ON
THE
LORD
OF THE
RINGS
Members
of the
fellowship
Gamze
GUMUSLU
Karen
KOHEN
Gokhan
Remzi YAVUZ
Beste
KALENDER
Submitted
to
Zeliha
GULCAT
May
17, 2004
On The
Lord Of The Rings
Introduction
- What is the subject, why did we choose it and what do other academic studies show
us?
I.
Summary of the myth
III.
Why we do it
Development
- What are our thoughts and how did we decide on them?
Conclusion
- As the author hated allegory, we did applications which seemed to us
reasonable and saw the myth from another window that is the reality of our
world.
-Summary of the Myth of the
Old Times
A nameless voice
in our minds whispers in our ears...
"The world is changed. I feel it
in the water. I feel it in the earth. I
smell
it in the air.
Much that once was is lost. For none now live who remember
it.
It began with the forging of the great rings;
Three were given to the Elves; immortal, wisest and fairest of all
beings.
Seven to the Dwarf-lords; great miners and craftsmen of the
mountain
halls.
And nine... Nine rings were gifted to the race of men, who, above
all
else, desire
power.
For within these rings was bound the strength and will to govern
each
race. But they
were all of them deceived. For another ring was made.
In the
land of Mordor, in the fires of mount Doom, the Dark
Lord
Sauron forged in
secret a Master Ring to control all others. And in to
this
ring he put his
cruelty, his malice and his will to dominate all life.
One
Ring to rule
them all.
One by one Free Land of Middle-Earth fell to the power of the Ring.
But there were
some who resisted.
A Last Alliance of Men and Elves marched against the armies
of
Mordor. And on
the slopes of mount Doom, they fought for the freedom of
Middle-Earth...Victory was near. But the power of the Ring could not be
undone. It was
at this moment when all hope had faded, Isildur, the son
of
King, took up
his father's sword (and cut the ring of from Sauron'
hand).
Sauron, the
enemy of the Free Peoples of Middle-Earth, was
defeated.
The Ring passed to Isildur who had this one chance to destroy evil
forever. But the
Hearts of men are easily corrupted. And the Ring has a will
of his own. It
betrayed Isildur to his death. And some things should not
have been
forgotten were lost.
History became legend, legend became myth. And for two and a half
thousand years,
the Ring passed out of all knowledge. Until when
chance
came it ensnared
a new bearer. The Ring came to the creature Gollum who
took it deep
into the tunnels of the Misty mountains. And there it
consumed
him. The Ring
brought to Gollum unnatural long life. For five
hundred
years it poisoned his mind. And in the
gloom of Gollum's cave, it waited.
Darkness crept back into the forests of the world. Rumor grew of
a
shadow in the
East, whispers of a nameless fear. And the Ring of
Power
perceived its
time had now come. It abandoned Gollum. But something
happened then
the Ring did not intend. It was picked up by the most
unlikely
creature. A hobbit, Bilbo Baggins of the Shire.
For time will soon come when Hobbits will shape the fortunes of
all."
Sixty years later, this Ring
passes to Frodo, cousin of Bilbo. Meanwhile, Sauron began to search for, call
for the Ring of his, with his wraiths. So Frodo took the Ring to Rivendell, the
house of Elrond - one of the wisest Elves- with three friends of his kin, Merry,
Pippin and Sam, and a ranger called Aragorn where a secret council with the good
races of Middle Earth would be gathered to decide what to do with the Ring.
Since the only way to destroy the Ring was to cast it into the fires it was
made, they formed a fellowship to help Frodo on his journey to Mordor.
Fellowship was of nine people. Four were Hobbits, Frodo, Sam, Merry, Pippin; one
was wizard, Gandalf; one was an Elf, Legolas; one was a Dwarf, Gimli; two were
men, Boromir -the lord of Gondor, city of men- and Aragorn- a ranger who is on
exile since he refused to be the king of Gondor-.And they made their ways to
Mordor.
Saruman, the
white wizard who betrayed the world of the good and took place next to Sauron,
was searching for the Ring with his spies so the fellowship decided to go
through the mine of Dwarves, Moria. But the mine was not only conquered by Orcs
but also a demon of ancient times called Balrog who fought with Gandalf and
caused him to fall in to the darkness from a thin, stone bridge. They lost
Gandalf.
