Imperialism & Cultural Nostalgia in Tolkien's Elves: Reflections of Social Issues in the Silmarillion & The Lord of the Rings
Location
Room 207, Schewel Hall
Access Type
Campus Access Only
Entry Number
102
Start Date
4-5-2023 11:15 AM
End Date
4-5-2023 11:30 AM
College
Lynchburg College of Arts and Sciences
Department
History
Keywords
Imperialism, Cultural Nostalgia, Tolkien, Silmarillion, Great Britain, England, Empire
Abstract
This presentation will explore the relationship between Empire as an institution and the effects of that institution on the people that dwell within it; this will be done through analysis of works and letters by JRR Tolkien that deal with topics of industrialization, colonization, and cultural identity and longing. His letters give us language on how he analyzed his own work—through that of the Fall, Mortality and the Machine—and allows for further reflection on how he would have viewed his own imperial society. For how different can these fictional Elves, a people and culture falling to time, be from citizens who experience the decline of their own culture? Tolkien directly expresses his dislike of the imperial motives of Great Britain, and his writings indirectly show how an Empire can lead to its own cultural destruction through colonialism. This can be seen with how the elves of Valinor, after militarizing themselves and creating an Empire, fail to maintain the culture that they initially lost because of this militarization and creation of colonies. As Tolkien states in the beginning of his letter in the Preface of the second edition of the Silmarillion, “I was from early days grieved by the poverty of my own beloved country: it had no stories of its own, not of the quality that I sought… in legends of other lands.” And so The Silmarillion, The Hobbit, and The Lord of the Rings, act as Tolkien’s own legends, and legends are inherently reflections of the society they come from.
Faculty Mentor(s)
Dr. Brian Crim
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Imperialism & Cultural Nostalgia in Tolkien's Elves: Reflections of Social Issues in the Silmarillion & The Lord of the Rings
Room 207, Schewel Hall
This presentation will explore the relationship between Empire as an institution and the effects of that institution on the people that dwell within it; this will be done through analysis of works and letters by JRR Tolkien that deal with topics of industrialization, colonization, and cultural identity and longing. His letters give us language on how he analyzed his own work—through that of the Fall, Mortality and the Machine—and allows for further reflection on how he would have viewed his own imperial society. For how different can these fictional Elves, a people and culture falling to time, be from citizens who experience the decline of their own culture? Tolkien directly expresses his dislike of the imperial motives of Great Britain, and his writings indirectly show how an Empire can lead to its own cultural destruction through colonialism. This can be seen with how the elves of Valinor, after militarizing themselves and creating an Empire, fail to maintain the culture that they initially lost because of this militarization and creation of colonies. As Tolkien states in the beginning of his letter in the Preface of the second edition of the Silmarillion, “I was from early days grieved by the poverty of my own beloved country: it had no stories of its own, not of the quality that I sought… in legends of other lands.” And so The Silmarillion, The Hobbit, and The Lord of the Rings, act as Tolkien’s own legends, and legends are inherently reflections of the society they come from.