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The Lord of the Rings, 20th Century literary masterwork of J R R Tolkien and 21st Century cinema classic by Peter Jackson, is allegorical. Almost everyone accepts this. How could such an important work NOT be related to our lives and times in some way? To deny Lord of the Rings an allegorical reading would be to suggest that one of the most popular novels of all time is just some silly nonsense where men with beards prance around with hairy midgets and elves for a thousand pages, after all.

The disagreement comes in where the allegory lies. The basic story, of Frodo Baggins carrying the One Ring to destroy it in the fires of Mount Doom against the backdrop of the Dark Lord Sauron's war on the free peoples of Middle Earth, well, much of it was written around the time of the Second World War. The idea of common people signing up to fight against the forces of darkness resonates for many people with the young people of Britain conscripted into the war against Nazi Germany. The growth of faithful Sam as he helps shoulder his master's burden speaks of the erosion of traditional class values during that conflict, particularly during the later scenes in Mordor.

The trouble is that although the War clearly influenced Tolkien's work, he was fairly dismissive of attempts to read his work as a simple fantasy retelling of World War Two. Not that proper critics worry too much about authorial intent, but it's a point that the average reader should bear in mind.

More likely in many ways is that Tolkien was bemoaning the spread of industrialisation, which had turned his beloved Warwickshire (unquestionably the inspiration for The Shire, particularly the gorgeous Sarehole Mill), into a region popularly known as the 'Black Country'. Mordor is all about industry and forges and hammers and war machines, spreading their taint into Middle Earth in much the same way as Birmingham swallowed up villages and rural land during its rapid expansion. This was definitely a huge concern of the author, and it explains the constant emphasis on rural characters making good. Saruman the White is seduced by the dark side, and this is manifested by his sudden drive to tear up trees and burn down forests. The power of the natural world in Tolkien's writing is immense, from the Ents to the mountain that refuses to let the Fellowship pass.

But it's unlikely that even this is the real point of the novel. Tolkien was primarily a linguist, and in many ways his work seeks to provide a mythological cultural base for his invented languages. Having said that, there are so many patterns and possible readings for this fantastically detailed work - for example, the fact that tobacco smoking is portrayed as the height of civilisation. The troubling (for the 21st Century reader) absence of women, which Jackson tried to sidestep by massively inflating the roles of Galadriel and Arwen.

Gandalf, the Merlin figure that appears both here and in The Hobbit, becomes known almost exclusively as 'Mithrandir' towards the end of the novel, and it's worth remembering that the Cult of Mithras was an important movement in Britain before the imposition of Christianity. There's heavy Welsh, Gaelic, Celtic and pagan influences on Tolkien's mythology, so in many ways he's tapping into far older allegories than either of my two ideas.

For me, Lord of the Rings tells the story of an alternative Britain, where the Luddites and feudal peasants fought against encroaching industrialisation and won - it's an idealised tribute to pastoral life and a cracking adventure story.

Learn more about this author, Kenneth Andrews.
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