In the opening part of this chapter Shippey talked about allegories specifically related to Beowulf. I have seen the movie Beowulf and I know a little about the story but overall I did not like it. The first couple pages of this chapter were hard to read and a little boring. After getting through the first few pages I was intrigued to read that Shippey included the Lord of the Rings as an allegory of World War II. This first sparked my interest because it was one of the topics we have previously talked about during class. It was interesting how Shippey broke down The Lord of the Rings and compared it to the main aspects of World War II. He compared the all powerful ring to nuclear weapons. This was a fitting comparison because the ring could rule all and destroy everything in its path, just like nuclear weapons. Another comparison that I thought worked was that both the ring and nuclear weapons were feared, and people (and mythical creatures) joined together to stop them. The allied powers during the war were comparable to the coalition of Rohan, Gondor, and the Shire. For the Axis powers Shippey only included the powers of Mordor. I found this interesting because I thought he would include Isengard and Orthac too. It would have been more fitting if he included all three because there were three main countries included in the Axis powers.
On page 167, Shippey notes some comparisons between Tolkien’s fantasy world and England. He noted that throughout the book there were shortages of pipeweed and no one knew where it was going. Around the same time the book was being written, England was suffering from shortages of weed too. Shippey noted that when there was a shortage of weed it was usually because it was being exported. In the book the pipeweed was being exported to Saruman and Isengard. After reading this brief section of the chapter it got me thinking. The shortage of pipeweed was mentioned a lot throughout The Lord of the Rings books although it was a minor part of the overall plot. It sparked a couple of questions. I wonder if Tolkien was a big smoker and was affected by the shortage of weed in England. It is a little of topic but we have already made several implications of how Tolkien’s environment influenced his work.
In the mythic meditation of this chapter the validity of Tolkien’s religious beliefs were tested. Shippey included an excerpt of a letter Tolkien wrote to a friend claiming that The Lord of the Rings is a religious Catholic work. After several of our lectures I too was convinced this was true but Shippey raised some interesting points. Denethor, the father of Boromir and Faramir, committed suicide, which is something unacceptable in the Catholic faith. Shippey also mentioned that none of the societies followed Catholic practices. I agreed with Shippey and the idea that Tolkien’s statements claiming his books were religious was overt and overrated. Although I believe this there were still several instances where religion could have been incorporated. The idea of Arwen and Aragorn meeting in another world if they could not be together in Middle-earth presented the idea that some kind of heaven existed after death. I have little background in religion so I was easily convinced by both arguments. I give Shippey a lot of credit; he presents a lot of evidence and examples to support his views.
