20057890

Geo- and Biopolitics of Middle-Earth: A German Reading of Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings" Author(s): Niels Werber Source:
New Literary History, Vol. 36, No. 2, Essays Probing the Boundaries of the Human in Science (Spring, 2005), pp. 227-246 Published by: The Johns Hopkins University Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20057890 . Accessed: 14/02/2014 13:59
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Geo- and Biopolitics A German Reading
of Middle-earth: of Tolkien's
The Lord of theRings

Niels Werber
I. Race
and
Space
in German
Discourses?
After
This year,
the Downfall
60 years after the end of the Third Reich, the German is celebrating the collective of reminiscence public predictably German movie The Downfall, with this era. The Oscar-nominated on high-ranking its "human" perspective Nazi "protagonists" and their
entourage performing the regime's last act in the "Fuehrerbunker," is
generation of Nazi institutions, is staff, laws, and ideology, The Downfall continuity as an of the end National Socialist the tabula styling dictatorship epochal rasa. Whoever the breakdown of the Reich was sentenced outlived in or reeducated under Allied surveillance. 8, Therefore, Nuremberg May
1945, can be seen as Hour Zero, "die Stunde Null." Such a standpoint
playing protest
a significant
the Whereas part in this culture of remembrance. in the 1960s and '70s criticized the hundredfold
gets backing
Reich in very
from The Downfall,

suggestive pictures
which
dramatizes
the end of the Third

death, and
of destruction,
annihilation,
suicide.
may
Based
on the destroyed
that something
battlegrounds
new would
in the film,
be built.
the audience
However, in
assume
altogether
this essay I will investigate which components of the Third Reich have survived the collapse and are still present today. This interest in a "subliminal" of pre-1945 modes of continuity success was the enhanced tremendous of Ronald Reul thinking by John Tolkien's book market epic novel The Lord of theRings on the German and
German
the awesome
movie
triumph
Both
of Peter
novel
Jackson's
and motion
movie
picture
adaptation
are obviously
on
screens.
obsessed Dwarfs
with the differences and Hobbits, Ores
between certain and Southrons,
bloodlines, genealogies, crossbreedings, Their creation realms (Uruk-Hai). respective (pretty Shire, proud beautiful terrible mirror these differences. Gondor, Imladris, Mordor)
New Literary History, 2005, 36: 227-246
(Elves and Numenor, Istari and Balrogs), their and even their biogenetic pro
races
228
Through reading Tolkien's novels, seeing the
NEW
LITERARY
HISTORY
movies,
or
playing
com
is (EA Games, 2004), puter games like "The Battle for Middle-earth" first of all, into a certain bio- and geopolitical introduced knowledge: races are different not only in terms of skin color or height, but in moral are either and political wisdom, worth, refinement, integrity. The races or genetically like and dumb evil like Elves and wise hereditarily good
Ores, and therefore they make "natural-born" enemies. The absolute
one
and
hate insurmountable of consequence political
opposing DNA sequences. able political differences

matic century. in discourses "the of Slavs" That
as a is not outlined a result of their as but decision-making, To pass off contingent, historical, and change as "natural" or "given" oppositions is paradig between Elves and Ores
social Darwinism a race hostile to since the mid-nineteenth was "our" "us" or "France"
were
sworn
Germany,
enemy
the
were
typical
phrases
of a
in this German
strict difference
context.
between
In Nazi
"us" and
construction
as threatened of the menace itself was dramatized through a biogenetic in blood warfare was "our" "the tainting Jew" mingling: dis the biopolitical nation. Within the body of the German against an for extermina the threat this course, justification directly provided race. tion campaign against the Jewish one is taught that the in a purely geopolitical context, Secondly, the territories of these races should be considered between differences "them"
results of intense interactions between the cultivating nations and their
soil. A primary
racial world, waters war of including their and
result of this relationship

extermination the tides territories and currents, is not and neutral,
is that the literal ground

but partisan. climates The and flora,
of a
whole the is
landscapes, and the birds
animals?everything
playing
Elves,
its "natural" role in the conflict

Men, and their allies, on the
between
one hand,
the free, noble

and the
races of
or
"slaves"
on the other hand. The of evil and their collaborators, have been nations of the different and territories, realms, regions a that in such of control molded they should be deep way through years and the as of counted military power of Middle political important parts to such a degree are nature races. and earth's highly politicized, Space and biopolitical account the one into has to take that geopolitical "creatures"
dimensions To ery of view the of Tolkien's "natural society world. like vice rivers to or mountains understand as a living as periph a living borders" and,
versa,
society
organism tive.1 Thus,

Karl
or political body are integral parts of a geopolitical perspec a reader of a German geopolitical author, like Carl Schmitt,
or Friedrich social Ratzel, Darwinism, or a or scholar racism, of the either discourses of whom of is breeding,
Haushofer,
eugenics,
reading
Tolkien's
best
sellers or viewing
Jackson's
blockbusters,
would
GEO-
AND
BIOPOLITICS
OF MIDDLE-EARTH
229
a world of that he is encountering of the proposal easily be convinced It is not only fiction that could be described best by pre-1945 discourses. and the Nazi the battle for Middle-earth between that the analogies
campaign of racial warfare are striking and not only that some random
elements
"downfall" analysis Tolkien's of
of
in
the Third
the genre structure, reveals
Reich's
of fantasy narrative terms
politics
books, logic, of geo-
seem
films,
to have
and games: and
survived
rather
the
an in
deep works
rhetoric, and
in
biopolitics
topology an almost
I do not assert that Tolkien has written his novels coherence. frightening of race and space, but Iwould in order to reproduce German discourses audience might find a field of differences, like to argue that a German
models, and arguments in them that was essential to a pre-1945
hegemonic
discourse,
but
fervently
is declared
dead
in the Federal
of Germany. Republic has The eminent scholar of East European history Karl Schl?gel in his latest book on Geopolitics and theHistory of Civilizations remarked
that the postwar generations have forgotten or repressed everything of
its long tradition of race, including "vanished in German political geography. That discourse has completely as Samuel he claims.2 Authors such Huntington, Zbigniew Germany," Brzezinksi, Benjamin Barber, or Robert Kagan would not refuse to think the Nazi semantics of space and and successfully banned from are regarded as geopolitics public sphere.3 Still, in popular these discourses of geo- and biopolitics, obsolete.4 However, the "downfall"5 so that a fantasy or science fiction novels, have outlived in geopolitical the German here
German audience is able to discover them again in Tolkien's novels and
terms and so were
tabooed
their film
race and
adaptations
space once
and
more.
could
Last
learn
year,
to think
the major
(or feel)
German
in modes
television
of
a huge poll of 250,000 German ZDF commissioned broadcaster readers, was. It was The Lord of the Rings. The what their favorite book asking
Germans love it. Perhaps the "downfall" theorem and the uncommon
esteem
for The Lord of theRings form two sides of the same coin. Because 1945 is styled as a radical break in German history, one is able to enjoy the pleasures of a story based on race, soil, and blood without the
amount of a bad conscience. "Obsolete" or "taboo" prewar
smallest
discourses
fantasy genre,
have
and
found
they
an
inconspicuous
there.
"ecological
"Aragorn is a
niche"
super-human
in the
of
prosper
leader? Well, he should reign as a king and wipe creatures out of Middle-earth. folk of subhuman That's to isn't It this assertion. the it?" Consider buried natural, quite appeals of popular media unconsciousness" that I am interested "geopolitical in.6 My reading does not simply point out the numerous similarities purest blood the maggot and a born between The Lord of theRings and German geopolitics. Rather, my aim is
230
to show that the novel can be described as
NEW
LITERARY
HISTORY
transformation
of
consistent
tions,
field of discourse
and causal
rules into fiction.

