This episode is brought to you by Vincero
Watches. What’s up, Wisecrack. Jared again. With the recent release of J.R.R. Tolkien’s final book
and the upcoming Middle-earth Amazon series with a production budget of a half-a-billion
dollars, it’s a great time to be a Tolkien fan. But while the growing body of work set in
Middle-earth means everything is always improving for fantasy fans, Tolkien himself was of the
opposite opinion: everything is always getting worse. A self-avowed pessimist, Tolkien went so far
as to say that he didn’t believe history would be anything more than one long defeat. This idea of defeat and decline is the very
quality that infuses his fiction with such a sense of longing and nostalgia. But is progress really a pernicious myth,
or was Tolkien hitting that pipe-weed a little too hard? *laughter*
Well let’s crack open some dusty tomes and find out in this Wisecrack Edition on J.R.R. Tolkien’s Philosophy of History. But before we get there, just a quick shoutout
to our sponsor Vincero. They’ve been massively supportive of us
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so thanks again to Vincero, and now, back to the show. Here’s a quick breakdown for the uninitiated. You’re probably aware of Tolkien’s most
famous works, Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, or at least Peter Jackson’s phenomenal and
then just God-awful adaptations of them, respectively. But what you may not know is that Frodo and
Bilbo exist in an entire Tolkien Literary Universe set in Middle Earth. The history of Middle Earth is long, and set
into distinct ages, with Lord of the Rings occuring at the end of the third age and the
beginning of the 4th, but that’ll be important in a little bit. These ages are, of course, fictional. But they also sync up with our own very real
timelines right around the period between prehistory and history. In other words, Lord of the Rings happens
on Earth, just a really really long time ago. Which, for reasons I’ll get into, is very
important. But before we get into why Tolkien thought
everything is always getting worse, we have to understand one thing. The dude loved history. In The Lost Road, his abandoned book about
time travel from our own era back to the Second Age of Middle-earth, Tolkien, through a clearly
autobiographical character, writes that his most permanent mood
“had been since childhood the desire… to see the lie of old and forgotten lands,
to behold ancient men walking, to hear their languages as they spoke them, in the days
before, when tongues of forgotten lineage were heard in the kingdoms long fallen….” This deep passion for history shows in just
how much it pervades his writings. There are over six hundred references to the
history of Middle-earth in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. Tolkien’s own brush with world history had
an even more obvious influence on Middle-earth. Faithful servant Sam Gamgee was inspired by
the servants who helped officers such as Tolkien in the trenches of World War I, and Sam’s
journey through the blasted and barren land of Mordor is an unmistakable image of No Man’s
Land. Tolkien’s interest extended beyond events
themselves and into the development of languages, literature, and legends. Punctuation: "I first started inventing languages
about uh, when I was 13 or 14, and I've never stopped, really." In fact, the exploration of his artificial
languages were Tolkien’s main concern. Believe it or not, the entire history of Middle-earth
is really just a history of the development of Tolkien’s constructed languages. Tolkien himself said, “The invention of
languages is the foundation. The 'stories' were made rather to provide
a world for the languages than the reverse.” “What do you suppose that means?” “Well it’s quite simple, if you are a
friend you speak the password and the doors will open”. Tolkien was also fascinated by the historical
composition and transmission of the written word, undoubtedly stemming from his work as
a specialist in medieval culture. The conceit for Lord of the Rings was that
it was his own English translation of a book written by hobbits: The Red Book of Westmarch. Incidentally, this fictional book also has
a rich history with no less than five fictional editions, tracing back through writings made
by Samwise, Frodo, and Bilbo. So the Lord of Rings isn’t meant to be read
as a perfect representation of historical events, but as stories that have been passed
down, altered, and inevitably, corrupted. "I wonder if people will ever say ‘Let’s
hear about Frodo and the Ring’ and they’ll say ‘Yes it’s one of my favorite stories’". So it’s safe to say that Tolkien was obsessed
with history and the process of writing it. But that’s what makes it so strange that