With grief in
their hearts, the group went to Lothlorien, the forest of Elves, then to Emyn
Muil where they had a battle with Uruk-hai, a kind of Orcs, and in that battle
Boromir , who had already fallen into the power of the Ring, was killed while
trying to save Merry and Pippin from the enemy. But Merry and Pippin were caught by the Uruk-hai to be taken to
Saruman whereas Frodo and Sam left the group and decided to go to Mordor, where
the fires were, alone. Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli decided to trace the Uruks to
rescue the two hobbits. But luckily enough these two hobbits, Merry and Pippin,
escaped from the Uruks and entered the Fangorn forest, where they met the Ents,
the shepherds of the trees. Treebeard, an Ent -a tree-herder-, took them to the
"white wizard". Meanwhile, Legolas, Aragorn and Gimli came to the same place and
they, too, met the white wizard an found out that he was Gandalf not Saruman who
became a traitor.
Four of them,
Legolas, Aragorn, Gimli and Gandalf the White went to Rohan, to the place of the
lords of the horses and warned them about the on-going situation of the world.
So the people of Rohan retreated to the Helm's Deep, to a stronghold and there
occurred a battle with the Uruks and Orcs, but the victory was of Rohan people
who were supported with the power of the Elves. At the sama time, Ents destroyed
the Isengard, the kingdom of Saruman who devastated the
nature.
After the
battle, Gandalf and Pippin went directly to Gondor on the other hand the rest
were gathering army power to go to Gondor for the great battle. On this route,
Aragorn was gifted with Isildur's sword by Elrond and afterwards he chose to go
through the Path of the Dead with Gimli and Legolas to gather more force for the
army. There he faced the ghosts of the ones who once broke their oaths to fight
for Gondor. He proved that he was the heir to the throne of Gondor so they
accepted to fight for the King to be released from the curse on
them.
By this time,
Sauron's army had laid siege on Gondor. Situation was desperate for men but at
that moment the army of Rohan arrived, then Aragorn with his army of dead came
and victory for men was achieved on this battle.
While all these
were happening, Sam and Frodo were on their way to Mordor. On their route, they
met Gollum, who was searching for his precious, the Ring. They, somehow,
persuaded Gollum to guide them to Mordor. Gollum, to take the Ring back,
deceived them and drove them to the Lair of Shelob, which was a huge spider.
During the escape of Frodo from the Shelob, she poisoned him. Sam, who saw the
stiff body of Frodo, thought that Frodo was dead so he took the Ring. At that
moment Orcs came and Sam heard from their conversation that Frodo was only
paralyzed so went to rescue Frodo from the Orcs. After he rescued Frodo, they
made their way to the fires of Mount Doom, but Frodo fell into the power of the
Ring and changed his mind. He decided that the Ring was his at the edge of the
fires and put on the Ring. Gollum, who followed the to the end, got mad when he
saw Frodo putting on the Ring so jumped on him and teared apart Frodo's finger
with the Ring and fell into the fires with the Ring and with a great
happiness.
As a result of
this, the battle which had been started at the gas of Mordor in order to take
attention of Sauron so to help Frodo not to be seen was finished wit the fall of
Sauron. Victory was Men's.
After the war, the power of all the rings faded so Elves left the Middle-Earth with Bilbo, Frodo and Gandalf by a ship. Aragorn became the King of Gondor and married Arwen, the daughter of Elrond. Legolas and Gimli went on to find new adventures throughout the Middle-Earth. And Sam lived in the Shire with his wife and his children happily ever after.
Although Lord of the Rings, as a story, seems so simple and irrelevant to the real world, it is not. Tolkien wanted to create a myth that lacks in British folklore so he used familiar characters by adding new souls and some new appearances. His best friend C. S. Lewis emphasized the same thing in his article called ‘ The dethronement of power ’:
‘ The value of the myth is that it takes all the things we know and
restores to them the rich significance which has been hidden by the
veil of familiarity.’
All people who read this book for academic studies made their own evaluations and all found different results. Before forming our own ideas, we read books about already shaped minds that are the books on LOTR. There were the thoughts of people on what LOTR symbolizes what Tolkien probably made use of in writing period of his most famous book.
