[For my ever so patient readers, I have a massive project in the works on a par with the Warlord’s Reading list… You will not be disappointed when its out. The recent drought of posts will abate very soon and your patience will be more than rewarded… Just wanted to get this down quickly]
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The story of Eomer and Theoden embodies a lot of what I don’t like about J.R.R. Tolkien’s writing.
There’s a profound moral cowardice to every story he tells and every manner in which he ends it.
Theoden is a decayed corrupt and senile king, leading his country to ruin in collaboration with a poisonous advisor.
This is one of the oldest stories of all time. This is the exact same setup as Hamlet.
So what does Eomer his proud warrior nephew do watching his uncle decay and lead his people to certain death? He takes his soldiers and flees into exile after falling out of favour... So far very similar to the Hamlet story. But Eomer’s position is even more dire, his sister is immediately prey to the mad king’s advisors slimey lusts, and it is not the machinations of a young Norwegian prince happening on the Kingdom’s Borders but a imminent invasion of thousands of genocidal orcs lead by evil itself..
Now there is a stock way for this story to end, indeed there is only one way for this story to end, it’s the same way the story of Hamlet ends...
Eomer has to kill Theoden. He has to slay his uncle the mad king, and take the crown for himself.
Eomer has to summon all his will, all his resources, harden his heart, take on a terrible resolve, and kill the man who partially raised him and he’s deeply attached to. He has to do what Zues did.
This is obviously a big lift, and his hesitation is fully understandable (Hamlet hesitated even more) but if he doesn’t his sister will be raped and his kingdom will be slaughtered.
Enter the Fellowship. Our heroes from the first book.
This is a great setup. You have skilled fighters, an exiled prince, a kingdom on the brink... What can you do with a Ranger, a Dwarf Fighter, and an elven archer against a corrupt kingdom and a wayward prince who needs to take the throne. There’s moral quandaries, hazards, the open field, monsters, a city of whispers, a mad king, a ticking clock... If you had a dungeon master who set this up for you you’d be in for a treat.
So what happens? What Did Tolkien decide happened?
Tolkien decided A wizard magically comes back to life, and then magics the mad king into being a good king.
The conflict between Theoden and Eomer never happens.
Eomer never has to face the mad king or the traitors of the court, Eowin’s subplot goes nowhere, there’s no Shakespearean showdown for the throne as the Orc Hordes descend, no glorious vengeance against Worm-tongue... No desperate rallying of a divided land in the final moments with the crown pulled from the gutter...
No moral judgement has to be made at all and no one has to get their hands dirty. It’s as if Shakespeare ended Hamlet with “And then they shook hands and made up”
At every instance Tolkien’s Eucatastrophes, his inverse catastrophes, his sudden turnings for the good, his “miracles” exist to dodge the moral quandaries, lessons, virtues, tragedies, and hard choices that better older writers wrote better older stories about...
The miracle of story is not supposed to be divine intervention. The miracle is supposed to be that great men prove worthy of their moment. The Miracle of Hamlet is that even as he’s slain he gets his revenge and the chance to tell see his story told and proves himself worthy of his forefathers and wins the esteem of his peers... After 4 hours of dithering and torturous doubts, he succeeds and is buried in full military honors worthy of a warrior prince... He has proven himself worthy of the ghost of his father.
Instead Eomer has to make ZERO hard choices, the Fellowship has to navigate none of the terrible intrigues of a kingdom collapsing, and the consequences and terrible necessity of royal power and hard judgement is wished away.
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And the terrible thing is everyone learnt Tolkien’s lesson. Even as the foreign hordes conquer Britain and America and mass rape the women and children of the west... Everyone’s still shouting into the wind hoping the boomers, normies, bureaucrats, voters, and leaders will “Wake up”... They aren’t going to wake. They’re catatonic or worse.
To save the world the first thing you have to do is take up the sword and take power from those who are failing to save it.
Even Zues, the God of kingship himself, usurped the throne from his traitorous father.
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It’s been awhile since I read LOTR, but just a meditation: Hamlet has 2 levels, 2 storylines: the domestic and the…I reckon military, or historical. Since it’s. 5 hrs long most productions really only hit the domestic drama.
In this comment you seem to be doing the opposite: you’re ignoring the domestic drama and expressing how the military/historical should have been written. Very interesting take. I’ve always focused on the Turn of the Screw aspect of the Theoden story: a beloved respected relative, maliciously corrupted, turned against those who in reality have his best interests at heart…a bit o’ King Lear. My fave scene in the movie was Theoden’s restoration to mature vigor. Just a personal musing…carry on.
The big difference is that Hamlet´s uncle is a coldblooded murderer while Theoden is essentially a good man who is under a kind of confusion spell.
Perhaps you really do not get the difference, but that is because you are a moral illiterate. It´s not Tolkien´s fault.