connections
The
very same differentia

certain concepts of
metaphors,
between
nature
the German bio- and geopolitical and politics organize semantics text in its smallest detail. In order to support this and structure Tolkien's
argument, I will focus on the occurrence and the interconnection of
in The Lord of the of the geopolitical discourse assumptions as an absolute foe in total as of other construction the such the Rings in this construction of biopolitics warfare (3), (section 2), the function the belief that every nation takes part in a "clash" of ethnically shaped nature itself is mobilizing in a (4), that a politicized "greater regions" war wars a secure to total end all and that international and (5), global order could be expected (6). only from a strict separation of nations
some basic
II. Annihilating the "Other": Absolute Foe and Total Warfare

Both
spatial, a coherent pires and
Tolkien's
racial,
novel
As
and German
aesthetical, a moral,
geoand of rivers,
and
biopolitics
differences
integrate
into
political, ideology.7
cultural
consequence races, land,
colonization, and seas
its
"space-taking"
em through become political
in such a deep
and Bios military and nomos,
and
the
intense way
mountain fundamental
that nature
acts hostile terms
itself takes part

or of a river early attacks
in political
the fiend.
action?a
twentieth-century
philosophy
and of annals bloodlines,
and politics,8
are crammed and remarks
fuse
with on
in Tolkien's
geopolitical races and
novels.9 All his

maps their and true family and pure
texts, myths,
trees, or charts mingled
and diminished
breeds.10 To
blood.
return
Even mankind
from exile as a
is subdivided
victorious
into noble
king, for
and foul
is
instance,
it is his heritage, passed down from his ancestors Aragorn's to him through thousands of years of strict intraethnic, "pure" breeding. human race) origin is unquestion His Dun?dain (a certain prodigious able; not even a single drop of minor blood runs in his veins. Certainly, as old-fashioned How this could be declared endogenous procreation. fate because ever,
changes strong,
in The Two Towers, the second

from martial, a sorcerer cannibalistic into a
part of the movie

breeding "fighting
trilogy, Saruman
his Uruk-Hai." own new, This
engineer, genetic race Ore of
of certainly does not refer to the genealogies or noble to of but modern houses, projects of races, like those of the genetic properties purposeful manipulations the ethnic distinc the 1930s.11 Ultimately, that started during whether or bred, the hereditary the between tions are engineered antagonism of breeding discourse ancient sagas English
GEO-
AND
BIOPOLITICS
OF MIDDLE-EARTH
231
different
races can only be "solved" in a total warfare. The struggle for I will give some racial purity is fought as a warfare of "annihilation."12 in Middle-earth told The Lord battle for from the of theRings. examples
Gandalf, the are screamed leader of the the cast Riders and Ores attacking and "good" foe's aside their faction, army both bodies near sword were and Helm's and a company Deep. spear. of "The . . . They . . . the allied Ores fled. heaps
Rohan reeled . . . No
remained
alive;
uncounted;
of carrion were said Gandalf."13

terrified, barbarians, wounded,
too great for burial or for burning. 'Let the Ores lie,' to kill a fleeing, Is it legitimate unarmed, helpless,
and or, surrendering in Schmitt's enemy? term, Yes, an if absolute they are foe. beasts, In the
monsters,
second
troops
part of the movie

of the traitor Saruman
trilogy The Lord of theRings,

more than once
one
sees the vast

slaughtered
straight-out
of Rohan, who leave no brave, battle-winning no no The foe is life form with a behind.14 individual, breathing body as a teeming mass of awful brutes. will of his own; Ores are constructed in a sporting competition of death played Ores count only as numbers Elf Gimli the said Gimli. the Dwarf and "'Twenty-one,' by Leg?las. 'but my count is now two dozen. It has been knife 'Good!' said Leg?las, work up here'" (524). Butchering by numbers, slaying as work. Every by the blond,
bureaucrat of a conquering and annihilating middle-European empire
men
knows
parties "creatures
it well:
and of
killing means
are Isengard, engaged these
counting.
in half-ores
In The Lord of the Rings,

of goblin-men "the other." foul and that
all the
These craft of
foes
extermination
Saruman
produced
has bred"
in the
(524), must
genetic
die at the same rates at which

beneath Saruman's
they were
stronghold,
factories
Orthanc.
to deal with huge is necessary, helping So, a little bureaucracy run counts the lists of the and Dwarf the Elf were in figures: body by use all over occupied same at dreadful the time that middle-Europe Tolkien was writing his story of the final war between the hostile races of
In of beaten, the cinematic wounded, or play yielding as well troops as in cast Tolkien's no dark novel, shadow
Middle-earth. massacres
on
the shining appearance of the upright Horsemen of Rohan. The reason is obvious and simple. The troops killed are living "carrion," and the difference them and the Riders of Rohan is so huge, the between so "otherness" of the Ores striking, their brutish, awful life form so
so unquestionable, and their inferiority that any thinking revolting, about the validity of laws in war does not appear. On the contrary: kein
Pardon (no mercy) rules, as the saying goes, in total warfare.15
revolting "heaps of carrion" on Rohan's to some smoking mass than a random parallel The
Ukraine, because the biopolitical motives of
battlefields graves
these massacres
offer more
are the
in the occupied
same in the novels
and
in geopolitics,
and they are in the very same way
232
embedded in a broader context, that is, the
NEW
LITERARY
HISTORY
concept
of
total
warfare,
which
since World War I. In 1932, has drawn a lot of academic attention most the influential German scholar of political Schmitt, theory and a of in international his law, argued professor Concept of Politics that construction of absolute otherness of the enemy leads directly to total
Because "we" are human and "our" aims just, the foe is
warfare.
construed enemy
Such war enjoy
as inhuman
can
deserves
and his causes judged unjust. The "inhuman" neither but instant death. pity nor lawful treatment,
be counted law The neither because absolute as murder an inhuman in civil "other" as law nor does a as a not "sheer
punishment crime in any
international rights.16
human
enemy
is counted
as a living carcass that should body" or "naked life."17 He is recognized to cleanse the soil from its polluting be killed and burned physical
presence. from human The foe as the absolute and morals.18 "other" is excluded movies from have mankind, made this legislations Jackson's
inhumanity of the foe visible and evident. The other is not worth life; he exclusion is foul carrion. In the 1930s, this concept of an unrestricted of of international the law.Within the other was quite new in the discourse frames of European
until the early
public
law from
century,
the Westphalia
the belligerents
Peace Treaty
were states.19
(1648)
The
twentieth
was respected as an and European) (who was white enemy as to of his warfare the sovereigns rights legally and equal,20 taking as like In the battles duels.21 his did, opponent settling history of lawfully or to settle the Numen?r duel that Elves Middle-earth, every proposed soldier
the conflict was either refused by the dark forces or accepted only to set
a trap. The concept of a duel was presented only to be negated. The era did the same. The to the Nazi German thinking up geopolitical the enemy classical jus belli (law of war) of sovereign states that construes
as an honest foe was regarded as a half-forgotten past. Only for this
Schmitt obsolete ius gentium (law of nations), claims, the "foe ceases being a human."22 in Middle-earth the In comparison, inhuman. Since its creation told in Tolkien's Silmarillion, no peace ever end the eternal war between Ores and Elves, because their
differences are essential as well as existential; warfare is their
never foe could innate for the

on the
is
"natural"
destiny
next
and
"peace" just a temporary

As a consequence, both
pause
Sauron
to gain new
and his Ore
strength
armies,
battle.
one
hand,
to
and
the
the races of the West,

