The presence of sexuality in The Lord of the Rings, a bestselling fantasy novel by J. R. R. Tolkien, has been debated, as it is somewhat unobtrusive. However, love and marriage appear in the form of the warm relationship between the hobbits Sam Gamgee and Rosie Cotton; the unreturned feelings of Éowyn for Aragorn, followed by her falling in love with Faramir, and marrying him; and Aragorn's love for Arwen, described in an appendix rather than in the main text, as "The Tale of Aragorn and Arwen". Multiple scholars have noted the symbolism of the monstrous female spider Shelob. Interest has been concentrated, too, on the officer-batman-inspired same-sex relationship of Frodo and his gardener Sam as they travel together on the dangerous quest to destroy the Ring. Scholars and fans have interpreted the relationship in different ways, from close but not necessarily homosexual to plainly homoerotic, or as an idealised heroic friendship.
Context
Tolkien's background
The author of the bestselling fantasy novel The Lord of the Rings, J. R. R. Tolkien, was orphaned as a boy, his father dying in South Africa and his mother in England a few years later. He was brought up by his guardian, a Catholic priest, Father Francis Xavier Morgan, and educated at male-only grammar schools and then Exeter College, Oxford, which at that time had only male students. He joined the British Army's Lancashire Fusiliers and saw the horror of trench warfare, with life as an officer made more bearable by the support of a male batman or servant. After the war he became a professor of English Language at the University of Leeds, and then at the University of Oxford, where he taught at Pembroke College. At Oxford, he created an all-male literary group with another Oxford professor of English, C. S. Lewis, called the Inklings.
Tolkien held traditional views about women, stating that men were active in their professions while women were inclined to domestic life. While defending the role of women in The Lord of the Rings, the scholar of children's literature Melissa Hatcher wrote that "Tolkien himself, in reality, probably was the stodgy sexist Oxford professor that feminist scholars paint him out to be".
Tolkien met another orphan, Edith Mary Bratt, when he was 16, and in the summer of 1909 they fell in love. Morgan prohibited them from meeting until Tolkien was 21; when Tolkien reached that age in 1913 he proposed to her, and they became engaged. They were married in 1916, linked by strong affection throughout their marriage. In 1917, on leave from the army, they went out together, visiting a wood near Roos in Yorkshire. There, Edith danced for him among the "hemlocks", as later in his fiction Lúthien danced for Beren, a story that formed the centrepiece of The Silmarillion. They had four children, to whom they were both devoted. Edith died in 1971, Tolkien two years later.
Lack of sexuality in The Lord of the Rings
Commentators have remarked on the apparent lack of sexuality in The Lord of the Rings. The scholar of culture Douglas Kellner writes that there is "no overt sexuality" in the text. The feminist and queer theory scholar Valerie Rohy notes the female novelist A. S. Byatt's remark that "part of the reason I read Tolkien when I'm ill is that there is an almost total absence of sexuality in his world, which is restful"; the Tolkien scholar Tom Shippey wrote that "there is not enough awareness of sexuality" in the work; and the novelist and critic Adam Mars-Jones stated that "above all, sexuality [is] what is absent from the [work's] vision". Rohy comments that it is easy to see why they might say this; in the epic tradition, Tolkien "abandons courtship when battle looms, apparently sublimating sexuality to the greater quest". She accepts that there are three romances leading to weddings in the tale, those of Aragorn and Arwen, Éowyn and Faramir, and Sam and Rosie, but points out that their love stories are mainly external to the main narrative about the Ring, and that their beginnings are basically not shown: they simply appear as marriages.
Discussions of the novel's depiction of sexuality
The feminist scholar Catherine R. Stimpson charged that "Tolkien is irritatingly, blandly, traditionally masculine....He makes his women characters, no matter what their rank, the most hackneyed of stereotypes. They are either beautiful and distant, simply distant, or simply simple". The scholar Patrick Curry commented that "it is tempting to reply, guilty as charged", agreeing that Tolkien is "paternalistic", though he objects that Galadriel and Éowyn have more to them than Stimpson alleges. Karen Viars and Cait Coker write that while Tolkien was not a misogynist, most of the characters in the novel are male, while many Tolkien fans, possibly a majority, are women. The scholar of English Anna Smol writes that the "enormous outpouring of Tolkien fan fiction and fan art" has led to widespread discussion of sexuality in the novel. Daniel Timmons writes in Mythlore that although there are "no overt or implied sex scenes", there is more to sexuality than intercourse, and for example among the hobbit protagonists, there is definitely "sensuality", which he defines as "physical attraction linked with psychological bonding". Timmons adds that the "lament" of Stimpson's title, "No Sex Please—We're Hobbits", may be witty, but is "flawed", as the novel works well in its chosen genre. The scholar and fantasy author Dallas John Baker comments that scholars and critics have debated gender and sexuality in The Lord of the Rings from soon after the novel's publication. He writes that he felt the need to "writ[e] back" to Tolkien with his own young adult fiction to show "a fantasy world in which women and girls were central".
Love and marriage
Heterosexual love and marriage are depicted in The Lord of the Rings, but unobtrusively, to the extent that some critics have stated that there are no women in the book. The main heterosexual relationships are those involving Sam Gamgee, Éowyn of Rohan, and Aragorn.
