Tolkien, Thompson, English Modernity, and the Left

Abstract

Tolkien, Thompson, English Modernity, and the Left Ewan Cameron (bio) Yet such is oft the course of deeds that move the wheels of the world: small hands do them because they must, while the eyes of the great are elsewhere. —J.R.R. Tolkien The working class did not rise like the sun at an appointed time. It was present at its own making. —E. P. Thompson, The Making of the English Working Class There has been something of a desire by those of all ideologies to claim Tolkien for their own cause, and while this essay may follow similar lines, the attempt is not to say that Tolkien was left wing: such a statement would be anachronistic and false. Rather, this is an argument for Tolkien as a resource for those on the left, especially those of an anti-authoritarian stance. In particular, I look at the work of the British historian and socialist humanist E. P. Thompson as a figure whose projects and outlooks have significant intersections with Tolkien's work. Tolkien: Reactionary? To draw links between Tolkien and the left may appear strange to some. After all, Tolkien's biographer, Humphrey Carpenter, wrote that, in being a monarchist who was not exactly enamoured with democracy, Tolkien was right wing, albeit "in modern jargon" (Bio 128). There is also a charge that a reactionary mindset pervades Tolkien's work in both his depiction of political structures such as monarchy and also the undeniable racial element to his work. Perhaps the worst example of this is his description of the orcs, which ventures into the language of racial othering (Fimi, "Was Tolkien Really Racist?"). Born into Victorian society, Tolkien would almost inevitably inherit a racialized worldview that bled into his writings, yet his understanding [End Page 159] of race is perhaps best considered more as a mix of "confusion and vagueness" than any malicious intent (Fimi, Race and Cultural History 157). As he grew older, especially during the rise of Nazism in the 1930s, Tolkien was outspoken against racial chauvinism as it manifested in the world (Letters 37–38). He began to take pains to distance his own work from the appropriation of racists, noting that words such as "Nordic" had become associated with racist theories which he wanted nothing to do with (Letters 55–56). Despite his personal repudiation, the works of Tolkien continue to be claimed by far-right white supremacist groups (Martinez). Tolkien's treatment of race in his work is certainly problematic and it is not something that can or should be ignored. The racially coded language is regrettable and the cultural eurocentrism feels outdated. Nevertheless, our acknowledgement of Tolkien's imperfection, that he did not always live up to the high standards of some of his characters and themes, does not preclude us from finding meaningful value in the majority of his work and themes (Sisto and Marchese). Is it fair to say that Tolkien was a conservative of a reactionary nature, one whose creations appeared at the intersection of nostalgia and nationalism? For Raymond Williams, Tolkien belonged to a class of writers whose rural fantasies "scribbled over" the "real land and its people" (Williams, Country and the City 258). Fred Inglis would go even further, drawing fascist equivalences: for instance, "instead of Nuremberg, Frodo's farewell" (Inglis 40). Societies have claimed and reworked idioms of the past into the national myths of the present to justify a thoroughly modern nationalism (Hobsbawm 6), and Tolkien's conservatism is most prominent in his idealization of certain political formations, especially that of bloodline kingship. In The Lord of the Rings, this is taken to a somewhat absurd extent, with Aragorn taking his "rightful" place as king (RK, V, viii, 136) after a thousand years of his family's absence, somewhat equivalent to the descendants of Harold Godwinson showing up in the twenty-first century United Kingdom and attempting to eject the Windsors from Buckingham Palace. Tolkien also mostly favors aristocratic characters in his narratives, with the majority of speaking characters, whether they are human, dwarf, elf, or hobbit, being renowned for their elite lineage. Sam is a notable exception to this, of course, and...