# Ents, Elves, and Eriador  ## Metadata - Author: [[Matthew Dickerson, Jonathan Evans, John Elder, and Tom Shippey]] - Full Title: Ents, Elves, and Eriador - Category: #tolkien #environmentalism ## Highlights - Tolkien communicates through myth and story, not primarily through a set of abstract propositions. His ideas are expressed mythically, mythologically, and mythopoeically. He works mythopoeically because artistically he creates narratives meant to be understood as myths within his fictional world (the word mythopoeia means “the making of myths”). ([Location 380](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0078XFOB2&location=380)) - It is worth noting in summary that (1) The Silmarillion begins with these powerful images of nature, (2) the glory and bliss of Valinor are closely associated with these trees, and (3) the Two Trees are closely associated with all of life itself. ([Location 527](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0078XFOB2&location=527)) - Colin Gunton, for example, calls “the paradox of modernity” the fact that technological advances have brought less, not more, leisure time: “The modern is less at home in the actual time and space of daily living than peoples less touched by [technological] changes. . . . The paradox is that there is to be found more genuine leisure in ‘undeveloped’ societies than in those dedicated to the creation of leisure.” ([Location 590](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0078XFOB2&location=590)) - “We must clearly understand that the lust for affluence in contemporary society is psychotic. It is psychotic because it has completely lost touch with reality. We crave things we neither need nor enjoy. . . . Covetousness we call ambition. Hoarding we call prudence. Greed we call industry.” ([Location 607](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0078XFOB2&location=607)) - Rather than craving things they do not need, Hobbits enjoy what they have. ([Location 611](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0078XFOB2&location=611)) - One of the most moving scenes in The Hobbit is the death of the Dwarf king Thorin, whose dying words to Bilbo are, “If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world” ([Location 625](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0078XFOB2&location=625)) - People in technologically advanced, consumer-oriented societies often find themselves enslaved to the very machines meant to free them from toil—machines that contribute in no small way to pollution of the soil, water, and air and thus to the general endangerment of life and health. ([Location 653](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0078XFOB2&location=653)) - As Tom Shippey points out, Gandalf is trying to rescue Bilbo from being a member of the bourgeoisie—a simple, selfish materialist like his relatives the Sackville-Bagginses, whom the narrator is clearly critical of. ([Location 671](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0078XFOB2&location=671)) - As Tolkien acknowledged in another letter, “Even in a mythical Age there must be some enigmas, as there always are. Tom Bombadil is one (intentionally)” (Letters, 174). ([Location 684](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0078XFOB2&location=684)) - Tom Bombadil’s character that has a bearing on the world of nature. The fact that he does not quite fit into Middle-earth is ironic in this respect: he may be the most explicit, concrete embodiment of the natural world—an incarnation, we might say, of environment itself. Tom may not fit into Middle-earth because he stands for it. ([Location 693](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0078XFOB2&location=693)) - “Power to defy our Enemy is not in [Bombadil],” he says, “unless such power is in the earth itself” (II/ii, emphasis added). Bombadil’s power is equated precisely with the natural potency of the earth—the brute fact of its existence and its resistance against forces of destruction. ([Location 712](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0078XFOB2&location=712)) - It could be said, then, that whereas Gandalf is the physical incarnation of something spiritual, Bombadil is the spiritual personification of something physical. ([Location 717](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0078XFOB2&location=717)) - He goes on to explain that Bombadil represents the inclination to take “delight in things for themselves without reference to yourself, watching, observing, and to some extent knowing.” To Bombadil, “the question of the rights and wrongs of power and control” are “utterly meaningless,” and “the means of power quite valueless” (Letters, 178–79). To some degree, then, according to this letter, Tom Bombadil represents the pursuit and love of selfless knowledge of the created world and its history, independent of any power or advantage that such knowledge might bring to the knower. ([Location 721](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0078XFOB2&location=721)) - Thus, besides representing nature in a concrete sense, Tom Bombadil can also be said to represent knowledge, but without the quest for power that often accompanies it both in Middle-earth and in our world. ([Location 736](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0078XFOB2&location=736)) - Tolkien may be suggesting that the self-abnegating act of giving up the will to dominate is itself very powerful and the soul of simplicity. ([Location 764](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0078XFOB2&location=764)) - Bombadil can be said to represent selfless love of the created order—in our view, the foundation for the most authentic form of environmentalism. ([Location 771](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0078XFOB2&location=771)) - 1. The universe is the work of a divine creator. 2. The created world is good; it has inherent worth and beauty. 3. Creation has a purpose: to bring pleasure to its creator and to those who dwell in it. 4. The created order and its inhabitants are vulnerable to evil embodied in a cosmic enemy. 