Flowers and Steel: The Necessity of War in Feminist Tolkien Scholarship

In a fallen world, J.R.R. Tolkien told his son Michael in 1941, relationships are valued by suffering and ruined by sex: "The best cannot be attained by free enjoyment, or by what is called 'self-realization' (usually a nice name for self-indulgence, wholly inimical to the realization of other selves); but by denial, by suffering" (Letters 51). Tolkien penned this letter for a specific audience and purpose—to advise a young, impressionable Michael on morally ambiguous topics—but it also happens to be the most comprehensive and extensive written account of his beliefs about gender, sex, and marriage. Thus, while the letter was not written with the intention of becoming any kind of manifesto, it does help contextualize the author's understanding of societal gender roles in light of his Catholic conservatism. Readers can also trust that the views expressed in this 1941 letter are candid and honest, as Tolkien was writing to provide truth and clarity to his son, not to appease a wider audience. As a result of this honesty, however, some lines have become ammunition for Tolkien's critics. For example, he describes the "female instinct" as being "receptive, stimulated, fertilized (in many other matters than the physical) by the male" (Letters 49). He also reinforces domestic stereotypes by writing, "A young woman, even one 'economically independent,' as they say now, begins to think of the 'bottom drawer' and dream of a home, almost at once" (Letters 50).

However, Tolkien also expresses progressive sentiments about women and heterosexual relationships, playing against some critics' belief that Tolkien was purely a misogynist. He writes that women are "companions in shipwreck not guiding stars" (Letters 49), noting that while their instinct may compel them to pursue a domestic life, they do not need to idolize a heroic male figure in order to fall—or remain—in love (Letters 50). Tolkien illustrates other female virtues: women are not amused by immature or bawdy humor; they are not flighty or silly; and they are practical, not just romantic.

J.R.R. and Edith Tolkien's greatest shipwreck was, perhaps, the First World War. Together, they endured fear, uncertainty, difficult communication, and long months of his recuperation in hospital. The aftermath of war was not John Ronald's burden alone; his constant movement in and out of hospital and on home duty took a dramatic toll on Edith. Since the spring of 1915, Edith had lived in 22 different places, following her husband from camp to camp and hospital to hospital (Garth 246). By the spring of 1918, she refused to move again. Exhausted from caring for a newborn and still dealing with lingering pain from a difficult pregnancy, she wrote to her husband, "I'll never go round with you again" (Bio 98). While Edith remained supportive and nurturing during John Ronald's recovery, she was as much a partner as she was a caregiver, enduring the fallout of a world reborn from its own destruction, a companion in the modern world's greatest shipwreck to date.

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Feminist criticism of J.R.R. Tolkien is extensive and contested. While critics can agree that Tolkien himself was nothing close to a feminist, scholars and readers have been disputing the role of women in his legendarium, his relationships with women in his personal life, and the gender implications of his Catholicism for more than four decades. Nearly every perspective has been presented, from the belief that Tolkien's women are mere stereotypes to the insistence that he idolized and adored them to an almost religious degree. One trend, however, remains steady: that feminist critics are more amenable to Tolkien when examining his work within the context of the shipwreck, war. Indeed, war is a necessary lens in the Tolkien feminist critical tradition.

Early criticism, like Catharine R. Stimpson's 1969 monograph J.R.R. Tolkien and Doris Myers's 1971 article "Brave New World: The Status of Women According to Tolkien, Lewis, and Williams," brought feminist issues like inclusivity, stereotyping, and hypermasculinity to the Tolkien community. Stimpson describes Tolkien as presenting a "subtle...