I love your analysis, and whilst I don't resonante with it all, I admire your bravery in tackling LoTR from a different and refreshing perspective. I first read them over 40 years ago and the books have been a source of comfort and joy and adventure for me. I detest the vitriol aimed at The Rings of Power from a self righteous bunch of mostly male purists and gatekeepers. I say a big joyous hooray and hello to a new, fellow Middle Earth adventurer and her wonderful analysis. Thank you! 🧡
Adele, what a gift of a comment this is, oh my goodness! Thank you for taking the time to write it -- I love this line so much: "I don't resonante with it all, I admire your bravery in tackling LoTR from a different and refreshing perspective." This is why I love writing here -- we know we don't have to connect with every line the other writes, compassion doesn't require comprehension, and I am so grateful for you bringing this energy here. Thank you for sharing how these books are a source of comfort, I totally see why and I adore that books hold such a place in your heart. I too have books that are nearly as much as my home as the roof over my head!! Thank you for the warm welcome - I'm really looking forward to consuming more of Tolkien's work and getting to know him as a human too. What a beautiful world he was able to build alongside the horrors reality too often brings.
Sad to hear that there has been hate for TROP show -- it is just a beaut of a production. You can tell there is genuine care for those creating it.
Thank you, again, for your kindness and graciousness. I am grateful. Thank you for spending your precious time here!! (hard not to emphasize precious for the fun of it!! haha)
Oh my goodness. I’m a lifelong Tolkien fan & have been in the process of deep-reading his works over the past two years now & this article is by FAR—by FAR—the best/my favorite critical analysis piece I’ve come across. Thank you thank you thank you for writing & sharing this with us! 🫶🏻
Wow, wow, wow! What high praise! Thank you so much for spending time with my words and connecting with them (a writers dream!). I’m so interested in reading more from Tolkien, I hadn’t expected to love the fellowship like I did and now I’m feeling greedy for more! I love the various and obvious connections to the medieval, feels right at home.
Oh my gosh I am SO excited for you to read more from him! Especially with the mindset & perspective you brought to LOTR, you are going to find so many of your observations & interpretations supported & fleshed out on so many different levels. 🙌🏻 You're also going to loveee Lúthien (a character inspired by his wife).
I’m probably going to have to come back and comment in a month, after I’ve had sufficient time to digest what you have written here. I’m just so grateful you have written it.
Shaina - I appreciate you so much!! I turned the word count off for this one as I wrote and absolutely guffawed at myself when I saw I'd gotten to nearly 4000 words on LOTR as a feminist manifesto. The laugh I had by myself in my garden was quite silly. Thank you so much for spending your precious time here, I am so grateful. Thank you for the support and kindness and goodness!!! ❤️🌞
I love this! I loved the sheer indulgence of this read. My inner dialogue was like, “she really is geeking out this much. She really is writing about every single woman. There’s still more, and it’s all so good!” It felt like being invited for dinner, and being offered course after perfect course, and then, after dessert, tea is poured and a fire is lit because the pleasures of the evening aren’t over.
OH MY! This is the greatest, loveliest, most beautiful comment! Thank you for saying that I’m honored my writing felt like that because that’s exactly the vibe I hope for!!! Like, please come join let’s chat and get cozy. (Cozy a requirement, really.) I actually had to edit out the Nurse in Gondor who prophesied Aragorn’s rise — I went deep into the medieval French connections with women healers and prophets. I absolutely geeked out! Perfect description. 🤣
Me too! (here for it) I am exploring Ioreth's backstory in an extended Fourth Age fanfic (that is currently on hold cause writing presentations, but someday!).
I’m here for it - maybe you turn this into a weekend workshop on fantasy/medieval fiction with costumes and feasting and mead and late late night conversations about feminism! 😜
I read your post first thing yesterday morning, and it totally made what turned out to be a rather trying day so much better and brighter, one of those moments of joy that are increasingly valuable. I'd love to talk to you more -- I am one of the mythical (according to some of the guys) feminist scholars who has been in love with Tolkien since I first read LOTR when I was ten (in 1965)! I blush to admit I didn't like HOB when I was eight (but I blame the librarian who told me I would like it because it was like the Oz books which was one of my earliest memories of learning adults are not perfect! I realized later that all the reviews back then compared the two because the reviewers just weren't very sure about what the heck this was). So it's always wonderful to meet another feminist fan.
