This hobbit kills fascists

By Soncirey Mitchell
Reader Staff

Cultures as different as England post-1066 C.E. and Nazi Germany have manipulated myths and stories to substantiate their ideologies and shape their images. This practice is alive and well today. With fantasy media serving as the wellspring for modern mythology, the heirs to the Nazis have been especially fixated on J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings almost since the trilogy’s publication in the ’50s.

A recent Politico article, “How Lord of the Rings Shaped J.D. Vance’s Politics,” revealed that Vance — convicted felon Donald Trump’s chosen running mate — credits Tolkien’s work with shaping his conservative political views. He didn’t specify any particular views, but Vance, like many extremists, promotes isolationism, bigotry and Christian nationalism.

It’s disappointing to learn that Sen. Vance’s alma mater, Yale, neither requires nor teaches reading comprehension to its students.

Vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance meets with campaign advisers. Design by Ben Olson, courtesy photo.

Tolkien famously called Adolf Hitler a “ruddy little ignoramus” and accused him of, “Ruining, perverting, misapplying and making forever accursed, that noble northern spirit, a supreme contribution to Europe, which I have ever loved,” by weaponizing anachronistic ideas about ancient Germanic culture and myth. 

That Vance, who has chosen to play Rudolf Hess to the man he once called “America’s Hitler,” could ever imagine his ideologies are in line with Tolkien demonstrates a severe lack of critical thinking skills, and his misinterpretation of The Lord of the Rings is in the same genre of perversion that Tolkien despised.

Speaking to Politico, Luke Burgis, author and professor at Catholic University of America, stated, “I think it’s fair to say that Vance believes there is real spiritual evil in this world, and it can become embodied in rites and rituals.”

Tolkien’s interpretation of good and evil isn’t nearly so reductive as the us-versus-them mentality that Vance feeds to spur on radical elements of the far-right, whose hatred and divisiveness used to relegate them to the fringes of U.S. politics. In Tolkien’s world, everyone is capable of both good and evil.

LOTR’s antagonists, be they Sauron, Saruman, Gollum or the ring wraiths, all have histories illustrating a time when they were “good,” before they gave into their greed, envy, fear and pride, and turned on their old allies. Because of this, Gollum is even given multiple opportunities for redemption, though he’s ultimately unable to overcome his corruption.

The former-liberal-turned-right-wing toady Vance could justifiably see himself in those character arcs, if nothing else.

Perhaps Tolkien’s most revolutionary idea is that this freedom of moral choice means that heroes are fallible, and so the only path to peace is through mercy, kindness and cooperation.

The journey to destroy the One Ring and save the “free peoples of the world” from the tyrant Sauron begins with the founding of the Fellowship of the Ring — a group of delegates from different regions and backgrounds who set aside their disagreements to work toward a common goal. These representatives mirror the separate peoples of Middle-earth who fight and die for one another in their quest for freedom.

These concepts should sound familiar to Sen. Vance — though he’s only been in office for a year and a half — yet he continues to push for isolationism and spew hateful rhetoric with the intention of exacerbating political division.

It LOTR, the work and sacrifices of the many are what give Frodo the opportunity to destroy the One Ring, but even after dedicating himself mind, body and soul, he cannot resist the lure of ultimate power. He fails when he becomes isolated from his allies and is left unchecked.

The destruction of the ring is an accident that only occurs because, up until then, Frodo showed compassion and mercy to Gollum, a being completely alien to him that he nonetheless chose to empathize with.

Tolkien’s emphasis on camaraderie, cooperation and compassion simply cannot be twisted to justify support for a man who promises he won’t be a dictator “other than Day 1” of his term, and that if he wins, his supporters “won’t have to vote anymore.”

Vance calls Trump “America’s last, best hope,” as if one man given ultimate power would be willing or able to secure the personal freedom and happiness of those he lords over. Tolkien’s writings outline 61,000 years of struggles wherein power must be wrested from the corrupt individuals who seek to hoard it, yet apparently those stories were lost on Vance, who sees himself as a shepherd of humanity akin to Gandalf.

His venture capital business, Narya, is named after the wizard’s ring of power, which is said to strengthen hearts to resist tyranny and despair. Those ideals ring hollow in the face of Vance’s fear mongering in an effort to deliver power to a self-proclaimed dictator.

His ignorance follows in the footsteps of his mentor, Peter Thiel, who named his tech company Palantir, after the crystal balls that appear in LOTR and the extended legendarium. The palantíri gave users the power to see and communicate with one another, and though not inherently evil, they were famously used by Sauron to corrupt the once just Saruman and drive Denethor II, the steward of the largest kingdom of men, to madness, despair and death.

Finally, Vance has chosen to invest in Anduril Industries — named after Aragorn’s sword — which develops military software that makes it easier than ever to kill remotely and remorselessly. Naming a manufacturer of death machines after one of Tolkien’s great symbols of hope and redemption shows that these men fail to grasp one of LOTR’s core philosophies:

“I do not love the bright sword for its sharpness, nor the arrow for its swiftness, nor the warrior for his glory. I love only that which they defend.”

Vance warping The Lord of the Rings to suit his needs may sound like a small crime, but humanity is a race of storytellers. The reason cultures continue to weaponize myths is because they are the easiest way to spread an ideology; and, if they’re popular enough, they inform and alter our culture.

Anyone interested in Tolkien is vulnerable to indoctrination through disinformation and unfounded interpretations of his stories. By poisoning the root text of modern fantasy, sophomoric dogmatists like Vance also open the door to bigoted practices in the genre as a whole, giving anyone who yells loud enough the ability to shape representations of marginalized groups and control the narratives that become the popular myths of our society.