[Zigûr]

Hello all,

I thought I would mention some other interesting notions I've come across in my studies, particularly which arose during my PhD emendations (by the way, I'm pleased to say that everything is done now, I've got my completion letter and there should be nothing left to do but wait for graduation in September so I can become Dr Zigûr [Don't worry, I'm not actually going to start calling myself that]).

In Chapter 24, "Modernity", of A Companion to J.R.R. Tolkien, edited by Stuart D. Lee and published by John Wiley & Sons in 2014, Dr. Anna Vaninskaya discusses how Sauron's empire evokes a twentieth-century "Theyocracy" in which power is held by a distant, unapproachable cabal of bureaucrats. Dr Vaninskaya analyses Gorbag and Shagrat's conversation, noting that they are aware of "official propaganda", as when Shagrat tells him that the "Big Bosses" hold that the war is going well; Gorbag grunts "They would". Their orders, to quote Dr Vaninskaya, are "in the clipped language of army dispatches."

Dr Vaninskaya argues that there is "definite sense of a hierarchical party structure" in Mordor, with things like "giving your name and number to the Nazgûl."

Dr Vaninskaya observes that "The idea of soldiers, like prisoners, having numbers, no less than the concept of reporting insubordination to superiors whose own situation is precariously dependent on the favor of the Big Bosses, is completely alien to the world of Middle-earth as originally conceived (and as eventually elaborated in the final writings). The glimpses of Orc life in Mordor are also at odds with the rest of the narrative, and the tone and atmosphere of these scenes remind us that the twentieth century sometimes obtruded rather roughly into the secondary world." Dr Vaninskaya also argues of Shagrat and Gorbag that "theirs is distinctly the speech of twentieth-century soldiers, but also of government or party functionaries, minor officials in a murderous bureaucracy."

I'm in two minds about this idea. It's curious to imagine the dread Nazgûl being concerned with things like "names and numbers" of Orcs and the like, but apparently it was something that could happen (unless the Orc who made that threat was exaggerating).

I suppose the Mouth of Sauron and the other members of his dubious "embassy" from Barad-dûr also suggest the idea of high-ranking bureaucrats in Sauron's regime, presumably Black Númenóreans like the Mouth or other Men who, through cunning and sycophancy, had proved themselves useful to Sauron.

Yet I wonder how much of a "party" there really is when the entire organisation of the regime seems to serve no will or purpose but that of Sauron alone. It is not clear that there is an "ideology" in Mordor beyond doing that which fulfils Sauron's will. On the other hand, perhaps Professor Tolkien is trying to argue that under such regimes the ideology is just the tyrant's will pretending to be some totalising/universalising truth. Sauron (who can no longer hide his evil intentions from others) has simply stripped this conceit away. Possibly the closest thing we hear to an ideology, I think, is in Morgoth's Ring, in which it is stated that Sauron ultimately united all the disparate, petty realms of Orcs in "unreasoning hatred of the Elves and of Men who associated with them".

I'm interested to hear what others think. If you're interested in discussing it, do you think Mordor really has the equivalent of a "party" or "bureaucracy"? Do you, like me, struggle to imagine Khamûl whipping out a notepad to write down an Orc's number (surely there's someone of lower rank who would be reported to first)? Do you see much in the way of modern ideology at work in Middle-earth?