On the Realism of Lord of the Rings

I wrote this post a little while ago, as I was still in the fellowship I believe, talking about how in love with LOTR I already was even though I was barely into it. A couple people told me to come back with a long effortpost when I finished the book, summarizing my thoughts.

Well, I finished the book on Friday night, however…I think there is too much to say even in a long effortpost to summarize the scope of what I think about this book. There is SO much going on. A good review would probably be at least 60 pages if not a whole novel in and of itself. So I guess some bullet points of the highlights for me is in order. I realize that many of the sections are just comments about realism, I needed some excuse to split them up anyway.

**The Real**

I was blown away by Tolkien’s ability to maintain a sense of realism about the story, even concerning wildly imaginary things, e.g.:

*Tree Beard.* He is how old? 50,000 years? Why would he use reasonable lengths of speech or anything? In terms of how long a day is to me as a fraction of my entire life, the equivalent of Tree Beard’s life would be 5 years. He may as well take his time! I love his sense of humor too. Taking any less than a full day for a few sentences is hasty. I agree!

*Lore of the Rings.* From the point where Gandalf began to suspect that Bilbo was in possession of the One Ring to Rule them All, it took him eighteen years to confirm his suspicion with any degree of confidence. Of course it would! Sauron’s been gone for thousands of years. Everyone pretty much assumed that the one ring is gone forever in some ocean somewhere (INCLUDING SAURON!) Even if one was around the whole time, you probably wouldn’t have known of the ring in the first place, and if you did know of it, you most certainly wouldn’t have been certain of it’s behavior.

*Accurate Corruption.* Boromir had every reason to want the ring. No one in their right mind thought that a mission to deliver the ring to Mount Doom had a shot at success. Minas Tirith is right there, not only is it guaranteed to be attacked with the full force of Sauron’s army at some point, but it also is the only place left in middle earth that stands any remote chance at winning that battle, especially with the ring. Any leader of Minas Tirith would be justified in assuming that taking the ring by force is their duty. Boromir wasn’t crazy, his plan made perfect sense. Also note how Denethor assumed the plan to deliver the ring to Mordor had failed by the time Minas Tirith was attacked. He was wholly justified in that assumption too. I have never seen such a realistic portrayal of corruption in a story. The movies butchered it.

*Portrayal of distance and logistics.* When the Rohirrim are delivered the Red Arrow, it takes them at least 4 days to ride to Minas Tirith, riding almost literally 24/7. Otherwise the distance is more like two weeks. Those protecting Minas Tirith have frankly no idea if the Rohirrim will show up in time to turn the battle, knowing that in the best of cases the battle may already be lost by the time they get there, or worse, the battle might still be unwinnable if they get there in time. Theoden shows up, and dies in one of the most benign possible ways, getting crushed underneath a terrified horse. As you would.

*Sauron’s Bluff.* When the army of Gondor arrives at the Morannon, Sauron sends his messenger to show everyone Frodo’s gear. Frodo has been caught! The jig is up! Game over! Except…Sauron was assuming Frodo was just a spy. What else would he be doing in Mordor? I don’t think it matters how intelligent the guy is, why would you assume this guy was sneaking into Mordor to destroy the most powerful object in the world. An object characterized by it’s possession of those who wield it. Brilliant storytelling.

*Shelob.* She’s apparently been there in Cirith Ungol since the time before Sauron. Initially you might think, “surely Sauron would have just killed her by now.” Why would he? He knows she’s hungry, therefore she will likely try to eat anyone that comes over that pass. I would probably just leave her there too. The enemy of my enemy is my friend.

*Sauron’s dysfunctional army*. The trolls sometimes get carried away and smash though all the orcs in their way. The orcs constantly fight amongst themselves. None of them really seem that loyal to Sauron in the first place other than the Nazghul (why would they be?) I adore how the dysfunction of Sauron’s army is not really used for the strict purpose of eucatastrophe (though it does turn into that sometimes,) instead it seems like just an everyday reality of trying to form a big bad army out of stupid slaves that are controlled through fear. When these moments happen, it no longer feels like a cheap plot device, but genuine good luck.

*Frodo’s Illness.* This is a relatively minor point, but still significant to me. After getting slashed by Angmar, the leader of the ringwraiths, Frodo never quite recovers, not even with help from all of the best healers in middle earth. Even in 2023 with high tech medicine, there is still a huge swathes of chronic illnesses that we know nothing about, not even the best doctors, and if you get them, you are basically sick forever. I find this portrayal within LOTR to be highly convincing.

**The Petty**

Tolkien is a master of petty humor. The only other author I’ve seen capture the real life pettiness of conflict as well as him is Orwell in 1984.

*Galadriel vs Arwen*. This conflict is so well done that I almost wonder if the internet Rei vs Asuka from Evangelion thing originates here, or if this is just a timeless human particularism. Gimli ardently defends the absolute beauty of Galadriel everywhere he goes, tolerating no disparaging remarks or implications whatsoever. Eomer meets Galadriel and Arwen at the same time, and tells Gimli to go get his axe, as Arwen is more beautiful, therefore they must fight to the death. Gimli, also seeing them together for the first time, concedes that they are both extremely beautiful and forgives the remark. I feel the same way when anyone implies Dua Lipa isn’t gorgeous.