"final battle," the "war
on
to
the other
end all
hand,
are
Schmitt
looking
often
forward
wars."
presaged
beginning between
that
of civilians a
legitimating
"total and war,"
the
that
"war to end
is, or a war children that
all wars"
knows and no warriors,
indicates
differences between
the
combatants
or war harbors, and civil cities and military places, like camps, fortresses, to to The aim end all wars justifies every means demilitarized regions.
GEO-
AND
BIOPOLITICS
OF MIDDLE-EARTH
233
win;
is spared. Schmitt argues that a totalitarian nobody and nothing not warfare does allow neutral positions.23 Every party gets of concept
involved, voluntarily or involuntarily. The whole world, every state, every
is forced to engage itself in total warfare. Middle-earth nation, provides a perfect example of the connection stated by Schmitt between the end of the ius gentium and the rise of total warfare against the absolute other: in the realm, like Doriath, Nargothrond every attempt of a sovereign first ages of Tolkien's universe,24 or Lorien and Fangorn inMiddle-earth, to keep itself in a guarded and "splendid" isolation fails. Not only do such peaceful folks as the Hobbits take part in the Ring wars (more nolens than volens) ;beasts and plants, too, are mobilized and set up on one side of combatants or the other. The living space (in the sense of the
Nazi term Lebensraum) becomes a participant too. "Every life-form, every
species
Silmarillion
took
sides and became

another great
a party
war against
in these days," we
Sauron.25 It is an
read
in the
of
about
agenda
"total mobilization" of every resource.26 Fairy tales might have been Tolkien's model of a living nature, but the political of total concept in fairyland. In Middle-earth, warfare is unknown everybody and every that flouts thing is either friend or foe, tertium non daturP The exception the rule is the strange figure of Tom Bombadil, who names himself older than the world and to whom the deadly peril of the treacherous One means and shows no influence the From (129-30). Ring nothing as well as from the of Schmitt, of Tolkien's standpoint perspective
narrator, this neutrality is just a remembrance of past ages, and the
movies
Peter
do not
Jackson's
include
cinematic
this character
Middle-earth
and his example

discerns foes
of bold neutrality.
and friends only.
This means
killed Total inhuman; at will.
total warfare
He
for everybody
the civilians absolute or
and all parties.

"other" is
The
foe can be
cruel nor slain
is "carrion."28 against wounded neither could
warfare even
surrendering
troops
be
without being
of
"otherness" them from hesitation, just because disqualifies honest opponents. The dialectic of "us" and the "other," the logic
values and "their" worthlessness, Schmitt claims, "is unfolding a
"our"
and devaluations of the other until the deadly logic of discriminations final solution of an annihilation of all different life which is not worthy to exist."29 The other a lives a life not worth "naked life," as living, a can at life that be taken will it, puts Giorgio Agamben anytime by a crime.30 The anybody without committing attacking Th?oden, King of is just one example: Rohan and close ally of Gondor, "On they rode, the and champions fell or fled before king and his companions. Captains ore nor man withstood them. Neither them. Their backs were to the swords and spears of the Riders, and their faces to the valleys" (528).
The enemy tries to escape, but is surrounded. It is a true battle of
234
NEW
LITERARY
HISTORY
as in the fighting in Russia in the 1940s.31 The great army encirclement, of Isengard is facing "their final doom" (528). They all die and vanish "like a black smoke" (529). It is quite hard not to think of the dreadful behind the "subhumans" smoking "heaps of carrion" of executed
Wehrmacht's Eastern front. However, text and film achieve a true
miracle
whose
in that the fascinated

bodies were burnt. The
audience
other must
does
be
not feel any pity for those

"rooted out" or at least be
war will not end till the death of the last "expelled."32 This biopolitical Ore or until the flight of the last Elf to the continent of their cousins in in Middle-earth in the the far west. Victory Nazis' battle for middle (as means of and the the total victory in a Aryan race) always purity Europe a Nazg?l, of Angmar, tries to total warfare. The powerful Witch-king sea. all and into the As he loses the Dun?dain the Elves battle, "sweep" not one of his Ores remains alive in the wide North (1026).
III.
Inferior
Blood
and
Natural-Born
Barbarism
in the Elder "The Ores were first bred by the Dark Power of the North no their is had of but took what It said that own, they language Days. to it their of and other could tongues perverted liking; yet they they
made only brutal jargons, scarcely sufficient even for their own needs,
unless it were for curses and abuse" (1105). The Ore is the "other." The race of the Ores is frightfully different by F of The Lord of the origin, language, habits, and looks. In Appendix on races we are briefed the different of Middle-earth, Rings, particularly as are counted Ores.33 "creatures, being filled with including They
malice," appearance, and as but a natural "foul race." backed All this by is evident is nevertheless academic enough observations. in their The
is a studied philologist, like Oxford's famous narrator, obviously the of the name" Ore is back "form tracing through professor Tolkien, the history of languages to the root "snaga," which means "slave" (1105). The Ore is a slave. This chain of logic seems to reecho the Nazi lore that who
the term "Slawe" (Slav) for the Eastern races means "slave," thus
them of those Eastern and making the inferiority indicating Like Indians and labor or extermination.34 suitable only for forced the Ores do not possess any of their literature, "Negroes" in Western own cultivated modes of designating themselves. They are coerced into as to thus the differences between themselves Ores, solidifying referring superior and inferior races in terms of culture and barbarity. As Edward Said has shown in his intriguing readings of Kipling's Kim, the Indians in to use British language, and hierar this novel are obliged stereotypes, chic distinctions to describe themselves. The "other" in this imperialistic
races
GEO-
AND
BIOPOLITICS
OF MIDDLE-EARTH
235
power,
In
novel
differences Tolkien's
is a construction
between novels, not a
of
"them" single
the colonizing
and scene "us."35 is shot
thus confirming
adaptation perspective of
the
of an
Jackson's from the
Ore. Rohan
see
They
attacks of lack a point of view. We do not see the dreadful or from the of the "other." We just Elf-snipers standpoint cavalry
teeming, crawling, and perishing?none as an individual.
Ore-packs
As
ments.
Deleuze
and
are
Guattari
have
swarming
They
"pack" implicates
"outsiders,"
out, pointed the abnormality and otherness

they are "pests,"36 they are
the
construction of
of its ele
"vermin";37
of Mordor" observes, indeed, (687). they are "the maggot-folk camera of underlines the otherness of the Ores direction the Thus, the The Ores have no point of view and justifies their fate of extermination. as no have in the novel. in the movie language they trilogy just the In describing the otherness of the novel refers to an old Ores, discourse of developmental biol well-established (eighteenth-century), as Tolkien and perversion ogy that cultivates the belief that depravation originated the differently the "other" means colored species of mankind. Becoming This assumption starting point, be that degenerating. implies a common the white couple Adam and Eve or the white Aryan race. The Ore, in
Tolkien's cosmos, shares his roots with Men and Elves. They have "stock"
in common and perverted self and so (1005). The foe is our depraved must be eliminated inside the collective of and inside society body to prevent degeneration.38 On the other hand, Tolkien puts individuals his degeneration theory in the frame of modern Darwinian evolutionary a procedure terms of breeding, not limited to Nazis.39 that in is, biology,
The tured. descent The of species the Ore came is unnatural into being by and artificial. They were manufac crossbreed genetic experiments,
ing, and dark magic. Morgoth, them using men produced

