thoughtsontolkien - Tumblr blog

[thoughtsontolkien]

Tonight, we remember one who lent his enormous talent to telling the story we have all come to love. Hail, the victorious dead!

May the Simbelmynë cover his tomb as it did the tomb of the one he so accurately portrayed.

Bernard Hill Dec 17, 1944 - May 5, 2024

[thoughtsontolkien]

I don't know if I'm reading into this too much but I always thought that since Elrond is Halfelven (i.e has both elf and man heritage) he felt that he could give the blessings of those races but not the 'other free folk' since he's not part of those races

The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)

“The Ringbearer is setting out on the quest of Mount Doom and you who travel with him, no oath nor bond is laid to go further than you will. Farewell. Hold to your purpose and may the blessings of elves, and men, and all free folk go with you.”

[thoughtsontolkien]

It very much does make sense!!

What follows below is very much my opinion - I am not an expert on literary analysis (I'm an archaeologist) and I'm not the most knowledgeable on Tolkien's life, but I just wanted to contribute my take - corrections on any facts I get wrong are welcome.

I always interpreted it as Tolkien being particularly invested in representing the destruction of green things for unbridled human expansion (like if a park or a woodland is turned into a factory) as awful and evil (which I agree that it is if the green space is not considered and steps are not taken to preserve it).

However, the execution and representation of this one specific part of environmentalism is in my opinion rather clunky and gives off 19th century wealthy rural Englishman vibes (I know he was mostly a 20th c. dude, but this gives 19th c. vibes to me). The man clearly loved green, growing things, which is an admirable trait to have, but to me it feels like he did see this in a rather black-and-white fashion. The industry and materialism he depicts in his work is very obviously negative (Isengard, the Arkenstone, Smaug, the Balrog, dragon sickness, Mordor's pollution, Glaurung).

I studied the poets Gerard Manley Hopkins and T.S Eliot in high school, and if my memory serves me correctly there are similar themes there. I don't know if Tolkien was familiar with either of them, but they both lived in close spatial and temporal proximity to Tolkien (I think Manley Hopkins died like 3 years before he was born but Tolkien and Eliot were alive ar the same time) and they both also lamented the destruction of green space. It seems to be a fairly common theme among wealthier writers from rural backgrounds in this time period, and often it is executed by portraying industrial life as inherently bad which then leads to the idealisation of rural life.

Basically what I'm trying to say is that I don't think that Tolkien was an outlier in his interpretation of industrialism, and he did live through most of the 20th century which saw very rapid technological developments. Such developments tend to come with backlash and resistance from people who are used to the old system, and in Tolkien's case it seems to me that he was very fixated on a dichotomous representation of these issues without giving much consideration to the fact that both pre and post industrial societies have benefits and drawbacks. In his focus on the environment I do think that he tends to ignore the positive changes that industrialisation can bring to society and ignore the negative impacts that pre industrial rural systems have on people in favour of highlighting the negatives of industry (which yeah there are a lot of) and the positives of rural life (which is probably more nuanced than his representation).

Again, I am not an expert at all - please correct me on any factual errors!!

relatedly i'm not entirely willing to let go of the reading of tolkien as environmental, like i think there's a lot to be said for it i really like & would stand by. but at the same time i do think some of that reading has to be tempered with an understanding of how anti-industrialism can very much lead to or go hand in hand with a sort of idealization of pre-industrial (particularly rural) life in a way that's both ultimately conservative and overlooks a lot of issues, particularly to do with class. if that makes sense

[thoughtsontolkien]

Update: I don't see any more bots in the lotr tags?? Have they moved somewhere else or has there been a successful extermination attempt?? I haven't seen a single bot today and it has been wonderful but knock on wood, I don't wanna jinx it

Hey @staff

Please do something about these goddamn bots. I open tumblr to look at artwork and today, on the THIRD POST I saw, I got a boob jumpscare. I report and block, scroll onwards cautiously, and 5 posts later it's another bot. Report, block. 4 posts later, another bot.

Other Tolkien fans, are yall having the same problem?? They seem to love Tolkien tags for some reason.

Anyway - @staff fix it.

[thoughtsontolkien]

Hey @staff

Please do something about these goddamn bots. I open tumblr to look at artwork and today, on the THIRD POST I saw, I got a boob jumpscare. I report and block, scroll onwards cautiously, and 5 posts later it's another bot. Report, block. 4 posts later, another bot.

Other Tolkien fans, are yall having the same problem?? They seem to love Tolkien tags for some reason.

Anyway - @staff fix it.

[thoughtsontolkien]

I can absolutely see Gandalf doing this tho he has the right kind of chaos energy

I was playing Gandalf the Grey in an impromptu interactive theater production set in a replica of Bag End in the woods reading off a script given out by the guide but instead of a canon lines for Gandalf to say I read a speech about the evils of British colonialism.

I was as confused as anyone in the room.

[thoughtsontolkien]

Peaceful days in the house of Elrond 🍃

For TolkienTrewsday and Tolkientober Day 24, Rivendell

[thoughtsontolkien]

Eowyn

[thoughtsontolkien]

Isengard Reclaimed

[thoughtsontolkien]

Part 2: “Get Off The Road!”

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[thoughtsontolkien]

Hello this is my Tolkien blog!!!

If you are living right now in 2023 and are still a big fan of LOTR please reblog bro where are my fellow Tolkienites (Tolkieneers?)

[thoughtsontolkien]

For Inktober 2023 Day 3 prompt: Path

[thoughtsontolkien]

Everyone, this is prettier than I thought. should I print it? 💌🩷🥺

[thoughtsontolkien]

🍂The Three Hunters 🍃

If you know me at all you know I have a deep deep love for LOTR, and I just recently fell 100% back into it. It’s just one of those things I can always come back to and enjoy! So here’s three of my favorite guys, fresh from an orc battle.

[thoughtsontolkien]

*hands you all these little guys* can you please watch them while I'm away? thank you!! Be careful they run off sometimes!!!!

[thoughtsontolkien]

Not my best... I tried </3

[thoughtsontolkien]

Radagast the brown uwu