BY JEB SMITH

In the follow-up to his discussion about medieval views of nature and its influence on J.R.R. Tolkien, Smith considers how environmental themes impact the depiction of the Shire and the hobbits.

I am, in fact, a Hobbit (in all but size). I like gardens, trees, and unmechanized farmlands; I smoke a pipe, and like good plain food (unrefrigerated), but detest French cooking; I like, and even dare to wear in these dull days, ornamental waistcoats. I am fond of mushrooms (out of a field); have a very simple sense of humor (which even my appreciative critics find tiresome); I go to bed late and get up late (when possible).

—J. R. R. Tolkien, Letter 213

The Shire was a peaceful country of rolling green hills, rivers, and quiet woods…the Shire exemplified what author J. R. R. Tolkien might have considered an idyllic existence: a bucolic lifestyle free from any thought of industry or war. The Shire’s gentle landscapes and green pastures reflected the nature of its inhabitants…a people free of pretense or grand ambition, happy, humble, and wholesome. It was a land of quiet, beauty, and innocence.

—Daniel Falconer, Middle-earth from Script to Screen

The Shire was a pastoral paradise. In Letter 131, Tolkien wrote that the Shire was a place where life was “ordered, civilized, if simple and rural.” First Timothy 2:2 says we are to “lead a quiet and peaceful life in all godliness and reverence.” The hobbits lived this verse out within their peaceful region of the Shire.

Most hobbits were engaged in agriculture, and the land was comprised of small privately owned, sustainable, organic farms. Hobbits loved “well ordered and well-farmed countryside” and “peace and quiet, and good tilled earth.” They loved all things that grow, and “growing food and eating it occupied most of their time.” Samwise Gamgee said his dream was “waking up to a morning’s work in the garden. I’m afraid that’s all I’m hoping for all the time.”

In the Shire, farming was not an occupation looked down upon but rather a natural and noble undertaking. Frodo told Faramir, captain of Gondor, a place where men of war are esteemed, that in the Shire, “Gardeners are honored.”

The hobbits’ love of the land was evident in the well-tended, green, and beautiful landscapes of the Shire. They increased the beauty of the world around them by free ranging domesticated animals and planting trees, flowers, and whole gardens. Like most hobbits, Bilbo was very fond of flowers, and kept an extensive flower garden at Bag End. Hobbits loved flowers so much that they named their female children after them. For example, Sam Gamgee’s wife was named Rosie and among his daughters were another Rose, Daisy, Elanor, and Primrose.

Hobbits worked in the fields, surrounded by the sounds of birds, bees, cows, and chickens digging in piles of leaves. The whisper of wind traveling through the trees and the music of water running through streams relaxed the hobbits, and they became as peaceful as their surroundings, as God intended. They found enjoyment in doing what mankind was designed to do—tend the garden.

Hobbits lived in direct contact with the earth; they were barefooted, many of them living in homes built into the hillsides. It seemed that some hobbits couldn’t stand not being in contact with the dirt. While Sam and the Fellowship were boating down the Anduin river, he “longed…for the feel of the earth under his toes.” While on the stones of Erebor, Bilbo told Bombur that “I would give a good deal for the feel of grass at my toes.” In a description that fit these hobbits very well, medieval historian Régine Pernoud described the medieval peasant as “inseparable from the soil.”

Hobbits very much enjoyed hiking in the woods. Bilbo kept a map of the Shire hung on the wall, marked with all of his favorite hikes. They also enjoyed feasting on their gardens bounty, drinking beer at the Green Dragon or some other Inn, relaxing, and pipe smoking. They were plain folk and in no hurry. Bilbo admired the elf lord Elrond’s house because it was “a perfect house, whether you like food or sleep or storytelling or singing, or just sitting and thinking best, or a pleasant mixture of them all.”

In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit hole, and that means comfort.

(“The Hobbit: An Unexpected Party”)

Most hobbits, Bilbo included, were respectable, predictable, and not very adventurous. They were content and happy in their homes, with the comforts of food, drink, and leisure. They lived out Ecclesiastes 9:7. Hobbits we’re happy to leave the world’s troubles outside their round doors.Most hobbits found no use for adventures; “uncomfortable things,” as Bilbo referred to them, that might make one late for dinner. Like Tolkien himself, as we discover in Leaf by Niggle (recognized as his unofficial autobiography) he desired to keep to himself in his office and work and not be bothered by outside distractions.

