Thread by @srwestvik

Hi I had no idea #tolkientrewsday was a thing but as a war historian I feel compelled to chime in on the Visions of War theme! I’d like to highlight the variety of ways Tolkien has explored war: geopolitically, strategically, and socially. 1/15

One thing Tolkien consistently features is alliances, both of good and of evil. The letter from Gil-galad to Tar-Meneldur in Aldarion and Erendis (Unfinished Tales) is a brilliant case study of how the Free Peoples maximise security: 2/15

they don’t rely on principles of self-help, but on trust and cooperation. Does it mean they never act in self-interest? Of course not. But it’s incredibly notable how much Tolkien frames alliance in terms of “friendship”, beyond simply political alignment. 3/15

You can read more about it in chapter V.iii of my paper “Power and Choice in the Second Age” (2019): silmarillionwritersguild.org/node/4227#inte… 4/15

We’ve talked politics, now let’s talk strategy. Tolkien goes into a LOT of strategic and tactical detail in his works—clearly his OTC training came through. May favourite example is in the Disaster of the Gladden Fields (Unfinished Tales) wherein he unpacks 5/15

the tactical manoeuvres employed by both orcs and Gondorians. I recommend reading the footnotes too for expanded commentary on terminology! I’m working on a short piece analysing references to tactics in the Legendarium, which I hope to share in the coming months. 6/15

Tolkien also regularly employs sieges in a given leader’s operations plan. If you want an overview of Tolkien’s use of siege warfare (with historical commentary to contextualise it), I wrote about that here: silmarillionwritersguild.org/node/6079 7/15

Finally, Tolkien was acutely sensitive to the social side of war, and this is a core theme of so much of the Legendarium: war is hell. There is no victory without abiding sorrow, and some wounds never heal, as Frodo showed us. And per Faramir: "I do not love 8/15

the bright sword for its sharpness, nor the arrow for its swiftness, nor the warrior for his glory. I love only that which they defend.” (LOTR). While Third Age representations of combat trauma are more well known, I’ve always been captured by the glimpses we have of it in 9/15

the Second Age. I don’t think it’s a well known fact that “there was in Thranduil’s heart a still deeper shadow. He had seen the horror of Mordor and could not forget it. If ever he looked south its memory dimmed the light of the Sun…” (Unfinished Tales). 10/15

This, to me, reads as an expression of lasting trauma directly linked to his participation in the War of the Last Alliance. A seven year siege—the provenance of this deeper shadow—is a period of sustained stress. A soldier’s effectiveness is contingent on a number of factors11/15

ranging from morale (are they losing men from their unit daily?), to logistics (do they have food? Do they have ammo? Warm clothing?), to the enemy they’re facing (are they waiting for the percussive burst of a shell that may hit at any moment?). 12/15

If you're in Mordor, you’re not facing mortars or a 42cm M-Gerät, sure. But combining everything we know about Mordor’s environmental torment, Sauron’s brutal intent, the Black Breath from Nazgul that were surely around, and the existing trauma so many of the warriors 13/15

would have carried from everything from the Kinslaysings to the Akallebeth—and you can see the vulnerability *to* exacerbated combat fatigue, trauma, and even arguably PTSD. 14/15

If you’d like to read a little about the way I think combat trauma influenced Isildur and in particular his susceptibility to the Ring, I wrote a thread about it here (part of a longer treatise in defence of your man):

https://twitter.com/srwestvik/status/1611520395206598656?s=20

15/15

This thread was rushed, sorry—but if there’s on thing I learned from working in peace and security, it’s producing succinct analysis on a deadline 🤪 if you’d like to hear more about Tolkien and war, that’s something I work on as a scholar and also creatively, so follow for more!

And if you’re interested in war history and trauma (esp during WWII in the Pacific) and/or the peace and security field and/or nuclear nonproliferation and disarmament, here’s my non-Tolkien account, where I share the work I do in those areas:
@sIRwestvik