In one of the books we read, there was an article of Theodore Schikc about the threat of developing technology and Tolkien’s ring of powers. There he talked about the possible things that ring could symbolize. It could be technology, none-technology or nuclear energy which would cause earth to be destroyed. According to the article of J. L. McMahan and S. Csaki (Talking trees and walking mountains: in LOTR) all creatures related to the nature have souls and consciousness in the Buddhist and Taoist belief and when they compare this belief with Tolkien’s aspect of nature in the story, they find them similar. On the other hand, Douglas K. Blount and Joe Kraus indicate that the war in the Middle-Earth related to religion and God instead of freedom.
In another book we read, W.
H. Auden (The Quest Hero) and Edmund Fuller criticize LOTR according to the
Christianity. While Edmund prefers to call angel to Gandalf and a fallen angel
to Sauron, Auden wants people to see that the people of Middle-Earth are all
Christian and the land in the uttermost west symbolizes paradise. The people who
think about the relation of LOTR with the real world mostly reach abstract
conclusions. Although Huge T. Keenan accepts hobbits as the rabbit shaped
English country-dwellers like we do, at rest he sees as the war of death and
life. For example, return of Ents mean to him turn to life survive. Like Hugh T.
Keenan , Patricia Meyer Spacks criticizes the same book from abstract aspect and
she thinks LOTR as the war of good and evil. Good is natural whereas evil is
machinery. Ents and Saruman’s city is the best example of her statement. We
think the most different aspect is Rose A. Zimbardo’s. She claims that elves
must go because hobbits and men will live in next century. Because on the way
Frodo and Bilbo became elves with the power of the ring, they left Middle-Earth
like elves. Marion Zimmer Bradley describes the characters and events according
to love. She tells us about love between Sam and Frodo and heroic love which
means love of honor and country. She also sees Gandalf as a father, Aragorn as a
heroically loved elder brother and Pippin as the spoiled youngest child.
Although we have read all of
these descriptions, we think a bit different and try to explain Middle-Earth
from another aspect. The things you will read are our own applications. As
Tolkien admits that everyone criticizes LOTR differently and this study shows
our ideas and opinions.
Elves:
These tall and beautiful dwellers of the Middle-Earth are superior to other races. Blessed by Eru, the One the beginning of all, Elves live so long that they are considered as immortals. Because of their wisdom and fairness they are the natural guides of the good races of the Middle-Earth. They direct the Middle-Earth. If we want to look for a counterpart for the elves in the real world the strongest candidate would be the English aristocracy.
J.R.R. Tolkien himself
stated his desire to write a mythology for England. After the Norman invasion of
the 11th century all possible mythical concepts were eradicated. As
Jane Johnson says: “There were only folk tales on King Arthur which were only a
mismatch of old sources many of which were French” For this reason, J.R.R.
Tolkien wanted to write a myth belonging only to English. It is no surprise that
the most powerful race is the representatives of the
English.
We decided on the above statement because of the following
connotations:
During
author’s lifetime it is seen that English had the greatest power over other
nations. At that period Britain was known as Great Britain. She was the
authority of the political stage. In WWI, Britain was the greatest threat to
Germany, because Germany thought that that if Britain waged war upon her, there
would be no victory for Germany. Also Britain was the one that tried to give a
shape to the on-going situations and she gives a proposal for a conference “to
endeavor to find an issue to prevent or delay the war.” She had to make a
decision; she would either let her allies down or fight by their side. But after
the war we can see that Britain lost her authority, superiority and power over
others. From this aspect when we consider elves we can see the
relations.
Until the Great War of Middle-Earth it was the age of Elves. Also Elrond summoned a secret council to decide on the faith of the Middle-Earth with all “good” races. In another point, Elves know that after the war their all power will diminish and the time of the Elves will pass.
-Hobbits: Little
Masters of a Big World
To give a brief definition
of hobbits, we may have a look at the writings of Bilbo Baggins, a hobbit living
in the Shire. It begins like this:
"There and Back
Again
A Hobbit's Tale
by
Bilbo Baggins"
"Concerning
Hobbits...
Hobbits have been living and farming in the four Farthings of the
Shire
for many
hundreds of years, quite content to ignore and be ignored by
the
world of the big
folk.