After traveling on grand adventures, seeing great kingdoms, witnessing the magic of the elven realms and being honored and respected among the most powerful in Middle-earth, the hobbits desired to go there and back again. While in the depravity of Mordor, Sam’s thoughts consistently went back to the simple things in life that he loved in the Shire—food, beer, green grass, flowers, clean water, fresh air, gardens, and sunshine. After his return from the Lonely Mountain, Bilbo found that his “kettle on his hearth was ever after more musical than it had been even in the quiet days before the unexpected party.” According to Bilbo, “It is no bad thing to celebrate a simple life.”

Tolkien believed there was a difference between the quality of life and standard of living. To Tolkien, the simple life was a happy life—simple in politics, lifestyle, and culture. Rather than pursuing riches, hobbits would prefer to spend time at the Green Dragon drinking ale, sharing meals, hearing tales, singing, or to get lost in thought while enjoying a cup of tea in the comfort of their hobbit hole. During one of Gandalf’s visits to Bag End, Bilbo told him, “There is no hurry. We have all the day before us,” Historian Régine Pernoud, who summarized the mindset of the Middle Ages as “a period when men knew better than at any other time how to appreciate simple, wholesome, joyous things—bread, wine, and gaiety,” could not have provided a description that better fits the hobbits.

Materialism, financial wealth, and the pursuit of power did not significantly influence the way of life in the Shire. On the contrary, hobbits 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.”

To see how little of a hold material objects had on hobbits, take a look at Lobelia Sackville-Baggins. Lobelia was known to have stolen a case of charming silver spoons from Bag End during the auction of Bilbo’s belongings.Even so, Bilbo did not take her to court or fight for the spoons back. Instead, on his birthday, he gave a present to her—a case of silver spoons. Adelard Took was known for acquiring others’ unmarked umbrellas. So at Bilbo’s famous birthday party, Bilbo gave Adelard an umbrella for “his very own.”

In exchange for information on Frodo’s whereabouts, a black rider offered gold to Farmer Maggot; he did not give it a second thought and threatened to sick his dogs on the suspicious intruder. A young Frodo had stolen mushrooms from Farmer Maggot on a few occasions. The last time he did so, Maggot set his dogs on Frodo, which terrified him so much that he never returned. Thirty years later, Frodo was still very hesitant to return to Maggot’s farm. But due to the circumstances, he agreed to stop by while on his way out of the Shire with Sam and Pippin. They had a pleasant meal and visit with farmer Maggot. Mrs. Maggot packed some mushrooms as a departure gift, especially for Frodo.

There was no drive for industry in the Shire, as hobbits “do not and did not understand or like machines more complicated than a forge-bellows, a water-mill, or a hand-loom.” I think hobbits fit perfectly into the description that historian Régine Pernoud wrote about the medieval attitude toward development, “There was no attempt to make innovations, but rather to strengthen and improve whatever had been handed down from the past.” If an item had not been discovered or invented by those who came before them, the item was likely to be discarded. Adelard, a twelfth century scientist from Bath, complained that people believed “nothing discovered by moderns worthy of acceptance.” Another twelfth century writer Walter Map observed, “The illustrious deeds of modern men of might are little valued, and the castaway odds and ends of antiquity are exalted.”

Once again we see Tolkien’s traditionalist views come through in his hobbits. Hobbits closely resembled the medieval agrarian peasants before the rise of modernity. Tolkien said the hobbits “are examples of natural philosophy and natural religion.”Thomas Aquinas wrote, “Those things are best which are most natural.” One 10th century writer wrote, “Nature flees from everything that is artificial, and its author, God, abhors all that is contrary to nature.”When reading medieval sources, it is hard to find many authors who didn’t refer to something good as “natural” and think that something  unnatural should be dismissed. Like the European peasants, hobbits were “natural,” and would often describe things that were out of the ordinary or evil as “not natural.”

