"Tolkien's Modern Middle Ages"

[Zigûr]

Elmo posted this in the "Who are the 'wild men'?" thread.

Originally Posted by Elmo

The Dunlendings were the indigenous population of the area and the rightful owners of Calenardhon, they were there long before the Numenorians fell out of the sea onto the land. The Rohirrim were a colonial, interloping, land thieving population 'planted' by Gondor on Dunlending territory for military reasons, similar to what the British Empire did in various times and places in history. The Dunlendings were definitely right to be a bit annoyed about this and can hardly be blamed for their hatred of the horse folk, especially as countless of them were cruelly slain by the Rohan's kings like Helm Hammerhand who brutally murdered many of them like Freca.

This reminded me of another remark from Tolkien's Modern Middle Ages:

In the essay "Fear of Difference, Fear of Death: The Sigelwara, Tolkien's Swertings and Racial Difference", Brian McFadden states that "Tolkien was a human being and would have admitted himself to be fallible; his society, also, had not yet become as self-aware or as self-critical with respect to colonialism and racism as it is today. However, one can perceive an awareness of the artificiality of dividing humans into races in Tolkien's work."

This perhaps raises another point for me, as I stated in my original post, that a lot of critical material is "typically heavily The Lord of the Rings-centric". A study of The Silmarillion, the narrative of "Tal-Elmar" published in The Peoples of Middle-earth, The Lost Road and other narratives would open up more definite angles for considering colonial and postcolonial discourse in relation to Professor Tolkien's work. I particularly think that the image of the Númenóreans as island-based seafaring conquerors with increasingly rapacious designs upon the lands they colonise, and whose actions cause lasting damage for centuries to come - as seen in the feuds between Gondor and Umbar, the displacement of the Dunlendings and the like - are quite suggestive for exploring Professor Tolkien's concerns about colonialism.

I note that the Shire itself is described as having been "colonized" and that Buckland is described as "a sort of colony from the Shire." Balin's expedition to Moria is also described as a "colony". The presentation appears to vary, with some "colonies" being more positively portrayed than others.

There may be different kinds of "colonies" in the narrative, however: the settling of unsettled land, like the Shire, and the building of colonial empires, like that of the Númenóreans as well as the Men of Gondor after them. It may be that the word "colony" itself is not used in this negative way, and does not appear to be used in The Silmarillion or in Professor Tolkien's letters, but what we would understand to be "colonialism" from a modern perspective (ie empire-building) is portrayed negatively.

[William Cloud Hicklin]

The connotation I think has everything to do with whether one is displacing other people to build your colony; nobody seems to think that talk of a possible Mars colony is evil!

[Faramir Jones]

There is an interesting example of a mixture of the medieval and the modern in Tolkien's portrayal of the Gondorian Rangers of Ithilien. They were dressed in a mixture of green and brown for camouflage purposes, and operated from secret bases in Ithilien, which Gondor still claimed as part of its territory, against Sauron's forces. Among their weapons, they used longbows.

It made me think of the legend of Robin Hood and his Merry Men, dressed in Lincoln Green, living in Sherwood Forest, and using longbows. However, I also thought of more modern things; because the Gondorian bows were made of steel, not yew, the green and brown sounding like more 'modern' camouflage uniforms. Also, the Rangers sounded like the Auxiliary Units, planned by the United Kingdom in the Second World War in the event of a German invasion, intended to fight as uniformed guerrillas. They were organised as part of the Home Guard, and wore Home Guard uniforms, but practiced guerrilla warfare and would fight under state appointed commanders.

What do people think?

[William Cloud Hicklin]

Well, there wasn't anything especially new about "guerilla warfare." In the 18th century the British called it "Indian tactics," formed the green-clad Rodger's Rangers to employ it vs the French, and both sides in the Revolution used it (RR now being the 60th Foot (King's Loyal Americans)). By the Napoleonic wars British rifle regiments specialized in the same tactics and wore green uniforms- but then, the 60th Rifles were after all the direct descendant of Rodgers' Rangers.

When Britain re-organized the Volunteers in 1881, all the Vol Companies (foot; the Yeomanry were horse) were trained in marksmanship, skirmishing, ambush, sniping, concealment etc etc, all in anticipation of a possible invasion.

[Zigûr]

Hello all,

I thought I would mention some other interesting notions I've come across in my studies, particularly which arose during my PhD emendations (by the way, I'm pleased to say that everything is done now, I've got my completion letter and there should be nothing left to do but wait for graduation in September so I can become Dr Zigûr [Don't worry, I'm not actually going to start calling myself that]).