Middle-Earth being, after all, full of strange creatures beyond
count
Hobbits must
have seem of little importance being neither renowned as
great warriors
nor counted among the very wise. In fact, it has been
remarked by some
that Hobbits' only real passion is for food. A rather
unfair
observation as we have also developed a keen interest in the brewing
of ales and the
smoking of pipe weed. But where our
hearts truly lie is in
peace and quiet
and good, tilled earth. For all hobbits share a love of
things
that grow. And,
yes, no doubt to others, our ways seem quaint. But today of
all days, it is
brought home to me: it is no bad thing to celebrate a simple
life."
As we can understand, they
are the little folk of the Middle-Earth. They are of little importance as it is
seen throughout the story that the big folk do not know them and are very amazed
to see them.
They are
farmers, at most 120 cm from the ground. Their hearts are within the Shire, the
place they live. And yes, they really possess great passion for food. To give an
example, they have second breakfast after the first one; afternoon tea; supper
after dinner.
It is true
that they not thought of very wise, but they have a great sense of humor in
teasing the life. They might be little but they have great resistance and
strength to put up with the difficulties, which is admired by the
wisest.
When we
take into mind all of these features, it would not be so hard for us to guess
whom they represent. They are the country-dwellers, farmers of
England.
If we look at the general
concept about farmers, they are not among the great warriors or the very wise.
In fact, they are only interested in their lands and their lives are limited
within the borders of their country, or in other words, in the shire. When
looked up in the dictionary, we can see the meaning of the shire is
"country".
Considering the lives of the farmers we can see that they have separated
lives from the outer world. They do not care much about what is going on unless
it is connected with the earth or their friends. They have borders and inside
these borders they live in order, in peace and quiet and never go out if there
is no necessity, just like hobbits.
Tolkien had a great love and desire for nature, for greenland. Some part
of his childhood was passed in Sarehole, a village in Birmingham, so he knew the
life of farmers. Also his brother was a farmer. He knew a lot about countryside
and the lives there. In World War I, he saw the tunnels and shelters under
ground and met English men of low status. He observed all those and skillfully
connected them and made up the little masters, Hobbits.
-Men : People of
the New Age in the Middle-Earth
Men in Tolkien's
myth can be, firstly, divided into two. Men of the West and the men of the East,
in other words the good and the bad, respectively.
We decided on
such a decision and defined the ones of the east as bad because everything
connected with the east is defined as bad but what is more persuasive is that
they took place next to Sauron and Saruman in the war of the ring. That is they
are under the will of the evil, Sauron. And looking at their physical features
we can see that they are brunette, they have black make-up round their eyes and
they are dressing like the Arabic people which eventually led us to thing that
they are the eastern people in real world too who were thought as bad, too, by
western people.
Secondly, we can
also divide the men of the west into two, too. The ones that are normal, that is
just like us, and the ones called Dunedain. Dunedain, or Numenoreans, are the
ones of Aragorn's lineage. Their very ancestor was a Maia, a kind of angel, so
they are different than normal people. They have much longer life period than
normal people like three times of it, and are wiser than normal people. Looking
back at their history we can see that they were going to East by ships and
returning home with lots of gold and silver which made us think that they could
be the people with high status of European countries in real world. But whatever
we did we could not find a definite definition for Men. We saw that there are
things which suit the Men in our world. If to look at them from political
aspect, we thought French were the ones best suits the Men.
When considering
history, it is seen that the one country England always helped and had relations
with was France, although England did not like her very much. And in World War
I, England did not want her to be defeated a second time and stood aside France.
Looking at the Middle-Earth we see that Elves always help Men but find them weak
and do not count on them. And in the war Middle-Earth, Elves helped Men because
they did not want them to be defeated again, like the first time they were
defeated when Isildur decided to keep the Ring.
What France
expected form war was the recovery of Alsace-Lorraine and the end of German
menace. What Men wanted form the war of the Ring was to end the "curse" on them
and gain their king and also to start the age of theirs.
