Middle Earth in the Balance: The Unlikely Heroism of Hobbits in a Land of Walking Trees and Wizards Eve Mandel College

J.R.R. Tolkien’s renowned series The Lord of the Rings, written between 1937 and 1949, falls into the high fantasy genre, but its themes remain relevant to today’s reality. In 2020, as the earth appears to retaliate against human environmental abuse with cataclysmic storms, floods, wildfires, and droughts, Tolkien’s fantastic depiction of nature’s power reads like an eerie warning. The creatures and men in the text must fight to protect their land from the horrors of industrialized warfare, as Tolkien himself did. At first glance, it may appear that Tolkien positions the characters most obviously connected to the earth, Tom Bombadil and the Ents, as perfect exemplars of how we should treat the environment. Tom Bombadil tends to his domain outside the Old Forest with love and care and possesses immunity against the Ring, which represents human temptation. The Ents are “shepherds” of the trees who protect their forests from danger; they are tree-like themselves. Upon closer examination, however, it becomes clear that Tom Bombadil and the Ents are more narrowly concerned with their own territory than with the good of the entire earth. Tom Bombadil takes no open stance against the Dark Lord, and the Ents only hesitantly join the...