In Chapter 24, "Modernity", of A Companion to J.R.R. Tolkien, edited by Stuart D. Lee and published by John Wiley & Sons in 2014, Dr. Anna Vaninskaya discusses how Sauron's empire evokes a twentieth-century "Theyocracy" in which power is held by a distant, unapproachable cabal of bureaucrats. Dr Vaninskaya analyses Gorbag and Shagrat's conversation, noting that they are aware of "official propaganda", as when Shagrat tells him that the "Big Bosses" hold that the war is going well; Gorbag grunts "They would". Their orders, to quote Dr Vaninskaya, are "in the clipped language of army dispatches."

Dr Vaninskaya argues that there is "definite sense of a hierarchical party structure" in Mordor, with things like "giving your name and number to the Nazgûl."

Dr Vaninskaya observes that "The idea of soldiers, like prisoners, having numbers, no less than the concept of reporting insubordination to superiors whose own situation is precariously dependent on the favor of the Big Bosses, is completely alien to the world of Middle-earth as originally conceived (and as eventually elaborated in the final writings). The glimpses of Orc life in Mordor are also at odds with the rest of the narrative, and the tone and atmosphere of these scenes remind us that the twentieth century sometimes obtruded rather roughly into the secondary world." Dr Vaninskaya also argues of Shagrat and Gorbag that "theirs is distinctly the speech of twentieth-century soldiers, but also of government or party functionaries, minor officials in a murderous bureaucracy."

I'm in two minds about this idea. It's curious to imagine the dread Nazgûl being concerned with things like "names and numbers" of Orcs and the like, but apparently it was something that could happen (unless the Orc who made that threat was exaggerating).

I suppose the Mouth of Sauron and the other members of his dubious "embassy" from Barad-dûr also suggest the idea of high-ranking bureaucrats in Sauron's regime, presumably Black Númenóreans like the Mouth or other Men who, through cunning and sycophancy, had proved themselves useful to Sauron.

Yet I wonder how much of a "party" there really is when the entire organisation of the regime seems to serve no will or purpose but that of Sauron alone. It is not clear that there is an "ideology" in Mordor beyond doing that which fulfils Sauron's will. On the other hand, perhaps Professor Tolkien is trying to argue that under such regimes the ideology is just the tyrant's will pretending to be some totalising/universalising truth. Sauron (who can no longer hide his evil intentions from others) has simply stripped this conceit away. Possibly the closest thing we hear to an ideology, I think, is in Morgoth's Ring, in which it is stated that Sauron ultimately united all the disparate, petty realms of Orcs in "unreasoning hatred of the Elves and of Men who associated with them".

I'm interested to hear what others think. If you're interested in discussing it, do you think Mordor really has the equivalent of a "party" or "bureaucracy"? Do you, like me, struggle to imagine Khamûl whipping out a notepad to write down an Orc's number (surely there's someone of lower rank who would be reported to first)? Do you see much in the way of modern ideology at work in Middle-earth?

[Marwhini]

BTW, Zigûr,

Are you familiar with the works of Lord Dunsany (Edward Plunkett)?

Specifically his Gods of Pegãna.

It is another instance of a literary device like the Red Book of Westmarch, where Plunkett is pretending to translate the found works of the lost land of Pegãna.

His work is somewhat similar to, and possibly was what inspired Lovecraft's Chthulu/Elder Gods mythos. I know that Lord Dunsany had some influence upon Moorcock, at any rate (of another fantasy World Builder).

Anyway.... Just off the top of my head if you are interested in exploring other invented mythologies.

I have seen Tolkien's Modern Middle Ages, but I have steered away from it for the time being, as what I am familiar with from it struck me as a little too Post-Modern, which leaves an unpleasant taste in my mouth.

But it is something that a friend is reading (we tend to trade off on critical works concerning Tolkien).

But nearly every Tolkien scholar I know (Literary Academics, at least) has made some observation of the connections between the Medieval and the Modern.

The most obvious being the contrast of The Shire to that of the rest of Middle-earth.

And between the rest of Middle-earth, and the habitats of Sauron and Saruman respectively.

The foremost being an Agrarian Modern society (19th Century Victorian England), and the latter being examples of Industrialization gone wrong.

But I have not really looked beyond Shippey, Drout, Olsen, and.... grr.... Don't want to google.... Dammit.... Can't call his name (Published a Tolkien Journal back in the 70s....)... And I can't even find it with a Google Search. Not really important...