On the other hand, in another aspect we can think of Men from another point of view. If we evaluate the relation between Men and Elves in other views, they could be the Catholics and Protestants of England because in the history of England and during the time the author lived, in England, Protestants and Catholics were in argument. They did not like each other very much and they tried to keep away from the ones of the other creed. But in war they fought together just for one purpose, for the same reason, similar to the relations of Elves and Men. Also as Arwen and Elrond, there are half-elves. They are the children of mortal and immortal. And they have the chance to choose one of these lives. When we have a look at the life of Tolkien we can see that his parents were Protestants, but later his mother, so he and his siblings, converted to Catholicism. And later in his life, Edith, his wife, chose to be a Catholic to marry him. There is a possibility to pass from Protestants to Catholics / immortality to mortality. As we told before, Tolkien shows here that this is not an allegorical book. Although he was affected by what he lived during his life he put them all together or chose some parts that were the most important things for him so that it is not suitable to find one by one similarities but a collection which everyone can pick up a part. So Men could be just us, too.
Dwarves are short creatures
who live in mines and caves which they shaped themselves, from the very essence
of the earth. They do not only work on rocks and stones for living but they also
love it. These heavy workers are also very fierce warriors; they have great
ability, and desire, to use their axes and hammers. Apart from all these,
another zest of them is drink malt beer. When we look all these features we
thought that the dwarves symbolize Irish people in this book. And when we
watched the film we noticed that their accent and strong physical appearance
look like the Irish’s, too. Once, we can see that between Irish people and
English people there was a conflict but they always acted in collaboration. When
we looked at the relation between the Elves and the Dwarves we see that although
once they were good friends living close to each other, because of something
which was not mentioned in the story, they turned out to be two races who argue
with each other.
Ents:
Tolkien did not agree
that “Nature is simply a passive
set of resources for us to use as we wish.” Although he was conservative about
the changes in where he lived, there was an inevitable industrialization.
Tolkien was influenced by the destructive effects of industrialization on
nature, which started with cutting trees. As you understand, Ents are the
representatives of all nature not only trees and Tolkien wanted all people to
see the negative effects of industrialization and the destruction of trees.
-Wizards: Angels
of the Middle-Earth
When we have a look at the
history of the world created by Tolkien, it is told that wizards were the ones
sent to the Middle-Earth. But, except one of the wisest elves, nobody knew where
they came from, who they were or who sent them. The physical appearances they
chose to be seen were just like elderly people of men, but hey were getting old
very slowly, their knowledge was very wide and their wisdom was very great. They
never told their names and were content with the names they were given to. They
had ranks according to their powers. They made journeys in the Middle -Earth and
strolled amongst the people of elves and men. They were the guides of peoples of
the Middle-Earth.
If the author
used his background for this myth, we think that they could be the "Oraterien"
priests he once met. They were a group of priests living together, doing good
and trying to go as far as they could. But there is another point, too. As
*Michael Coren (2002) indicated in his book Tolkien was a religious man as of
course as a loyal Catholic he was going to reflect something of religion in his
book. So these wizards may be the angels. No matter they seem like men they are
not. They have powers to cast spells, they have ranks and are responsible for
different things. And there are the good ones and the bad ones, Saruman and
Sauron for example. Sauron was a good angel once but as Tolkien indicated in his
letters, Sauron wanted to be the God-King so he chose the bad and became the
Dark Lord Sauron, like the demon. Also death is not something defined for them.
For example, Sauron never dies; he just passes in to other forms. Long before he
forged the rings he was defeated by the most powerful angel but he did not die,
his soul endured as a shadow. And after the ring was taken from him, he again
endured though he never succeeding in turning into the physical form. And
lastly, he may be defeated a third time by the destruction of the ring but his
mental form was not eradicated. On the other hand, Gandalf or in other words the
Grey "Pilgrim" did not die after he fought with Balrog, a demonic creature of
the past, and fallen into the darkness he was "sent" to finish his "task" on
earth with the highest rank given to him. When considered all, does it not seem
similar to the angels that are told in religious beliefs?
Orcs, Goblins,
Trolls...
Orcs , goblins, trolls,
Uruk-Hai and the other ugly and mostly dark creatures are representatives of all
bad people who are enemy, people who use technology and people who destroy
forests and also events such as illness and betrayal. These species obey the
authority of Sauron. Orcs as a race are reproduced from Elves and although Elves
are beautiful, because of their evil characteristics Orcs do not have any signs
of their ancestors’ beauty. Orcus was the god of underworld and death in Roman
mythology so we must not be surprised that orcs are one of the evil characters
in Middle-Earth. Goblins are small orcs and Uruk-Hai are bigger orcs.