*Saruman’s Pipe Weed*. Following the sacking of Isengard by the ents, Saruman is clearly pissed about all of his high quality pipe weed being stolen. When they run into him later, the most bitter comment he could come up with to curse the party is to wish them a bad pipe weed crop in the future. It must be some good stuff!

*Elves vs Dwarves*. No one is exactly sure, including the ancient loremasters, about why exactly the elves and dwarves came to dislike eachother so much, with both sides accusing the other of starting it. Nonetheless the conflict remains like the football teams of two neighboring cities.

*Denethor’s title.* Denethor was wise enough to refuse to ever accept the title of King, as no amount of time would be acceptable for the steward of Gondor to claim that title. However, when he, effectively the King, finds out that the real King plans on returning to claim his throne, he is struck with absolute despair (the visions of the destruction of middle earth probably didn’t help,) and decides to self immolate.

Compared to the movies, Gandalf has a bitterer personality. There’s many moments within the book that Gandalf is genuinely impatient, and sick of getting asked stupid questions by minor characters. I like the book version much better, it makes the character feel like a real, powerful guy, instead of just everyone’s Grandpa who is only there to make them feel good about themselves.

**The Beautiful**

Aesthetic beauty seems to play a significant part in the story. One of the most powerful entities of middle earth uses her ring of power, one of the greatest rings, primarily to create a secret sanctuary so beautiful that it creates a sense of permanent wistfulness in anyone who lays eyes on it. When her ring loses its power, she immediately plans to leave middle earth. I would want to too, if my sanctuary was ruined like that.

Arwen and Galadriel are considered so gorgeous within the story, that casting them is realistically not even possible. I still agree with the early consensus that Cate Blanchett was an inappropriate choice for Galadriel, though I don’t know if there was honestly any better choices. Throughout the story it’s implied that their extreme beauty by itself carries substantial influence in middle earth, which I could easily see happening in real life too. I’m pretty sure Taylor Swift could probably make a lot of things happen in the world just with the influence of her incredible beauty.

**The Magical**

LOTR exists within a universe where magic is real. However, much like anything else, that does not mean that anything is possible and certainly at least not at any time. Gandalf is one of the most powerful wizards in middle-earth, and has a ring of power, and most of the time is still limited to fantastical displays of fireworks (to such a degree that he was given the name Incanus!)

Sauron is the most powerful wizard in middle-earth, and even he cannot send long distance messages without assistance from powerful objects, he cannot make orcs smart, apparently he cannot even make orcs, he cannot show up and win a battle by himself, he cannot see everywhere at once, he is just as unsure as everyone else is about the discovery of the one ring.

Speaking of the one ring, even that existence of that makes perfect since within the context of the universe. Many elves made many rings. The most talented elves made the most powerful rings. It took them a long time and a lot of effort to make those rings. The highest elf with the highest powers managed to manufacture the most powerful ring, which lords over the other rings. Even so, most of those who wield the ring cannot do that much with it, even to the extent that they consider it more of a literal party trick than anything.

The Ent Draught has magical properties. Not surprising. What are they? Mostly they make a bunch of small hobbits into much larger but still small men in size. They’re ents, not Gods, what would you expect?

**The Romantic**

I will not make any comment about the Aragorn – Arwen relationship, as I have heard enough from the many women I know who are fans of LOTR that this is a fantastic piece of romance, I personally do not care strongly for it at all.

That said, the story of the Entwives is heartbreaking. They left thousands of years ago. No one seems exactly sure why they left. No one knows whether or not they still exist. They spent thousands of years looking for them all over middle-earth, and then, eventually, when hope appeared lost, they returned home to Fangorn, dreaming about eventually running into them again. They ask everyone who comes through Fangorn whether they have seen or heard from the Entwives, maintaining a hope of eventually seeing them again. It’s beautiful!

**The Pacing**

I’ve heard a significant amount of people complain that the Lord of the Rings is much too long, it aged poorly, it’s too full of dry / irrelevant / boring detail.

I couldn’t possibly disagree more. I feel that every single page of the entire book was put to good use, I was never bored reading it, I enjoyed every bit and piece of lore, and above all else was enamored with the sense that this is a real and a big world. You can tell Tolkien spent decades putting this world together. For a while during the Mount Doom chapter, when Frodo and Sam are marching toward the mountain after Frodo is freed, saw how much of the book was left at that point, and assumed that he must somehow waste 100 pages just with Frodo and Sam marching to Mount Doom, and I was dreading how slow and boring that looked like it was going to be. As it turned out, I was actually only 4 -5 pages from the ring falling into the lava, and the rest of the book is quite active and full of other content, much to my pleasant surprise.

**The Legacy**

After finishing the book, I’m noticing more and more how everything else I’ve ever consumed in the genre of fantasy, especially Skyrim, World of Warcraft, and DnD, are dripping with influence from LOTR. There is absolutely no way these things could exist in the same way without LOTR coming first, whether it be the distinct depictions of Dwarves, or Elves, or the beautiful forest of Lothlorien which seems to have been copied directly into many other works, the stamp that Tolkien put on the fantasy genre forever is clear and great.

Etc., Etc., I could go on forever. This is the greatest work of fiction I’ve ever read or otherwise consumed hands down, I am baffled that it actually managed to live up to it’s lofty reputation without any feeling that it’s overrated or poorly aged (that never happens for me,) it is an unquestionable 10/10, and if the scale goes up to a 100 it can’t be any less than 100/100. I will never forget this masterpiece.

by SleepingAndy