Utterance of love

Arsha Mathew

There she was standing right behind the pillar,

watching me hold my dad’s fingers,

smiling and waving at her,

to embrace a new life.

Her reserved eyes,

Her impotent smile,

Her puny physique,

Dampness of her clothes.

The brownish beaded rosary,

That rested around her arm,

And all the emotions that lurked behind her,

Was all that I could think of.

Years later,

I sit right next to her,

Holding her hands and admiring her.

Neither did I ask,

Nor did she say,

I was her child then and I am her child now.

I was ready to give it a whirl,

Her silence had all her endurance’s

and my life is her sacrifice.

 

 

 

 

Dancing- bliss or curse?

Ajitha Ghorpade

We were nostalgically going through our old family album one day.  I came across a picture in which I was biting my pearl necklace with a puppy face on the stage. Tears were about to roll down my cheeks. I was 4 years old when we had a dance program at my school. It was compulsory for every kid to take part in it. My mother told me that I had practiced well for the dance but all I remember was, I was getting dressed up to go out to the market , when all of a sudden my father picks me up from the street I was walking on and places me on the stage. I see few kids dancing around me, few others crying and few others with leaking noses. I didn’t know what to do so I started chewing my pearl necklace. I still feel like I was betrayed by my parents that day.

Another incident was when we had a family get-together and I was 6 years old. Everybody got bored of playing ‘housey housey’ and that’s when I volunteered to dance. I started dancing with so much zeal that one of my older cousins left his seat and joined me. Our moves were crazy enough to keep the audience on their toes!

From then on, I was sent to dance class for a year or two and I remember one particular step we used to do for the song ‘chaiyya chaiyya’. The step was similar to an exercise where we had to lift both our arms up half folded and bring it back down by lifting one leg up each time. It was funny to perform this step and I used to laugh every single time I had to do it.

We had to shift from one city to another as my father has a job that transfers him to a new city quite often. Hence my dance classes were discontinued but I used to take part in my school dance programs. In 8^th std, we danced to the song ‘Awara bhavare’. I had laughed till my stomach hurt when my class teacher had instructed our dance team to “Not shake too much”. Of course she meant it in a humorous way. This can be taken offensively today but it was extremely funny back then.

My folks motivated me to join dance class again when I was doing my second year degree. So I complied and my Mother accompanied me to the class but not to dance with me (Got you there!).  I was very nervous and bashful but I managed to keep up with the pace of the song ‘badtameez dil’. I could feel my confidence building up, when suddenly, I was on the ground. My heart was pounding and I felt an extreme pain in my knee. My knee cap had gotten dislocated and I was not able to get up from the ground. I was highly embarrassed and my mom was dismayed. My knee cap had to be put back in its place for me to get up. It came back in after the two longest minutes of my life. My Mother actually had the thought that I was doing this to avoid dance class but soon she realized it was serious. I tried controlling my tears but I couldn’t and I cried all the way back home. I was told by the doctor to rest for 3 to 4 days. He added that this was a lifetime injury and if I put too much pressure on my legs, I would have to face the same situation again!

We had been to Raichur for a rural camp in the first year of my Masters degree. Along with three of my friends, I decided to put up a dance performance. I was doubtful if I should really dance or not, but I continued practicing, when yet again I felt my knee give way. I hit the floor real hard and my respective dance partners who didn’t know about my problem started laughing and I started crying due to extreme pain. They, like my Mother, were dumbfound and slowly walked me back to the room. One of my other friends treated me well by massaging the injured area and fortunately we proceeded with the dance the next day and everything went well.

Though many of my dance experiences were disastrous, and in no way would I want to relive those memories, my love for dancing has not reduced a bit. I have watched myself dance in my reflections and my moves do seem quite graceful. It was all about finding my ‘comfort zone’. It is true that not everybody can dance to perfection, not everybody can sing like a nightingale, not everybody can write creatively… similarly it is also true that not everybody can face the crowd. No matter how hard one tries, they end up failing, which eventually reduces one’s self-confidence. Instead, if all of us who are prone to social phobia are given a suitable chance; I believe we might each dance around in every walk of our lives.

 

 

 

The Exodus

Navya Denis

Forever enchantress,
Perpetually infallible,
Not once Violated generations,
of every ‘modern’  tribe.

Captured and colonized,
Sans a single sword,
The greatest of all settlers,
You chained up all,
Whom dared to discover,
Sensed your mischief.

It’s all a nexus spun across you,
Show mercy now.
I command,
Purge your dirty game,
Having quenched your insatiable thirst.
Now, free my people
From the worst of all plagues,
the myth, The Claws of Time.