Scandinavian folklore is the origin of trolls; stumpy, misshapen and humpbacked
race of Middle-Earth. Although some of them are stupid, some are more
intelligent than orcs. This race is evil, too. In WWI, the enemies were mostly
Eastern people with an authority of one ruler and these creatures of the
Middle-Earth mostly represent the Eastern people.
-Wraiths:
Shadows of the Great Kings of Men
Wraiths were once the great
kings of men but they have fallen into the power of the rings that were given to
them by Sauron. So they turned into shadows, creatures neither living nor dead.
They are the most powerful division of Sauron's army. They are completely
dependant on Sauron and the Ring and cannot resist the power of Sauron, so they
want it or not they do evil things. According to us, to find a counterpart of
wraiths in real world, we should first have a look at what Tom Shippey, the
author of the "JRR Tolkien: author of the century", says about them. He
says:
"People of Tolkien's generation
had a problem in identifying the evil.
They had no difficulty recognizing it, they had to live through it- but
the
puzzling thing was that they seemed to be carried out by normal people.
Indeed, Tolkien was a combat veteran; he saw things like that, too. The
nature of evil in the 20th century has been curiously
impersonal. It is as if
sometimes nobody wants to do it. In the end, you get the major atrocities
of the 20th century being carried out by bureaucrats .People
who do this
kind of things are wraiths. They have gone through the wraithing
process.
They do not know what is good and evil anymore. It has become a job or
a
routine. You still act with the good intentions but somehow it all goes
wrong. So it is a curiously
distinctive image of the evil and also
an unwelcome one because what it says; it could be you and in fact in
the right circumstances or should say the wrong circumstances it WILL
BE YOU. When people say this kind of fantasy fiction is escapist and
fading the real world and so on, I think that it is a vision. It is
actually
trying to confront something that most people would rather not
confront."
When we consider his speech,
what he says is right. They are the men, kings of men, who know the evil but
cannot disobey what they are ordered, like the bureaucrats of the past and even
of today.
Aragorn:
Amongst all the characters,
Aragorn is the one that possesses the most signs of the author. Similar to the
author, whose farther died when he was a child, Aragorn grew up without the
presence of his own father. Aragorn’s mother took him to the grounds of elves
and he was brought up by the elves. Likely Tolkien’s mother had brought him to
Britain after his father’s death in South Africa and of course he was brought up
among Englishmen –referring to the section about elves, it is easier to
understand this simile and maybe this is a possible proof for that simile.
Moreover, lives of these two men on totally separate worlds have signs of
similarities. Tolkien fell in love with a girl, Edith, who was 19 years old, at
the age of 16. However, because of his age, he was not permitted to marry her.
He was too immature to marry her. At last when J.R.R. reached the age of 21 he
was ready to marry her but there was a final obstacle: Edith was a Protestant
and she had to become a Catholic. It was a sacrifice to be given and she gave
it. Similarly, Aragorn was in love with the elvish girl, Arwen , but he was
immature to marry her and again as Aragorn matures there comes a new obstacle:
Arwen has to give up immortality in order to be together with Aragorn. Arwen has
no hesitation and gives up eternity and they marry.
Sauron:
As we discussed in wizards,
Sauron was once very much like an angel , a good one but he was lured by the
powers of a arch-devil , Morgoth ,
and after Morgoth defeated he refused to bow the will of the archangel
,Vala , and remains as bad. Like the demon he wanted to be the God-King. He
tried to deceive people and use them as he wished. He reproduced orcs, goblins,
all evil races and multiplied their numbers. He spread devilry with the power of
rings he had built. We can see that Tolkien reflected his opinion of the evil
and demon in his religious aspect. Maybe demon doesn’t have legs or arms to kill
people, but he has power to control all badness throughout the
world.
