendil, and asks Boromir if he wants the House of Elendil (the line of kings) to return. Boromir evasively replies that he would welcome the sword. The One Ring is then shown to the Council. Boromir at once thinks of using it himself. Elrond explains how dangerous the Ring is; Boromir reluctantly sets the idea of using it aside for the moment, and suggests again that Elendil's sword might help save Gondor, if Aragorn

13268-839: The side of the hobbits in The Lord of the Rings are the Dúnedain , the men who fought on the side of the Elves in the First Age against Morgoth in Beleriand , from whom other friendly groups, the Rangers including Aragorn , and the men of Gondor are descended; and their allies the Rohirrim . The main human adversaries in The Lord of the Rings are the Haradrim and the Easterlings. The Haradrim or Southrons were hostile to Gondor, and used elephants in war. Tolkien describes them as "swart", meaning "dark-skinned". The Easterlings lived in Rhûn,

13392-406: The soul and the importance of good intention, especially at the point of death. This is clear from Gandalf's statement: "But he [Boromir] escaped in the end.... It was not in vain that the young hobbits came with us, if only for Boromir's sake." Shippey writes that The Lord of the Rings embodies Tolkien's belief that "the word authenticates the thing", or to look at it another way, that "fantasy

13516-553: The sound of Gandalf's voicing the Black Speech in Rivendell ; or when Sam Gamgee responds "I like that!" when the dwarf Gimli sings about the dwarf-King Durin long ago. Tolkien describes the landscapes of Middle-earth realistically, but at the same time uses descriptions of land and weather to convey feelings and a sense of something beyond the here and now. Shippey states that "both characters and readers become aware of

13640-400: The story of The Lord of the Rings is basically simple: the hobbit Frodo Baggins 's quest is to take the Dark Lord Sauron 's Ring to Mount Doom and destroy it. He calls the quest "primary", along with the war against Sauron. The critic David M. Miller agrees that the quest is the "most important narrative device" in the book, but adds that it is reversed from the conventional structure:

13764-480: The supposedly overwhelming influence of the Ring. The Ring can be handed over relatively easily (Sam and Bilbo), and removing the Ring by force (Gollum to Frodo) does not, despite Gandalf's assertion at the beginning of the story, break Frodo's mind. The Ring also appears to have little effect on characters such as Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli . Shippey replies to Manlove's doubt with "one word": addictive . He writes that this sums up Gandalf's whole argument, as in

13888-564: The theme of "the ennoblement of the ignoble". The scholar of English literature Devin Brown links this with the Magnificat 's "He hath put down the mighty from their seats, and exalted them of low degree." He gives as example the humble hobbits who defeat the proud and powerful Sauron. Tolkien's biographers Richard J. Cox and Leslie Jones write that the heroes who destroy the Ring and scour the Shire are "the little guys, literally. The message

14012-553: The vast eastern region of Middle-earth; they fought in the armies of Morgoth and Sauron . Tolkien describes them as "slant-eyed"; they ride horses or wagons, leading to the name "wain-riders". The Variags of Khand formed a third but smaller group, who appear as vassals of Mordor in the Battle of the Pelennor Fields . Their name is from Russian : Варяги ( Variag ), meaning the Varangians , Viking or other Germanic warriors who served as mercenaries . Other human adversaries include

14136-405: The video game Middle-earth: Shadow of War , Baranor, a playable character who is a captain in Gondor's guard, is originally from Harad. Iron Crown Enterprises produced a series of books for their tabletop roleplaying game Middle-earth Role Playing containing information about Harad and content allowing games to be set there. Key publications included the setting books Umbar: Haven of

14260-462: The whole novel indeed a heroic romance : he regains his throne, marries Arwen, and has a long, peaceful, and happy reign. Themes of The Lord of the Rings Scholars and critics have identified many themes of The Lord of the Rings , a major fantasy novel by J. R. R. Tolkien , including a reversed quest , the struggle of good and evil , death and immortality, fate and free will,

14384-434: The work contains no formal religion. Hobbits have no temples or sacrifices, though Frodo can call to Elbereth , one of the Valar , in extremis ; the nearest anyone comes to religion is that the men of Gondor "pause before meals". Wood's answer here is that Tolkien intentionally left religion out of Middle-earth so that "we might see Christianity reflected in it more clearly if also indirectly". He quotes Tolkien's remark in

14508-443: The works of Men always "fail of their promise"; Legolas replies that even if that's so, "seldom do they fail of their seed", in marked contrast to the scarcity of children among Elves and Dwarves, implying that Men will outlast the other races. Gimli suggests again that Men's projects "come to naught in the end but might-have-beens". Legolas just replies "To that the Elves know not the answer". Kocher comments that this "sad little fugue"

14632-520: The world is made round; and Valinor is removed from the world, so that only the Elves can reach it. Sauron's body is destroyed, but his spirit escapes to become the new Dark Lord of Middle-earth. A remnant of the Men of Númenor who remained faithful, under Elendil , sail to Middle-earth, where they found the kingdoms of Arnor in the North and Gondor in the South, remaining known as the Dúnedain, "Men of

14756-483: Was "largely an essay in linguistic aesthetic". He made use of several European languages, ancient and modern, including Old English for the language of Rohan and Old Norse for the names of dwarves (initially in The Hobbit ), and modern English for the Common Speech, creating as the story developed a tricky linguistic puzzle. Among other things, Middle-earth was not modern Europe but that region long ages ago, and

14880-629: Was "rather the sons of Muspell than of Ham ", an ancient class of demons in Northern mythology "with red-hot eyes that emitted sparks and faces black as soot". This was exactly the sort of "stray pagan concept" hinting at England's lost mythology that Tolkien wanted. In drafts of The Lord of the Rings , Tolkien toyed with names such as Harwan and Sunharrowland for Harad, which were derived from Sigelwara ; Christopher Tolkien notes that these are connected to his father's Sigelwara Land . The philologist Elizabeth Solopova similarly notes that

15004-458: Was anti-racist, his fantasy writings can certainly be taken the wrong way. With his different races of Men arranged from good in the West to evil in the East, simple in the North and sophisticated in the South, Tolkien had, in the view of John Magoun, constructed a "fully expressed moral geography ": Gondor is both virtuous, being West, and has problems, being South; Mordor in the Southeast

15128-548: Was hardly surprising; the observation is elegiac, not informational. Even the last line of the final appendix, she notes, has this tone: "The dominion passed long ago, and [the Elves] dwell now beyond the circles of the world, and do not return." Hannon compares this continual emphasis on the elegiac to Tolkien's praise for the Old English poem Beowulf , on which he was an expert, in Beowulf: The Monsters and

15252-452: Was interested in particular in the Old English word used for " Aethiopians ": it was Sigelwara , or in Tolkien's emendation Sigelhearwan . The Tolkien scholar Tom Shippey writes that Tolkien's philological research, described in his essay " Sigelwara Land ", began from the assumption that the word could not originally have meant Aethiopian, but must have been co-opted to that usage having once meant something comparable. Tolkien approached

15376-408: Was racist in making the protagonists white and the antagonists black, but others have noted that Tolkien showed anti- xenophobic sentiments in real life, opposing any attempt to demonise the enemy in both World Wars. In Peter Jackson 's film The Two Towers , the Haradrim were based on 12th century Saracens : they have turbans and flowing robes, and they ride mûmakil . The Haradrim appear in

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