“The genuine European peasant never thinks about increasing his wealth; he is deeply rooted in the soil and timeless. Just like the proletarian he works in order to live and not the other way round. He stands nearer to nature than the bourgeois…because he is near to nature… All natural things are near to him… The villager meets nature intimately in the settlement; nature with all her laws and seasons determines the life, rhythm, and breathing of the village. The villager peasant is a child of the stars, the winds, the clouds, the earth, the rivers. All these are for him concrete and important realities.”

 (Erik Ritter von Kuehnelt-Leddihn, The Menace of the Herd [Milwaukee: Bruce Publishing Company, 1943])

Hobbits did not seek to dominate or control nature, but rather worked with their surroundings. They never desired to use machinery to unnaturally speed up production. Such a culture produced a people who even if offered power over others, would reject it, not wishing to rule or be ruled. Nor were they willing to sacrifice leisure, enjoyment, or freedom for economic gain.

A Love for all Things That Grow

“Listen to the murmuring and whispering of the leafy creatures. I know not what they say, but I know they are talking. They have their secrets—tales of old, old world, of the joyous prime of Eden… I tell you they are people…put a pine tree in a yard, and what does it look like—how does he feel? He looks out of place and feels embarrassed and mad…you think trees have got no soul, no mind, no heart. That’s because you have got no soul yourself, plague on you…can’t you see how happy the trees are, how they clap their hands and jump up and down and get bright in the face, and actually laugh in the sunshine? If you can’t, it’s because the panes in the windows of your soul need washing. You think because trees can’t walk they are an inferior being. Well, now, if you think a bit, ain’t you, too, stuck to this earth? Why don’t you step over to the next star and find out something that trees don’t know? Men have a small opinion of trees because their hearts are set on money, stocks, fame, glory, and such trash.”

—George Bagby, The Old Virginia Gentleman and Other Sketches (1910)

Tolkien once wrote,“I am (obviously) much in love with plants and above all trees, and always have been, and I find human maltreatment of them as hard to bear as some find ill-treatment of animals.”

Tolkien’s love for trees was well-known. As a child, he climbed them, drew them, and felt such a close connection that he would talk to them. So it should not surprise us that in his mythology, elves taught the trees to talk. Tolkien enjoyed hikes in the woods not only for their beauty but also for the calmness of nature. With trees, Tolkien found comfort and reassurance while the world changed rapidly around him.

Growing up near Sarehole outside of Birmingham, Tolkien saw the transformation of the countryside, which included the destruction of numerous trees. This ruin would have a lasting effect on him. Tolkien wrote, “The savage sound of the electric saw is never silent wherever trees are still found growing.” His village was transformed from a small-town farming community into a district of an ever-expanding industrial city. He saw automobiles destroy the roads of England, so he instead rode a bike. When returning to his boyhood home years later, he described the “violent and peculiarly hideous changes” that had occurred under urbanization.

Tolkien was disappointed that others did not love trees or care for them as he did. This lack of concern impacted him so much that he incorporated it into his legends. For example, Quickbeam was a gentle Ent, yet due to his love of the woods, became so angry with Saruman who destroyed what he loved. I think Tolkien speaks through Treebeard when he says, mourning a section of Fangorn Forest that Saruman’s orcs had cut down,“Nobody cares for the woods as I care for them.” Treebeard said of the cut-down trees, “Many of these trees were my friends; many had voices of their own.” Sam Gamgee also voiced Tolkien’s sadness at the loss of trees when he wept over the felled party tree during the Scouring of the Shire.

In The Silmarillion, Yavanna, one of the Valar, said, “All have their worth…but I hold trees, dear.” Tolkien shared this sentiment about all green things, especially trees. While in the elf realm of Lothlórien, Samwise Gamgee, whom Galadriel calls a lover of trees, gets a glimpse in the mirror of Galadriel. This mirror allows things that might come to be to be seen. In the mirror, Sam got a glimpse of the corruption of the Shire where he “saw trees…falling, crashing to the ground… Sam cried in an outraged voice, ‘There’s that Ted Sandyman a-cutting down trees as he shouldn’t. They didn’t ought to be felled… I wish I could get at Ted, and i’d fell him…there is some devilry at work in the Shire.”” According to Sam, cutting down trees that should not be, is devilry.