"stock." and, Ores typical are for the outcome a modern
the evil force in the first age of the world, of different tribes and elves as genetic
of engineered of genetics, processes of of depravation? What improvement.40
discourse
to their genetic ancestors in comparison is humanity and they or the narrator's weakness, hesitation, (from individuality perspective) and disloyalty of the Dark Lord). Their deprava (from the perspective tion is, from another their in strength and standpoint, improvement as the heroic, Ernst J?nger would them obedience. certainly judge lack and postindividual collective, disciplined, "type of the worker."41 It is a a wrote at of of Tolkien time in which every military view. question point as of troops with perfect obedience, commander dreamed functioning "weak-willed bodies" or "zombies," as Paul Virilio calls them,42 that could to their will to perform be commanded by their masters according
everything, including senseless death in storm attacks under machine
236
gun fire.43 Ores are such troops, suited
NEW
LITERARY
HISTORY
perfectly
for
any
battle
of
annihilation.
IV. Receptions: In his

geopolitical
Discovering and Space, Fredric

That
the
"Other" deals
of the
study finds
"In the
of Cinema its resources

absence of
Jameson
with
cinema,
"a
unconsciousness."44
unconsciousness
he claims,
century.
in the racist
general categories
semantics
under
of the nineteenth
which to subsume
such particulars, the lapse back international system is inevitable

national stereotypes which, inevitably
into features and

racist whether
of
convenient and
the pre-World War I (it includes all the

positive or negative,
organize Other)."45 the Rings
collective possibility viewing confronting structure the latent The of Lord of However, geopolitical deep as well. The in post-World I discourses War is embedded for his mobilization of the film easily provides of reception proof The Internet publication "The Seat of Kings" concepts. geopolitical context refers to the world-political of the novel: "1939?Germany are of terror against the invades Poland. The Nazis waging a campaign Jews. Britain declares war and J. R. R. Tolkien has begun a manuscript, he now
the second
our
of
the
which
and
titles
Ring
'The Lord
War begin
of the Rings.'"46 The

in the same historical
Second World War

moment. Sauron
thus be Hitler, collecting his powers in 1939 in order to plunge would the free world into the dark and to enslave it eternally. The Web site Lord of the Rings during continues: "When Tolkien was writing the was serving in Europe Second World War, his own son, Christopher, fighting
and be
the ultimate
and to Hitler's
evil." Sauron
Saruman's mass review meetings.
and Saruman
of his The Ore Ores
go together
army are near
like Hitler
can but
Mussolini, compared
Orthanc
the Germans,
others may think of other comparisons. "At the sight of the evil Ores with their dark skin and their face it is hard not to think of the Aborigines," paintings Stephen Shapiro in the German magazine Der Spiegel. Shapiro asserts that the declares in New Zealand, had director of The Lord of theRings, which was filmed between white English and dark-skinned local ethnic differences in a "racist way."47 For example, dark skinned and small also and Such cultural codes of the body dangerous. implies primitive, sly, and ethnology into biopolitics.48 are, in fact, transferring anthropology on the film However view correct" may be, it reveals Shapiro's "politically used natives
the same nationalistic narrow-mindedness that it criticizes, because not
all cultures will

contrary, in the
"think of the Aborigines"

Russian federation, for
when
example,
seeing
one
the Ores.
considers
To
the
the
GEO-
AND
BIOPOLITICS
OF MIDDLE-EARTH
237
be a typically Western allegory writes, "Tolkien's transparent of the Rings an unsurpassed the latest postcolonial studies, of civilizations" in everywhere
viewed from an Anglo-Saxon to
to armies of the Ores and their alliances of the danger from the East. Igor Djadan his Lord allusions made 'anti-oriental' textbook of xenophobia."49 Inspired by a "clash Djadan's readings find signs of
Tolkien's epos and Jackson's films, which,
perspective,
world conquer
tell the story of a battle

retarded Dydan barbarian notes:
of an advanced,
masses of the East,
civilized Western
ever hungry
the against the world.
On diffidence owned
the other
hand,
in his Lord and their
of the Rings profound This not
Tolkien fear fear of
of westerners by their eastern
shared nicely the defence with the
the wretched technologies
haughtiness when he motors to that
neighbours. of a European who does Tolkien describes is beaten. However, explosions. of civilization yet, and prosperous
and level
impertinent even of superiority feeling as a race machines, goblins delighted by not mature to rise he says, they were enough and instead hated without everyone simply lose his people in particular.
is mixed
exception,
honest
One
could
of
add
the
that Tolkien's
Russians
Ores
are a reference
material
to the German
.50 The
stereotype
as mere
(Menschenmaterial)
on this anti-Slavic is founded "feeling of superiority," Djadan observes, even because the considered downfallen itself stereotype, Germany beaten only through the sheer numerical vast of the predominance
Soviet army.51
of The Lord of theRings ismeeting enthusias Thus, the film adaptation all over the world who find in the battles for Middle tic interpreters earth a picture of past and current political conflicts. These very
heterogeneous readings conspicuously agree on the idea that ethnic
differences
shows the more
shape political
about It is a state our of current affairs
conflicts.
situation that may
This
be
unintended
than seen about in terms
global
Tolkien's of fatal
consensus
The Lord and of
Rings.
geo-
the Ores Whether New Zealand's natives represent biopolitics. are or Russian inferior the whether Elves "material," English
Numenors Americans observe or or Germans, our world Dydan's these categorizations area orders,"52 again notorious interpretations in a war of reference agree races, to that and Huntington
or the
such
"main
"orbits."53
is a prime claim of the last Elves and indicator.54 The universal as standing for everything good and right in the whole world N?menors has been interpreted in Putin's Russia as an allegory of the hegemonic of the West. "We cannot help concluding that Djadan: aspirations
freedom and democracy are interpreted by the West not as an unshak
able principle,
but rather
as one
of the instruments
of establishing
its
238
own supremacy."55 I want to put aside all these
NEW
LITERARY
HISTORY
astonishing
but
contin
to and their political in order gent allegorical updates implications as cosmos to the far Tolkien's itself how pursue again promotes question geo- and biopolitical concepts. In exploiting beautiful of Liv Tyler, the film misleads the pictures not in Tolkien's it is novel Arwen who the river spectator: conjures up Bruinen
scene,
in order
and safe.
to ward
Rather,
off the Nazg?l.

