The Historical Truth of Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings

[Flint]

Okay, I will admit “historical truth” is a massive stretch, but not by as much as you’d think.

First consider that Tolkien was a professor of Anglo-Saxon, English Literature, and History at Oxford University. He was learned in a vast body of myth and folklore. If you accept that tales of legend are based on a kernel of truth, then, by extension, Tolkien would have been in a prime position to reveal these inherent truths in his fictional writings, which were founded in his years of acquired factual knowledge. This point, I concede, requires you to accept an arguable premise. But this isn’t the strongest point I have to make.

The strongest point regarding the historical veracity of Tolkien is concerned with the existence of Elves, Dwarves, Hobbits, and other intelligent, bipedal humanoids who co-existed, and in some cases interbred, with man. This has been proven to be true. Scientifically, verifiably, undoubtedly true.

Elves, Dwarves, Hobbits ACTUALLY EXISTED
Much to do has been made about Indonesia’s hobbits* but this is just a small part of the picture. What we now know is that, as recently as 30,000 years ago, man co-existed with at least three other humanoid species: h. floresiensis, h. neanderthal, and the recently discovered h. denisovans. We did interbreed with them. All human populations which left Africa carry with them today 1% to 4% h. neanderthal DNA. The population of New Guinea carries 5% h. denisovan DNA. This is all from the May 2011 issue of Discover magazine.

I contend that the legends that Tolkien studied carried a kernel of historical truth, passed down in our oral traditions from 30,000 years ago, and that his writings may as well be an accurate description of how these species interacted. With one important exception--the matter of technology. The base level of technology in the “fantasy” genre assumes medieval armor and weaponry. Therefore, Elves and “wizards” are required to have “magic” in order to surpass the abilities of others. If we instead, palce the base level of technology at “stone age” then it is much easier to imagine that Elves and “wizards” were simply slightly more advanced, and had learned some rudimentary forms of metallurgy, etc.

Furthermore, it is natural to assume that in the re-telling of tales, the technology level is re-told at a level that the listener can identify with. Therefore there was a technology “creep” in the re-telling of the legends upon which Tolkien’s writings were based. If we reset the technology level to “stone age,” and then examine the coexistence and interbreeding of intelligent humanoid species (that we know took place at a time about six times more distant that the Old Testament), we can easily see that the world described as Tolkien’s Middle Earth is not as “fantastic” as we had assumed.




*About the hobbits I will say that the theories that they were a dwarfed species, or specimens exhibiting microcephaly, have been largely dismissed.