During his childhood, a willow tree that Tolkien used to climb was cut down. He said, “They didn’t do anything with it: the log just lay there. I never forgot that.” This, Tolkien thought, was evil. This is evident in Middle-earth, where evil forces are often destroying trees and not using them for any purpose. Treebeard said the orcs “are felling trees—good trees. Some of the trees they just cut down and leave to rot—orc—mischief that.”

As the fellowship set out from Rivendell, they had to decide how to get past the Misty Mountains, the most extended continuous mountain range in Middle-earth. They eventually decided to go under and through the ancient dwarven realm of Moria. Unfortunately, upon entering, they became trapped within the darkness of Moria because of the watcher in the water. This creature had blocked the gate with boulders and uprooted trees forcing the fellowship into the dark halls of Moria. Instead of concern for the company, Gandalf’s thoughts turned to the trees the watcher had torn from the ground; he was saddened by their loss due to their old age, and beauty.

Mallorn trees inspired the design of the elven realm of Lothlórien. The elves’ lamps and clothing were green, silver, and gold to match the silver bark and gold leaves of the Mallorn trees. They built their houses in the trees to be as close as possible to that which they loved most. Galadriel’s chamber had an enormous trunk running through it, and it was embellished with silver, gold, and green. Her chair was covered by a large branch of the tree. Her ship had the design of a swan, and the paddles of the boat were designed after the leaves of Lórien. Haldir of Lothlórien could not imagine living anywhere else, even beyond the seas (paradise), if no Mallorn trees were there.Their principal dwelling place was Caras Galadhon, the city of trees, and they were called the tree people. When Frodo visited the capital, he saw “many mighty trees or a city of green towers, which it was he could not tell.”Caras Galadhon, the most populated area, was so well built into nature that it was hard to tell if it was not just a forest. Sam wondered “whether they’ve made the land, or the lands made them. It’s hard to say.” Tolkien wrote the reason it was so beautiful was that “there the trees were loved.”

Elves have always had an affinity for trees. For example, during the Second Age, elves gave the Númenórean prince, Aldarion, a white tree as a wedding present. He then asked the elves, “The wood of such a tree must be precious indeed.” The elves responded, “Maybe, we know not. None has ever been hewn.”

The time has come for judging the dead, and for rewarding your servants the prophets and your saints and those who reverence your name, both small and great—and for destroying those who destroy the earth.

(Rev 11:18)

The Bible said God would destroy those who destroy the earth. While on earth, there was not much Tolkien could do directly, but  Middle-earth was a different matter. Tolkien said that in all his works, he desired to “take the part of trees as against all their enemies.” So Tolkien created both the Ents and Huorns (tree-like beings) with the ability to move, talk, and even fight.

In The Silmarillion, the angelic being Aulë informed Yavanna that when men and elves were created, they would be given dominion over the earth. Though, at times, some of their actions would be a misuse of their dominion, causing harm to the environment Yavanna so loves. Feeling saddened by the harm previously done to the environment by Morgoth, It was tough for Yavanna to bear the thought of further damage to the earth. So she went to Manwë, king of the Valar, and asked if there was anything that would be left unharmed. Manwë asked her what she held most dear; she said she desired that something could “speak on behalf of all things that have roots and punish those who wrong them.” Since plants could not flee from danger, she argued that they needed protection. This reminded Manwë of the musical themes from Eru during creation; that in the forest shall walk the “shepherds of the trees” (Ents). Yavanna rejoicedand said to Aulë, “Now let thy children beware! For there shall walk a power in the forests whose wrath they shall arouse at their peril.”

It was not surprising that Tolkien, a devout Christian, would invent talking trees with these abilities. We encounter a talking tree in an 8th-century Anglo-Saxon poem, The Dream of the Rood. The poem is written from the perspective of the cross that bore Christ at the crucifixion. The cross tells of his suffering: “They shamed us both together. I was besplattered with blood,” and, “Many vicious deeds have I endured on that hill.” But the cross also describes the glories and honor of bearing the King of Heaven.

Isaiah 55:12 says the trees of the field shall “clap their hands.” Mark 8:24 reads, “I see people; they look like trees walking around.” We read of King David’s victory in 2 Samuel 18:6–8, “The battle there was spread over the whole countryside, and the forest devoured more people that day than the sword devoured.” This passage is very similar to the battle of Helm’s Deep, where the orcs were slaughtered as much by the forest of Huorns as they were in hand-to-hand combat.

