Iceland in Tolkien's Work?

[Lalwendë]

Originally Posted by Morthoron

P.S. As far as the Shire, the terms 'moot', 'thain' (as in 'thane', 'thegn'), and even the 'farthings' (quarterings) of the Shire, indicate a wholly English squirearchy with nominal (or in this case, no) input from the monarchy. The Shire was not anarchical; it was ruled by custom (much the same as early English Common Law) and had specific agencies and bureacracies (postal service, bounders, shirrifs, etc.) that would not be apparent in early Icelandic culture, which would be more prone to hunter/gatherer and subsistence farming than stratified classes, legal documentation and flourishing, established business evident in Hobbitish society.

Well strictly speaking, anarchy does not imply 'chaos' and the (apparent) lack of central State control in The Shire is indeed still a form of Anarchy. Presumably as they do not have specific 'departments' devoted to such things as maintaining roads, picking up rubbish etc they must share these duties - as would happen under an 'ideal' state of anarchy. Interestingly Tolkien himself felt he had to underline the difference as the word 'anarchy' is such a loaded term:

My political opinions lean more and more to Anarchy (philosophically understood, meaning abolition of control not whiskered men with bombs) -- or to 'unconstitutional' Monarchy. Letters, 51

Although the fact that The Shire does have certain systems (e.g. shiriffs) again suggests that someone (we? Tolkien?) has overstated the supposedly 'anarchic' nature of the place somewhat, so I tend to agree with you that the Shire was not, in fact, in a 'state of anarchy'! And that could be an oxymoron

The existence of the Althing and a legal system in old Iceland however, suggests that that too was not some anarchic Utopia; it had some basic systems of 'control' and in that respect, it is very much like The Shire as both have basic 'systems' in operation, even if they do not have central state control of one form or another.

Now, another thing which draws to mind an Iceland/Numenor comparison is the importance of 'bloodline' and how blood feuds could carry on for a long time - of course and how the island is at first a gentle paradise and later descends into chaos through said feuding.