Ents, Elves, and Eriador: The Environmental Vision of J. R. R. Tolkien

343 Pages·2006·2.23 MB·English

by  Matthew T. Dickerson

Ents, Elves, and Eriador
Culture of the Land
A Series in the New Agrarianism
(cid:1134)is series is devoted to the exploration and articulation of a new agrarian-
ism that considers the health of habitats and human communities together.
It is intended to demonstrate how agrarian insights and responsibilities can
be worked out in diverse fields of learning and living: history, science, art,
politics, economics, literature, philosophy, religion, urban planning, edu-
cation, and public policy. Agrarianism is a comprehensive worldview that
appreciates the intimate and practical connections which exist between
humans and the earth. It stands as our most promising alternative to the
unsustainable and destructive ways of current global, industrial, and con-
sumer culture.
Series Editor
Norman Wirzba, Georgetown College, Kentucky
Advisory Board
Wendell Berry, Port Royal, Kentucky
Ellen Davis, Duke University, North Carolina
Patrick Holden, Soil Association, United Kingdom
Wes Jackson, Land Institute, Kansas
Gene Logsdon, Upper Sandusky, Ohio
Bill McKibben, Middlebury College, Vermont
David Orr, Oberlin College, Ohio
Michael Pollan, University of California at Berkeley, California
Jennifer Sahn, Orion magazine, Massachusetts
Vandana Shiva, Research Foundation for Science,
Technology and Ecology, India
William Vitek, Clarkson University, New York
Ents, Elves, and Eriador
(cid:1134)e Environmental Vision
of J. R. R. Tolkien

Matthew Dickerson
and Jonathan Evans
The฀University฀Press฀of฀Kentucky
Publication of this volume was made possible in part by a grant
from the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Copyright © 2006 by (cid:1134)e University Press of Kentucky
Scholarly publisher for the Commonwealth,
serving Bellarmine University, Berea College, Centre
College of Kentucky, Eastern Kentucky University,
(cid:1134)e Filson Historical Society, Georgetown College,
Kentucky Historical Society, Kentucky State University,
Morehead State University, Murray State University,
Northern Kentucky University, Transylvania University,
University of Kentucky, University of Louisville,
and Western Kentucky University.
All rights reserved.
Editorial and Sales O(cid:275)ces: (cid:1134)e University Press of Kentucky
663 South Limestone Street, Lexington, Kentucky 40508-4008
www.kentuckypress.com
06 07 08 09 10 5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Dickerson, Matthew T., 1963-
Ents, elves, and Eriador : the environmental vision of J.R.R. Tolkien /
Matthew Dickerson and Jonathan Evans.
p. cm. — (Culture of the land)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-0-8131-2418-6 (alk. paper)
ISBN-10: 0-8131-2418-2 (alk. paper)
1. Tolkien, J. R. R. (John Ronald Reuel), 1892-1973—
Knowledge—Environmental sciences. 2. Tolkien, J. R. R. (John Ronald Reuel),
1892-1973—Criticism and interpretation. 3. Ecology in literature.
4. Nature in literature. 5. Human ecology in literature.
6. Middle Earth (Imaginary place). 7. Environmentalism. 8. Ecocriticism.
9. Environmental literature—History and criticism.
I. Evans, Jonathan D.
(Jonathan Duane), 1954- II. Title.
PR6039.O32Z636 2006
823(cid:511).912—dc22
2006019174
(cid:1134)is book is printed on acid-free recycled paper meeting
the requirements of the American National Standard
for Permanence in Paper for Printed Library Materials.
Manufactured in the United States of America.
Member of the Association of
American University Presses
Yet it is not our part to master all the tides of the world, but to
do what is in us for the succour of those years wherein we are
set, uprooting the evil in the fields that we know, so that those
who live a(cid:1131)er may have clean earth to till. What weather they
shall have is not ours to rule.
—Gandalf to the Captains of the West (V/ix)
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Contents

Foreword by John Elder ix
Acknowledgments xiii
Introduction xv
Conventions and Abbreviations xxv
P(cid:282)(cid:299)(cid:301) I. “(cid:1134)e Tides of the World”: Gandalfian Stewardship
and the Foundations of Tolkien’s Vision
Chapter 1. Varda, Yavanna, and the Value of Creation 3
Chapter 2. Gandalf, Stewardship, and Tomorrow’s Weather 37
P(cid:282)(cid:299)(cid:301) II. “(cid:1134)e Succour of (cid:1134)ose Years Wherein We Are Set”:
A Complex Ecology of Agriculture, Horticulture, and Feraculture
Chapter 3. Hobbits and the Agrarian Society of the Shire 71
Chapter 4. Horticulture and the Aesthetic of the Elves 95
Chapter 5. Woods, Wildness, and the Feraculture of the Ents 119
Chapter 6. (cid:1134)e Necessity of Margins in
Middle-earth’s Mingled Ecologies 145
Chapter 7. (cid:1134)e Ecology of Ham, Niggle’s Parish,
and Wootton Major 163
P(cid:282)(cid:299)(cid:301) III. “Uprooting the Evil in the Fields (cid:1134)at We Know”:
Following the Vision, and the Consequences of Ignoring It
Chapter 8. (cid:1134)ree Faces of Mordor 185
Chapter 9. Rousing the Shire 215
viii Contents
Chapter 10. Environmentalism, Transcendence, and Action 235
Conclusion: Some Practical Matters 259
A(cid:1131)erword by Tom Shippey 269
Appendix: Further Reading 273
Notes 277
Index 299
Foreword

Over the past several decades, a form of literary scholarship has evolved
that is now commonly referred to as ecocriticism. (cid:1134)is approach to the
dialogue between literature and the natural world seems, in retrospect,
to have tracked fairly closely with certain phases in the environmen-
tal movement. It grew originally out of the study of “nature writing”—
(cid:1134)oreauvian nonfiction in which solitude amid wild landscapes was one
central theme. Authors such as John Muir, Aldo Leopold, and Edward
Abbey came to be prized not only because of their tangy voices but also
because of their strong advocacy for preserving wilderness. (cid:1134)e work
of these writers and others like them strongly influenced the passage
of the 1964 Wilderness Act. Readers of Rachel Carson were similarly
influenced by her courage in decrying the toxicity in our manufactur-
ing and agricultural practices and by the relevance of her writing to the
formation of such regulatory agencies as the Environmental Protection
Agency and to such legislation as the Clean Water and Clean Air acts.
More recently, Native American writers like Leslie Marmon Silko and
Joseph Bruchac have powerfully conveyed indigenous perspectives on
nature to a broad audience. (cid:1134)eir work has called into question some of
the assumptions of the wilderness movement, as well as contributed to
a growing emphasis on racial equity and environmental justice within
the discourse of ecocriticism.
Beyond these key instances in which literature and activism have
become intertwined, there are a couple of emerging developments that
are well represented in Ents, Elves, and Eriador. Matthew Dickerson and
Jonathan Evans’s admirable study of J. R. R. Tolkien participates in an
extension of the ecocritical inquiry to literature that has not been closely
associated with the environmental movement and that may, in fact,
have considerably predated it. Scholars are returning to such canonical
authors as William Shakespeare, John Milton, Walt Whitman, Emily
Dickinson, and Alfred, Lord Tennyson in poetry, and George Eliot and
ix