-The Ring: The
One That Is the Reason of All
In the Middle-Earth, the
focus of the whole war is on the ring, which contains the very heart of the
evil. It is such a powerful artifact that it may shape the fortunes of all. It
gives great powers, such as invisibility and improved senses, and longer life,
but also it taints and addicts the user. In the wrong hands, it may mean the
doom for anyone. After all these it may seem difficult to find a counterpart for
it in the real world, but considering Tolkien's view of life and with some
evidence, we agree that the ring represents "technology" as *Peter Jackson
(1999) said "Once Tolkien said that the most evil creation ever visited on
mankind was in tunnel combustion engine", in tunnel combustion engine was a
milestone for the technological developments. And also *Dr. Patrick Curry (1999)
spoke "Ring is very seductive, very addictive. Technology is very powerful,
seductive and addictive, too. Whole society becomes dependent on the technology
so when something goes wrong, it goes very wrong.”
Indeed, humanity
is very dependent on technology. However, except for a little minority, nobody
is discontent with the situation. Furthermore, the visible effects of technology
are like of the rings'. It gives us longer comfortable lives, but it also
taints, not the hearts of humans but the nature. Moreover it is a fact that
usage of technology for will intentions may be
devastating.
The last
evidence is that, both in the book and the film, it is implied that if the ring
were not destroyed, destruction of the nature and anything beautiful would be at
hand. And it is a fact that technology slowly destroys the world.
Conclusion:
"I desire to
do this for my own satisfaction and I have little hope that other people would
be interested in this book. Especially since it was primarily linguistic
inspiration and began to provide a necessary background for the history, for the
elvish times."....
...."As for any inner
meanings of the message it has the intention of the author, none. It is neither
allegorical nor topical I totally dislike allegory and all its manifestations
and always had done so. Since I grow old and very enough to detect its presence
I must refer to history, true or faint. With its faint applicability to thought
or experience of the readers, I think that many confuse applicability with
allegory. But the one resides in the freedom of the reader and the other in the
purpose domination of the author."
Tolkien
(foreword to LOTR)
We read books about the first and the Second World War, LOTR and Tolkien and at last we formed our own application. Connected with what we read, we found similarities between the structure of the Middle-Earth and the nature of the real world. At the end of our study we agreed on the following similes:
-Elves as English aristocrats
-Hobbits as English country-dwellers
-Men- good ones are the people of European whereas bad ones are the
Eastern people
-Dwarves as Irish people
-Ents as power of nature
-Orcs, goblins,
etc as creatures of evil and the East
-Wraith as evil
-Wizards as angels
-Sauron as fallen angel, devil
-Aragorn as a hero connected with Tolkien himself
-Ring as technology
These results show us that although LOTR seems like only a well-known film, it is more than that. Middle-Earth is not just an imaginary world, it reflects the reality of the real world and real people. It is told that no man’s mind can reach further than his senses. That is to say it is impossible for us to imagine something that is completely non-existent. There is truth in every fiction and there is fiction in every truth. We wanted to illuminate the truth in LOTR in order to realize the fiction in the world.
Books:
About Tolkien and his
life;
Carpenter, Humprhey. J.R.R. Tolkien. London: George Allen and
Unwin,
1997
Coren, Michael. J.R.R.Tolkien, The Man Who Created The Lord of
the
Rings,2001. Trans. Nil Alt Istanbul: Alti Kirkbes
Yayin,
2002
About World War
I;
Tierney, Brian and Donal Kagan, et al. The Outbreak of World War I
-
Who was responsible? NY: McGraw-Hill,
1997
About
Britain;
Dulton, David. Politics of Diplomacy; Britain and France in the
Balkans
in the First World War. London; New York: LB
Taurus,
Distributed
by St. Martin's Press, 1998
Pollard, A.F. The History of England; Study in Political
Evolution. NY:
H.Holt, 1912
About the Lord
Of the Rings;
Bassham, Gregory and Eric Bronson and William Irwin. The Lord of the
Rings and Philosophy. Ed. William Irwin.
Trans.
Gokcen Ezber and Murat Saglam Istanbul: Guncel
Yayincilik,
2003
Isaacs, Neil O. and Rose A. Zimbardo, et al. Tolkien and the
critics:
essays on JRR Tolkien's Lord of the Rings.
Notre
Dame
(Ind): University of Notre Dame Press, 1968
About the History of Middle-Earth:
Tolkien, J.R.R.. Akallabéth & Of The Rings of Power. Trans.
Funda
Onkol and Cetin San Istanbul: Alti Kirkbes Yayin,
2000
CDs:
Documentary CDs of the
Special Extended DVD Version of "The Lord Of The Rings" about the book, JRR
Tolkien, etc.