Rustic love
The hobbit character Sam Gamgee leaves his girlfriend Rosie Cotton when he sets off from the Shire, and returns to her admiration for the Battle of Bywater., book 6, ch. 8, "The Scouring of the Shire" They have a "happy ending" with marriage and 13 children, flourishing in a simple life with Sam as mayor of the Shire, its fertility restored after Saruman's depredations by his judicious distribution of Galadriel's gift of magical earth from her Elvish garden., book 6, ch. 9, "The Grey Havens" Tolkien stated that "the simple 'rustic' love of Sam and his Rosie (nowhere elaborated) is absolutely essential [his italics] to the study of his (the chief hero's) character, and to the theme of the relation of ordinary life (breathing, eating, working, begetting) and quests, sacrifice, causes, and the 'longing for Elves', and sheer beauty."
The scholar of fantasy Amy Sturgis describes in Mythlore how after Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings film trilogy, Rosie has been reimagined by female fans in response to Tolkien's "incomplete literary portrait". Rosie becomes in their fan fiction variously "the paragon of the hearth, the iconoclast of the bedroom, or the agent of the supernatural".
Shieldmaiden
Éowyn's romantic feelings appear first with her unreturned attachment to Aragorn., book 3, ch. 6 "The King of the Golden Hall", book 5, ch. 2 "The Passing of the Grey Company" Feeling rejected, she says she is a shieldmaiden, and against orders, chooses to go and fight in the Battle of the Pelennor Fields. There, she and the Hobbit Merry Brandybuck kill the Lord of the Nazgul; she is seriously wounded., book 5, ch. 6 "The Battle of the Pelennor Fields" Recuperating in the Houses of Healing in Minas Tirith, she falls in love with Faramir, who had also been wounded. She renounces her warlike ways to become a healer, and they are engaged., book 6, ch. 5 "The Steward and the King" At the end of the book, they marry., book 6, ch. 6 "Many Partings"
The scholar of feminism Penny Griffin writes that in the Peter Jackson film Return of the King, Éowyn's credentials as a suitably feminist "Strong Female Character" are spoiled when her story ends with her disavowing battle and marrying Faramir to live, "we assume, happily ever after". Shippey writes that the Hollywood studio sent a "script doctor" to New Zealand to bring Jackson's direction into line with their view, which was that since Aragorn needed a single love-interest, Arwen could be deleted, and "Aragorn should then marry Éowyn instead of politely dissuading her. ... The script doctor's advice was ignored." Jackson does however make Aragorn far more romantic than do either Tolkien or Bakshi, who had directed an earlier film of The Lord of the Rings. Jackson devotes substantial viewing time to Aragorn's modern love triangle, and provides "clear on-screen chemistry" with Éowyn.
Man and Elf-maiden
Aragorn's love for Arwen is narrated in an appendix rather than in the main text, as "The Tale of Aragorn and Arwen". In the tale, Aragorn sings the Lay of Lúthien, an immortal Elf-maiden in the First Age who marries a man, Beren, thereby choosing a mortal life. As he does so, he sees Arwen, who looks to him like Lúthien. She reveals that although she seems no older than he, she is of great age. He falls in love with her. Arwen's father, Elrond, sees what has happened, and tells Aragorn that he may not marry until he is found worthy. They meet again in Lothlórien, nearly thirty years later. Galadriel dresses Aragorn like an elf-lord. Arwen sees him and makes her choice; they become engaged. Elrond tells Aragorn that they may marry only when he is King of both Gondor and Arnor. Some years later, Aragorn helps to bring about victory in the War of the Ring (the action of the main text of The Lord of the Rings), and becomes King of Gondor and Arnor. At midsummer, he and Arwen are married in Minas Tirith. Elrond leaves Middle-earth for Elvenhome, never to return. Aragorn, heroic but mortal, lies down to die 120 years later; Arwen sorrowfully goes to a now-barren Lothlórien to die, alone of all her kin, never to rejoin them "beyond the end of the world"., Appendix A: "The Tale of Aragorn and Arwen"
Tolkien described the tale as "the highest love-story" of the book. Its relegation to an appendix makes it inconspicuous, and deprives the main text of much of its love interest. Jackson chose to incorporate the tale in his film trilogy to remedy this, giving Arwen more of a speaking part and creating additional scenes for her. The feminist scholar Melissa Hatcher, writing in Mythlore, calls Tolkien's Arwen "a symbol of the unattainable, a perfect match for the unattainable Aragorn in Éowyn's eyes."
Female monster
Narrative
Shelob, a giant and evil spider, is presented as a disgusting female monster. Forewarned by Gollum, she attempts to trap Frodo and Sam as they cross the mountains into Mordor; they have no choice but to go past the tunnels to her lair, and to fight their way through. They manage to pass one obstacle, a tunnel blocked by giant cobwebs, but she ambushes and stings Frodo, who collapses. Sam fights on, taking the Ring and Frodo's sword, Sting; Shelob attacks him, but he repels her with the light of the Phial of Galadriel. She tries to crush him to death; he allows her to sink down on to him, holding Sting point uppermost, and her downward "thrust" causes the sword to "prick" deep into her enormous belly. She is seriously wounded and retires into her lair, making bubbling noises and dripping blood., book 4, chapter 9: "Shelob's Lair.", book 4, chapter 8: "The Stairs of Cirith Ungol"
Perversion of female sexuality