it is the
She
is very far away from

half-unconscious
the
little
wounded,
Hobbit, Frodo, who flees from the Black Riders all alone in the ford. "Go and follow me no more!" he shouts with a back to the Land of Mordor, "His voice. enemies thin, powerless laughed at him with a harsh and a powerful The leader of the sorcerer, rides laughter." chilling Nazg?l, into the ford and raises his hand. "Frodo was stricken dumb. He felt his and his heart labouring. His sword broke tongue cleave to his mouth, and fell out of his shaking hand." Soon the Nazg?l captain will take the and from the almost Hobbit?but instead, the ring paralyzed frightened
river, like a "cavalry of waves," terrifies the horses and the horsemen of
the enemy and drags them away (208). "The river," Gandalf reports, the Black Riders, "friends and enemies," "overwhelmed" discerning friend and the foes only.56 Whoever between distinguishes drowning enemy in this way acts in the field of the political and is thus a party to
war.57 This is the very perspective Tolkien's novel offers. Bruinen is an
"and it will rise in anger when he has great need to bar ally of Elrond's, the ford. As soon as the captain of the Ringwraiths rode into the water are nomos was the flood released" allies inMiddle-earth's (209). Bios and between the film and the novel makes it total warfare. The difference
very clear what I wish to show. "There are few even in Rivendell that can
ride openly against the Nine" indeed: (205). Very of the Lord of the Elves cannot stop the Nazg?l, war heroes Glorfindel and Aragorn (217), nor, surely, can experienced can repel the Nine is a force at Mr. Frodo Baggins of Bag End. What daughter once natural and political: the river. "The rivers long defended us," an that rivers as such would have Elf explains (339). This does not mean been hard to cross for Ore armies or Nazg?l. There are fords, and one can build bridges. "The rivers as boundaries of peoples are only effective under certain "barrier conditions," explains function" will work well
the case take of of sides a river the for the is not
true
the beautiful nor can the
Ratzel. If the organism as "political boundary"

rivers of whose the Elves' organism an accidental
is strong, the of a social

empire, the are. is
In organism.58 themselves rivers The intervention
border
periphery they event. Middle-earth
several of these active bio- and geopolitical boundaries. equipped cross the "Old Forest" At the beginning of their voyage the four Hobbits that borders on the Hobbits' province, Buckland. The trees of this forest with
GEO-
AND
BIOPOLITICS
OF MIDDLE-EARTH
239
actually move, and can surround
do
not
like
strangers.
"[T]he
trees
the Hedge" strangers and hem them in. In fact long ago they attacked themselves right by (the border of the Shire). "[T]hey came and planted it, and leant over it" (108). A battle for space thus began. The boundary was approaching, to use Ratzel's (ME 34). In his view, a language is always part of a "living body" (that is, "peoples and "natural boundary" (ME 33). Only with axes and fire states"), and it changes accordingly their could the Hobbits colony on this side of the river keep up the "Old Forest" ensures that every crossing of Branduin. Accordingly, for Hobbits. The fellows who loiter in is extremely dangerous the Hedge
the forest Saruman's escape barely of armies their Ores extermination. and Wargs have to suffer as well from a
truly hostile nature. They have been driven by political near Helm's Deep, a forest that has Rohan's spooky forest a over the in marched up night. "Wailing they passed under valley none ever came that of the from shadow and shadow trees; waiting come in order to take revenge again" (529). The forest of Fangorn has for the abuse of axes and fire by the Ores and Uruk-Hai. All fighters of and these evil races are exterminated completely, whilst Elves, Hobbits, and therefore troops into a the lines of ethnic their allies have safe travel through the forest. Along friends and en between differences the forest Fangorn distinguishes emies.59 "It isOres that they hate," explains Leg?las to the worried Gimli on their way through the extremely vivid forest (534). of geopolitical Another classical boundary thinking reveals itself as a as the attempt of the Fellowship to cross the mountains fails combatant:
in horrible Cruel" snowstorms is made responsible and avalanches, for it (282).60 the mountain "It was no "Caraduras ordinary the storm,"
avers Gimli, "it is the ill will of Caradhras. He does not love Elves and there is only one pass that leads from Dwarves" (285). Unfortunately
Imladris over the mountains. This explains Caradhras's rank in the
"In the lack of passes lies the rise of one single pass to world to the south the their voyage (ME 53). On significance" cross Eregion, the old empire of the Elves. Although they are this place to be secure: "I and probably chased, they believe observed think we will rest here," says Gandalf, "not only today but tonight as well. a There is wholesome air about Hollin. Much evil must befall a country narrative: historical comrades itwholly forgets the Elves, if once they dwelt there." The stones of themselves Eregion speak to Leg?las: "Deep they delved us, fair they build but us, us; high they they are gone" (276). wrought in such a deep and sustainable That space has been "territorialized" before way
Realm
that the very soil remembers

vanished, and the air
the rule of the Elves

there as
long after could
their call it
is as wholesome
it is foul
in Mordor.
In analogy
to Ratzel's
anthropogeography,
geopoliticians
240
NEW
LITERARY
HISTORY
if a living culture of a landscape ( bios) takes possession "biogeography" in such a way that space and culture form a symbiosis.61 Frodo and Sam like this in the lost province Ithilien, whose something experience are nomos. and still fauna Gondor's In Schmitt's figure, flora, inspired by
connection of "life" and "space" to the concept of "living space"
are fused with each other.62 In and geopolitics (Lebensraum), biopolitics states Karl Haushofer's notorious Magazine for Geopolitics, Kurt Vowinckel in the 1939 volume four the of invasion Poland) (published days before
that "race and space form a permanent living community."63 In an
intense
genuine
bio-
and
geopolitical
living space,"
interaction
in Schmitt's
of
people
sense of
and
the
nature,
term, would
"German
the face of the into being.64 On the one hand it "has formed on a it is colonized in German and the other hand sense," by landscape comes as a a "people's in its into which only being body," unity this space. The interaction with space was formed by the German were were the Germans formed the soil and they by colonizing.65 people, of political which could be traced This classical doctrine geography, the relationships of of history, determines back to Hegel's philosophy race in The of this the entire novel.66 and consequences space political are identical in the narration and German The doctrine geopolitics. eastern southern formed the and boundaries, "living space" beyond come
once by German settlers, is, of course, part of the Greater German
empire,
live
although
But
as a result of the Versailles

the territory "remembers"
treaty other
the Germans
(Slavic) people
as Hollin
there.67
remembers
is the same:
the Elves and Ithilien

the "other" should be
the Numenor.
removed from
The
German
agenda
and
suggested
Gondorian
the clods of soil. Geopoliticians have claimed all these territories beyond as as a of the the of borders Reich, living part just Germany legal to the furthest Stewards of Minas Tirith dispose of "the realm of Gondor since they could it has been centuries of its ancient bounds," although
secure their or even see in these contrast boundaries. to the However, "others" the dwelling land seems now. to wait So, for the return, there
of the old claims of the conquerors "living space" itself legitimizes of the events to come, the nature of Ithilien Gondor. In anticipation statue with flowers of herself adorns the ruins of a very old Gondorian silver and gold: "Look! The king has got his crown again," Sam exclaims, and Frodo comments: "They cannot conquer forever!" (866). The land, marked by "the great stone kings of old," waits for the return of its true Ithilien king. Conquered Gondor once territorialized
very same way, German
remains Gondorian its land and nature,

never
because shaping as
the Kings of its nomos. In the

the "lost"
geopoliticians
stopped
counting
provinces
Reich.
like Pomerania,
Silesia,
or Alsace
integral
parts
of
the
GEO-
AND
BIOPOLITICS
OF MIDDLE-EARTH
241 in Middle-earth
VI. Main Area Orders
to a permanent total warfare offered within this field Is any alternative The empires are closed to each other. "Between Lorien of geopolitics? and Fangorn there were no visible borders, but neither the Ents nor the ever crossed them."68 Gimli is the first Dwarf to enter Lorien Galadrhim in ages, an event which is expressly called a singular exception. In 1940, area "main order Schmitt called this model of separation the with a ban
of intervention for external powers."69 This is his only alternative to a
worldwide well. Any