Middle-earth created a context in which Tolkien’s desire for trees to protect themselves could be played out. A well-known instance is the destruction of the machine-obsessed realm of Isengard. Destruction had to occur to prevent the collapse of Fangorn forest and allow new trees to be planted where more once were. Trees were not just to be used for industrial benefits as Saruman had done when he clear-cut sections of Fangorn.

In the Old Forest, having first had their terrifying encounter with Old Man Willow the hobbits discovered value in trees aside from personal use. First, they learned from the mysterious and wise Tom Bombadil as they “began to understand the lives of the forest, apart from themselves, indeed to feel themselves as the strangers where all other things were at home.” Tom’s wife Goldberry, the river’s daughter, informed the hobbits, “The trees and the grasses and all things growing or living in the land belong each to themselves.”When Frodo was in the elven realm of Lórien, he touched a Mallorn tree, and “never before had he been so suddenly and so keenly aware of the feel and texture of a tree’s skin and of the life within it. He felt delight in wood and the touch of it, neither as a forester nor as a carpenter, it was the delight of the living tree itself.”

Tolkien’s love of trees is evident in the use of symbols in Middle-earth. For example, Gondor’s symbol is a white tree; behind the throne in Minas Tirith is a stone carving of a white tree in flower. The tree of Gondor sprouted from a seed that was a model of Telperion, eldest of the beautiful trees of Valinor. This tree symbolizes the west, the Valar, and Eru. During the Second Age, the white tree is a symbol of the Númenóreans’ faithfulness to the powers of the west. It is similar to the Anglo-Saxon symbol of divinity and loyalty to their Lord Jesus, a wooden cross called the holy tree.

Orcs hate these symbols and desire to be rid of them, much like our modern world’s obsession with removing references to God, such as the ten commandments or crosses. Sauron had the white tree of the Númenóreans cut down and burned; in its place, he raised a great temple in which human sacrifices were performed, persecuting those still following Eru. However, a sapling was rescued by Isildur and later planted in Minas Ithil. Minas Ithil was eventually captured [and renamed Minas Morgul the lair of the Witch-King], and again, the white tree was destroyed. But once more, Isildur escaped with a sapling and replanted it in Minas Anor, known later as Minas Tirith. The white tree withered under the care of the stewards, but after the coronation of Aragorn, a new sapling in bloom was planted in the court.

It was not wrong to use trees as a resource. For example, Tolkien and the hobbits loved to sit around a log fire and used trees for furniture and structures. Although Tolkien did not condemn the use of trees, he still felt saddened by their destruction. Tolkien believed that we live in a fallen world where we must accept imperfection; though we can and will be saddened by it.

In order to see Tolkien’s other perspective, we need to look at Aldarion’s wife, Erendis. She was “Saddened by the sight of trees felled in their prime, and afterward hewn and sawn,” and asks, “How many fair trees have been cut short of their lives this year.” Erendis “loved all green things that grew, and her greatest joy was to see the sunlight through the leaves of green.” Galadriel also desired to “Have trees and grass about that do not die.” Through these characters, we can understand Tolkien can be both saddened by the death of trees and tolerant of their uses.

Environmentalists often prioritize nature above man, but Tolkien did not. The wizard Radagast was unfaithful to the purpose for which he was sent to Middle-earth, to help the free peoples. We read in Unfinished Tales, “One only remained faithful…for Radagast, the fourth, became enamored of the many beasts and birds that dwelt in Middle-earth, and forsook Elves, and men, and spent his days among the wild creatures.” Radagast put his concern for animals and nature above his original objective. Although It was not wrong to care as much as he did for the animals, he should not have elevated his concerns for them above people.

During the medieval period, creation was seen as a teacher (Job 12:7–8). John of Salisbury spoke of “Nature, which we have very often identified as the best guide to living.”Saint Bernard believed that at times nature could be a better teacher about God than man could. Nature was also used as a model, no matter the subject—family, politics, or evangelism. For example, Saint Patrick is said to have used the three-leaf clover to teach about the trinity.