Patriotism and the Lord of the Rings

[Lalwendë]

Some great food for thought here!

Originally Posted by Ibrin

Then again, is "country" an actual place, or a sense of community not dependent on a physical location? I think that for the mortals, a sense of physical place is important, as the land is passed down from generation to generation,

This makes great sense - if you have endless life then there is less 'need' for other kinds of immortality, yet mortals can only achieve anything like immortality by living on in the memory of their descendants. Thus things like passing on their property and land become important (as does having 'sons and heirs', thinking of Henry VIII, or maybe living on through doing great and memorable deeds....or in the modern age, just having a nice body and Max Clifford as your PR guru ). That could be one root of patriotism in Middle-earth and in the real world. I'd never thought of that.

Then you should take into account how settled a people are in their land and as Morthoron says, migrants might feel less connected to their land. The Rohirrim definitely give the impression of being a relatively 'new' and developing culture in Rohan (their wealth is portable, their literature still oral and not in libraries) - so their loyalties are to their people and less so to their land. Maybe this is why they do not challenge Theoden in his madness?

Another thought springs to mind about Hobbits. Their sense of loyalty is much quieter and yet they can be stirred into making a big show of their feelings. Very like the British who believe it or not generally do not like a lot of flag waving and find it ostentatious and mutter about 'jingoism' and the like - sometimes this is put down to the appropriation of the national flag and other symbols by the far right (Billy Bragg wrote about this idea) but it's also down to feeling simply embarrassed However, if the occasion warrants it, the flags and the pitchforks are brought out with gusto!