Monroe
and it is Tolkien's total warfare of extermination, option as are from the inferences alien ("raumfremd") banned; powers
Doctrine sets the example for a gated "regionalism."70 In his
of noninterven this principle and area, that is, the Americas of abstinence.71 While he refers to culture, the doctrine thus Europe, the geopolitical borders of the different orders and powers, motivating Schmitt defines his greater region as an ethnically homogenous empire
("Reich").72 Germany's main area order, Schmitt insists, has to keep out
Clash of Civilizations, Huntington baptized tion in conflicts outside theWestern main
und unv?lkische ("raumfremde every external power of foreign origin M?chte"). A world order in this view is an order of ethnic separation.73 cosmos of the novel, although even little In Tolkien's in not the movies, Hobbits think in these terms. The self-evidently mean and ugly Sauthrons, which have come to the Shire in the course of the new tobacco and wine comrades: "This isn't your trading, are expelled by the homecoming
country, and you're not wanted," says farmer Cotton in the name of the
out?or are die! The racially inferior men (987). Foreigners people are the exterminated Hobbits that half their size. slew himself by "Merry the leader, a grey squint-eyed brute like a huge ore" (992). Thus the an ethnically Shire becomes homogenous gated community again. not like the fascist beadle, do the good-natured beer Although they drinkers do not favor at all a melting-pot to "The Shire the society. Hobbits" could be their slogan, judging by their behavior.74 Bios and nomos are central concepts in the whole Lord of theRings, not text when the deals with the construction of the other, but also in only the sketching of the self. In Tolkien's novels, purity of race is always a sure sign of superiority of knowledge, and strength. Thus, for wisdom, instance, the prince Imrahil of Dol Amroth out, by the sea is pointed "for he and his knights still held themselves like lords in whom the race
of Numenor ran true." His race "was of high blood." In contrast, the
that Gondor mobilizes in order to defend their capital Minas peoples as "reckoned men of Gondor, Tirith are described yet their blood was Gondor's the novels, is decline, (806). mingled" deplored throughout to back the of the led blood with "inferior" human always mingling
242
NEW
LITERARY
HISTORY
means beings. Mingling weakening.75 A "short and swarthy folk" is the result of the blood mingling among the races (806). Thus, to reproduce oneself outside the nation's bloodlines must be considered high treason, law on the "purity of the German blood" just like the Nazi people's states. Gondor's hero Aragorn is descended from Elendil, who had three thousand founded the empire in "a long line years before,
unbroken." Endogenous procreation should prevent degeneration,
and diminishing.76 should not marry down and deterioration, Aragorn waste this genetic heritage. "Tall as the sea-kings of old, he stood above all that were near; ancient of days he seemed and yet in the flower of sat upon his brow, and strength and healing were and wisdom manhood; in his hands, and a light was about him" (947). That this masterful to intermingle superior human being resists all temptations, including with a pretty girl of a minor "For is he not race, is explained by Leg?las: of the children of L?thien? Never shall that line fail, though the years may lengthen beyond count" (858). After the last battle has been decided, the king distributes the land in the east, south, and west (947). The question of who will rule Middle As for the others, "[a]s when death smites the swollen that inhabits their crawling hill and holds them all in brooding thing ants and purposeless and then feeble die, so the wander will witless sway, earth
creatures thither of mindless; Sauron, and ore some or troll slew or beast themselves, ran spell-enslaved, or cast themselves hither in pits, and or
is decided.
fled wailing back to hide in holes and dark lightless places far from or expelled from (928). Thus, at last, the other is exterminated hope"
the realm of Gondor, and peace can follow at last?as a consequence of
still be hiding in a hole total warfare. What creature or beast ever might or a pit will be hunted down. Middle-earth will be cleansed of the total will not let any new peril inside the realm's foe, and the boundaries now that it is healthy, strong, and pure once more. political body again Gondor's guarded Dr?adan man enter is a peace of strictly separated peace borders. The victorious king Aragorn "for ever" to his new inhabitants, adding, media greater regions with the gives region of "and hereafter let no
it without their leave" (954). are "mapping" and guiding our ways of "viewing and Popular the collective Other," as Jameson puts it (3). One has to confronting one account if notices that The Lord into take this of theRings is the most success lie in the book and in popular book in Germany. Causes for this a case I would of German audience like to its readers. In the specific state that a complete discourse has survived the Reich's geopolitical
"downfall" in the genres of the popular. And the tremendous success of
Tolkien's
books
and Jackson's question
the very disturbing
in Germany suggests adaptations of whether of race and space this discourse movie
GEO-
AND
BIOPOLITICS
OF MIDDLE-EARTH
243
is
shaping
our
"geopolitical
unconsciousness"
again,
making
us wonder
what
new
"applications"
will follow. Ruhr NOTES University Bochum
1 on
"Borders
are
Politische
Geographie,
peripheral 3rd ed.
organs
of a state Oldenbourg, to declare
and
political geography or less or "grow," like a more The "move on," "extend," "shorten," healthy organism. as lines is absolutely to the contrary. If a of borders and mathematical concept judicial is both conflict. The and its extends concepts grows metaphor periphery, society "healthy" Translations from because it naturalizes for political aggression. propaganda perfect German help. Karl 2 are my own. I would like to thank Fabian Lettow and Kristin Niendorf for their
(Munich: allows Ratzel
in Ratzel, nation," argues Friedrich 1923), 435. The biological perspective could it as quite natural that a border
Im R?ume Schl?gel, 12. 2003), (Munich: Hanser, 3 Im R?ume, 471. Schl?gel, Cf. Rudolf 2000) Stichweh, ;Helmut
lesen mir die Zeit: ?ber
Zivilisationsgeschichte
und
Geopolitik
Suhrkamp, Main: Suhrkamp, Bolz, Weltkommunikation 2001); and Norbert (Munich: Fink, 2001). from the 1930s and '40s, which 5 All the best-selling novels of Hans Dominik employ Nazi
am Main: Die Weltgesellschaft: (Frankfurt Soziologische Analysen am zur Studien Willke, (Frankfurt Atopia: utopischen Gesellschaft
were after the war without and biopolitical reedited semantics, any geopolitical science fiction or fantasy. This is only one example; because they are considered problem, the "Perry Rhodan" saga is another. The Geopolitical Aesthetic: Cinema and Space in the World System 6 Fredric Jameson, British Film Institute, 1992), 3. (London: 7 This was not unfamiliar Rammer at all to contemporary Reinhard Zeilinger, '40s. Cf. Christian British thinking ed., Geopolitik, vol. the 1930s and during 14 (Vienna: Promedia,
2001). Cf. Giorgio Agamben, Homo Sacer: Die souver?ne Macht und das nackte Leben (Frankfurt 8 am am Main: See also Agamben, Was von Auschwitz bleibt (Frankfurt 2002). Suhrkamp, Main: 2003). Suhrkamp, mit Interventionsverbot Carl Schmitt, V?lkerrechtliche Gro?traumordnung leading biologists. und Humblot, (Berlin: Duncker 1991), 80-81. f?r raumfremde M?chte 10 For a short tour of Tolkien's visit http://www.lordotrings.com/noflash/tourtot/ creation, see http:// and plants, list of all races, places, animals, tourtot.asp. For a systematic com /arda/ www.glyphweb. 11 Cf. Gertraud in ihren Beziehungen 'Volk und Rasse Haase-Bessell, zueinander," Z?tschriftf?r 12 To use no. 8-9 (1939): 657-74. Geopolitik 16, the terms of Nazi biopolitics. Cf. Haase-Bessell, "Volk und Rasse," The Lord of the Rings 13 John Ronald Reul Tolkien, (London: HarperCollins, cited in text). 532 (hereafter 14 To clean the Realm "Battle of Rohan from any living Ore is a mission for Middle-earth." Goebbels used this dictum that no return "no pardon" meant of the Ores will ever An 336. enemy the speeches. Within taken as POW; every out of Lorien," the Elf Haldir says foe will be take measures accordingly. in their war 661. 1995), 529, in the 9 Carl Schmitt is quoting
objective
game computer 15 Wilhelm II and Joseph context of their discourse, "None fiend will be killed. as he
battle tactics. explains The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien,
knowing
that will
244
NEW
LITERARY
HISTORY
16
Cf. Hans
Kelsen, war, whole
Peace Kelsen
through Law proposes
mankind treaties.
from His But
supposes argument that was the very case inWorld War II. Discriminating the other as "pest," humanity. even beyond Schmitt his killing the laws and writes, necessary, by any means justifies a disastrous tantum conventions of war. Thus, the dictum licet in bello justo unfolds consequence, enemy, who if the attacker therefore pest 299. doesn't believes count as in his attack and as a bellum therefore iustum equal Cf. Schmitt, could der Erde an against unjust be easily be excluded und (Berlin: Duncker
Garland, (New York and London: 1973). To keep a contracts order of and international complex or that no foe is ever excluded from mankind
from mankind?as
or carrion.
Der Nomos
