Peter Jackson's Movie Trilogy Lord of The Rings: A Fertility Parable

 Argument

Just Friends, OK.

Any study of The Lord of the Rings will always be coloured by the obvious controversy that still abounds regards the relationship between the primary protagonists, Frodo and Sam. As People Magazine famously quipped, ‘did they do it?!?!’ However, I believe under this flaming tale of unrestricted gay desire there is something deeper, even more elemental than a mere craving for Hobbit booty. Therefore leaving the explicit commentary of Frodo and Sam's relationship concerning the fluid boundaries between homosocial and homosexual behaviour in a male-male partnership to one side, here I shall instead consider the implications of Lord of the Rings as a Genesis-type fertility parable, if you will.

This analysis will primarily focus on the mortal races; it is clear the elves in Tolkien's strict catholic prose are allegories for and synonymous with the Nephilim, an immortal, angelic race possessing superior physical capabilities from a far off location (The Heavenly Firmament, The Grey Havens) who mate with mortal mankind (consider Aragorn and his hot elf ho.)

Despite this, there is still much argument in the academic community at how far such an argument can be taken. Is this epic a thinly veiled portrayal of overcoming infertility, represented by the forces of darkness, the orcs who cannot love or make dirty coitus, who are birthed from the earth itself? Sex is everywhere and nowhere in Tolkien, omnipresent and yet denied even when at it's most obvious.

Genesis 6:1-3 When men began to increase in number on the earth and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose, then the LORD said, "My Spirit will not contend with man forever, for he is mortal; his days will be a hundred and twenty years."

Therefore here I will consider both an argument for, and an argument against a reading/viewing of Lord of the Binge as an ancient Mesopotamian Fertility Epic.  First Sam the inseminator will be considered, and then an opposite argument using Éowyn as an example of female independence.




An Argument For Fertility: Samwise "The wise" Gamgee, Professional Gardener, Gimp and Fatty.

Brooding

Sam is perhaps not the most obvious character with regard to fertility within The Lord of the Cock Rings, given his oft regarded romantic relationship with his 'employer' Frodo Baggins. While this commentary on social exploitation of the working classes through a subliminal BDSM narrative implicit in their relationship is fodder for a separate analysis, it may be productive to consider it briefly here.

The Worker's Struggle

Sam is subservient, oppressed, scorned, and yet loyal like a lobotomised cocker spaniel to his master Frodo. He is the only one shown cooking, or performing many of the other necessary activities on their extended camping trip. Meanwhile Frodo sits on rocks or tufts of earth, sweating, mewling, and looking into the middle distance. Is this, as Wilde put it, "the love that dare not speak it's name"? Or is it instead a comment on the exploitation of lower classes by a fundamentally weak and unstable oligarchy, here represented by Frodo. Once the police and army break down (here symbolised by the Fellowship, particularly Aragorn, and the spilt at the end of the fist book/film) little stops these two polarised groups from coming into conflict, culminating in Frodo's dismissal of Sam. Like the horse Boxer in Orwell's Animal Farm, Sam is loyal to the last, even when it conflicts with his own interests. Perhaps this is a comment on modern media's ability to be used to penetrate and manipulate the masses into voting against their interests, or perhaps it is too early to say.

However, Frodo finds that, abandoned by Gollum, representative of decedent and unrestrained desire, he needs his 'dear Sam.' At this moment the typically passive Sam comes to the fore, and slays the spider Shelob. Is it any wonder that such a brazen allegory for the web spinning ability of contemporary middle and upper class consumerist culture is a giant spider? It seems facetious to think otherwise. Here, unlike Boxer's fixation that "Napoleon is always right," Sam has finally transcended the yoke of the lower classes, and taken control. However, he has done so to rescue his educated master. The masses cannot survive, it seems, without some educated elite to guide them, though this elite must be now weakened, as the ring weakens Frodo. Now, as in Mordor, it is the masses who drive the nation forward, as Sam carries the feeble Frodo to Mount Doom.

With this brief aside in mind, it is now time to turn to the case of The Lord of the Onion Rings as a parable primarily concerned with Sam's fertility, and his claiming of Phallic privilege and exclusivity of procreation with the hobbit slut barmaid Rose "Rosie" Cotton.

Before Sam's adventure he desires this woman Hobbit wench, but is unable to act. His fear and his subservience overcomes his masculine urge for coital intimacy. Here Frodo is seen as the a-typical 'bro' at the party. Beer is flowing, the wenches are dancing and Brodo tries to convince Sam of the virtues of making a move. Frodo is a capable wingman, but he fails. Sam does not get lucky. He is paralysed by fear of the female, especially in it's most seductive of forms, Rosie. Paradoxically it is her very appeal to him that causes him to be unable to approach her.

Bro-do and Sam Mid Party

On his return. however, Sam is a transformed man. He asserts his masculine phallic authority by siring thirteen children from his woman while she is of healthy mating age, and, not content with his dominance over the female other, he asserts control over the male population through his long career as Hobbit Mayor, a role equitable in contemporary terms with the powers of the Deputy Prime Minister. Though he is arguably in a position of power of the 'little folk' of the Shire, in reality his influence is negligible on the wider Middle Earth stage.