his thoughts about history were so radically different from most contemporary historians
and laymen alike. Many philosophers of history – especially
those popular in Tolkien’s time – thought the move from past to future represented some
kind of progress. Technologically, we’ve gotten the wheel,
the steam engine, and frozen pizza. And morally, most people would agree that
we became a more just society after the adoption of the Bill of Rights,
and even more so after the end of slavery, and again after the end of segregation. Martin Luther King summed up this thinking
when he said, “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” Tolkien vehemently disagreed. He thought that our technological progress
wasn’t entirely a good thing and that we weren’t progressing morally whatsoever,
proclaiming in On Fairy-Stories “The way men were living in the twentieth century was
increasing in barbarity at an alarming rate….” While Tolkien acknowledged that technology
grew increasingly complex, he mocked the idea that industrialization represented an advancement
for society. He witnessed his beloved boyhood home of Sarehole
despoiled by the encroachment of men and machinery. It’s a scene which replays itself during
the Scouring of the Shire, in which trees are needlessly uprooted to make room for ugly
rows of housing and a pleasant water mill is replaced by one billowing black smoke all
over the countryside. In The Lost Road he conflates the human kingdom
of Númenor’s industrialization with their cultural decay. “Our towers grow ever stronger and climb
ever higher, but beauty they leave behind upon the earth… men are ceasing to give
love or care for the making of other things for use or delight.” In The Hobbit Tolkien claims that technological
development is a symptom of orcish thought, commenting
“It is not unlikely that [goblins] invented some of the machines that have since troubled
the world, especially the ingenious devices for killing large numbers of people at once,
for wheels and engines and explosions always delighted them”. Those wheels and engines were rolled out for
the first time in the form of tanks upon the Western Front, where Tolkien at the Battle
of the Somme witnessed firsthand the goblin-work wrought by the explosive power of modern artillery. Despite the horrors of trench and chemical
warfare, many of Tolkien’s contemporaries at the time regarded the Great War as emblematic
not only of technological progress in the form of more innovative means of mass killing,
but as a necessary step in human history for social progress too. Tolkien, always the pessimist, disagreed. He believed conflict to be inevitable, and
recounted years later that this idea arose as a reaction to the contemporary discussions
about a War to End All Wars. He didn’t believe such rhetoric during the
war, and disliked it even more after it. That conflict must be perpetual is part of
his idea of history as being cyclical. Instead of there being a straight line from
a primitive past to a more civilized future, Tolkien envisions societies throughout the
ages all dealing with the same perennial set of circumstances arising from unchanging human
nature. "War will make corpses of us all." Many of the events in Middle Earth are meant
to be reminiscent of the past. So we have Frodo Nine-Fingered in possession
of Sauron’s ring during the third age, aka Lord of the Rings, which resembles another
amputee hero from the past, Beren One-Handed, who recovers a magic jewel from Sauron’s
former master in the first age. But Tolkien is no George Lucas, building a
second Death Star, or J.J. Abrams creating a third… and good god I hope not a fourth. The repetition of this motif is not the result
of a lazy author returning to the same well for lack of an original idea. Rather, Frodo bears likeness to Beren because
the world they inhabit, though separated by thousands of years, is once again in similar
straights. history is repeating itself because it is
cyclical. "The Eagles are Coming” “The Eagles! The Eagles are Coming!" But the history of Middle-earth is not simply
cyclical, it’s cyclical but always getting worse. These overarching cycles in the history of
Middle-earth were broken up into four distinct ages that illustrate history as degradation. These bear conspicuous resemblance to Hesiod
and Ovid’s myths of the Ages of Man, in which they established the now familiar pattern
of Golden, Silver, Bronze, and Iron ages. In mankind’s Golden Age, perfect people
lived in an Edenic State of Nature, not dissimilar to the Elves in Tolkien’s First Age coming
to live among the gods in the earthly paradise. Then succeed the Silver and Bronze Ages, each
progressively worse for man and filled with worse men, followed by the current Iron Age,