Humblot, 1997), 17 Cf. Agamben, Homo Sacer. 18 Schmitt, Der Begriff des Politischen und Humblot, (Berlin: Duncker 1991), 55. not 19 And social or religious hired "soldiers of fortune," communities, warriors, or terrorists. A History mafia militia, Cf. John Keegan, warlords, (London: of Warfare Die neuen Kriege (Reinbeck: M?nckler, Pimlico, Rowohlt, 1994); and Herfried 2004). was slaughtered the realm of the European ius gentium, the non-European and 20 Beyond and powers each other as treated at the captors' will. Only European sovereigns respected stuck to certain duel-like rules and codes in warfare. Cf. Schmitt, Der equals, and therefore Nomos der Erde. Der Krieg: Geschichte Herberg-Rothe, 228-33. 2003), Campus, 55. 22 Schmitt, Der Begriff des Politischen, zum diskriminierenden Die Wendung 23 Cf. Schmitt, 21 Cf. Andreas und Gegenwart (Frankfurt am Main:
Humblot,
und (Berlin: Duncker Kriegsbegriff 1989). Das Silmarrilion 24 Tolkien, 1983), 260-61. (Stuttgart: Klett-Cotta, 25 "Alles, was Leben hat, nahm an jenem Tage Partei, und von jeder Art, selbst von den fanden sich manche auf beiden Tieren und V?geln, Seiten, die Eiben allein ausgenommen" 322). (Tolkien, Das Silmarrilion, zur "Die totale Mobilmachung," S?mtliche Werke: Essay I: Betrachtungen 26 Cf. Ernst J?nger, but industries, Zeit, vol. 7 (Stuttgart: Klett-Cotta, 1980), 125-26. Not only armies or defense is for total warfare mobilized (128). every recourse, every "atom" of the political body, "Das neue Vae Neutris!," Positionen und Begriffe im Kampf mit Weimar 27 Cf. Carl Schmitt, und Duncker Humblot, (Berlin: 1988). Genf-Versailles 28 In German, troops carrion could in World War be translated II blind
German
obedience was
as "Kadaver." Agamben recommended. So, the Nazi von Auschwitz as vermin"
points The
out term
that from is called saw their
"Kadavergehorsam": troops as living dead, Ernst J?nger observed war.
of carrion." "obedience literally, or "carrion." See Was Agamben, that the inferior one
leadership bleibt, 68-69. as a result
"Der Friede," S?mtliche See J?nger, 199. 1980), (Stuttgart: Klett-Cotta, ". . . bis zur Vernichtung allen lebensunwerten 29 Partisanen und Humblot, 1992), 95. (Berlin: Duncker 30 Agamben, "normal" and Homo Sacer, 81. In total warfare,
is "destroyed Werke: Essay
In 1944, of the total vol. 7 des
I: Betrachtungen Carl
zur Zeit,
Lebens."
Schmitt, state
Theorie becomes
Agamben's
exceptional
31 32 485.
trans. HansJ. Sch?tz 1983), (Stuttgart: Klett-Cotta, or expelled were the Dunlanders and Aldor were kings, eradicated Brego from the realm. They get exterminated, and their living space is looted and plundered by as a 'retaliatory measure'" term is significant. As Kelsen Rohan Riders shows, (487). This "When measures "What of total warfare would be are as considered otherwise a violation reprisal." of and legal if they are opportune international law, is, according Peace through Law, 107. Kelsen, "retaliatory." to the same
lasting. Cf. J?nger, "Der Friede," 199. aus Mittelerde, Nachrichten Tolkien,
international
law, permitted
GEO-
AND
BIOPOLITICS
OF MIDDLE-EARTH
245
33
doubted."
than beasts." That "Sauron bred them none Trolls, who had "no more language but harder than stone" Trolls were "a fell race, strong, agile, fierce and cunning, as a complementary race to The Lord of theRings, 1106). They may be understood (Tolkien, as Ores are to Uruk-Hais and Men are to Elves. the Dwarfs, Also Cf.
Best
Dr. jur. Werner the tractate on "Gro?raumordnungfrom" from SS-Brigadef?hrer in Festgabe f?r Heinrich Himmler (Darmstadt: Wittich, 1941). Every "inferior Slavic race" east of Great Germany and future SS politics, will cease to exist, as a result of ongoing the to the way Nazi uses the term "easterling" officials Tolkien jurist explains. similarly 34 referred 35 36 37 38 to "ostische Said, Deleuze Rassen." Culture Edward W. Cf. Gilles and Imperialism 182. (London: Vintage, 178-79, 1994), and F?lix Guattari, Tausend Plateaus (Berlin: Merve, 1997), 334. 199. "Der Friede,"
J?nger, von Uexk?ll In 1920, the biologist his "Biology of the State." In a published Jakob on to of the body of the state/people he discusses measures chapter "parasitic diseases" races and to avert outside of foreign inner parasites A (intruders). dangers extinguish
weak
or state easily would be conquered from and enemies by its inner parasites destroyed to Uexk?ll nation pleads for a strict border regime of an ethnically homogeneous those diseases. This argumentation of the other. the extermination See prevent implies outside. 1933). Uexk?ll's Ernst Forsthoff s
Jakob
von Uexk?ll, Staatsbiologie (Hamburg: Hanseatische Verlagsanstalt, house also edited of the Political" Schmitt's and publishing "Concept book The Total State. 39 Cf. Aldous Death "German 257-71. 40 a Tolkien, Nachrichten aus Mittelerde, 501. of selection in a Darwinian In J?nger's view sense. Cf. J?nger, total warfare Brave New World (London: Huxley, Star in Orbit," Soziale Systeme, Heft
1994); and Niels Werber, Penguin, Se Lucius, 2 (Stuttgart: Lucius 2003): is understood as
global 130.
process
"Die totale Mobilmachung," 1982). type of soldier, See J?nger, Der
Ernst J?nger, Der Arbeiter: Herrschaft und Gestalt (Stuttgart: Klett-Cotta, Paul Virilio, und Politik (Berlin: Merve, 1980), 94. Geschwindigkeit 43 The machine states, calls for another gun, war hero and author J?nger who is not the bourgeois but an obedient warrior of total wars. individual, Arbeiter, 109 and following pages. 42 44 45 Jameson,
41
The Geopolitical Aesthetic, 3. The Geopolitical Aesthetic, 3 (my italics). Jameson, 46 Rachel Lee, "The Seat of Kings," http://www.seatofkings.net/ (accessed April 24, 2005). 47 im Herrn "Rassismus der Ringe," Der Spiegel 52 (2002). Stephen Shapiro, am Main: 48 Cf. Martin ed., Biopolitik und Rassismus (Frankfurt Stingelin, Suhrkamp, 2003). 49 "The Cult of Good," Russian 26, 2002), (March Igor Djadan, Journal http:// (accessed April 24, 2005). english.russ.ru/politics/20020326.html 50 Cf. Ludwig Dehio, oder Hegemonie: ?ber ein Grundproblem Gleichgewicht Betrachtungen neueren (Krefeld: Scherpe, 1948). Staatengeschichte 51 For examples see Dehio, of this anti-Slavic discourse oder Hegemonie. Gleichgewicht V?lkerrechtliche Gro?raumordnung, and Hauke 52 Cf. Schmitt, "The Right Brunkhorst, War: 53 Hegemonial 532-26. Cf. Walter Geopolitics Lippmann, or Civic U.S. Foreign Constitutionalism?" Constellations 11, no. der
to
4 (2004): Edition,
Policy
and U.S. War Aims
(USA Overseas
1943-44). 54 Samuel York:
Simon
thinking. Geopolitik:
P. Huntington and the Remaking (The Clash of Civilizations of World Order [New as a key authority and Schuster, in Russian 1996]) figures geopolitical See also Dirk Kretzschmar and Niels Werber, "Zwischen Globalisierung und der Weltgesellschaft durch die politische Semantik Regionale Beobachtungen
246
NEW
LITERARY
HISTORY
am Heft
der USA und Russlands," in Soziale Systeme: Zeitschrift f?r Beispiel 1 (Stuttgart: Lucius & Lucius, 190-204. 2001):
soziologische
Theorie,
55 "The Cult of Good," Russian fournal (March 26, 2002), http://english.russ.ru/ Igor Djadan, (accessed April 24, 2005). politicsZ20020326.html 56 Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings, 209, 218; 405. Anduin is named "the River of Gondor," who "that no evil creature "will take care" of dead Boromir dishonours his bones." This river as well 57 58 Schmitt, "distinction can discern friends from foes. 26: The "genuine political differentiation" is the Der Begriff des Politischen, friend and foe." between
und Erde, 44 (hereafter cited in text as ME). Ratzel, Mensch Cf. chapters in Ratzel, Politische Geographie. Ratzel understands 17-19 on borders, the border of a state as an organ that regulates the cross-border exchange, letting some people 59 60 a in and and goods In Russia and and rest. the unwanted repelling in Germany it is an assumption winter beat the German is to select and to protect. shared that the vast Russian space widely Wehrmacht. Schmitt calls this support that Its function
the cold Russian
faction receives from the native soil "tellurian." Cf. Schmitt, Theorie des belligerent 28 and following Partisanen, pages. 61 Ratzel, Anthropogeographie: 2 B?nde 1882-91). (Stuttgart: Engelhorn, V?lkerrechtliche Gro?raumordnung, 79-80. 62 Schmitt, deutscher Geopolitik: Festschrift zum 70. Geburtstag von 63 Kurt Vowinckel, ed., Fernwirkungen Karl Haushofer, vol. 8-9 (Heidelberg: 1939). Verlag, to assist his concept Schmitt is quoting 64 very advanced biologists 80-81. V?lkerrechtliche Gro?raumordnung, space. Cf. Schmitt, biopolitical 65 66 and Schmitt, Der Nomos Cf. Uexk?ll, Staatsbiologie, Amerika "'Der Gott der Materie': Cf. Niels Werber, der Erde. als Phantasma deutscher Autoren," Vergleichende of a geoand
Komparatistik:
der Deutschen und fahrbuch Gesellschaft f?r Allgemeine 115 and following (2002-2003): pages. Literaturwissenschaft deutscher Geopolitik, 638 and following 67 Vowinckel, pages. Fernwirkungen aus Mittelerde, 68 Tolkien, Nachrichten 348. 69 V?lkerrechtliche Gro?raumordnung, 63. Schmitt, 70 71
Cf. Lippmann, U.S. Foreign Policy and U.S. War Aims, 239. P. Huntington, Samuel Kampf der Kulturen: Die Neugestaltung Siedler bei Goldmann, 1998), 522; see note (Munich: fahrhundert V?lkerrechtliche Gro?raumordnung, 82. 72 Schmitt, 73 74 75 76 V?lkerrechtliche Gro?raumordnung, 62-63. Schmitt, deutscher Geopolitik, 688. Cf. Vowinckel, Fernwirkungen in ihren Beziehungen 'Volk und Rasse Haase-Bessell, Uexk?ll in his Uexk?ll, Biology of the State warns 75. the German Staatsbiologie,
der Weltpolitik im 21. 53 for English edition.
661. zueinander," nation against
any mixed
marriages.

