Troubling Themes in Traditional Fantasy

Genre fiction has seen a resurgence since the turn of the century, with more and more people deciding that, actually, science fiction and fantasy aren’t just “nerd stuff”. In particular, fantasy has gotten a lot of attention, with shows like Game of Thrones showing that worlds with dragons and magic spells can appeal to wide audiences.One of the core texts to modern culture’s understanding of fantasy (especially “high” fantasy, which has more magic) is J.R.R Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings (LotR) . These books were immensely influential on many fantasy authors and artists, shaping the worlds and tones of Dungeons and Dragons, The Wheel of Time, and countless other fantasy works. Peter Jackson’s film adaptations of the books brought them back into the spotlight, and provided a visual idea of fantasy that is mirrored in nearly every fantasy film today, though often with less finesse. However, The Lord of the Rings has also faced critique for addressing morality in an overly absolute way and associating race or nationality with these black-and-white moral values.

For those not in the know, The Lord of the Rings is J. R. R. Tolkien’s most famous work, set in his greater world of Middle Earth. The story is about Frodo Baggins, an unassuming hobbit from the rural Shire, traveling into the cursed land of Mordor to destroy The One Ring, a magical artifact that sustains the dark lord Sauron. Along the way, it introduced the modern ideas of elves, hobbits, dwarves, orcs, and many other staples of fantasy storytelling.

How does The Lord of the Rings address morality? Not in a very complex way. Frodo, the main character, is inarguably “good”, as are all his allies. They sing songs, protect the innocent, and set the world on a righteous path. Their opponents are just as villainous, burning and pillaging all they encounter. Individually, all the forces of Mordor are self-serving and betrayal between them is constant. The only thing that ever challenges this dichotomy is the Ring itself, which several characters compromise their morals to hold onto or steal. Even then, those who do wrong to acquire it are still treated as sympathetic characters, or at very least victims of its dark power. Three of the four Ring-coveters in the books are hobbits, who never show a hint of villainy except when the Ring is involved. It imposes evil upon them which stems from Sauron, its creator, and his inherent darkness. In context, this is understandable. Tolkien was a scholar of Norse and Germanic mythology, and his works are based on myths such as Beowulf and the Eddas,. In these stories, the morality of heroes is not often considered; they are assumed to be in the right because they are heroes. Where Tolkien differs is that his work does attempt to align a moral axis while maintaining the structure of these ancient works. Thus, the villains must be truly evil, not merely obstacles in the hero’s path, and so he writes them as uniformly monstrous.

In isolation, this quality isn’t a problem. Plenty of stories have uncomplicated moral ideas, in all genres. However, the issue comes from the other common aspect of fantasy tropes--ascribing real racial and class identities to these fantastic races and cultures. In some cases, The Lord of the Rings wears its racial politics on its sleeve. The orcs, the primary opponents the heroes face, are “squat, broad, flat-nosed, sallow-skinned, with wide mouths and slant eyes: in fact degraded and repulsive versions of the ... least lovely Mongol-types”, as described by Tolkien in a letter to a prospective scriptwriter for a film adaptation of LotR. (Letter to Ackerman). In addition, the only group of humans to join Sauron’s army and fight for the side of evil are the dark-skinned Easterlings, who come from even further east than Mordor and have customs unfamiliar to the main cast, whose societies more closely resemble western Europe.

Meanwhile the elves, a proud race that are declining as history passes them by, are white, as are all the humans and hobbits that stand by them. This idea of decline of an ancient culture inadvertently mirrors white supremacist fears that they will be replaced by other races. The “Great Replacement” theory, while more modern than Tolkien’s works, has caught on in recent years and is the latest outgrowth of this xenophobia. It purports that the “white race” in Europe will be out-bred by Muslim or other racialized immigrants, and this will lead to cultural destruction. (Ebner and Davey, 2019) While this is not how cultures work in real life, it is how the elves seem to work in LotR. Rather than adapting and integrating with other races, they seem to be doomed to fade away. Viewed in this light, a reader with these views could see Tolkien’s elves as an allegory for Europe as it is outcompeted by “foreign” interests.

Moreover, there is a class character to these depictions; orcs are inarticulate and work in the mines and foundries, a smoggy land with little greenery. The Shire, home of the hobbits, stands in stark contrast to it, representing the English countryside with its tapestry of farms, cozy homes, and landed gentry. While Mordor is not a city per se, connecting a smoggy place with many heavy industries and tall towers to a 20th-century city is not a difficult task. Through this lens, we can see Tolkien’s moral comparison painting wealthier, more rural people as morally superior to degenerate city-dwellers.

While Tolkien was not outwardly racist, the attitudes of his work were carried on without the nuance. Perhaps the most influential of his imitators was Dungeons and Dragons, a tabletop roleplaying game released in the 70s and updated regularly up to the present day. It mirrors Tolkien’s world, including elves, hobbits, orcs, and all of his other fantastical ideas. While Tolkien is not its sole influence, his work shaped the tropes that the original basis of Dungeons and Dragons was built on. This, in turn, led to it having a massive impact on modern fantasy media, especially games. Today, millions of people consume the same tropes Tolkien originated, and most people’s idea of what an “elf” or an “orc” are come from Lord of the Rings, even if they’ve never touched the books (or their film adaptations).

The problem of mixing fantastical ideas with real world stereotypes and prejudices is still alive and well in fantasy writing today. So, should we stop reading these books and playing these games? Not at all; The Lord of the Rings can still be enjoyed in its proper context, as a work from a time when racism and classism were more accepted. Moreover, the tropes Tolkien laid down can be shifted. Dungeons and Dragons may have started out simply aping LotR, but its settings are immensely adaptable. Fans have made great strides toward removing these stereotypes, and unlinking “race” from characters’ personality, and the same is true for many more socially-aware fantasy authors and creators.

There is a growing awareness of these stereotypes in media, but they are still commonly repeated. Game developers and creatives of all kinds often fail to interpret the works they are drawing influence from, which is what makes these issues so pernicious. The popularity of these tropes also means that they may be more and more immovable as time goes on, and audiences come to expect orcs, elves, and hobbits in any fantasy story they consume--and that these tropes conform to the outdated ideas they were born from.