In Tune with Natural Selection

Prithvi Chandavarkar

             The inspiration for this investigative piece comes from years of hearing phrases like, ‘My sister and I can’t make it, it’s our time of month.’, ‘Can we please go for a drink? I can’t handle being in proximity with my wife and daughters right now!’ and a very surprising reminder (I know a lot of older people than myself, in case you were wondering) that’s coming right up. While this statement has, among others, nestled its way comfortably into the crevices of my mind over the years, sitting in a microbiology classroom today, I witnessed my professor use the example of synchronizing menstrual cycles to prove how interesting studying one’s body make-up (pun intended) can be. Something tells me that I’m not the only one who’s heard statements like these in their life and while I certainly might not have first-hand experience, I tend to trust the word of the women in my life, and rest assured there are and have been more than enough.
It was completely random, keeping in tune with the chance based ideas at work here, with which this piece even came to be written at all. The findings however, will prove, amusingly, are not so. There have actually been a number of surveys, studies and academic work done on the subject, and I warn you in advance that I will not be advocating my view with any vehemence and will be acknowledging contradictory data and will attempt to prove that what may seem to be an opposing idea, might not really be the case.
Let’s sum up the objective of this work before heading any further, and in modest words it is that, ‘The synchronizing of the menstrual cycles of women who live together/spend a lot of time together is an expression of Natural Selection.’
An elementary knowledge of the woman’s reproductive system is required to be able to grapple with what I’m about to extrapolate on in the paragraphs to come. Bearing in mind that scientific writing isn’t for everyone, I’ll try to keep terms and concepts as simple as possible, and explain them as and when I feel it would be required. So then, what is Natural Selection, really? A fair number of us seem to have by an arbitrary understanding of the term and other related ones like evolution, genes and so on. Quite simply, Webster says that “Natural Selection” is a natural process that results in the survival and reproductive success of individuals or groups best adjusted to their environment and that leads to the perpetuation of genetic qualities best suited to that particular environment.
While on the topic of explanations, allow me to quickly sum up the average menstrual cycle before we proceed any further. A woman’s menstrual cycle takes an average of 28 days to complete and her body goes through a smattering and convoluted bunch of changes during this time, most of which, we are not really concerned about here. However, what we need to understand are the ovulating stage or the ‘middle’ of the cycle as well as the menses stage, which is considered to be the ‘end’ of a current cycle.
Brownie points if you know what pheromones are, but just in case you don’t, let me hit you with the facts. Webster says here again that a “pheromone” is a chemical substance that an animal or insect produces in order to attract other animals or insects and especially a mate. For comic and dramatic effect, as well as to help you relate a little better, I would prefer to use a couple of examples for a pheromone from Urban Dictionary. ‘Her pheromones were a huge influence on me being sexually aroused’, the notoriously smartass website declares along with the slightly more blunt, ‘We had coitus on the first date because of our pheromones.’ So in short, pheromones make you attractive to another human being, taking multiple sexualities into account. Pheromones, along with intellect, looks, diction, pitch, other tell-tale signs of body language, smell, and touch, go a long way in what I like to call, ‘The Science of Attraction.’ But that is a different matter deserving its own literature.
Back to today’s class,  if I remember correctly, the professor asked all the young women in class if they’ve ever noticed the phenomena of synching cycles. When I saw the expressions on the faces of virtually every female in class change, I had a light switch on in the back of my own ever active cranium. What’s been a day of avid and focused investigation led me to some interesting AF findings, which I’m about to share with you in the paragraphs below; which brings us back to the crux of the matter. It turns out that you and me aren’t the first and likely won’t be the last in this seemingly overlooked observance of everyday life. By the end of this piece, I hope that said observance, albeit yours or someone else’s, transforms into an understanding of sorts. And remember, an understanding is always open to alternate understandings, if they’re backed up by more than a polemic and uninformed opinions, that is. To borrow a few lines from a 2015 HuffPost article, “Menstrual synchrony is a theory that women who live in close proximity to one another tend to experience their periods around the same time.”Pheromones, as I’ve touched upon above, have been thought to play a role in this phenomena.
The concept was first documented in Martha McClintock’s seminal research paper titled ‘Menstrual Synchrony and Suppression’ in 1971. I’ll keep things simple and leave the differentiation and calculus aside and sum up the findings in a simple manner, instead.
McClintock observed 135 female Wellesley College students living in the same dorm and found “a significant increase in synchronization of onset dates” among the women who spent a lot of time together. According to these findings, it’s not just an anecdotal phenomenon — women do in fact, sync up. McClintock’s paper has gone a long way to prove that synchronizing cycles do in fact, exist. All criticism aside, that’s part one of my little ‘theory’ proved.
Before going on to part two, i.e. that menstrual synchronicity is an expression of Natural Selection, let’s look at the data that contests McClintock’s paper.
The chief criticism here comes from the fiery pens (or burnt keyboard) of Zhengwei Yang and Jeffrey C, who once taking into account the irregularity of a menstrual cycle (they’re not always exactly 28 days, like the month of February), they found that an apparent synchronizing is simply a depiction of what they termed ‘chance’. And I’m beyond glad they did. Forgive the linguistic twist, but isn’t chance the penultimate factor in the evolutionary processes of Natural Selection and Random Selection? In this light, it is the twin ‘chances’ at work here; namely the chance of cycles synching with the chance of propagating the species, that in fact bolsters my case.
