Yearning for Rivendell: The Wilderness of Myth and the Myth of Wilderness in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth

Abstract

There are innumerable causes of today’s environmental crises, but at the root of many of them lie bad stories. These destructive modern myths create the kind of intellectual separation between humanity and the natural world which can end up justifying the worst of environmental excesses, and—unlike concrete, scientific problems with empirical ecological solutions—this separation cannot be fixed in any physical way. The only way to counter these bad stories is to shift some of the deep belief they command into new, positive, good stories. One of those good stories is arguably the popular mythopoetic masterpiece of J.R.R. Tolkien, first brought to life in the twentieth-century novels which form his Middle-earth legendarium.

This study begins with an exploration of the concepts of wilderness in some of the mythological sources which most influenced Tolkien’s work, from prehistoric times to the twentieth century. It then takes a direct ecocritical look at three specific concepts of wilderness expressed in Tolkien’s own work. Finally, it seeks to examine those three wilderness concepts in more recent interpretations of Tolkien’s myth (particularly the twenty-first-century films of Peter Jackson), to relate them to various strands of thought current in modern wilderness philosophy, and to suggest some ways in which Tolkien’s concepts might serve as inspiration and instruction to people concerned with shifting the modern stories people tell themselves about their environment.

The power of Tolkien’s Middle-earth legendarium to change people’s behavior in profound ways is unquestioned. Its positive and empowering lessons about wilderness, as well as its clear demonstration of ethical relationships between humankind and the natural world, make it an excellent choice as a counter to the destructive mythological forces behind the still-powerful bad stories at the root of many environmental problems today.