I think your reading of LOTR is fascinating -- for one thing (and I've done bibliographic work on feminist approaches to Tolkien's legendarium), I've never seen anybody make this argument (though I think some of us tiptoe around it)--but also your story about how you finally came to read it, afer bouncing off it earlier is wonderful. I love hearing people's origin stories about Tolkien (and I especially love hearing about how Jackson's film is so often a part of the origin nowadays). I had drifted away from Tolkien for a while when I entered my "angry young feminist" phase (in graduate school in English in a department that was mostly men, ya know how that goes) in the 1980s, but I never got rid of the books no matter how much I moved. They were a talisman to a huge important part of my life. And then I fell head over heels in love with Jackson's films (saw Fellowship 45 times before it left the theatres), and there I was back in Tolkien fandom (and started writing scholarship). So if you'd be at all interested in connecting with others loving and writing about Tolkien, please let me know! Although I completely understand if you want to have something to love that doesn't require scholarship, I think your perspective and work would be a fantastic addition to Tolkien studies! (Alas, I'm afraid I bounced off RoP--I don't hate it but could not find a way into it--but am fascinated in it for so many reasons, not least the way that the christofascists have been attacking it, and a lot of my friends are major fans and have brilliant things to say about it).
Robin, I'm so grateful for you and this beautiful comment with so many lovely gifts within it! I absolutely love your self-description--mythical indeed!!! I'd love to chat further and connect further on this topic--quite honestly, I found myself having to cut out quite a bit in the editing process but there were so many other thematic elements that lent themselves to the medieval feminine -- Aragorn's healing hands and the prophecy coming from a nurse?! Uh, I could have really gone down a rabbit hole on that one.
Anyways, aside from that-- I read your comment aloud to my husband because that first line of my piece uplifting your day? Get out of here, my whole heart!!! I so know that feeling, when the day is heavy yet words provide light and connection, so grateful that you were able to find that within my words right when you needed it. I'm sorry your day was a bit crumby, I am sending so many positive vibes your way, just in case.
Thank you for sharing all of that with me. I bet your books, your talisman, are such a fabulous collection of memories and thoughts explored. I love that you've held on to them in such a way. Though I find less value in the story now due to the author, the Harry Potter series holds that value for me. I have my original paperbacks that are missing covers and littered with debris and earmarks. I don't revisit them much these days, but I don't dare part from them either. They held me in a time when I felt the most alone, and what a gift that was. Perhaps I too will drift back to them in time?
Thank you for offering connection, especially in the form of shared interest and love! I'd love to talk more and get more insights into the world Tolkien built and how people perceived that world. Please feel free to reach out via email: 15centuryfeminist@gmail.com
Thank you for spending your time here, Robin. I am so grateful. ❤️
I shall definitely email you -- have been working on a feminist conference presentation on Tolkien that I'm giving this weekend so have been swamped all week, but I hope to see much much more of your work!
I’m going to properly sit with your words and respond tomorrow, but I read this out loud to my husband because that first line truly moved me. Thank you for sharing that with me. 💜
Well now. Thank you for a path back to books that I loved so much as an 11 year old, a teen and in my twenties. I’d add (if I may) that Tolkien might not have called it the patriarchy but he understood its destructive force in a way that few of his late twentieth century successors would have. The man who wrote of the Dead Marshes and Mordor and the horrors of battle didn’t only write from his knowledge of Anglo-Saxon battle epics - he wrote from life, from the perspective of a man who survived the trenches of the First World War.
Gabriel, what a FANTASTIC addition, oh my goodness. You are so right here. He was clearly a man writing with the knowledge of the horrors that we (humans, but particularly men) are forced to confront under patriarchy. I know my use of the word is absolutely anachronistic here, but you've captured it perfectly. Thank you. I adore that you were transported back to something young Gabriel loved!!! What a great moment to connect with your inner-child. What an honor that you did so here!!
This is absolutely brilliant and I’m glad you took the time to write it. I definitely resonate with your angle on the stories here.
I’ve been a Tolkien fan since I watched the first Peter Jackson film, aged 20, and decided to read the books. I thoroughly enjoyed Rings of Power (especially season 2), which I think aligns well with the book ‘The Fall of Númenor,’ a collection of Tolkien’s writings on the theme of the Second Age.
But as a woman who loves these stories - similarly to my experience with Star Wars fandom - it always seems fraught with danger to admit that I like anything the male gatekeepers deem unacceptable to their interests.
I had some arguments with some bookish women friends some years ago. They insisted that Tolkien was a misogynist because he wrote no “good strong female role models.” Despite disagreeing with their sentiment, based on my reading of his works, I had no decent argument for at the time.