Another criticism thrown at McClintock’s findings is that due to the irregularities, some periods align with one another briefly only to diverge in their timeliness over time. And again, I’m ecstatic that this is the case. This apparent shifting of cycles to a parallel collective happening, to ones that are different in time and scale, again goes to prove that if and when the cycles do line up, they drastically increase the likelihood of reproduction taking place, ceteris paribus. Furthermore, since the likelihood that the women who are in proximity with one another would have access to similar qualities and quantities of nutrition, similar sleep cycles and lifestyles due to economic backgrounds, is quite high. It is obvious that the synchronizing of their cycles, even if not a constant thing, are likely to be more concurrent on average, as opposed to being divergent. That being said, we may now move on to what I feel is the most interesting part of this academic essay, that being the relation of the proposed synchronicity to that of the propagation of the species. Imagine that! A group of ‘cranky’ women and girls are actually a manifestation of nature’s will to help the species increase! While this might sound utterly preposterous at first glance, is it, really..?
Now that I have your attention, here we are, the piece de la resistance as I like to tragic-comically call it, let’s begin. Remember back to when you or someone you know was little? If you have a little one in your world right now, all the better. If you’re looking for something specific to notice, look for the child’s sweet tooth. Is the creature able to curtail its wanton desire for sugar for an entire month? Can it abate it for a week? Or how about a day? Endowed with a glucose craving and utilizing metabolism like that of the average baby, could you? Let’s relate that analogy to a diametrically parallel phenomenon we’ve seem to have forgotten for a little while now. That neglected little nugget is Natural Selection. In the same way that the collective need of the cells and tissues in our bodies crave glucose in un-stoppered frenzies, so does the manifest need to propagate the species, collectively, in the form of the most natural instinct in known to homo-sapiens; the sex instinct. All in all we crave sweet. Just this time, it’s not really that simple.
Now let’s relate this to something a little err… closer to home. When a man ejaculates, the number of viable sperm far outreach what is required (a single one, in the end) for fertilization to occur. In the same way, the fact that women release 1 to 2 eggs a month on ovulation, is more than made up for by the synchronizing of cycles in favour of fertilization.
If that wasn’t clear enough, let’s put hopelessly convoluted theorists whom I admire (Judith Butler, Richard Dawkins et al) to shame and run through this in an even more relatable way. Babies want sugar, and so do adults. It’s just that adults are more prone to adapt their sexual proclivities and receptiveness in a way that babies cannot, because babies are, well, babies.
It is in the manifestation of two (possibly co-incidental) complimentary and incidental expressions Natural Selection at work that results in the synchronization we’ve been dealing with. It can be said (just not to most Indian parents, hostel wardens et al) that the synchronizing of a woman’s menstruation cycle, from a heterosexual perspective, is the expression of a logically and elementary level mathematically provable Natural Selection. And a male’s ‘chase’ of her, is the same. Here however, as in a variety of matters concerning women, men are not more than passively important.
Let us not naturally forget that pheromones have a huge role to play right.. about.. Now. A woman exudes her pheromones or ‘love scents’ as I probably shouldn’t call them, into the air when she is midway through her cycle (remember ovulation?) as her ovaries have released eggs to be hopefully fertilized by sperm and she won’t have to endure that wretched backache again this month (studies from 2015 have shown that the pain has been incidentally linked to an increased likelihood of conception in the near future). Let me not do the math for you, but let you do it yourself. And as I mentioned before, logic is fine too.
Picture the entire female population of say, a hostel, ovulating at the same time. The sheer amount of pheromones in the air is enough to attract males of all shapes, intellects, smells and hairlines. Unconsciously all pulled all at once. Now break this image in your mind’s eye and paint a new one: women whose cycles are on a different time scale. Assuming none of them are on birth control, not only is this statistically unlikely but it also means that the likelihood of attracting varying types of new genes to propagate with those of the different women is greatly reduced due to this apparently ‘widespread’ and therefore ‘not gluttonous’ demand for ‘sugar’, and this most evidently positions the male genes in predicaments which might not favour them being around as and when the women’s pheromones are in the atmosphere at their apparent leisure.
It makes sense that the coinciding of menstrual cycles of women in a social group over a period of time is a positively proportional expression of Natural Selection in spite of the relatively unexceptionally quantified data, then. The quality of it however, is thankfully a completely different matter. Another indicator I didn’t mention up until now, is that the synchronizing of cycles tends to fall in tune with that of the ‘alpha’ female (as McClintock’s piece suggests). The alpha woman is the woman who has the most favorable genes in a population and provides the single largest clue in favour of this investigation simply by being the most likely to be sought after by a variety of genes. Her choices of partner for sexual relations determines if healthy gene combinations will propagate, therefore she is likely to co-produce the most healthy offspring (social and personal circumstances notwithstanding).
While it can be said that in conservative societies that the healthy propagation of genes is hampered with the presence of social barriers, which in turn leads to a dwindling in gene variety and prevents the mixing of new genes into the population, it can also be said that these barriers actually make Natural Selection try even harder to propagate it’s ‘divine will’. Just ask the neighborhood Peeping Tom.

