— Ch. 1 · Tolkien's Biographical Context —
Women in The Lord of the Rings.
~8 min read · Ch. 1 of 6
J. R. R. Tolkien lost his father in South Africa and his mother in England a few years later, leaving him an orphan as a boy. He was raised by Father Francis Xavier Morgan, a Catholic priest who guided his early education. The young Tolkien attended boys' grammar schools before entering Exeter College at Oxford University. At that time, the college admitted only male students, creating a strictly all-male environment for his formative years. After serving in the British Army's Lancashire Fusiliers during World War I, he witnessed the horrors of trench warfare. Life as an officer became more bearable through the support of a male batman or servant. Following the war, he became a professor of English Language at the University of Leeds and later returned to Oxford. There he taught at Pembroke College where he created the Inklings, an all-male literary group with C. S. Lewis. Among his influences were boys' adventure stories like those by H. Rider Haggard and John Buchan. In an interview, Tolkien stated that Haggard's novel She was his favorite work. Dale Nelson notes that Tolkien was spontaneously moved by mythopoeic and straightforward adventure romance found in such books. On Buchan's influence, Nelson writes that Greenmantle tells of desperate chances and plentiful good luck. In On Fairy Stories, Tolkien wrote that Treasure Island left him cool but Red Indians were better due to bows and arrows. He preferred the land of Merlin and Arthur over other lands. A letter to his son Michael reveals his conservative views about women. He stated men were active in their professions while women were inclined to domestic life. Melissa Hatcher describes Tolkien as possibly being the stodgy sexist Oxford professor that feminist scholars paint him out to be.
Critiques Of Female Absence
The Lord of the Rings has repeatedly been discussed as being a story about men for boys with no significant women characters. There are 11 women in the work, some mentioned only briefly. Catherine Stimpson, a scholar of English and feminism, wrote that Tolkien's women were hackneyed stereotypes either beautiful and distant or simply simple. Robert Butler and John Eberhard in the Chicago Tribune stated that all races from Hobbits to Elves get their due but women do not. They argued Tolkien did not think much about the female sex despite being happily married with a daughter named Priscilla. Their view held that Edith Mary and Priscilla seemed to have practically no influence on his writing. Linda Voigts defended Tolkien by pointing out he was brought up in a male world living among male scholars at a time when Oxford was a boys' club. Butler and Eberhard noted that women in the novel see little action giving Arwen as an example. A strong-willed woman like Éowyn was created when the teenaged Priscilla asked her father for a female character. Candice Fredrick and Sam McBride referenced the all-male Inklings group stating Middle-earth is very Inkling-like. While women exist in the world they need not be given significant attention and can if one is lucky simply be avoided altogether. Melissa McCrory Hatcher writes that Hobbit women like Rosie Cotton and Lobelia Sackville-Baggins serve only as housewives or shrews. Dwarf women are hardly feminine while the Entwives are lost. Goldberry appears as a mystical washer-woman according to this critique.