As I’ve had time to ponder that conversation, I think the problem is that Tolkien was too subtle for them. They wanted an obvious strong female character, and Eowyn and Galadriel weren’t enough for them.
If the only allowed story is The Hero’s Journey, then therefore we solve the problem of patriarchy by replacing the man with a woman in that narrative. But of course, it isn’t the only way to tell a story.
In light of what you’re writing here, perhaps Tolkien subverted the Hero’s Journey (not necessarily consciously - I’m just pondering possibilities) by using the skeleton of it as a framework, then giving the male characters far more depth of emotion, inner growth and “feminine” qualities than readers would normally experience in that mode of storytelling.
Anyway, I really appreciate this post. I’ll be thinking about it for a while.
Fiona, I so apologize for missing this comment when you left it (notifications are a challenge for me, for sure) but what a wonderful comment to come back to! I am honored that you were able to find connection in my words here, thank you for spending your precious time here.
I'm not sure if it is because I spend so much time in medieval texts, so perhaps I lent a little too much of a medieval reading (though based off setting throughout, I don't think so) but Galadriel especially is anything but subtle, though I completely understand your friends wanting a more modern show of a female role model. But, if we read it as a medieval text, Galadriel being mentioned throughout the hardest points within Mordor (well, and the entire journey really) is anything but subtle for a medieval heroine. Both parties of the split fraternity mention her endless, either Gimli exhorting her beauty (which literally meant power in medieval texts when ascribed to women), or Sam and Frodo thanking her for her far away power and light. That didn't feel subtle at all, though I guess reading it through modernity it may have felt repressive.
Thank you for that last sentence, what a dream for a writer to hear "i'll be thinking about it for a while" -- my heart!!! Thank you for spending your time and thoughts with my words, Fiona. I am so grateful!
Thank you! That is very interesting about how the story reads using the medieval framework. I am not super familiar with that era of myth, but I have (in recent years) taken a keen amateur interest in mythology, and I do think Tolkien was writing Myth with a capital M. That was part of my argument with my friends. I was saying that characters don’t need to be deeply fleshed out, though they certainly are in Tolkien’s writings. But yes, I think you’re right - they wanted something more modern, and were complaining that they couldn’t find it in a book that was written during our grandparents’ generation.
Fiona--I am so glad I checked back and found your comment -- for one thing, yeah, I've run into those male gatekeepers over the years (decades before Gamergate!!--at least back in the 1970s/80s, the macho temper tantrums had to come via snail mail (via apazines, fanzines) which slowed it down a bit). Given your excellent comments about the subversion of the "Hero's Journey" I think you might like what I consider to be the first feminist essay on Tolkien's work (meaning she openly identifies as a feminist, and uses feminist theoriests!): Edith Crowe's "Power in Arda." It's one of a group of essays I go around recommending (ahem) fairly often. And it's open-access:
Thank you for your response, and for the link! I will have a look at that!
As a millennial, it wasn’t until my late teens that I was able to go onto the internet and encounter other girls and women who loved Star Wars and similar fantasy, and created fandom spaces away from the male gatekeepers. It was such a relief to find them, because I struggled to find real life fantasy-loving friends in my rural Australian hometown! Most of them were the awkward boys at school who spent lunchtimes in the library huddled over the chessboards, but there was a sense I wasn’t welcome to intrude on that space.
Thankfully my maternal grandfather - a dedicated educator and school principal - encouraged me to explore these stories and ideas that other adults in my life assigned as masculine interests. He loved Tolkien and did daily readings of The Hobbit to his classes. When the first of the Peter Jackson films came out (when I was around 20), I finally understood the appeal and I’ve been hooked ever since. My mum was heavily involved in that fandom for several years, too. She even flew to NZ for the fan events around the opening of The Return of the King.
I've read LOTR many times (the first time in my early 20s), and I've never considered it in this view, Kate. I need to read it again with this interpretation in mind. An excellent article, and a superb and thought-
This is really high praise, my goodness. Thank you for taking the time to say this. And massive thank you for spending time with my words and finding something within them, I’m honored you spent your time here.
I absolutely love that everyone is including their intro to the stories here, what a gem!! I think I was 19 the first time I really, really gave them a try and I don’t think I even made it to the prancing pony. I remembered feeling shame because I didn’t like them and couldn’t get into it, I just discreetly put it down and moved on… the pressures of patriarchy are just silly sometimes.
I tried reading it when I was in grade 9, but was told The Two Towers was the first book (there was no internet then to verify), and was totally lost. I remember being so crushed when I read it and reached the end… and realized it was over, had not realized that most of Return of the King was appendices.