 

 

Just a mere proposition on unity for my fellow Eyes.

Abison Yumnam

The problem arises, I think, when you love your clan/community/tribe more than what is necessary and claim it is the best of all. I don’t have any problem when you love your own community, but when you claim yours is the best, you seem to disrespect others to an extent which, I think, will be the source of the problem in this particular discourse. I’m not saying whatever I’m going to say is right, but it seems less wrong as far as my tiny subjective brain can think of, after going through the limited information I could gather. And your positive/negative comments or any sort of suggestion will be warmly welcome.

The chances of creating animosity among one another are quite high when you say yours is the best, taking into consideration the innumerable clans/communities/tribes we have in our small piece of land consisted of eight tiny states; and it acts as one of the important reasons for the lovely amount of hatred some of us have for others differentiating ourselves with multiple non-essential tags. Some often declare public very bravely that they belong to a particular tribe and they are proud of it, even I’m proud of them and their tribes, but I don’t think saying that will help us bring unity among the different tribes, which is, I think, very necessary right now for our peaceful coexistence; it distances one from another farther instead. That’s why I’m not sad when I’m called ‘Chinky’ thinking that the ‘Eyes’ are at least seen as one by some people; and all the different inessential tags are replaced by the lovely word ‘Chinky’. Instead of getting offended, I sometimes have a strange feeling of the fact that we are indeed seen as one by some, which is actually far from reality as of now.

What I really want to talk about is the necessity of unity among us for the peaceful coexistence right now. By unity, I would like to mean the love and respect for one another; I’m not saying all the different cultures and traditions we have been living with for centuries should be united as one, which won’t be possible; rather, giving love and respect to one another leaving the attitude ‘Mine is the best and I’m proud of it’ should be what I would like to mean. I think it’s actually very late to talk about this now, although I can’t help but acknowledge the need to talk about unity on the instant. In some parts of the land, people are living very peacefully with sound economic and political condition, but the fates of some are really unfortunate; people are being traumatised by the tragic political situation and unsound economic problems. And it pains me to see the hatred for one another among the victims in such times too. I think it’s high time that we give love and respect to, and help one another out before our very Well-Educated politicians turn the land upside down for their educational purposes as we have already seen. And, we should start this with our neighbouring clans/communities/tribes within the state, which really seem to be in need of immediate remedies, and then go beyond the state. And I know it’s easy to say such things but hard to make it possible; but if you don’t give it a try, you’ll never know; and if you give it a try, you may be… Naah! will be surprised with the unexpected outcome; you know there’s still good in us.

And, it’s really interesting to see how easily we can be influenced by our very Well-Educated politicians and the governing elites; whether it’s communal or territorial dispute, common people like us who don’t have any problem with one another will be fighting in favour of our respective elites who take decisions and govern the territory; some of us sometimes keep fighting without even knowing what we’re actually fighting for. Thus, it can be seen how we are often used as the perfect weapon by them; they sit at home comfortably and look at us on the television while some of us are happy to be on the television, bloody.

It’s really sad to think about how easily we can be manipulated; and so many other problems we can’t escape from, like AFSPA in some parts of the land, gave me sleepless nights.

After all, who am I to talk about this and tell you things to do? Furthermore, I’m neither a writer nor an intelligent person, I am just a poor soul who would love to see the land prosper with love, respect, peace and unity. I was once told that writing can also make a difference, so I am giving it a try thinking that I must not lose faith in humanity. It would be nice if you can be hit by my proposition at least to some percent. And I would be grateful if you agree with my proposition and fill up the loopholes; or scold me badly and give me better suggestions if you disagree with it.

