Issrafil Mussa

Tolkien lost his father at at 4 or so years old and was completely orphaned by 12, when he lost his mother. He was born into the second part of the Industrial Revolution, and during his lifetime watched much of the world change in ways he hated, destroying and permanently altering the beautiful things he loved. He lived through 2 world wars, fighting at the Somme and losing many of his friends, and having his sons fight in the second. This was not a good time for man in many regards. The world was changing rapidly, many men who fought in WW1 became very lost and cynical about the world, they were left damaged by trauma that no one knew how to deal with and often didn’t care enough to help them with. Young men were shamed by women giving out white feathers if they were not seen in uniform during The Great War, marking them as cowards or shirking their duty. There was not much to be optimistic about during this time period for young men. The ones who didn’t die in the First World War would have to watch their sons die or risk death in the Second. Tolkien wrote an optimistic book not because he lived through an optimistic time, but because he had faith in something beyond the dire circumstances of the time. He saw great evils, not just from the enemies, but from men on all sides during this time. And the Lord of the Rings, as hopeful as it may feel, is set in a bleak time in a waning world, where once great civilisations have been reduced to crumbling cities and ruins covered in foliage. But instead of going the route of many of the authors of the time, he did not fill his world with cynicism, but filled it with something to aspire to, something to encourage you towards doing what is right in the bleakest of times. People who say “yeah but Aragorn had this and I don’t” are missing the point. You aren’t supposed to compare yourself to these characters as stand-ins for your exact situation in life, you are supposed to be inspired by the ways they handle adversity they face and the ways they decide to do what is right. Your life isn’t going to be as epic and your circumstances aren’t going to seem as high and noble, but that’s not the point of fiction. Fiction takes concepts and turns them into something tango. LotR encourages us to do what we can to press forward with the circumstances given to us, that is the point. Not that you are in line to be king and have a beautiful love interest. Not that you get a big inheritance from your uncle, but that whether you are an insignificant gardener or the heir to the throne, you are still responsible for playing your part to the best of your ability and that it is worth it even if it seems futile in the moment.