And they have not really delved greatly into the Modern-Medieval links (well, possibly Drout has).

But the different views on Mordor, Sauron, etc. can get to be quite complex.

MB

[Andsigil]

Originally Posted by Zigûr

...Sauron's empire evokes a twentieth-century "Theyocracy" in which power is held by a distant, unapproachable cabal of bureaucrats.

Well, that certainly sounds familiar, even in (ostensibly) what's supposed to be a democratic republic.

[Marwhini]

Originally Posted by Andsigil

Well, that certainly sounds familiar, even in (ostensibly) what's supposed to be a democratic republic.

Wut?

Mordor a Democratic Republic?

I did not get the feeling that the Orcs got to vote on anything.

This isn't a reference to that Russian Monstrosity?

MB

[Zigûr]

Originally Posted by Andsigil

Well, that certainly sounds familiar, even in (ostensibly) what's supposed to be a democratic republic.

Exactly; "the Democratic People's Republic of Mordor" comes to mind, although I doubt Sauron bothered with such pretence. I suppose Professor Tolkien might be arguing that strong political ideologies were essentially indistinguishable from false religions, especially with the implication of Sauron being equivalent to a "Marshal This-or-That" of one of the totalitarian "political religions" of the Twentieth Century.

In another thread I mentioned Brian Rosebury's statement in Tolkien: A Cultural Phenomenon that "The modernity of Tolkien’s work, from the point of view of its content, lies not in coded reference to specific contemporary events or phenomena, but in the absorption into the invented world – no doubt a partly unconscious absorption – of experiences and attitudes which Tolkien would scarcely have acquired had he not been a man of the twentieth century."

Dr. Rosebury goes on to say "Some are obvious enough. The Lord of the Rings describes a continental war, in which the survival of whole peoples and cultures is at stake. The undertow of apocalyptic dread is familiar to anyone who has lived in the nuclear age, but its primary biographical source must greatly pre-date Hiroshima: almost certainly it lies around 1914–15 when Tolkien, in common with millions of young men, discovered that he would have to go to war.The successive international crises of the Thirties and Forties can only have reinforced this impression of secular imperilment. Naturally Tolkien would have been more aware than most people of pre-modern analogies: the fall of the Roman Empire, the bare survival of Christian civilisation in the age which produced Beowulf, the lively expectation of world’s end that obsessed some medieval and Reformation believers. But that historical awareness is itself a modern, even a modernist, attribute."

I find this an interesting argument, because it depends on how we understand "modern". There were certainly continental wars before the First and Second World Wars, such as the Napoleonic Wars and, perhaps, the Thirty Years' War, both of which are "modern" according to some definitions. I believe such wars were also, to some, seen as "apocalyptic" in their time. Thus I suppose the question arises of whether we define "modern" in terms of "modernity" or "the modern period", of the early 16th century until the present day, or as specifically "modernist", that is, of the first half of the 20th century in particular.

One thing I note, which has surely been observed elsewhere, is that Professor Tolkien's love of a good pipe (and many of his characters' subsequent enjoyment of it as well) is a fairly "modern" thing and rather out of place in the medieval world. I wonder if Aragorn still enjoyed a pipe after he had become King? It's unsurprising that the more "modern" Hobbits smoked, but curious to observe that High Men, Dwarves and Wizards did too. There is another bit of "modern" culture working its way backwards into the "medieval" - or is it drawing the medieval forward, into the modern?

(Incidentally, I've been thinking about why Legolas found smoking strange. Even though the Elves made some pipes for Bilbo, is it possible that for Professor Tolkien a pipe meant relaxation and an aid to thinking, which was something Men, Wizards incarnate as Men, Dwarves and Hobbits might need, but Elves did not?)

[Marwhini]

Originally Posted by Zigûr

Hello all,

I thought I would mention some other interesting notions I've come across in my studies, particularly which arose during my PhD emendations (by the way, I'm pleased to say that everything is done now, I've got my completion letter and there should be nothing left to do but wait for graduation in September so I can become Dr Zigûr [Don't worry, I'm not actually going to start calling myself that]).