For the love of The Eyes!

#LovePeaceRespectUnity

Start Over

Bhavana Chandran

Wish you were here
’cause there’s too much to fear
that I wouldn’t see you again
while I’m on this lonely little lane.

Fell into a deep dark ditch
because I lost my post-apocalyptic pitch.
Lost my narrow prickly way
Too many times till today.

But then I found you hiding behind the magnanimity of your words.
Cowering from the sharp gazes of those pestering predatory birds.

Wish I could see you.
Wish we could be true.
There will never be a younger moment
than we are at the post-apocalyptic present.

Climbed out of a hind-sighted hole
because I found a spark from a dead coal.
Found my lonely little lane
and I tried not to get lost once again.

                                                                                          ~*~

THE CYCLE OF LOVE

By Kirthy Sebastian

How(when my heart is torn
Between love that sings sweetness
And lust that begets pleasure)
Do I decide what I want?

Guilt so bubbles up
In my red cauldron
But the curves of your body
And your breath that kisses my neck
Crushes my dream for love

For love has often pushed me down
Love alone has caused me pain
But in your lust I live and thrive
I forget about the love I craved

But at night
When I’m alone
When my heart is torn
Between love that sings sweetness
And lust that begets pleasure
I weep, I sigh
And,
I fall in love.

Mirage

Calvin George

One morning I woke up and found myself on a deserted desert.
I was extremely excited since everything looked new.
There was a faint fear because I was alone all around,
The steady rising sun was the herculean hope.

I was a lonely majestic ship on a sandy sea,
The sea was wildly calm with horrid horror.
It was hell hot all around the place,
Heavy breeze helped the sand to kiss my fragile face.

My eyes were filled with the dreary dust,
Tears flowed like silver stream.
Parched tongue couldn’t utter a word,
I longed for the elixir of life of mortal men.

My body felt like a badly beaten beast,
And all over it was severely sultry.
I had lost all my existing energy,
Fallen down like a half dead horse.

The scorching Sun woke me up in agony again,
Beyond the horizon I saw an allure oasis.
The dread dark veil of gloom was removed,
A slim ray of hope flickered in the air.

I lifted myself upon the stupendous sandy sea,
Commuted my body in a deadly drag.
I went on and on in that deserted desert,
Finally to realize that it was a mere Mirage.

The Animal Horror: The Influence of the World Wars upon Tolkien’s Fiction, his Heroes and his Ideas of the Heroic Legend

By Tara Saldanha

Abstract

In this paper I will explore J.R.R.Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy to study the effect of the war on fantasy writing. This study will help enrich our understanding of the consciousness of the early 20^th century, with regards to the upheaval that war brought. I will also examine the conception of the hero evident in this piece of writing. An enquiry into whether this work can be considered an adequate alternative to Arthurian legend with regard to its incorporation of the post- War consciousness and the alternative conception of the hero will be the last point of interest. I will use The Lord of the Rings trilogy in order to explore this theme. I will also refer to other works by Tolkien, in order to illustrate the three broad areas of study.

Keywords:  War, Hero, Heroic Legend, Tolkien, Lord of the Rings

*

J.R.R. Tolkien’s fictional world of Middle-Earth and its histories developed primarily out of a desire to situate language at the center of a particular tale. However Tolkein was quick to reinforce that though the histories and events of his stories were fictional, the place that they were played out in is ‘middel-erd, an ancient name for… the abiding place of Men, the objectively real world.’ (Tolkein, The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkein 257). Thus it wouldn’t be wrong to assume that elements of early 20^th century life especially the Great War and changing notions of heroism, humanity and evil made its way into his work. In the course of this eclectic creation it is possible that Tolkein developed a new legendary tradition, one based on new motivations and fears about the present.

Most evident to all but the most casual reader is the over whelming presence of a sense of foreboding in The Lord of the Rings (referring here and throughout, unless otherwise stated, to all three books) from the very beginning. As soon as Frodo leaves the Shire the Nazgul are after him. This all pervasive fear and evil is a result of the totalitarian power that Sauron, also known as the Dark Lord wields. As his power builds he is able to set his minions in motion to track down the One Ring, now in Frodo’s possession. Frodo must destroy the Ring so that Sauron cannot gain possession of it and make his dominion complete. Totalitarian governments and hegemonic powers had begun to rise in the early 20^th CY and by 1949 when the last installment of the trilogy had been completed the world had witnessed the horrors of Fascism.  Tolkein reiterates in his letter to M. Waldman that evil power in his works manifests itself in the ‘desire for Power’ of the ‘sub-creator’ (or human beings). The desire for power was in order to claim dominion over the rest of creation (Tolkein, The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkein 168). Tolkein goes on to elaborate that this desire for total domination is carried out through certain external creations designed to bend and break individual will. Interestingly Tolkein refers to this in the same letter as ‘the Machine’. In The Lord of the Rings these instruments of domination include malignant weapons forged in the depths of the earth by the Uruk-hai.  The Uruk-hai themselves were made in the mockery of elves by the Evil one as a sort of mutant super soldier. (Tolkein 486). Tolkein describes ‘oliphaunts’- lumbering, tank-like beasts that could lay waste to everything in their path being used in various battles. The screams of the Ringwraiths are described as ‘a rending screech, shivering, rising swiftly to a piercing pitch beyond the range of hearing’ reminiscent of the sound of falling shells during wartime. (Tolkein 706) In a letter to his son, Tolkein remarks how during the ‘first war of the Machines’ the soldiers were left maimed or dead and the only one thing triumphant was the Machines (Tolkein, The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkein 124).