You deserve the praise! I’ve been blogging since 2008 and I know how much work that was to write. Give this person all the hearts, people!
this is so insightful! i'm just chapters away from finishing lotr and this is such a great analysis. in all honesty i'm commenting because the association in the footnotes of denethor with white womanhood is brilliant but also made me laugh imagining denethor as a WASP mom. this analysis gives me a new perspective on my own female-centred fantasy novel, thank you so much ❤️
Thank you so much for this. Please know I giggled as I wrote that footnote! Denethor is the school drop off line with his lulu -- why can I picture that with his raven slick hair?! Happy journeying through your final chapters!!! I'm so glad these words were able to find you in the exact right moment, I love that alignment so much. Thank you for spending your time here with my words. 🥰❤️
Fascinating analysis - and your focus on ‘light skin and bright eyes’ recalls Tolkien’s obscure unfinished story Tal-Elmar (in The Peoples of Middle-earth) that addresses the evils of conquest and colonialism more overtly: “White skins and bright eyes are no warrant for such [cruel, lawless] deeds.”
Thank you! Oh wow, that is so incredibly interesting. The more I read of Tolkien and his views on the world, the more I want to venture into his other works. What a world he created in his mind!! I so appreciate you spending your precious time here. Thank you. ❤️
I am completely obsessed with this reading. This by far the best take on LOTR I’ve ever read, and I can’t wait to revisit the books and films through this lens.
Katherine! Thank you for this, oh my goodness. I was honestly so worried sharing this, it is such a deviation and fandoms can be soul crushing — but the reception this has received, my whole heart!! Once this idea came into my head, I couldn’t stop seeing it everywhere in the story. Made me laugh, JD Vance very famously talks about LOTR being his conservative idea think tank, while I read it as a fall of everything Vance holds dear. 🤣 I really appreciate this note, thank you for spending your time here with my words 💜
This is an extraordinary piece. I'm reading Lord of the Rings to three of my sons. We spend about an hour a day, entranced. It is an extraordinary gift--a portal to so many messages. I can't wait to read it with your analysis in mind. You are doing such beautiful and important work. Thank you.
Isabel, what a beautiful comment and I'm so grateful you've shared that with me! What an extraordinary way to spend your time with your babes! My daughter and I have been listening to the Andy Serkis audiobook at night--I was trying my best to do the voices and characters but that man can ACT (voice act? lol) and it has been so fun listening together and talking about all of the various things that pop into an 8 year old's brain. Truly so many wonderful messages of companionship, care, loyalty--what a gift Tolkien left us.
I so appreciate your kind words and your support, truly. It means so very much to me. Thank you. I'm honored you spent your most precious non-renewable resource with my words and found value in them. The writer's dream, really.❤️
Oh my goodness, no small task at all! I recently started playing the Andy Serkis version of the audio book for my daughter at bedtime -- that man has a gift with voices! I love that you are including your kids in this adventure, such a beautiful thing. I appreciate you spending time here Michelle ❤️
Having read the Trilogy around 30 times (I stopped counting at 17 when I graduated from high school), I was deeply moved by your writing. It she'd new light on the work. I've always felt there was something slightly "subversive" (if you will) about the story, but this highlights it in a new, and very important way for me. When she was little, I read The Hobbit to my daughter (now 46), as I did for my younger sister. She only in the last couple of years told me she hated it, and so never read or watched the Trilogy. Maybe this will change her mind. Probably not.
I am so glad that my words were able to explain something you felt buzzing around when reading and contemplating this beloved story! I hope your daughter is able to find some light within a story that maybe she was convinced contained none, but I do know not everyone’s writing is for everyone — so maybe there is another story to connect over out there waiting to be found. Thanks for spending time with my words Bill, I am so very grateful! 💜💜
Mind blowing! My heart-your mind to frame these ideas with powerful clarity not a hammer
I was about to go to sleep and I came across your Substack. I will be back. This is right out my alley. I don’t think I could have a write something like this. Thank you for giving us so much thought genius really!