In Chapter 24, "Modernity", of A Companion to J.R.R. Tolkien, edited by Stuart D. Lee and published by John Wiley & Sons in 2014, Dr. Anna Vaninskaya discusses how Sauron's empire evokes a twentieth-century "Theyocracy" in which power is held by a distant, unapproachable cabal of bureaucrats. Dr Vaninskaya analyses Gorbag and Shagrat's conversation, noting that they are aware of "official propaganda", as when Shagrat tells him that the "Big Bosses" hold that the war is going well; Gorbag grunts "They would". Their orders, to quote Dr Vaninskaya, are "in the clipped language of army dispatches."

Dr Vaninskaya argues that there is "definite sense of a hierarchical party structure" in Mordor, with things like "giving your name and number to the Nazgûl."

Dr Vaninskaya observes that "The idea of soldiers, like prisoners, having numbers, no less than the concept of reporting insubordination to superiors whose own situation is precariously dependent on the favor of the Big Bosses, is completely alien to the world of Middle-earth as originally conceived (and as eventually elaborated in the final writings). The glimpses of Orc life in Mordor are also at odds with the rest of the narrative, and the tone and atmosphere of these scenes remind us that the twentieth century sometimes obtruded rather roughly into the secondary world." Dr Vaninskaya also argues of Shagrat and Gorbag that "theirs is distinctly the speech of twentieth-century soldiers, but also of government or party functionaries, minor officials in a murderous bureaucracy."

I'm in two minds about this idea. It's curious to imagine the dread Nazgûl being concerned with things like "names and numbers" of Orcs and the like, but apparently it was something that could happen (unless the Orc who made that threat was exaggerating).

I suppose the Mouth of Sauron and the other members of his dubious "embassy" from Barad-dûr also suggest the idea of high-ranking bureaucrats in Sauron's regime, presumably Black Númenóreans like the Mouth or other Men who, through cunning and sycophancy, had proved themselves useful to Sauron.

Yet I wonder how much of a "party" there really is when the entire organisation of the regime seems to serve no will or purpose but that of Sauron alone. It is not clear that there is an "ideology" in Mordor beyond doing that which fulfils Sauron's will. On the other hand, perhaps Professor Tolkien is trying to argue that under such regimes the ideology is just the tyrant's will pretending to be some totalising/universalising truth. Sauron (who can no longer hide his evil intentions from others) has simply stripped this conceit away. Possibly the closest thing we hear to an ideology, I think, is in Morgoth's Ring, in which it is stated that Sauron ultimately united all the disparate, petty realms of Orcs in "unreasoning hatred of the Elves and of Men who associated with them".

I'm interested to hear what others think. If you're interested in discussing it, do you think Mordor really has the equivalent of a "party" or "bureaucracy"? Do you, like me, struggle to imagine Khamûl whipping out a notepad to write down an Orc's number (surely there's someone of lower rank who would be reported to first)? Do you see much in the way of modern ideology at work in Middle-earth?

I have seen this argument as well.

And I can both see it, and not see it.

Tolkien seemed to be terrifically opposed to Modernity, and the idea that any form of Bureaucratic/Hierarchical organization could amount to any good.

Especially when "Machines" were concerned (And he seemed to have a broad definition of "Machine" that included more than the physical mechanisms, but could also be applied to "Mechanistic Thinking").

So that he would associate this with the demonic element in Middle-earth is not very surprising.

I can also see an ideology forming out of this, but one which is segregated between those who are "merely tools" and the "True Believers."

The Nazgûl, the Mouth-of-Sauron, and other such higher-ups would seem to be in the Second Category, and the former mostly the Orcs or the minions of his enslaved lands (either ideologically enslaved, or enslaved via brute force).

But that would require a greater deal of exploration into the different regions themselves, and takes up the issues of motivations and psychology beyond simply "Hatred of Elves" (which seems to have been enough for the Orcs).

As for calling it a "Party" (as in Political), that is a different form of Ideology than is a Religious Ideology.

Both hope to create a narrative, but the former is generally more flexible, in trying to attend to purely secular needs (questions of "How?" - to govern), whereas the latter (Religious Ideology), deals more with Spiritual and Moral Beliefs and Narratives (explanations for "Why?" - are we here).

And I think that Sauron provided both of these to a great extent, even if they were lies.

There does seem to be some suggestion that the Easterlings and Haradrim had been led into either Morgothism, or Sauronism (The worship of one or the other), and that the Black Númenóreans remained committed to the Morgothism with which he misled them during the latter 2nd Age.

And this does seem to indicate a Hierarchy, where you have different tiers of "believers" or different types, who are granted different rights, privileges, or... probably most important: Power within Mordor and its Tributaries (Those who pay Tribute to Mordor).

There is a freaking LOT here to explore.

MB