It is hard not to constantly see how war affected The Lord of the Rings besides the obvious presence of weaponry. Tolkein referred to war as an ‘animal horror’ to his son in one of his letters (Garth). The book talks of the siege and battle at Helm’s Deep and the war of the Pelennor fields. The fall of Gandalf, who Tolkien described as a guardian angel figure in his Letters, in the mines of Moria could signify the crumbling nature of faith and religion during the 20^th century (Tolkein, The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkein 176). The coming together of the Elves and the dwarfs against the common evil despite their mutual animosity is reflective of rival Allied powers collaborating during the two World Wars. Tolkein himself lost several close friends in the fighting. The Dead Marches with their floating corpses and eerie lights are said to be a tribute to the fallen soldiers (Beyond the Movie:The Lord of the Rings). In the telling of the history of the Ents, tree-like rational creatures, and the destruction of their home and loss of the Ent-wives, Tolkein touches upon the destruction of the environment because of warfare and exploitation of natural resources.

During the Second Age of Middle- Earth Tolkein speaks of how the ‘destruction of the…visible incarnation of evil’ was carried out (Tolkein, The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkein 175). However in The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, both set during the third age, evil is unseen, pervasive, occupying the very hearts and minds of the various characters rather than a physical external presence. This raises the question of who then is the enemy in war, probably a question that Tolkein wanted to raise considering the seemingly wholesale loss of humanity during the World Wars.

On the whole it seems to be that the zeitgeist of the early 20^th century, especially with regard to warfare and atrocities ensuing from it did indeed influence plot and characterization of The Lord of the Rings in very significant ways. The entire history of Middle Earth emerges as a result of fights for power and domination. The high tales of the early ages are usually written from an elvish standpoint, but War of the Ring and the events that surround it are written from the point of view of a hobbit, as he himself said in one of his letters (Tolkein, The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkein 168). Thus even though Tolkein was adamant that his story was not autobiographical, it seems to depict war as men like him had seen it.

Tolkein’s two most popular works, The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, are both journeys in which the characters must battle with a quest. The players in each of these are a varied bunch. However Tolkein’s heroes are not the archer elves or the dwarfs, skilled in the making and wielding of weapons. Rather Tolkein himself referred to the hobbits as his heroes. In this paper I am not going to attempt which individual may be considered a hero, merely the new expectations of a hero and how these changed possibly due to the world wars. Also, though Tolkien’s heroes are mainly male in keeping with the 20^th century model of the hero, I will not be doing an examination of the gender angle to the hero question. Suffice to say that while strong independent female characters do exist, there are only three shown in active roles- their presence is scarce throughout the novel.

Tolkein chooses the otherwise neglected as his hero. From the very beginning the Ring chose Bilbo and was then passed onto Frodo, both hobbits. The hobbits are fairly parochial creatures, sticking to the Shire, never venturing beyond what they know. Tolkein makes them small, diminutive creatures precisely ‘to exhibit the pettiness of man…’ (Tolkein, The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkein 176). Perhaps Tolkein viewed the ongoing political struggles as petty political games being drawn out into battles from which no one would really gain. His hobbit heroes personify this small-minded, selfishness of humans.  But the hobbits also provide a model for what humans ought to be. In the same letter to M. Waldman Tolkein goes on to describe hobbits thus, “ They are entirely without non-human powers, but are represented as being more in touch with ‘nature’… and abnormally, for humans, free from ambition or greed of wealth” (Tolkein, The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkein 176). Tolkein strikes down the hero as needing to be a super soldier, with advanced weaponry, and uphold the hero who is in contact with the world around him and able to overcome selfish desires for power.

