LoTR's connection to the Cold War

[Admin]

For the most part the books were written before the Cold War, so any connection is purely coincidential.

[northorbitranger]

JRRT loathed allegory, and said so many times. 'Nuff Said.

(I have often wondered if he was aiming some of his anti-allegory venom at fellow 'Inkling' CS Lewis.)

Cheers,
North

[srehmat]

I was just wondering if anybody knew of any connections that can be made between Tolkien's Lord of the Rings Trilogy and the Cold War. I have heard that some kind of connection can be made between these novels and historical events but I am not sure what they are.

[Irrylath]

Actually, Tolkien has said that the trilogy is meant to reflect his experiences in World War I.

[JBI]

Critics, from what I know, take his Luddite themes to reflect his own loss, and withdrawal from modern day Brittan. Biographers emphasis his upbringing in the country, and draw parallels between the Shire and his country town. The two major villains in this book, in my opinion represent fascism and industry, both things that Tolkien loathed, though elitist strands have been drawn out of Tolkien in regard to the way he sees the monarchy, and tradition.

[JBI]

Oh, on another note. The primary theme of destruction is meant to show how the world cannot recover even if they try. This is seen with the end of the elf days, despite them being victorious, and the end of Frodo, even though he won. This is probably where they parallels to the Cold War can be drawn, but they are all coincidental. The major villain of the book, in my opinion, is clearly industry.

[Schokokeks]

I was just wondering if anybody knew of any connections that can be made between Tolkien's Lord of the Rings Trilogy and the Cold War. I have heard that some kind of connection can be made between these novels and historical events but I am not sure what they are.
Well, the connection I could imagine might be the general idea of "the enemy in the East" (Mordor is in the East of Middle-Earth, I think). But as others said, Tolkien could only have picked up tensions (if he did at all), but could not have referred in a direct way to incidents that were still to come.

[Boris239]

I can theoretically find the connection with the WW2- with Nazi Germany being Mordor, West being elves and USSR standing for Gondor that took the hardest hit from the Enemy- plus there is already a lot of tension between Gondor and the West.

[Idril]

JRRT loathed allegory, and said so many times. 'Nuff Said.

(I have often wondered if he was aiming some of his anti-allegory venom at fellow 'Inkling' CS Lewis.)

Cheers,
North

Exactly! I think LOTR is like the bible in that you can make it fit almost any point of view if you try hard enough but certainly, as has been mentioned, no connection was intended.

[PeterL]

I agree with Idril. LotR is infinitely interpretable. There are parts that can be likened to almost anything. There is an underlying theme of freedom and small government, and a love for home and neighbors. Taken together with the clear hatred for strong central government the Tolkien showed, it can easily be applied to the Cold War. It also can be considered an anti-Bush book and as opposing unwelcome foreign interventions.

[Irrylath]

Tolkien has said that much of the trilogy was influenced by his time serving in WWI.

"Tolkien’s experience in the war and the encouragement of his only friend who survived the war ultimately led him to write the Lord of the Rings. His service in the British army, his contemplation of the enemy, and landscape scarred by the first modern war (mixed with a lot of rain) can all be seen in his books."

http://www.ahistoryteacher.com/wordpress/?p=196

[JCamilo]

In his letters he basically let clear how it is NOT a Cold war or World War II book because he wrote them before it. Also he mentions how evil is Mordor because the industry. Also he threws his spite over allegory, but he is a note...

Tolkien is a scholar, to him Allegory is something very specific and that generated academic discussions about the validity of the use of allegories in literature or not (Poe for example attacked the use of allegories, Colerdige defended, Chesterton defended, etc). The mindset and style of Tolkien clearly places him in Poe's side because they are pretty much rationalists and a bit of classsicists. That means they like texts with clear relation between structure-significance. Much of Tolkien attacks come this way.
Another thing, he was also aware that in mythology , allegory means that the myths are fake and basead on real events, turned in stories later. Let's remember Tolkien had the intention to write a old style myth for england - so He could not write something that was fake (hence an allegory). An allegory would say that the ring is actually something else, magic is means philosophy, watever. For tolkien, Magic means magic, not being killed by a man meant that, etc. They are not exageration of reality, so those are probally his reasons to not like to see his work compared to allegories (Basically the one ring being the atomic bomb)...