What can we learn about land stewardship from The Lord of the
By John Amodeo, ASLA
Build me an army worthy of Mordor,” commands Sauron in
The Fellowship of the Ring. With a maniacal greed for power,
the easily corrupted Saruman turns his cavernous lair beneath Isengard
into a frenzied factory of orcs and armor, fueled by burning the
region’s trees, which he clear-cuts with reckless abandon.
When an orc reports to Saruman, “The trees are strong, my
lord; their roots grow deep,” Saruman barks, “Take them
all down,” and down they come.
Thus J. R. R. Tolkien draws the lines of evil in his wondrous tale,
The Lord of the Rings. Since the trilogy’s initial
publication in 1954, many have analyzed, debated, and deconstructed
Tolkien on the topics of linguistics, history, anthropology, sociology,
mythology, and war, but rare is the discussion on Tolkien’s
environmental commentary, though all the signs are there. Although
Tolkien, who died in 1973, vehemently discouraged using his books
as an allegory for real events, he favored use of them in ways that
are applicable to readers’ own thoughts and experiences. Looking
beneath the fun, the action, and the mysticism of Tolkien’s
fantastic creation, landscape architects need only observe the ways
in which the forces of good and evil treat Mother Earth to discover
that Tolkien wove a conservationist morality tale within its pages
(evident in the films as well) that resonates strongly in the society
in which we practice.
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