In The Lord of the Rings, Frodo constantly struggles with the temptation to wear the Ring and so claim supernatural powers, but in the end he is able to defeat his enemy and destroy the source of power. Gollum and to an extent Boromir are presented as foils to Frodo’s character. Boromir represents the fallen hero who gives into to hubris, tries to trick Frodo and gain the ring for himself, but then realizes his mistake and seemingly sacrifices himself to save his friends. Gollum on the other hand is so consumed by desire for the Ring that his very appearance has changed. Unlike Frodo though, he is consumed by his lust for power and dies with the Ring.  Jane Chance states that ‘the hero must realize that he can become a monster’ (Chance 162). She goes on to say that it not merely external threats that besiege Tolkien’s heroes but great emphasis is placed on internal threats as well, as mentioned above.

Tolkein however upholds loyalty as the primary trait of the hero. He often claimed that Samwise Gamgee was his true hero. He saw him as the ordinary soldier, a gardener’s son, thrust into a great game. For Tolkein, Sam represents all the loyal ‘privates and batmen’ that went to war (Carpenter 89). Here again we see Tolkein upholding not the commanders of armies and generals as heroes but rather the ordinary foot soldier.

Tolkein states in his letter to Waldman that he had a ‘basic passion…for heroic legend’ (Tolkein, The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkein 167). He commented most particularly on how the Arthurian legends were connected with the land but not with the language of Britain. As a linguist Tolkien’s passion was language and he wanted to create a world that incorporated not only his made-up languages but also one which could be called a wholly English legend, spatially as well as linguistically. Thus the landscape of Middle-Earth as well as its population bears a resemblance to Britain and it is redolent of a Celtic heritage (Tolkein, The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkein 168).

According to Mark Hall, Tolkein makes use of Arthurian elements ‘infused with new meaning and purpose’ (Hall 2). I will explore what exactly this purpose was especially with regard to the political climate in which Tolkein was writing.

In the legends surrounding Arthur, his rising to the status of hero seems to be predestined. Once the sword is pulled from the stone he has no choice but to accept his mantle as the new king. On the other hand both Frodo and his predecessor Bilbo are allowed to choose to embark on their respective quests. Though it is repeatedly stated that the Ring chose them, Gandalf allows them both the choice of remaining in the Shire and ignoring their ‘calling’. The conception of the hero in the new legend that Tolkein wishes to propagate is then not one who is sent or chosen but rather one who chooses and through battling with exterior and internal adversaries emerges heroic.

Arthurian legend is rife with magic, wielded by the good and evil alike. In his letters, Tolkein makes it clear that his conception of magic is power that is appropriated- not inherent- in order to dominate. The most telling difference is between Merlin’s and Gandalf’s approach to magic and power. While Merlin in all versions of the legend embraces power, Gandalf realizes the dangers of appropriating power and rejects all external sources of it (Riga 38).  This change in the approach to magic, such a key component of most legend can be seen as a result of a realization of how power had been used and corrupted during the 20^th century.

Tolkein does however retain some of the tropes of heroic legend. For instance the Knights of the Round Table are paralleled by the Fellowship of the Ring both in equality and loyalty as well as ambition and betrayal.  Arthur and Tolkien’s Aragorn are both unknown heirs brought up in secret away from their kingdoms. However, while Arthur regains his throne as a young man merely by pulling a sword from a stone, Aragorn’s reclamation of his throne involves a long, arduous journey. After several years of wandering, a mature and capable man, he fights and wins back his right to govern. Tolkein borrows the element of the broken sword as carrying much meaning and power, the re-firing of both Excalibur and Narsil symbolizing a resurgence of good against evil.  In Tolkien’s heroic legend Galadriel is an elvish queen, the most powerful in all of Middle- Earth. But unlike Arthur’s Queen Annoure she is not a seductress but a ruler in her own right. Mark Hall comments also in how while Merlin is represented as being seduced by women and their magic, Gandalf respects and pays obeisance to powerful women like Galadriel instead of fearing them (Hall 5). Also Tolkein presents his heroes as ordinary people who do extraordinary things. They celebrate birthday parties and engage in friendly competition. Also the love represented in Tolkien’s works is not that of chivalric legends where fair princesses marry gallant knights. Here we see that the immortal elvish Arwen agrees to marry the mortal Aragorn even before he has won back his throne. Tolkein makes special mention of how the Hobbit heroes go back and begin ordinary lives in The Shire, marrying, raising families and tending to the their gardens.

Tolkein thus instated a new type of hero. As he wrote to M. Waldman ‘…without the simple and ordinary the noble and heroic is meaningless’ (Tolkein, The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkein 177). Reflecting the sentiments of war poets like Sassoon and Owen as well as his contemporaries like Auden, Tolkein used his new heroic legends in order to establish the ordinary soldier as the more believable hero.

