J.R.R. Tolkien’s epic awakens the barbarian inside, reminding us to be heroes instead of victims.
“Hobbits are an unobtrusive but very ancient people… they love peace and quiet and good tilled earth… they do not and did not understand or like machines.”
- J.R.R. Tolkien
Finding Inspiration
Over ten years ago, someone emailed me a one-minute video from a “podcaster” named Joe Rogan, imploring me to “be the hero of [my] own movie.”
Use your favorite books, movies, and podcasts, Rogan said, to fuel your goals. "You can do it. Anyone can do it” he implores. “You can choose to be inspired.”
I started this blog to inspire myself and others. There’s a spirit in each of us that Rogan is calling upon, what I would call the barbarian in you. By listening to your inner barbarian (through intuition and resonation), you can discover what you’re drawn to do and then do it -- becoming the hero of your own movie.
In every Barbarian in You post, I write about historic figures, writers, athletes, musicians, friends, and family who inspire me to flourish. I use their energy to fuel my own, and hopefully in a small way, to help you fuel yours.
But man oh man, life is tough. The day-to-day grind always seems to get in the way – jobs, chores, bills, sickness, injury, distractions, and so on. As a result, we sometimes fall from grace and become the victim of our circumstances, losing control of our destiny. In these moments, the malaise of middle-age creeps in and begins to corrode our dreams. And then it happens. Eventually, we exchange our hero’s journey for just “getting through another day.” And so the dream ends. That’s it. That’s reality. That’s adulthood. And sorry kids, but that’s the truth. Though it doesn't have to be this way. And if it’s any consolation, we’re not the first generation to deal with such things.
In Part-2, I discussed how the poetry of Wilfred Owen and the authors of “The Lost Generation” (Hemingway, etc.) typified the post-war fall from grace, i.e. the malaise and cynicism that infected much of society; 40 million casualties will do such things. As a result, many popular writers declared virtues like heroism as naïve and passé. The power of a single man no longer mattered. The modern world was one of machines, ideologies, and state-run bureaucracies. There was no place for the heroic man.
Yet, a candle of hope still burned beneath the spires and cloisters of Oxford University. Within this gothic realm where Matthew Arnold once said, “whispered… the last enchantments of the Middle Ages,” were the bookishly defiant Inklings (Part-2). As the world soured around them, the Inklings refused to lose faith in man as a heroic being.
Despite the reported zeitgeist of the time, veterans from the war, historian Paul Fussell insists, were not as cynical as the tastemakers in Paris like to think. Instead, most vets (disillusioned by the war’s horrors) didn't want to give up on life, they craved inspiration to go on. But to move forward, they chose to look back, Fussell writes, way back... to a world of “myth, ritual, and romance.”
No one embodied this pro-myth / anti-modernist ethos more than the Inkling’s leader, J.R.R. Tolkien, who wanted “to rekindle an old light in the world.” Ensconced in his office, beneath whiffs of tobacco smoke swirling around over-stuffed bookshelves, he wrote The Lord of the Rings epic, offering readers what his biographer Phillip Zaleski described as “a tonic for the spiritual malaise of the modern age.” And boy did it refresh!
Published in the years following the Second World War, Tolkien’s trilogy was an instant bestseller, reminding each reader that at our core, we are (and will always be) noble savages – ancient, heroic, and good.
The Noble Savage
The myth of the noble savage has many narratives, but the one most familiar to us comes from the Romantic philosopher, Jean Jacques Rousseau, who famously wrote “Man is born free, but is everywhere in chains.”
Watching Europe industrialize in the late eighteenth century while Enlightened writers like Voltaire denigrated myth and cursed Christianity as nonsense, Rousseau fired back from a more ancient source: his deepest intuitions and resonations. He encouraged men to “return to nature” and embrace the myths, traditions, wonders, and fellowships that have defined us for eons, enabling us to thrive as happier, more expressive human beings.
In The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien brings this myth of the noble savage to the modern reader.