I love your analysis, and whilst I don't resonante with it all, I admire your bravery in tackling LoTR from a different and refreshing perspective. I first read them over 40 years ago and the books have been a source of comfort and joy and adventure for me. I detest the vitriol aimed at The Rings of Power from a self righteous bunch of mostly male purists and gatekeepers. I say a big joyous hooray and hello to a new, fellow Middle Earth adventurer and her wonderful analysis. Thank you! 🧡
Adele, what a gift of a comment this is, oh my goodness! Thank you for taking the time to write it -- I love this line so much: "I don't resonante with it all, I admire your bravery in tackling LoTR from a different and refreshing perspective." This is why I love writing here -- we know we don't have to connect with every line the other writes, compassion doesn't require comprehension, and I am so grateful for you bringing this energy here. Thank you for sharing how these books are a source of comfort, I totally see why and I adore that books hold such a place in your heart. I too have books that are nearly as much as my home as the roof over my head!! Thank you for the warm welcome - I'm really looking forward to consuming more of Tolkien's work and getting to know him as a human too. What a beautiful world he was able to build alongside the horrors reality too often brings.
Sad to hear that there has been hate for TROP show -- it is just a beaut of a production. You can tell there is genuine care for those creating it.
Thank you, again, for your kindness and graciousness. I am grateful. Thank you for spending your precious time here!! (hard not to emphasize precious for the fun of it!! haha)
Oh my goodness. I’m a lifelong Tolkien fan & have been in the process of deep-reading his works over the past two years now & this article is by FAR—by FAR—the best/my favorite critical analysis piece I’ve come across. Thank you thank you thank you for writing & sharing this with us! 🫶🏻
Wow, wow, wow! What high praise! Thank you so much for spending time with my words and connecting with them (a writers dream!). I’m so interested in reading more from Tolkien, I hadn’t expected to love the fellowship like I did and now I’m feeling greedy for more! I love the various and obvious connections to the medieval, feels right at home.
Truly, thank you. I so appreciate this comment 💜
Oh my gosh I am SO excited for you to read more from him! Especially with the mindset & perspective you brought to LOTR, you are going to find so many of your observations & interpretations supported & fleshed out on so many different levels. 🙌🏻 You're also going to loveee Lúthien (a character inspired by his wife).
Uh! This may become my entire personality soon. Thank you for sharing!!! I am so grateful for a direction to head in within his works. 💜
I’m probably going to have to come back and comment in a month, after I’ve had sufficient time to digest what you have written here. I’m just so grateful you have written it.
Shaina - I appreciate you so much!! I turned the word count off for this one as I wrote and absolutely guffawed at myself when I saw I'd gotten to nearly 4000 words on LOTR as a feminist manifesto. The laugh I had by myself in my garden was quite silly. Thank you so much for spending your precious time here, I am so grateful. Thank you for the support and kindness and goodness!!! ❤️🌞
I love this! I loved the sheer indulgence of this read. My inner dialogue was like, “she really is geeking out this much. She really is writing about every single woman. There’s still more, and it’s all so good!” It felt like being invited for dinner, and being offered course after perfect course, and then, after dessert, tea is poured and a fire is lit because the pleasures of the evening aren’t over.
OH MY! This is the greatest, loveliest, most beautiful comment! Thank you for saying that I’m honored my writing felt like that because that’s exactly the vibe I hope for!!! Like, please come join let’s chat and get cozy. (Cozy a requirement, really.) I actually had to edit out the Nurse in Gondor who prophesied Aragorn’s rise — I went deep into the medieval French connections with women healers and prophets. I absolutely geeked out! Perfect description. 🤣
Ha, well if you ever want to release the extended version I’m here for it 😂
Me too! (here for it) I am exploring Ioreth's backstory in an extended Fourth Age fanfic (that is currently on hold cause writing presentations, but someday!).
I’m here for it - maybe you turn this into a weekend workshop on fantasy/medieval fiction with costumes and feasting and mead and late late night conversations about feminism! 😜
Oh that would just be the most fantastic, wouldn't it?! If I had the means -- that would be happening! Can we crowd source this?! LOL
YES
I read your post first thing yesterday morning, and it totally made what turned out to be a rather trying day so much better and brighter, one of those moments of joy that are increasingly valuable. I'd love to talk to you more -- I am one of the mythical (according to some of the guys) feminist scholars who has been in love with Tolkien since I first read LOTR when I was ten (in 1965)! I blush to admit I didn't like HOB when I was eight (but I blame the librarian who told me I would like it because it was like the Oz books which was one of my earliest memories of learning adults are not perfect! I realized later that all the reviews back then compared the two because the reviewers just weren't very sure about what the heck this was). So it's always wonderful to meet another feminist fan.