This can be seen as an attempt to illicit a sense of loyalty to Britain and is supported by a statement made by Tolkein; as seen earlier, he wanted to write a purely British legend. Legends and folklore go a long way in securing a sense of legitimacy of power and overall loyalty to the country. The Arthurian legend that Arthur will return when England is in danger supports this statement. In The Lord of The Rings, when Frodo nears the wastes of Mordor he chances upon a trail of flowers that seem to form a crown on the broken statue of a former king (702). This is interesting because it ties in with Tolkien’s use of a British landscape and aesthetic in his works. In collaboration with this particular instance, it seems to be implied that nature itself gives it’s assent to a particular rule. When viewed in terms of the political struggle for power in the 20^th century, we can see how affinity with nature can be used to solidify a certain national rhetoric.

From a post colonial perspective Tolkien’s work seems imperialist. He makes repeated statements about ‘the darkness of the East’ (Tolkein, The Lord of the Rings 703). Mordor, Sauron’s seat of power is itself in the east of Middle-Earth.  On the other hand, the Grey Havens, a sort of Elven haven, redolent with culture, art, spirituality and posterity can be reached by going into the West. Tolkein was writing at a time of colonial struggle when Britain was losing control over its colonies having already lost its largest and most lucrative, India, by the time the book was finished. Therefore it is not farfetched to say that a sense of racial superiority pervades his new British legend.

In conclusion, The Lord of the Rings states that all the evil and wild men of the south had fallen under Sauron’s power. Tolkien seems here to be commenting on how the blame for the horrors of the war must be pinned on all of humanity but with emphasis on the ordinary as having potential to be heroic. These new heroes situated within a heroic tradition that upholds national identity and the everyday are evidence of the effects of the 20^th century consciousness on the works of J.R.R. Tolkein.

 

References

“Beyond the Movie:The Lord of the Rings.” 1996. National Geographic. Web. 13 Dec 2015.

Brown, Terrence Neal. “Review: Tolkein and the Great War:The Threshold og Middle-Earth by John Garth.” Religion and Literature 38.4 (Winter 2006): 115-117. Web. 13 December 2015.

Bruckner, D.J.R. “Concerning Hobbits and Phillip Marlowe.” The new York Tmes on the Web 15 Nov 1981: n.p. Web. 9 Feb 2016.

Carpenter, Humphrey. Tolkein: A Biography. New York: Ballantine Books, 1977. Print.

Chance, Jane. Tolkein’s Art: A Mythology for England. Kentucky: The University Press of Kentucky, 2001. PDF File.

Garth, John. “Battle of the Somme:The ‘Animal Horror’ that Inspired J.R.R. Tolkein.” The Telegraph 4 Oct 2013: n.p. Web. 12 Dec 2015.

Hall, Mark R. “Gandalf & Merlin, Aragorn & Arthus: Tolkein’s Transmogrification of the Arthurian Tradition & its Use as a Palimpsest for The Lord of the Rings.” Inklings Forever 8 (2012): 1-10. PDF File.

Riga, Frank P. “Gandalf & Merlin: J. R.R.’s Adoption and Transformation of a Literary Tradition.” Mythlore 27.1/2 (2008): 38. Print.

Tempest, Deborah. King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. Penguin Books Ltd., 2006. PDF File.

Tolkein, J.R.R. The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkein. Ed. Humphrey Carpenter. London: George Allen & Unwin, n.d. PDF File.

—. The Hobbit. London: HarperCollins, 1995. Kindle File

—. The Lord of the Rings. London: HarperCollins, 2005. Print.

 

Out of the closet, Under the sun.

Anonymous

Lust traced a tattoo on my lips; the colours of passion.
Softly budding away a cigarette,
Leaving a mouthful of harmony,
With the smell of kings and whisky.

Sparks flew as a light died down,
Of a lighter’s massive attack!

There, suddenly, drew closer another.
Marijuana to my soul, sublime to lust,
Emotion took over like the fading of autumn brown leaves,
That left me; invigorating in the subtle sours of skin deep scars.
Invigorating in the dilemmas that crush me, squeeze me soulless.

“There can’t be one, two and three!”
If there can’t be one, there can’t be two and there can’t be three!
The counsellor stars in the sky, seem to misguide,
Like to a sailor on a stormy night.

A cherry blossom bloomed, stood bright.
On a black tree, nudging a little colour
To the darkness, that runs beyond the sea.
Alone it stood, lonely.
Against the black and white: Binaries.

Night winds, man handle the petals.
The non-existent warmth of the moon,
Slyly blanketed with clouds,
Let shivers run down, petals quiver and colour turn ice.
Oh Ginsberg!
My only loving companion.
I beg of you! please,
Stay up tonight and amuse me.