Tolkien's Failed Quest

by E. Michael Jones

Tolkien got the main symbols in The Hobbit from Richard Wagner's Ring cycle, but he was testy and sensitive whenever Wagner's name was mentioned. The problem was Wagner's anti-Semitism. The English had a long history of philo-Semitism that did not mesh with Wagner's views, leading to an artistic conflict that Tolkien could not resolve, and ultimately to an incoherent book. In purging Wagner's symbols of their anti-Semitism, Tolkien purged them of their meaning as well, for the real issue in Wagner's Das Rheingold is capitalism, not anti-Semitism. And if capitalism is the real issue, England must be the villain, which is unacceptable to Tolkien, an English patriot. Once rearranged to suit English sensibilities, though, those symbols lose their power, meaning, and coherence.

After reading E. Michael Jones's intellectual tour de force, you'll never view Tolkien's saga the same.

23 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 12, 2015

About the author

Catholic writer, former professor at Saint Mary's College in Indiana and the current editor of Culture Wars magazine.

E. Micheal Jones is controversial for his criticism against judaism.

Reviews

[Paul · Rating 5 out of 5]

while I always knew GKC had a weak spot in his English nationalism, I never considered how JRR Tolkien's Anglo-centric worldview could have affected the meaning of his creation of Middle Earth.
Let's be clear - my love for Tolkien's books remains unabated.
It is however fascinating to see how Tolkien changed the anti-capitalistic bent of Wagner's Ring Cycle to a genial distributist parable about protecting small landholders from encroaching perils.

[Dan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve never encountered this before, believing Tolkien’s angry responses to the linkage between Wagner and The Hobbit. It’s very interesting to think of the irreconcilable cognitive dissonance that appears when you see the “ring” for what it truly is: capital! Once you see this, you have to decide exactly how you’re going to interpret the rest of the LotR imagery and allegory.