Nevertheless Sam has asserted himself as fertile, although like Abraham it took a journey and many hilarious adventures to achieve it. This is in direct contrast to Frodo, who returns a celibate monk compared to his prior bro-ishness. The two roles have become inverted by associated and overexposure; just as proximity to the Ring warps Frodo closer to it, the time Frodo and Sam spend together, huddled together for warmth on cold and rainy nights gives rise to a mimetic transformation. They come to emulate each other, and slowly become each other. Frodo becomes the feminine, whimpering supplicant to Sam's proactive masculine heroics.

However, a spiritual transference with Frodo is not the sole source of Sam's new found fertility; that alone has not given new life to his withered seed like Elisha in the Valley of the Dry Bones. While in the Shire, Sam is exposed to the endless and bountiful exuberance and vitality of the Hobbits, and their undeniable fertility. As a result he feels lost, unable to compete with their happy harvests, another sign of fertility, in the very earth itself. As a gardener Sam understands this; he can nurture flowers and vegetables to maturation, yet he cannot create life himself. His very profession is an endless reminder of his impotence. No wonder he takes to practicing it outside Frodo's window in the middle of the night; in the daylight, his flaws are too apparent for him to be able to stomach.

But in his travels, Sam passes through lands barren, or ravaged by war. Weathertop, Moria, Icthillion, Gondor, Osgiliath, The Misty Marshes, Emin Muiel, Minas Morgul and finally Mordor itself. All of these locations have been made infertile, unable to support or produce life any longer. They are simply places of death, of perpetual conflict. As Homer puts it in the Iliad, 'war never ends.' The war in these barren climes is total and immortal, and in the face of all this destruction of life Sam becomes aware of his own life and fertility that he carries within himself. A sense, perhaps, of 'heroism' this becomes more and more pronounced in Sam the more adversity he faces. Sam discovers his internal fertility when set against the bleakness of Middle Earth, it is the only way his psyche can survive the trauma of war he witnesses. To escape the effects of PTSD, Sam externalises his inner peace, his inner goodness, and is able to conquer the darkness. Furthermore, when he gets home, he brings this fresh ability with him, and is able to seduce and procreate with a vigour that would put a rabbit to shame.

"Mister Frodo, she's at least an eight. Dibs."

 An Argument Against Fertility: Éowyn, The Sterile Warrior Mother

However,  Éowyn seems to turn this fertility narrative on it's head, or at least provide a female counterpart to Sam's 'male mothering' of Frodo. Her repeated attempts to penetrate masculinity and overcome her natural femininity and the prejudice that occurs see her struggling against the very idea of fertility and the female role as a vessel for procreation. Her people are 'horse lords' and the horse has long been a symbol of unfettered virility and masculine expression. She is a (frumpy) woman cut loose in a patriarchy where a man's worth is measured by the length of his beard and his ability to shout.

What a Horse

 However, Éowyn blends masculine and feminine gender roles to create a hybrid persona which fits both her ambition but also her maternal urges. Against her father's wishes she sallies out to battle, and, as well as slaying many disgusting (totally not Moor allegory) orcs, she kills a motherfucking Oliphant. The destruction of this masculine symbol of phallic compensation shows her triumph over the patriarchy through emulation. She acts like a man, she fights like a man, she is a man.

And yet she achieves something more. By bringing along the small, boyish Hobbit Merry, she plays the role of his surrogate mother. Under her influence he transforms from a foolish young rapscallion into a man, a warrior in his own right. She guides him in a second childhood, and both of them act out the child-mother relationship.  This is a relationship that oozes in Freudian tensions and desires. Merry is clearly in love with his mother, and sexually desires her, but, due to his tiny Hobbit manhood, is unable to meet her demanding needs, finding himself eventually replaced by Faramir, another Surrogate she nurses back to health from near death. Here she is able to project her maternal desires onto a male of the same race, and as a result is also able to finally consummate her otherwise sick and twisted desires. Merry is left jilted, but learns from this experience. His true love lies with Pippin; both Hobbits, though in rival factions like Romeo and Juliet in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, have achieved martial prowess, and as such affirmed their masculinity. No longer in crisis and feeling emasculated and vulnerable due to their diminished stature. they are able to consummate their love without these insecurities which previously prevented them from opening up their hearts to one another.

Another Hobbit Fantasy

However, by finding and rearing a surrogate son, Éowyn forgoes coitus in preference to an immaculate conception of sorts. She will not submit to the patriarchy, and as such will not suffer to be made vulnerable by the sexual act or by pregnancy. Her role is sexually gendered masculine at all times, hence the penetrative sword she brandishes. This is the sword with which she slays the dreaded Witch King, itself an gendered oxymoron playing on concepts of the evil (fe)male monarch, providing an empty 'other' onto which she can project herself and her virtues as she now becomes a female monarch with the death of Theoden.

Finally, by severing the phallic neck of the Fell Beast and removing it's aggressive, drooling head, Éowyn is asserting a new type of female masculine virtue. She is both an emasculator, a castrator of men in the mould of the bride from Kill Bill, but also very much a woman, protecting herself and the king from a violent 'rape' at the maw of the Beat. There is no need for the phallus in the new word Éowyn creates for herself, the final symbol of the patriarchy has been undone. She has made herself wilfully sterile, and yet also a mother. Men have no control over her or her reproductive ability, instead she is the commanding mother to men.

Pre Castration