In honor of International Womenās Day this past week, I would like to discuss the portrayal of women in Middle Earth.
In December 2013 the trailer for āThe Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaugā was released and with it, a new female character. Tauriel, a Silvan elf and captain of the Mirkwood Elven Guard, was collaboratively created by filmmaker Peter Jackson and his wife, screenwriter and producer Fran Walsh. Initially I was slightly irked that the films brazenly created a new leading character in Tolkienās legendarium. But after I saw Tauriel, and realized what I strong female character she is (in a story that could use one), I rescinded my judgement. However, I do wish that the creation of a strong female lead was not synonymous with the fabrication of a love triangle. Regardless, Tolkien has a few strong female characters, but they are mostly laced around the periphery of the narrative.
The major players that people know about are Luthien, Galadriel, Eowyn, and Arwen, who is more of a minor role in the books than in the films.
Luthien Before the Throne by Neffinesse
Galadriel Vs Sauron by LaurenceAndrewPage
Eowyn Vs Nazgul by Oliverojm
Flight to the Ford by Lairelark
I havenāt forgotten the queens of the Valar, or some of the other female elves in The Silmarillion, but they exist more in the periphery of Tolkienās universe than as significant main characters, and are not portrayed on film (although Iām sure weāve all dreamt about aSilmarillion film). Check out āThey Are No Men: Tolkienās 6 Most Bad-Ass Forgotten Ladiesā for a more in-depth look at some of the women of The Silmarillion. This evident inequality of female characters, however, is not because Tolkien was a misogynist, or thought that women were weak. Given the time that Tolkien was writing all of his Middle Earth material, he imposed the gender roles he was familiar with.
Whatās more, Tolkien does push the boundaries of some of these gender roles. Eowyn, a self-proclaimed āshieldmaiden and not a dry-nurseā is the clearest example of these extended boundaries. Eowyn has had to watch helpless as the world darkens around her, confined in a cage of stereotypes. Although she knows that she has the skill to aid and protect her home and her family members on the battlefield, she is left to tend Meduseld while the men ride off to war, and comments,āāShall I always be chosen?ā¦āShall I always be left behind when the Riders depart, to mind the house while they win renown, and find food and beds when they return?'ā And yet we know her best from her declaration āI am no manā Ā which stands out clearly as a monumental and pivotal moment in āThe Return of the Kingā film.Ā
Although this narrative is permeated with sword, bow, and axe wielding heroes, none of them have the power to do what Eowyn does, and end the reign of the Witch King of Angmar. So despite the insistence of characters like Theoden and Aragorn, who advocate that Eowyn remain behind for the duty she owes her people, her duty is best performed on the field of battle. Perhaps Tolkien imagined that many women who were stuck in mundane societally-acceptable female roles actually wished to be shieldmaiden like Eowyn. It is not unreasonable to imagine that during the 1900s Tolkien may have seen women who ought to be shieldmaidens of academia forced into dry-nurse roles due to the constraints of English gender roles during the the early decades of the 1900s.
Lately I have been reading Tolkienās biography by Humphrey Carpenter, and there is a lot of detail on his relationship with his wife, Edith. To be completely transparent, some of Edith Tolkienās life was rather miserable. She spent a while moving from house to house to be close to Tolkien while he was in the army. Then, when Tolkien was teaching, she would again move from house to house depending on where his job was. Her role was to stay at home and take care of the children. She loved to play piano, but stopped pursuing the practice with any vigor because she became aware that as a married woman in the early 1900s, she ācouldnātā become a concert pianist. Edith Tolkien was ensconced in a community of professors and professorsā wives, next to whom she felt uneducated, self-conscious, and intimidated. It was very difficult for Edith Tolkien to find community, and her husband, who had a community of scholars like himself, didnāt really understand this. It stands to reason that Tolkien didnāt really understand women, or at least that he had an antiquated enough view of women to assume that the needs of his wife were dissimilar to his own.
This is not to say that Tolkien didnāt love his wife; she was the only woman he loved his entire life, since childhood. He thought of her as his own Luthien. But regardless of how much he loved Edith, the socially imposed gender roles of the 1900s translate to a conspicuously smaller amount of strong female characters in Middle Earth. Donāt get me wrong, Tolkienās leading ladies, when they do lead, are awesome fiery wild women, but they are few and far in between.
Stay tuned for more insights, or check out more from The Fantastic Scholar