the most evil and unhappy yet. Likewise, across the ages of Middle-earth
there is an overriding entropy, each cycle less mythic and more mundane. There is a grandeur in the past that can be
echoed in the later ages, but never fully recaptured. "You are a lesser son of greater sires." Consider Rome, aka the City on Seven hills,
which Caesar Augustus bragged he left as a city of marble. Yes, the real ROME. Remember Tolkien’s history happens before
our own real history. To drive the point home, we learn of the many
cities that preceded Rome, also are adorned with marble and have seven of something. But the further back in time we go, the more
grandeur we see. In the Third Age, it was the seven-leveled
city of Minas Tirith in Gondor. In the Second Age, there was the city of Rómenna,
from which Tolkien implies that Rome derives its name. In the First Age, there was the original and
oldest, the seven-gated city of Gondolin. But as grand as we know Rome was in its heyday,
Tolkien would say it had nothing on Minis Tirith during the reign of King Elessar. And he would have said, “Yeah, but this
ain’t nothing compared to Númenor in its Golden Age” (though he’d probably say
it slightly more regally). And King Elros of Númenor would’ve said
to that “Y’all should hear my dad talk about Gondolin when Turgon was king, before
those dragons burned it all down to the ground!” (Again, more regally.) The point being, for Tolkien, older equals
better. Having the same pattern repeat time and again
throughout the cycles of history, but becoming a progressively poorer and poorer copy, is
his way of illustrating that point. "The blood of Numenor is all but spent, its
pride and dignity forgotten!" Tolkien’s portrayal of history can be partially
attributed to aesthetics. Tolkien wished to imbue his work with a Medieval
flavor, and the Medieval period is primarily viewed as the ruins of a more glorious antiquity. Because in the history of Middle-earth each
age is inferior to the one which preceded it, its whole history is imbibed with a nostalgia
for a past that can never be recovered. "Long have I desired to look upon the kings
of old. My kin." But it’s also, as we mentioned, a direct
challenge to the Myth of Progress. Instead he favors looking backwards and appreciating
past, perennial, and even eternal matters. It’s for this reason that the noble knights
of Gondor always look Westward before eating each meal. “We look towards Númenor that was, and
beyond to Elvenhome that is, and to that which is beyond Elvenhome and ever will be.” His friend CS Lewis coined the term “chronological
snobbery” to describe those who had an irrational preference for anything new over anything
old. But Tolkien was no mere debbie downer. He had an actual philosophy of history that
he espoused, one which he and Lewis shared with the medieval minds they spent their careers
studying. Middle-earth and the real world are in constant
decline for Tolkien because of the way he understands the fundamental nature of reality. Tolkien and Lewis believed that Evil was real,
not merely some idea or social construct, but a real and powerful force. Indeed, the most powerful force in the world. Sometimes Tolkien would portray Evil as personalized,
as with Sauron, or with Sauron’s master from the First Age, Morgoth, who was himself
more powerful than all the forces of good in the world combined. But Tolkien also portrayed Evil as an impersonal
force, something even the most pure and innocent hearts were capable of being bent towards. Gandalf refuses the Ring for that very reason,
knowing he could and would be corrupted. And it’s worth remembering that when he
stood at the Cracks of Doom, Frodo failed; he abandoned his mission, gave into temptation,
and took the Ring for himself. “The ring is mine” “No”
Tolkien called the earth “Morgoth’s Ring,” just as Sauron poured most of his potency
into the One Ring, his master Morgoth poured his spirit throughout the earth and everything
else in existence. So whereas particularized evils like Sauron
could be addressed, there is a primordial evil in existence that will remain until the
earth itself is destroyed. It is because of this belief that he stated
“I do not expect ‘history’ to be anything but a ‘long defeat.’” This was what Tolkien originally envisioned
as the ending for his Book of Lost Tales. “And now is the end of fair times come very
nigh, and behold, all the beauty that yet was on the earth – fragments of unimagined
loveliness... now goeth it all up in smoke.” The same despondent pessimism is best surmised
by Frodo as he lay dying on the cliffside of Mount Doom. “It’s like things are in the world. Hope fails. An end comes. We have only a little time to wait now. We are lost in ruin and downfall, and there