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Geo- and Biopolitics of Middle-Earth: A German Reading of Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings" Author(s): Niels Werber Source:

Geo- and Biopolitics A German Reading

The Lord of theRings

from The Downfall,

the end of the Third

with the differences and Hobbits, Ores

between certain and Southrons,

hate insurmountable of consequence political

opposing DNA sequences. able political differences

result of this relationship

is that the literal ground

landscapes, and the birds

its "natural" role in the conflict

the free, noble

organism tive.1 Thus,

terms and so were

rules into fiction.

very same differentia

II. Annihilating the "Other": Absolute Foe and Total Warfare

consequence races, land,

colonization, and seas

em through become political

itself takes part

novels.9 All his

in The Two Towers, the second

part of the movie

engineer, genetic race Ore of

of carrion were said Gandalf."13

part of the movie

trilogy The Lord of theRings,

sees the vast

In The Lord of the Rings,

die at the same rates at which

same in the novels

and they are in the very same way

punishment crime in any

never foe could innate for the

"peace" just a temporary

the races of the West,

sides and became

and his example

and all parties.

is "carrion."28 against wounded neither could

in that the fascinated

not feel any pity for those

Jackson's from the

out, pointed the abnormality and otherness

ing, and dark magic. Morgoth, them using men produced

IV. Receptions: In his

Discovering and Space, Fredric

of Cinema its resources

such particulars, the lapse back international system is inevitable

into features and

the pre-World War I (it includes all the

organize Other)."45 the Rings

of the Rings.'"46 The

Second World War

all cultures will

"think of the Aborigines"

tell the story of a battle

the against the world.

in his Lord and their

of the Rings profound This not