Sexuality in The Lord of the Rings
The author of the bestselling fantasy novel The Lord of the Rings, J. R. R. Tolkien, was orphaned as a boy, his father dying in South Africa and his mother in England a few years later.
He was brought up by his guardian, a Catholic priest, Father Francis Xavier Morgan, and educated at male-only grammar schools and then Exeter College, Oxford, which at that time had only male students.
He joined the British Army's Lancashire Fusiliers and saw the horror of trench warfare, with life as an officer made more bearable by the support of a male batman or servant.
Rohy comments that it is easy to see why they might say this; in the epic tradition, Tolkien "abandons courtship when battle looms, apparently sublimating sexuality to the greater quest".
[7] The feminist scholar Catherine R. Stimpson charged that "Tolkien is irritatingly, blandly, traditionally masculine....He makes his women characters, no matter what their rank, the most hackneyed of stereotypes.
[8] The scholar Patrick Curry commented that "it is tempting to reply, guilty as charged", agreeing that Tolkien is "paternalistic", though he objects that Galadriel and Éowyn have more to them than Stimpson alleges.
[10] The hobbit character Sam Gamgee leaves his girlfriend Rosie Cotton when he sets off from the Shire, and returns to her admiration for the Battle of Bywater.
[T 2] They have a "happy ending" with marriage and 13 children, flourishing in a simple life with Sam as mayor of the Shire, its fertility restored after Saruman's depredations by his judicious distribution of Galadriel's gift of magical earth from her Elvish garden.
[T 3] Tolkien stated that "the simple 'rustic' love of Sam and his Rosie (nowhere elaborated) is absolutely essential [his italics] to the study of his (the chief hero's) character, and to the theme of the relation of ordinary life (breathing, eating, working, begetting) and quests, sacrifice, causes, and the 'longing for Elves', and sheer beauty.
"[T 4] The scholar of fantasy Amy Sturgis describes in Mythlore how after Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings film trilogy, Rosie has been reimagined by female fans in response to Tolkien's "incomplete literary portrait".
[T 9] The scholar of feminism Penny Griffin writes that in the Peter Jackson film Return of the King, Éowyn's credentials as a suitably feminist "Strong Female Character" are spoiled when her story ends with her disavowing battle and marrying Faramir to live, "we assume, happily ever after".
In the tale, Aragorn sings the Lay of Lúthien, an immortal Elf-maiden in the First Age who marries a man, Beren, thereby choosing a mortal life.
Jackson chose to incorporate the tale in his film trilogy to remedy this, giving Arwen more of a speaking part and creating additional scenes for her.
[20] Forewarned by Gollum, she attempts to trap Frodo and Sam as they cross the mountains into Mordor; they have no choice but to go past the tunnels to her lair, and to fight their way through.
She tries to crush him to death; he allows her to sink down on to him, holding Sting point uppermost, and her downward "thrust" causes the sword to "prick" deep into her enormous belly.
"[2] Milbank states that Shelob symbolises "an ancient maternal power that swallows up masculine identity and autonomy", threatening a "castrating hold [which] is precisely what the sexual fetishist fears, and seeks to control".
[2] The Tolkien scholar and medievalist Jane Chance mentions "Sam's penetration of her belly with his sword", noting that this may be an appropriate and symbolic way of ending her production of "bastards".
[24][28] The scholar of English literature Christopher Vaccaro, in The J. R. R. Tolkien Encyclopedia, writes that Frodo and Sam's relationship "fits neatly into the discourse of friendship expressed by homosexual men until the mid-twentieth century."
[25] Critics such as Partridge, Esther Saxey and Marion Zimmer Bradley have stated that the relationship of Frodo and Sam is friendly and intimate, but not necessarily homosexual.
[27][30] Bradley writes, too, that the monstrous Gollum is bound up with Frodo and Sam in a love-hate triangle, commenting that when relationships are very strong, "hatred and love are very much akin", especially in weak people.
"[26][T 15][T 12] This is followed, writes LaFontaine, by "scenes in which the two hobbits express their love in increasingly homoerotic terms: holding hands, sleeping huddled together, swearing eternal devotion.