5. The mission of people dwelling in the world is to acknowledge the goodness of the earth, fulfill its purpose, and assist in its restoration from evil. ([Location 788](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0078XFOB2&location=788)) - Tolkien’s term for this process is subcreation. As the author of creation, Eru alone can make the ultimate claim to authority within the world he has created. As the mythology goes on to explain, the power to “bring into Being” things of one’s own—the “Imperishable Flame” or the “Secret Fire,” as it is called—lies only with Ilúvatar. ([Location 832](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0078XFOB2&location=832)) - “Most importantly,” he points out, “rocks and trees, birds and animals are valuable simply because God made them. Their value resides in their being creations of a valuing God, not in their being a means to some human end.”32 ([Location 858](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0078XFOB2&location=858)) - One individual might prefer modern technological conveniences—an air-conditioned house, a big-screen television, an SUV, and a computer with a high-speed network connection. To such a person, these things would be more important than clean air, clean water, good soil, and species diversity. In a world with no inherent purpose, it would be difficult for such a person to find common ground with someone who preferred a simpler lifestyle that placed fewer demands on the world’s limited resources. Dialogue between two such imaginary persons would become either an abstract debate—an argument over which value system is better—or a power struggle. ([Location 900](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0078XFOB2&location=900)) - At one point he says to Frodo, “I would not snare even an orc with falsehood” (IV/v). As important as winning battles is to the survival of his people, the moral goodness of speaking the truth is more important than a military victory. At another point, when his father Denethor criticizes him for his gentleness, saying, “Gentleness may be repaid with death,” Faramir replies, “So be it” (V/iv). His response is simplicity itself. ([Location 981](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0078XFOB2&location=981)) - Faramir indicates that the virtue of gentleness stands higher than the military virtues prized by his father. ([Location 984](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0078XFOB2&location=984)) - But all worthy things that are in peril as the world now stands, those are my care. And for my part, I shall not wholly fail of my task, though Gondor should perish, if anything passes through this night that can still grow fair or bear fruit and flower again in days to come. For I also am a steward. Did you not know? (V/i) ([Location 1049](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0078XFOB2&location=1049)) - This is one of the clearest indications of Gandalf’s role in Middle-earth. He is a steward. In claiming this role, Gandalf makes no connection between stewardship and rule; he neither claims nor wants the rule of any realm, great or small. ([Location 1052](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0078XFOB2&location=1052)) - Gandalf makes it clear that a steward exists to serve others, and not vice versa. ([Location 1054](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0078XFOB2&location=1054)) - Wendell Berry writes that he has “too little faith in the long-term efficacy of public stewardship” but much more faith in “the long-term efficacy of private stewardship,” meaning in part that individuals and communities, and not just vague corporate or political entities, must be involved in stewardship. ([Location 1058](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0078XFOB2&location=1058)) - A third use of the word steward gets at the notion of “caring management,” which sees humans in the roles of both lord and servant, as gardeners and managers, with the rest of creation having intrinsic value apart from that bestowed on it by those who tend and nurture it. ([Location 1125](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0078XFOB2&location=1125)) - “servanthood stewardship.” This idea not only sees the intrinsic value of creation but also conceives of humans as servants within it. Any notion of human rule or authority is gone altogether. When Gandalf says, “For I also am a steward,” his vision comes closer to this model of stewardship than to the third. He is there to offer aid; he will give any aid that Denethor asks for. He is not there to exercise authority and claims the rule of no realm, great or small. ([Location 1141](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0078XFOB2&location=1141)) - Gandalf’s definition of success in this role is equally telling. Even if Gondor should perish in the war, he will not have wholly failed if anything survives that can “still grow fair or bear fruit and flower again in days to come.” This is a powerful statement, and the nature imagery is neither incidental nor gratuitous. Gandalf explicitly includes all life—everything that can grow fair and bear fruit or flower—as being under his care; everything alive is considered a valuable component of the whole created order that must be defended from harm. ([Location 1160](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0078XFOB2&location=1160)) - When Théoden asks Gandalf whether it is inevitable that “much that was fair and wonderful shall pass for ever out of Middle-earth,” Gandalf replies somberly, “The evil of Sauron cannot be wholly cured, nor made as if it had not been. But to such days we are doomed” (III/viii). ([Location 1171](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0078XFOB2&location=1171)) - Any loss of life is to be grieved; all things that grow fair are to be protected. ([Location 1173](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0078XFOB2&location=1173)) - Frodo bemoans the fact that the One Ring has come to him and that he is now responsible for dealing