The story begins with the Hobbits, smallish folks who live in a beautiful pastoral corner of Middle Earth called “the Shire,” where they have “a close friendship with the earth.” Hobbits are Tolkien’s noble savages, evoking much of the same myths we attribute to Native Americans and Germanic Barbarians. Describing them, he writes…
“[They] had hardly any government. Families managed their own affairs. Growing food and eating it occupied most of their time. In other matters they were, as a rule, generous and not greedy, but contented and moderate, so that estates, farms, workshops, and small trades tended to remain unchanged for generations.”
Throughout the series, Tolkien provides examples of Hobbits fulfilling their noble savage reputation as simple, good-natured folks who love food, fun, and fellowship. Perhaps what I love most about Hobbits is that (like me) they eat two breakfasts every day, but unlike me, they also have a snack between their second breakfast and lunch.
Hobbits also have no physical attributes. They lack the magic of Wizards, the strength of Dwarves, the intelligence of Elves, and the fighting spirit of Men (humans). Yet, Hobbits do possess a few intangibles, mainly courage – though admittingly, it often takes desperate circumstances to reveal it. “There is a seed of courage,” Tolkien writes, “hidden (often deeply, it is true) in the heart of the fattest and most timid Hobbit, waiting for some final and desperate danger to make it grow.”
But when that courage gets going, he continues, Hobbits prove themselves “difficult to daunt or to kill.” And because they’re also “curiously tough” and full of heart, Tolkien says Hobbits can overcome “grief, foe, or weather in a way that astonishes those who do not know them well and look no further than their bellies and their well-fed faces.”
But make no mistake, Hobbits are the underdogs and heroes of this story. They're the team we root for as they battle, against all odds, the evil-doers trying to destroy them. Speaking of heroes, now is the time to dive into Tolkien’s epic and introduce his most noble savage: the Hobbit, Frodo Baggins.
The Story
One day in the Shire, Frodo’s uncle hands him a ring that holds great power, a ring created by the Dark Lord, Sauron, to control and enslave Middle Earth. Sauron lives on the other side of Middle Earth in Mordor, a bleak and polluted wasteland of volcanoes, ash, dead marshes, and sparse vegetation -- all dominated by Sauron’s fortress, the Dark Tower. Thus, Mordor is the opposite of the bucolic Shire in every way.
Depictions of the Shire and Mordor.
To prevent Sauron from reclaiming the ring and enslaving Middle Earth, Frodo sets off on a quest, trekking across Middle Earth to Mordor, where he must destroy the ring by tossing it into the fires of Mount Doom – the only way to destroy it.
Throughout his quest, a diverse cast of characters accompanies him on this dangerous mission, including three Hobbits, the Wizard Gandalf, an Elf, a Dwarf, and a man named Strider, a Ranger from the North. As they skirt along old roads patrolled by Sauron’s Dark Riders, they slip through forests inhabited by Ents (walking, talking trees), across misty mountains stalked by Trolls and Goblins, and through caves, swamps, and dead marshes -- all while battling the weather, inner-conflict, and every creature Sauron sends to kill them along the way. It is a world of magic and myth, of legends and heroes, of good versus evil, and of noble savages versus industrial domination.
Eventually, Frodo and his loyal friend and Hobbit, Sam, break off from the group and follow their new guide, Gollum, to Mount Doom. As Sauron is distracted by an epic battle in Mordor, the two Hobbits and Gollum climb the volcano to destroy the ring. At the moment of truth, however, Frodo has second thoughts. He succumbs to the ring’s corrupting power and is reluctant to destroy it. During his hesitation, Gollum (who lusts for the ring’s power) bites off Frodo’s finger, which still holds the ring, and then falls through the cracks of Mount Doom into the fire, destroying himself and the ring.
Upon returning to the Shire, Frodo and Sam find a heart-wrenching scene. Sauron’s evil lieutenant, Saruman, has conquered the Shire in retribution, industrializing their beautiful plot by cutting down its trees, exploiting its natural resources, poisoning its rivers, and conscripting the nature-loving Hobbits as workers inside the furnaces of his factories. Saruman’s takeover is an attempt to break the Hobbits' spirit. If he succeeds, he will transform them from noble savages into cogs for his industrial machine. In short, he will civilize them.
