Queshire
Istar
I remember hearing that one of the goals with Lord of the Rings was to write a uniquely UK-y mythology similar to Beowulf. Of course that's hardly incompatible with other influences on the story.
Tolkien himself very explicitly said that Lord of the Rings are by no means any sort of allegory for the Second World War. He was, however, quite open about his work being inspired by the First World War. For specific examples, Dead Marshes are a callback to scenes of dead bodies Tolkien saw in the mud of the Somme.Did someone mention Lord of the Rings?
I’m pretty sure that Aldarion knows all about Lord of the Rings more than I will ever hope to, but for what it’s worth, my interpretation from it is was much about Tolkien creating a sort of allegory for the world wars and his viewpoint on them. The evil in Middle Earth reminds me of fascism, along with many other issues that would have been prevalent during Tolkien’s lifetime such as mass mechanisation, communism, destroying natural habitats in favour of industrialisation (think of the Ents with Tolkien being a huge fan of trees in real life) and many other destructive world events that created such cataclysmic change during the era in which he wrote. In other words he saw real war, and wrote his experiences and viewpoint into an epic fantasy series.
I think power is always at the root. The more specific ideologies come in when the masses have to be convinced to agree. The mob.I don't have much to add to Aldarion's very informative article. As he says, a good starting point for evil is ideology. Aldarion has outlined Sauron's ideology, his drive towards a kind of utopia that he believed only foolish people would oppose. He believed that he was wise, so he should rule, and his means to achieve this became steadily more brutal. To state the obvious, Hitler's ideology was a particularly extreme and narrowly defined form of white supremacy, an ideology that sadly was very prevalent in Europe in the thirties. That made it easier for him.
So, what twisted ideology drives a villain in a fantasy world? Once that is established, evil acts become a logical consequence of being prepared to implement that ideology and to impose it on others. Of course, there is still greed, glory, fear and revenge...
True, but these are not really all that relevant for why wars start. Besides, for most people, the sole reason why they participate in the war effort is "I was told so by the authorities". People are not quick to question authorities, much less resist them, and I have found that even people who say they do, have in fact merely chosen a different authority to mindlessly follow.There are at least a couple of levels to this matter of motivation and justification. One is the national level (I'll let that term stand for everything from a tribe to a modern nation-state). Most of Aldarion's article addresses that level. But a second is the personal level. Each individual person has reasons why they go to war, why they volunteer, why they don't resist the draft, why they don't desert once in service. Each person has their own justifications not only for the actions taken by their commanders, but the actions taken by they themselves.
Beyond soldiers, non-combatants likewise have reasons why they support the war effort, which may or may not align neatly with the justifications given formally at the national level. The interplay between these can make for any number of interesting stories. A Prayer for Owen Meany comes to mind.
Now I'm thinking about orcs and humans and elves and the rest. Would they all have the same kind of justifications, the same kinds of motivations? It's more interesting to suppose they differed in some ways. Maybe orcs are always thinking in terms of expansion, conquest. War doesn't need excusing. But maybe with humans, self-defense is usually seen as more acceptable than open greed. (remember, fantasy humans don't need to be exactly like real humans) There's some room there for some imagination. And, per the above, within any group there's room for individual variations--always a good source of conflict. Conflict within war!