is no escape.” But of course Frodo lives and the ring, the
stand-in for the inherent evil of the world, is destroyed. So what gives? Was Tolkien chickening-out from taking his
views of history and evil to their logical conclusion? Did he feel compelled by the conventions of
the genre to have a happy ending? Well that would certainly make sense. After all, he did write “I would venture
to assert that all complete fairy-stories must have [the Consolation of the Happy Ending]…
the eucatastrophic tale is the true form of the fairy-tale, and its highest function.” Of all the many words in the many languages
that Tolkien invented, this word, ‘eucatastrophe,’ is undoubtedly the most important. He defines it “in its fairy-tale setting,
a sudden and miraculous grace: never to be counted on to recur. It does not deny the existence of dyscatastrophe,
of sorrow and failure...it denies (in the face of much evidence, if you will) universal
final defeat… giving a fleeting glimpse of Joy, Joy beyond the walls of the world.” So basically- everything will continue to
go to shit, but there will be a sudden change towards good fortune that works against this
dire conclusion. Now, “Beyond the walls of the world” here
is telling. Tolkien alludes to another force, as Gandalf
hints to Frodo, "There are other forces at work in this world
besides the will of evil. Bilbo was meant to find the ring. In which case you also were meant to have
it. And that is an encouraging thought." Later Agent Smith, doing his best Morpheus
impression, elaborates, “You have come and are met here, in the
very nick of time, by chance, so it seems. Yet it is not so. Believe rather that it is ordered that we,
who sit here, and none others, must now find council for the perils of the world.” So something is driving history toward a goal. This kind of eucatastrophe isn’t limited
to fictional stories. Tolkien thought that real History “contains
a fairy-story, or a story of a larger kind which embraces all the essence of fairy-stories.” As such, Tolkien envisioned the End of History,
as being likewise eucatastrophic; that though history would be nothing more than “the
long defeat,” it would ultimately have a happy ending as unexpected as the eagles arriving
at Mount Doom. Ultimately, this was grounded in what Tolkien
called Estel. More than merely being Aragorn’s elvish
name, Estel was one of the two elvish words meaning “hope” which also meant “trust.” All throughout life Tolkien looked around
at the world, and between the scouring of his own boyhood shire, his living through
a veritable Mordor in the trenches of the Western Front,
and later while writing Lord of the Rings witnessing the rise of real dark lords in
Hitler and Stalin, Tolkien had no reason to look up and reasonably expect good. And yet through it all he never faltered in
Estel, in trust. Just as Tolkien’s writing awakened an appreciation
of the past among the chronological snobs that had been enamored by modernity, so too
do his myths stir something in us that certainly hopes for there to be real good in the end. When we read The Silmarillion, or The Hobbit,
or most especially Lord of the Rings, we are all like Sam, in the black night in the enemy’s
own land, struck by the beauty of a white star twinkling above him. “There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above
a dark tor high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked
up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought
pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was
light and high beauty forever beyond its reach.” Thanks for watching guys, and if you haven’t
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Not talking about Tolkien's deep Catholicism in a 20 minute video on his philosophy seems rather bizarre.
I have mixed feelings on Wisecrack. They're like Adam Ruins Everything, they have some good points but other times they're nakedly obviously biased and disingenuous
There are quite a few writings on the topic of Tolkien's worldview which I saw when I was researching Tolkien. At first my discoveries were slightly upsetting for me, as I am lesbian, that my all time favourite author was a traditionalist Catholic who even favoured Latin mass. I still enjoy his works and find at least aspects of his criticism of industrialisation through Saruman and his longing for simple living appealing.
I would say that Tolkien's worldview is consistent with several other English catholic writers like G.K Chesterton, Evelyn Waugh, Grahame Green etc in his suspicion of modernity, which contrary to mainstream conservatives include also distrust of capitalism.
Hope that my post isn't totally useless :)