with it. “I wish it need not have happened in my time,” says Frodo. Gandalf’s reply approaches the heart of stewardship. “So do I, and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us” (I/ii). ([Location 1180](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0078XFOB2&location=1180)) - The lesson is so simple as to be easily overlooked, but the principle Gandalf assumes here is that time is not earned, nor can it be won. Despite all metaphors to the contrary, time is a gift that cannot be saved any more than it can be bought or sold: it can only be spent or invested. ([Location 1184](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0078XFOB2&location=1184)) - A modern syndrome that can be just as paralyzing as the need to choose between difficult alternatives has been described as the “victim mentality.” Frodo laments his bad luck in being born into such a time; he feels that he is somehow the victim of circumstances and would like to be exonerated of the need to choose a right course of action. Frodo would like to believe that because his bad luck is undeserved, he should not be held responsible for dealing with it. Gandalf can sympathize with Frodo, but this does not change the fact that Frodo is ultimately responsible for what he does or does not do. ([Location 1188](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0078XFOB2&location=1188)) - Taken at face value, Gandalf does not speak merely of Frodo’s time and responsibilities; he speaks of all people’s. ([Location 1201](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0078XFOB2&location=1201)) - Nobody is responsible for the time, talents, or decisions of others. We need not “master all the tides of the world,” he says, using a maritime image. Each is responsible for the stewardship of his own time, talents, and possessions in “those years wherein we are set.” ([Location 1227](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0078XFOB2&location=1227)) - till.” The implications of these potent remarks are twofold: (1) we exercise our stewardship in relation to the earth, and (2) we fulfill those duties not through exploitation but through caring management that leaves the earth good, clean, and wholesome for future generations. ([Location 1231](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0078XFOB2&location=1231)) - Although Tolkien drew on many mythical sources for his legend-arium, most notably Old Norse, when it came to the most important aspects of his creation myth, he drew heavily from the biblical account. ([Location 1319](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0078XFOB2&location=1319)) - By destroying pagan animism, Christianity made it possible to exploit nature in a mood of indifference to the feelings of natural objects.” ([Location 1334](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0078XFOB2&location=1334)) - Tolkien did draw imaginatively from many pagan myths, but his representation of the special relationship of Men and Elves to their creator—though not necessarily at odds with some elements of paganism—seems especially compatible with the Christian view. Much of the depth of his environmental vision comes not despite the fact that, as White says, “man shares, in great measure, God’s transcendence of nature,” but precisely because of the transcendent nature of creatures made in the image of their creator. ([Location 1362](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0078XFOB2&location=1362)) - Returning to the creation accounts, the most troublesome word is dominion. It is used both in the biblical passage from Genesis and in Aulë’s statement to Yavanna. Given the importance of the Genesis passage, Tolkien’s use of the same word seems more than coincidental. In Genesis, God grants dominion to the human race. In The Silmarillion, Aulë says that Eru will give the Dwarves dominion to “use all that they find in Arda” for their own purposes. ([Location 1367](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0078XFOB2&location=1367)) - Because the Dwarves are created apart from Ilúvatar’s plan and thereby do not have a proper love of Arda as Arda—a love of the things of Yavanna’s making as well their own—nature as a whole will suffer. It should be noted, however, that in Tolkien’s mythology such an attitude is portrayed as not in keeping with Eru’s will and as harmful. The Dwarves’ exploitative attitude is a result of Aulë’s moral fault, his impatient fall into “folly,” as he describes it. The religious word sin might even come into play here. ([Location 1378](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0078XFOB2&location=1378)) - The author, Paul the apostle, associates that suffering with human failure and corruption. Because humans, the children of God (or “sons of God,” in this passage), have been given dominion over nature, all of nature “groaneth and travaileth in pain” because of human corruption. But the first critical point here is that the suffering of creation is a result of humans acting in ways contrary to God’s purposes. ([Location 1406](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0078XFOB2&location=1406)) - It follows that people ought to work toward freeing creation from corruption. This is what Ulmo argues the Elves ought to be doing in Middle-earth and why they should remain there rather than come to Valinor. The Children of Ilúvatar are physical creatures who are a part of nature and share much in common bodily with nature. But as transcendent beings they are also moral creatures who can be assigned the moral calling of caring for nature. ([Location 1412](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0078XFOB2&location=1412)) - Humans are defined in biblical terms not as exploiters of the environment but as its caregivers. ([Location 1439](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0078XFOB2&location=1439)) - Humans are to imitate God as his stewards in the cultivation and keeping of the earth he created. ([Location 1443](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0078XFOB2&location=1443))