Tolkien and Isolationism

[Zigûr]

In my view it is the act of trying to close oneself off from the evils of the world and create an inviolate fastness that seems to most consistently lead to disaster in the narratives, especially in the First Age, because when things inevitably do go wrong in Nargothrond, Doriath and Gondolin, they go badly wrong very quickly. In the Third Age, Rivendell and Lórien were able to keep the evil of Sauron out, but their real enemy was time, which defeated them just as Elrond and Galadriel knew it would.

As for Hobbits, the Shire may have been somewhat wilfully isolationist, but this was only achieved because they were protected by the Dúnedain, which they weren't aware of. And it also made many hobbits fatuous, stubborn and narrow-minded.

I think Professor Tolkien recognised the appeal of isolationism but always moderated it with drawbacks, some relatively mild and others extremely severe.