mises.org — The Lord of the Rings is the epic journey to destroy the One Ring, which symbolizes power. More precisely, the book aligns itself against power--not "economic power" or "social power," but specifically political power. This is also the central theme of the classical liberal political tradition.
Dec 18, 2006 View in Crawl 4
hipnerdDec 18, 2006
"I cordially dislike allegory in all its manifestations, and always have done since I grew old and wary enough to detect its presence." -- J. R. R. TolkienOn top of disliking allegory in general, Tolkien specifically said that the book was not an allegory of any sort in the forward to the second edition. And the romanticism that imbued his works lends itself more to conservative and religious thinking than liberal and secular, although I notice we link to a "libertarian" site and not a "liberal" site as advertised in the description.This is an example of someone reading into a work validation of their own beliefs, and not a reflection of Tolkien's beliefs themselves.
stonedonkeyDec 19, 2006
It wasn't a political story, for Pete's sake. What else will be appropriated? Jeez.Okay, nice and simple: It was a war of the natural world versus industrialization. The ring represented the temptation to use this new-found advancement without restraint.Tolkien may not have intended it as such, but what you think you mean when you write something isn't always what you're really saying.
bigkittyDec 19, 2006
It is a Christian story that warns of the satanic temptations of worldly power.
shirosamuraiDec 21, 2006
It is not a Christian story. While indeed Tolkien was a very religious man, the inspirations for his works derived from many sources including (but not limited to!) Old Norse mythology, World War I, The Epic of Gilgamesh (and other Near East-related works), Celtic and Saxon myths (such as Beowulf), The Odyssey, and so on. Tolkien himself said that while he was very religious, he was very much against arguing publicly in favor of Christianity, whether directly or indirectly (i.e., through his books). Not only that, he was VERY MUCH against the idea that any of his works had any direct one-to-one correspondence with any faith, philosophy, historical event, or anything of that kind. Tolkien's 'The Silmarillion' not only paralleled the Bible in ways, but was extremely influenced by Norse mythology. The creation of the world by the gods, the idea of order v.s. chaos (in opposition to good vs. evil), the non-human races present in the lore, the parallels between the destruction of Middle-Earth and the Norse Ragnarok... even the name Middle-earth derives directly from Midgard, which is Norse in origin. Don't pull stuff like that out of thin air, thanks. On top of that, Mr. Tolkien would be disgusted with the way that his novel has been used to spread a political message liket hat.
miseseanJan 16, 2007
You'll note that it says "classical liberal", not just "liberal"