Saturday

I’ve been thinking about the notion of free will in The Lord of the Rings. Having watched the movies over the last few weeks (and I should add not read the books) I postulated to myself the possibility that the ring represented free will. This line of thought was also additionally spurred on by recent posts on the excellent Gamboling blog debating the notion of its existence. However, this is not what I’m concerned with. We believe free will, or the possibility of it, exists and I think this is what matters concerning the films. Not wanting to over-intellectualise a movie too much, or pretend to, I shall limit this to a few choice words. The ring is dangerous and must be destroyed because it lets people do whatever they want to do; it lets them act for themselves, by themselves. It breaks down the neatly ordered world of racial and class divisions. Notice how Sam is not Frodo’s equal, but almost his slave, and the hobbits are emphatically a class below the humans, they below the elves. The ring would disrupt this order, which is not allowed. Free will is far too dangerous and must be suppressed or else, read in the context of the Second World War when the books were written, it would lead to unimaginable horror. So, The Lord of the Rings are a set of repressive novels intent on imposing and maintaining social, sexual and racial divisions and hierarchies. This is just an idea.