In LOTR, is the one ring that rules them all an alegory for nuclear weapons?

Question

well they say power corrupts and doesn't it just, the whole world held to ransome by their evil

Answer 1

Now i dont see tolkien using the ring as a 'nuclear' weapon. Its like a precious belonging ...lol...out of greed. I mean there were no nuclear bombs then...so...nice question anyway...but i think it is the riches of the world...something that everyone except some pure people go after...and see how the money i.e ring betrays them (Betrays gollum to his death).

Answer 2

Not really. It is easy to read your own meanings into a work of fiction. The fact is authors use what fits the plot.

When Tolkien created the ring Bilbo found, he was probably just looking for something to give Bilbo an edge. But there was the problem of Gollum and his attachment to that ring. That suggested the ring was something more. Let that simmer for a while and you have the suggestion of another plot.

As an author, I know how this happens. Got another book, a very good one, out of the line "Ask Droklak his story. He betrayed his family and friends to bring down the Blood Circle." Took me a while to figure out WHY Droklak would do that. All I knew was the Blood Circle was a notorious cult of assassins.

If you want to know more about the background of the Lord of the Rings, I suggest you get "The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien". I remember one letter in there in which he told a friend that he had no more idea than Frodo did who Strider was when he appeared in Bree. He was a walk-on character who stayed.

Answer 3

No, absolutely not. Tolkien specifically denies this in his foreword to the second edition. He says that he dislikes allegory of all kind (it was a major point of debate between him and his friend CS Lewis):

Quote:
As for any inner meaning or 'message', it has in the intention of the author none. It is neither allegorical nor topical [...] But I cordially dislike allegory in all its manifestations, and always have done so since I grew old and weary enough to detect its presence.


He points out that if he had meant this allegory, the protagonists would have used the power of the ring against Sauron, instead of destroying it.

Although the books weren't published until the 1950s, he began work on them well before the war, and he wrote about the Ring many years before the existence of nuclear weapons was revealed to the world at Hiroshima.

Answer 4

No. Tolkien wrote The Lord Of The Rings before the invention of nuclear weapons. It's just a story.

Answer 5

And the sophmoric solution -- destroy the object of Evil's desire! -- is quite misapplied in the real world. Like Superman gathering up all the missiles and lobbing them at the sun, that simple-minded action won't also destroy dominating power relations, but simply change them. There is no way to eradicate all the sources of violence. That's why the hobbits walk so damn far to the volcano, by the end you might actually symbolically believe this simple action -- the sacrificial annihilation of desire for the greater good -- is enough to change the world, and obliterate 'evil'.

Answer 6

Well, I guess you could interpret it that way.
Although, the Hobbit came out in 37 and Tolkien had been writing on the LOTR between '37-'49, so much of it was before nuclear bombs were really prevalent.
Besides, Tolkien purposefully avoids allegories as he had stated that he "cordially disliked" them.

Answer 7

Think Grasshopper! "One Ring To Bind Them". No, not a nuke, and J.R.R. knew all about nukes. Look at the year the books were published you silly twits! "The" ring, was a political analogy, if anything.

If anything was a analogy about the nukes, it was what happened when the ring was dropped in the "forge". BOOM! When a G'ovt is about to go belly up, they may decide to take everyone with them. (DUH! The Russians, back then.)

The good news of course was, right made might. (Yes, it's backwards. Think about it in the context of the books!)

Too bad you asked a decent question, and had mostly kids answer it. I lived through the days of "Duck and Cover", as if that would have helped! And I read Ol' J.R.R. at least once a year. (At least, the five good books.)

Answer 8

It's greed that drives this power to rule. Wonder how many years it'll take before we end up living in a place like Mordor !!!!

Answer 9

that was definitely the most likely theory I heard and a lot of the book was based on his war time experiences

Answer 10

NO! the books were written in the early 20th century! i doubt Tolkein even knew what they were! its more of an allegory about religion! and the power over people.