But before that can happen, Frodo rallies the Hobbits in rebellion and overthrows Saruman’s regime. As a result, peace returns to the Shire and the clock is turned back to the old ways, so the land and Hobbits can finally begin to heal.
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With the ring destroyed and his defeat at the Battle of Black Gate, Sauron’s empire crumbles, including his Dark Tower. The corruptible ring was Sauron’s life force, and now that it’s gone, he ceases to exist as a physical entity. Following Sauron’s defeat, the Free Peoples of Middle Earth begin to rebuild with the Ranger (real name, Aragon) who protected Frodo on his journey as the benevolent King of Gondor.
As for Frodo? His quest ends. He has lost a finger in the process, and like Tolkien after the First World War, he has suffered from the inevitable trauma of the hero’s journey. Though good triumphed over evil, Frodo bears many scars from his battles. But like Tolkien with his Inklings, Frodo’s pain eases thanks to the love of his fellows. The book finally ends with Frodo sailing away from Middle Earth, over the horizon with a few friends. They’re headed to the Undying Lands, a place of healing and peace.
Primed for Myth
During the Second World War, Tolkien wrote to his son Christopher who was serving in the Royal Air Force. Sensing his son’s anxieties, he wrote, “Well, there you are: a Hobbit… you are inside a very great story!”
I think we too are in our own great stories. With a pinch of self-awareness, we can watch ourselves in our story. We can see the evil forces trying to pin us down, the times we succumb to cowardice, lies, excuses, or taking the easy way out. We can also see our best moments, those of courage, triumphs, friendships, and great loves. This is why we are drawn to myths and stories where good defeats evil, because they inspire us to win our own battles against all that tries to stop us from our own heroic quest -- doing what we're drawn to do.
As noble savages, we are primed for myth -- and Tolkien knew it. There’s a reason his books have sold 250 million copies and Hemingway’s haven’t. He sought to “rekindle the old light” inside each of us, to awaken the barbarian inside.
In our moments of transcendence -- the exhales from a workout, the laughs with a friend, the wonders of a story, the warmth of a hug, the glee of a second breakfast -- we catch a glimpse of our “old light.” In these moments we return home to where we belong. We return to our Shire.
The Fall of Man
Of all the motifs within Tolkien’s epic – good vs. evil, the hero’s journey, the noble savage, and many more -- his exploration of the Christian idea about the “fall of man” has affected me the most.
As I’ve discussed, Tolkien believes each of us is inherently good, but that the world we inhabit is inherently evil. Industrialized war, totalitarianism, and pollution are all examples of how civilization has twisted and poisoned the true nature of man.
In the Bible, God creates man in his likeness and Eden as man’s natural habitat. But when man sins and falls from God’s grace, he is forever banished from Eden (his true home). Forsaken by God, man is cursed to live in exile in a sinful world.
But for Christians like Tolkien, there’s hope. Through their savior, a man named Jesus Christ who dies for their sins, man can finally return to God’s grace. He can return to Eden and be one with nature.
Tolkien believed that man’s fall from grace (his exile from Eden) causes us to feel a void in our lives. We sense we are living a bit out of place and out of sorts; that wherever we are and whatever we do, it’s never quite the perfect match for who we are. In short, we are living in exile.
“There was an Eden on this very unhappy earth,” Tolkien wrote. “We all long for it and we are constantly glimpsing it.”
I think he’s talking about the Shire. And as noble savages, the Shire is our Eden, our existential beacon, our ultimate home, and I believe that home lies deep within each of us -- a place we return to through vigor, wonder, and fellowship.
Where do your best ideas come from or the discipline to start the workout? Who is whispering when you hear your intuition? What is the sublime that connects you with nature? What is the love you feel for your spouse, parent, child, or best friend? You will never see it, but you will see its manifestations, and you will feel its power. It is in you and for you, and it goes by many names. But according to J.R.R. Tolkien, it is God.
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