I think your reading of LOTR is fascinating -- for one thing (and I've done bibliographic work on feminist approaches to Tolkien's legendarium), I've never seen anybody make this argument (though I think some of us tiptoe around it)--but also your story about how you finally came to read it, afer bouncing off it earlier is wonderful. I love hearing people's origin stories about Tolkien (and I especially love hearing about how Jackson's film is so often a part of the origin nowadays). I had drifted away from Tolkien for a while when I entered my "angry young feminist" phase (in graduate school in English in a department that was mostly men, ya know how that goes) in the 1980s, but I never got rid of the books no matter how much I moved. They were a talisman to a huge important part of my life. And then I fell head over heels in love with Jackson's films (saw Fellowship 45 times before it left the theatres), and there I was back in Tolkien fandom (and started writing scholarship). So if you'd be at all interested in connecting with others loving and writing about Tolkien, please let me know! Although I completely understand if you want to have something to love that doesn't require scholarship, I think your perspective and work would be a fantastic addition to Tolkien studies! (Alas, I'm afraid I bounced off RoP--I don't hate it but could not find a way into it--but am fascinated in it for so many reasons, not least the way that the christofascists have been attacking it, and a lot of my friends are major fans and have brilliant things to say about it).
Robin, I'm so grateful for you and this beautiful comment with so many lovely gifts within it! I absolutely love your self-description--mythical indeed!!! I'd love to chat further and connect further on this topic--quite honestly, I found myself having to cut out quite a bit in the editing process but there were so many other thematic elements that lent themselves to the medieval feminine -- Aragorn's healing hands and the prophecy coming from a nurse?! Uh, I could have really gone down a rabbit hole on that one.
Anyways, aside from that-- I read your comment aloud to my husband because that first line of my piece uplifting your day? Get out of here, my whole heart!!! I so know that feeling, when the day is heavy yet words provide light and connection, so grateful that you were able to find that within my words right when you needed it. I'm sorry your day was a bit crumby, I am sending so many positive vibes your way, just in case.
Thank you for sharing all of that with me. I bet your books, your talisman, are such a fabulous collection of memories and thoughts explored. I love that you've held on to them in such a way. Though I find less value in the story now due to the author, the Harry Potter series holds that value for me. I have my original paperbacks that are missing covers and littered with debris and earmarks. I don't revisit them much these days, but I don't dare part from them either. They held me in a time when I felt the most alone, and what a gift that was. Perhaps I too will drift back to them in time?
Thank you for offering connection, especially in the form of shared interest and love! I'd love to talk more and get more insights into the world Tolkien built and how people perceived that world. Please feel free to reach out via email: 15centuryfeminist@gmail.com
Thank you for spending your time here, Robin. I am so grateful. ❤️
I shall definitely email you -- have been working on a feminist conference presentation on Tolkien that I'm giving this weekend so have been swamped all week, but I hope to see much much more of your work!
I’m going to properly sit with your words and respond tomorrow, but I read this out loud to my husband because that first line truly moved me. Thank you for sharing that with me. 💜
Well now. Thank you for a path back to books that I loved so much as an 11 year old, a teen and in my twenties. I’d add (if I may) that Tolkien might not have called it the patriarchy but he understood its destructive force in a way that few of his late twentieth century successors would have. The man who wrote of the Dead Marshes and Mordor and the horrors of battle didn’t only write from his knowledge of Anglo-Saxon battle epics - he wrote from life, from the perspective of a man who survived the trenches of the First World War.
Really looking forward to reading more of Tolkien's work and further exploring the world he built from his mind.
Gabriel, what a FANTASTIC addition, oh my goodness. You are so right here. He was clearly a man writing with the knowledge of the horrors that we (humans, but particularly men) are forced to confront under patriarchy. I know my use of the word is absolutely anachronistic here, but you've captured it perfectly. Thank you. I adore that you were transported back to something young Gabriel loved!!! What a great moment to connect with your inner-child. What an honor that you did so here!!
This is absolutely brilliant and I’m glad you took the time to write it. I definitely resonate with your angle on the stories here.
I’ve been a Tolkien fan since I watched the first Peter Jackson film, aged 20, and decided to read the books. I thoroughly enjoyed Rings of Power (especially season 2), which I think aligns well with the book ‘The Fall of Númenor,’ a collection of Tolkien’s writings on the theme of the Second Age.
But as a woman who loves these stories - similarly to my experience with Star Wars fandom - it always seems fraught with danger to admit that I like anything the male gatekeepers deem unacceptable to their interests.
I had some arguments with some bookish women friends some years ago. They insisted that Tolkien was a misogynist because he wrote no “good strong female role models.” Despite disagreeing with their sentiment, based on my reading of his works, I had no decent argument for at the time.
As I’ve had time to ponder that conversation, I think the problem is that Tolkien was too subtle for them. They wanted an obvious strong female character, and Eowyn and Galadriel weren’t enough for them.
