This made me sad.
dont be! Tolkien was an anarcho-monarchist. Something like monarcho-socialism but more radical, with highly symbolic but powerless monarchs and lots of good ritual, combined with anarcho-federalism and Mutualism
What a stupid idea
“My political opinions lean more and more to Anarchy (philosophically understood, meaning the abolition of control not whiskered men with bombs)—or to ‘unconstitutional’ Monarchy. I would arrest anybody who uses the word State (in any sense other than the inanimate real of England and its inhabitants, a thing that has neither power, rights nor mind); and after a chance of recantation, execute them if they remained obstinate! If we could go back to personal names, it would do a lot of good. Government is an abstract noun meaning the art and process of governing and it should be an offence to write it with a capital G or so to refer to people.”
-J. R. R. Tolkien
with highly symbolic but powerless monarchs
That’s not exactly what it means: http://wikibin.org/articles/anarcho-monarchism.html
Given that definition we wouldn’t exactly call them powerless.
Edit: This Reddit thread shines light on both ‘Anarcho-Monarchism’ and J.R.R Tolkien’s beliefs: https://reddit.com/r/monarchism/comments/pvkkjy/what_is_anarchomonarchism/
from that thread , see emperor norton or notes on Tolkienism
Tolkien’s anarchism was a decentralized voluntary association where one would swear fealty to a king and issues became common and local among people. This system was reminiscent of the Shire in his books. He supported monarchy because it acted as an involuntary position based on the catholic principle nolo episcopari. He believed this would avoid the cutthroat nature of party politics and leave the king as a figurehead that has respect and authority through voluntary exchange and respect for the monarchs position in the tradition of the country.
The line of stewards were kings in all but name as a hereditary monarchical position with all the duties and authority of the king. They theoretically had to give up power if a member of the royal family ever came back to claim the throne, but Aragorn wasn’t exactly chomping at the bit to do so and only took over after Denethor killed himself with his two heirs being either dead or too injured to lead. The stewards had ruled Gondor for over a thousand years and a well liked one could have easily gotten the people behind them to reject Aragorn’s claim and formally taken the title of king.
The people rejecting a rightful claim to the throne is no basis for a system of government. Supreme executive power derives from a pure bloodline and a big sword, not from some farcical democratic ceremony.
Only if the big sword was hurled by a watery tart
I first read it as “hobbyists” and was very confused.
They didn’t remove an unfriendly one beforehand tho.
Here’s the thing.
He named it even. Please read about Thing/Din of the old germans, it’s basically a simple democracy.
The shire was founded under the rule of the king of arnor, as a semi independent shire. So aragorn was technically king of the shire.
Until the beginning of the Fourth Age when King Elessar (Aragorn) makes it a free land (still under protection)
Every time I see this meme, I’m reminded of this, which basically argues that the shire is just a specific type of feudal system, that looks like a place of rulerless plenty because the main characters are mostly that systems informal equivalent of nobility.
So Pippin and Boromir were in nearly the same position, but with wildly different stakes. Huh.
Both Samwise Gamgee and his father, Hamfast Gamgee,
Oh god I snorted vodka. Hamfast?
Full disclosure: I have not read your link yet, but I intend to.
How can a gardener be nobility? Frodo, definitely could see. But then there are the Tooks and Brandybucks going out and stealing produce and foraging for mushrooms? Not exactly nobility activities.
Sam wasn’t, and the article goes into that. He was, in fact, one of Frodo’s tenant farmers and thus part of the Baggins family’s social support network. Hence why he becomes Frodo’s ‘batman’ during the Ring Quest.
As far as the childish mischief of Merry and Pippin, in the books it’s mushrooms only, actually. And Merry and Pippin are actually much higher-ranking than Frodo, who’s a mere ‘gentlehobit’. (They are, however, also much younger; Pippin especially is barely out of what Hobbits consider childhood.)
Pippin is the son of the Thrain, the closest the Shire gets to an actual leader and nobility, as it’s his job to ‘stand in’ for the absent King. Merry is the son of the Master of Buckland, another very powerful and very old family in the Shire.
But then there are the Tooks and Brandybucks going out and stealing produce and foraging for mushrooms? Not exactly nobility activities.
Another way of looking at it is that they don’t have to work and is using their past time doing crime just for kicks. That kind of dickishness sounds very much like that of the spawn of nobles.
And to add to this, yea Sam is the only one in the Fellowship who isn’t a Maia, heir to the king/steward, heir in a noble family or just rich enough not to have to work, and actually has a normal job.
And he has to carry the guy who’s supposedly doing all the work
Remember, they are still pretty much children in Hobbit society. Both the Tooks and Brandeybucks hold fair bits of land, it’s just their wild kids running around giving the farmers trouble. And of course there’s never any real consequences for them beyond a slap on the wrist.
Look Tolkein liked monarchy, what can you do about it. The Shire is still an anarchist commune, when it’s not on fire
I’m not sure it really fits the bill there. It had a largely-ceremonial hereditary monarchy (which Pippin inherits from his dad about 15 years after the ring was destroyed) which can call assemblies to discuss matters, an elected mayor (which Sam served as several times over after the ring), and law enforcement in the form of the shiriffs. Tolkien does describe it as “hardly any” government, yes, but to me it seems perhaps unsurprisingly more like a miniaturised version of the British system
I mean, medieval communities were often somewhat self-managed due to the simple fact that judicial courts were far away, and the local bailiff had to enact the laws. Every-day law was mostly on a by-case basis, and if they didn’t notice or care, there was no law.
They have a healthy system of vegetable competitions and scowls to keep the order.
That’s all most neighbourhoods and small groups need.
Only because they were a client state of Arnor and their militant successors, the Rangers of Dunedain! Who keep all the “riffraff out.”
The Shire is a redlined suburb, wake up sheeple.
*Orcs move in*
“There goes the neighborhood”
Did hobbits support the death penalty?
They killed wormtongue so I’m going to go with yes
Denethor was a Mordor asset. He had to be removed.
Honestly, that makes them even more of a CIA analog; removing one autocrat in favour of another, who is more aligned with their interests.
The only thing that makes them not a CIA analog, the plan actually worked and no one was secretly dosed with LSD.
We don’t know what’s in lembas bread
Meth.
It’s meth bread.
Gives a man the energy to march and fight all day with a single bite?
Please.
hobbits not feeling any of it after eating a bunch of it?
Total meth heads with tolerance
that’s what they want you to believe.
Hey the man removed himself
Let’s keep the people believing that, good citizen!
Gondor had like 30 Kings before that …
Gondor has no
pantsking, Gondor needs no king.I don’t think that’s true, is it? I think Gondor had a small handful of kings before the line was broken and had a long string of stewards. Didn’t Isildur sail from Numenor and establish Gondor himself? So, one single king, right?
No, isildurs nephew led the line of kings in gondor for two thousand years before the plague and civil war weakened gondor and it ended when the witch king nazgul killed the last king of gondor.
So did France but they figured out how to break the cycle (eventually)
It’s interesting how they went back to a monarch I think three times
lol, the secret lives of Hobbitses. GOLLUM WAS RIGHT
Eru’s own special little favourites
