The Role of Stealth in the Lord of the Rings - The Barrow-Downs Discussion Forum

Marlowe221 · 06-12-2018, 10:36 AM

Thank you Huinesoron! I had not considered the author's combat experience in WWI as a particular influence on his decision to make pitched battles relatively rare and have both his protagonists and antagonists rely quite a bit on stealth, but it makes a lot of sense.

I was thinking about this topic again and it occurred to me that Tolkien often uses concepts like stealth in (I assume) purposely ambiguous ways.

In some fantasy worlds/books anyone or anything that sneaks around might well be considered bad or evil. Slinking around in the shadow is hardly the way the honorable and virtous would approach things, right?

But Tolkien doesn't do that. Hobbits and Elves are naturally stealthy and are almost universally on the side of "Good." Meanwhile the Nazgul, Gollum, and even Sauron himself make extensive use of hiding and sneaking around and they are certainly "Evil" with a capital E.

Instead he opts for nuance. Stealth or sneaking itself is imbued with no inherent moral character of its own. Rather, it's the creatures and their motivations that give the act any moral/ethical flavor the reader perceives.

The same thing happens with fire in the books. Fire is associated with Sauron and Mt. Doom. But it is also associated with Gandalf whose "magical" powers are primarily to do with lights and fires.

06-12-2018, 10:36 AM	#4
Marlowe221 Pile O'Bones Join Date: Dec 2010 Posts: 18	Thank you Huinesoron! I had not considered the author's combat experience in WWI as a particular influence on his decision to make pitched battles relatively rare and have both his protagonists and antagonists rely quite a bit on stealth, but it makes a lot of sense. I was thinking about this topic again and it occurred to me that Tolkien often uses concepts like stealth in (I assume) purposely ambiguous ways. In some fantasy worlds/books anyone or anything that sneaks around might well be considered bad or evil. Slinking around in the shadow is hardly the way the honorable and virtous would approach things, right? But Tolkien doesn't do that. Hobbits and Elves are naturally stealthy and are almost universally on the side of "Good." Meanwhile the Nazgul, Gollum, and even Sauron himself make extensive use of hiding and sneaking around and they are certainly "Evil" with a capital E. Instead he opts for nuance. Stealth or sneaking itself is imbued with no inherent moral character of its own. Rather, it's the creatures and their motivations that give the act any moral/ethical flavor the reader perceives. The same thing happens with fire in the books. Fire is associated with Sauron and Mt. Doom. But it is also associated with Gandalf whose "magical" powers are primarily to do with lights and fires. Last edited by Marlowe221; 06-12-2018 at 12:13 PM.