If the only allowed story is The Hero’s Journey, then therefore we solve the problem of patriarchy by replacing the man with a woman in that narrative. But of course, it isn’t the only way to tell a story.
In light of what you’re writing here, perhaps Tolkien subverted the Hero’s Journey (not necessarily consciously - I’m just pondering possibilities) by using the skeleton of it as a framework, then giving the male characters far more depth of emotion, inner growth and “feminine” qualities than readers would normally experience in that mode of storytelling.
Anyway, I really appreciate this post. I’ll be thinking about it for a while.
Fiona, I so apologize for missing this comment when you left it (notifications are a challenge for me, for sure) but what a wonderful comment to come back to! I am honored that you were able to find connection in my words here, thank you for spending your precious time here.
I'm not sure if it is because I spend so much time in medieval texts, so perhaps I lent a little too much of a medieval reading (though based off setting throughout, I don't think so) but Galadriel especially is anything but subtle, though I completely understand your friends wanting a more modern show of a female role model. But, if we read it as a medieval text, Galadriel being mentioned throughout the hardest points within Mordor (well, and the entire journey really) is anything but subtle for a medieval heroine. Both parties of the split fraternity mention her endless, either Gimli exhorting her beauty (which literally meant power in medieval texts when ascribed to women), or Sam and Frodo thanking her for her far away power and light. That didn't feel subtle at all, though I guess reading it through modernity it may have felt repressive.
Thank you for that last sentence, what a dream for a writer to hear "i'll be thinking about it for a while" -- my heart!!! Thank you for spending your time and thoughts with my words, Fiona. I am so grateful!
Thank you! That is very interesting about how the story reads using the medieval framework. I am not super familiar with that era of myth, but I have (in recent years) taken a keen amateur interest in mythology, and I do think Tolkien was writing Myth with a capital M. That was part of my argument with my friends. I was saying that characters don’t need to be deeply fleshed out, though they certainly are in Tolkien’s writings. But yes, I think you’re right - they wanted something more modern, and were complaining that they couldn’t find it in a book that was written during our grandparents’ generation.
Fiona--I am so glad I checked back and found your comment -- for one thing, yeah, I've run into those male gatekeepers over the years (decades before Gamergate!!--at least back in the 1970s/80s, the macho temper tantrums had to come via snail mail (via apazines, fanzines) which slowed it down a bit). Given your excellent comments about the subversion of the "Hero's Journey" I think you might like what I consider to be the first feminist essay on Tolkien's work (meaning she openly identifies as a feminist, and uses feminist theoriests!): Edith Crowe's "Power in Arda." It's one of a group of essays I go around recommending (ahem) fairly often. And it's open-access:
https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore/vol21/iss2/40/
Thank you for your response, and for the link! I will have a look at that!
As a millennial, it wasn’t until my late teens that I was able to go onto the internet and encounter other girls and women who loved Star Wars and similar fantasy, and created fandom spaces away from the male gatekeepers. It was such a relief to find them, because I struggled to find real life fantasy-loving friends in my rural Australian hometown! Most of them were the awkward boys at school who spent lunchtimes in the library huddled over the chessboards, but there was a sense I wasn’t welcome to intrude on that space.
Thankfully my maternal grandfather - a dedicated educator and school principal - encouraged me to explore these stories and ideas that other adults in my life assigned as masculine interests. He loved Tolkien and did daily readings of The Hobbit to his classes. When the first of the Peter Jackson films came out (when I was around 20), I finally understood the appeal and I’ve been hooked ever since. My mum was heavily involved in that fandom for several years, too. She even flew to NZ for the fan events around the opening of The Return of the King.
I've read LOTR many times (the first time in my early 20s), and I've never considered it in this view, Kate. I need to read it again with this interpretation in mind. An excellent article, and a superb and thought-
provoking read, thank you.
This is really high praise, my goodness. Thank you for taking the time to say this. And massive thank you for spending time with my words and finding something within them, I’m honored you spent your time here.
I absolutely love that everyone is including their intro to the stories here, what a gem!! I think I was 19 the first time I really, really gave them a try and I don’t think I even made it to the prancing pony. I remembered feeling shame because I didn’t like them and couldn’t get into it, I just discreetly put it down and moved on… the pressures of patriarchy are just silly sometimes.
Thank you for this 💖
I tried reading it when I was in grade 9, but was told The Two Towers was the first book (there was no internet then to verify), and was totally lost. I remember being so crushed when I read it and reached the end… and realized it was over, had not realized that most of Return of the King was appendices.
You deserve the praise! I’ve been blogging since 2008 and I know how much work that was to write. Give this person all the hearts, people!
this is so insightful! i'm just chapters away from finishing lotr and this is such a great analysis. in all honesty i'm commenting because the association in the footnotes of denethor with white womanhood is brilliant but also made me laugh imagining denethor as a WASP mom. this analysis gives me a new perspective on my own female-centred fantasy novel, thank you so much ❤️
Thank you so much for this. Please know I giggled as I wrote that footnote! Denethor is the school drop off line with his lulu -- why can I picture that with his raven slick hair?! Happy journeying through your final chapters!!! I'm so glad these words were able to find you in the exact right moment, I love that alignment so much. Thank you for spending your time here with my words. 🥰❤️
Fascinating analysis - and your focus on ‘light skin and bright eyes’ recalls Tolkien’s obscure unfinished story Tal-Elmar (in The Peoples of Middle-earth) that addresses the evils of conquest and colonialism more overtly: “White skins and bright eyes are no warrant for such [cruel, lawless] deeds.”
Thank you! Oh wow, that is so incredibly interesting. The more I read of Tolkien and his views on the world, the more I want to venture into his other works. What a world he created in his mind!! I so appreciate you spending your precious time here. Thank you. ❤️
I am completely obsessed with this reading. This by far the best take on LOTR I’ve ever read, and I can’t wait to revisit the books and films through this lens.
Katherine! Thank you for this, oh my goodness. I was honestly so worried sharing this, it is such a deviation and fandoms can be soul crushing — but the reception this has received, my whole heart!! Once this idea came into my head, I couldn’t stop seeing it everywhere in the story. Made me laugh, JD Vance very famously talks about LOTR being his conservative idea think tank, while I read it as a fall of everything Vance holds dear. 🤣 I really appreciate this note, thank you for spending your time here with my words 💜
Thanks for this. I like this bending on a story I love so much to an arc we need so much.
Thanks for spending time with my words and finding some connection in them, I’m honored!!
This is an extraordinary piece. I'm reading Lord of the Rings to three of my sons. We spend about an hour a day, entranced. It is an extraordinary gift--a portal to so many messages. I can't wait to read it with your analysis in mind. You are doing such beautiful and important work. Thank you.
Isabel, what a beautiful comment and I'm so grateful you've shared that with me! What an extraordinary way to spend your time with your babes! My daughter and I have been listening to the Andy Serkis audiobook at night--I was trying my best to do the voices and characters but that man can ACT (voice act? lol) and it has been so fun listening together and talking about all of the various things that pop into an 8 year old's brain. Truly so many wonderful messages of companionship, care, loyalty--what a gift Tolkien left us.
I so appreciate your kind words and your support, truly. It means so very much to me. Thank you. I'm honored you spent your most precious non-renewable resource with my words and found value in them. The writer's dream, really.❤️
You make work of deep value, keep going! I'm so glad to be here.
I read these books aloud to my kids! No small task! I include a picture of my volume in a recent piece.
Oh my goodness, no small task at all! I recently started playing the Andy Serkis version of the audio book for my daughter at bedtime -- that man has a gift with voices! I love that you are including your kids in this adventure, such a beautiful thing. I appreciate you spending time here Michelle ❤️
Well, it took a while, but I finally pulled this post recommending your post together:
https://robinareid.substack.com/p/feminists-and-tolkien?sd=pf
Having read the Trilogy around 30 times (I stopped counting at 17 when I graduated from high school), I was deeply moved by your writing. It she'd new light on the work. I've always felt there was something slightly "subversive" (if you will) about the story, but this highlights it in a new, and very important way for me. When she was little, I read The Hobbit to my daughter (now 46), as I did for my younger sister. She only in the last couple of years told me she hated it, and so never read or watched the Trilogy. Maybe this will change her mind. Probably not.
I am so glad that my words were able to explain something you felt buzzing around when reading and contemplating this beloved story! I hope your daughter is able to find some light within a story that maybe she was convinced contained none, but I do know not everyone’s writing is for everyone — so maybe there is another story to connect over out there waiting to be found. Thanks for spending time with my words Bill, I am so very grateful! 💜💜
Mind blowing! My heart-your mind to frame these ideas with powerful clarity not a hammer
I was about to go to sleep and I came across your Substack. I will be back. This is right out my alley. I don’t think I could have a write something like this. Thank you for giving us so much thought genius really!
You got me thinking about so many things.
🌹
Wow, such kinds words! Thank you so much for all of them and for spending time here, I am grateful. 💜