J.R.R. Tolkien’s Utopianism and the Classics

Hamish Williams, J.R.R. Tolkien’s Utopianism and the Classics, Classical Receptions in Twentieth-Century Writing (London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2023). ISBN 9781350241459.

Reviewer by Martha Shillaker, University of St Andrews, Martha.M.Shillaker@gmail.com.

Hamish Williams’s monograph J.R.R. Tolkien’s Utopianism and the Classics explores how the Classical past is (re)used by Tolkien in the creation and development of his literary utopianism. Williams argues that Tolkien’s use of Classical utopian narratives, and their implied ethics and ideals, creates a world that is simultaneously familiar and unfamiliar to his audience. This tension is developed through the familiarity of Classics and the unfamiliarity of utopianism, which creates, as coined by Williams, retrotopianism, “a rediscovery and rewriting of an older continent” (p. 8). Divided into three chapters, Williams applies this concept to three separate utopian narrative structures: lapsarian, hospitality, and the sublime. These chapters broadly, though not exclusively, each deal with Tolkien’s The Silmarillion, The Hobbit, and The Lord of the Rings (LOTR) in the chronological order of Tolkien’s universe of Middle-earth. His introduction provides a firm foundation for the justification of his goal, pointing to the continued role of Classics within Tolkien’s academic and personal life. This is strengthened by Williams not isolating the Classical from other influences on the creation of Middle-earth.

Williams’s first chapter on lapsarian narratives begins with Tolkien’s most significant influence, Christian narratives, and is based upon a thorough analysis of Tolkien’s personal correspondence. Christianity, he marks, is the basis for the differing literary modes—tragedy, fairy-story, elegiac—but it is the Classical, and more specifically, Platonic ideals which shape the ideological purposes of Tolkien’s retrotopianism. The Classical influence in Tolkien’s portrayal of a decline of ideals and virtues is primarily displayed through parallels between the Classical cities of Atlantis and Athens and Tolkien’s Númenor. Williams demonstrates the decline of ideals through a binary of hybris/decadence against piety/asceticism. For both Plato and Tolkien, the decline from piety to hybris is due to the corrupting influence of Orientalism. Williams effectively makes the case that the loss of the former Occidental values enables Tolkien to reflect upon the defining ideals of a utopian society. Although this argument is clear and well supported, Williams fails to critically engage with the West-centred viewpoint of Occidentalism vs. Orientalism within the main body of the argument, though he mentions the issue in his notes (p. 151). Such failure to engage critically with the political narratives contemporary of both Plato and Tolkien—Greek and British imperialism, respectively—seemingly makes their reflections upon ideal virtues an entirely literary matter, untouched by the attitudes of their times. Including external cultural perceptions – that is, the attitudes of those from what Plato and Tolkien would have considered “eastern” countries – would have clarified the significance of stereotypes in characterising Plato and Tolkien’s utopian societies. Despite this, Williams’s analysis of Tolkien’s Classical reception is thoroughly supported by primary and secondary material and clearly sets out the ethical and religious ideals at the core of Middle-earth ideology.

The latter half of this chapter, focusing on the theme of restoration, sets out a convincing connection between the decline and restoration of Gondor with Rome and Aragorn’s rule with Augustan ideology. Williams establishes this connection through four shared “utopian visions”: “infrastructural restoration; institutional restoration; moral restoration; and broader geopolitical restoration” (p. 43). As the majority of this section is engaged in defending the parallels, Williams neglects the utopian ideals which played a central role to the first section of this chapter. While the inclusion of post-Classical influences would have developed Williams’s argument by exploring the differences or similarities of their application, their exclusion is justified as the Augustan Golden Age provides the primary model for cultural renewal throughout post-Classical Europe.

The second chapter focuses on the narratological similarities of The Hobbit and Homer’s Odyssey through the application of comparative mythology. The comparison of these works is based upon the theme of homecoming, a central motivation for both plots. The religious and ethical implications of the Odyssean narratives inform Williams’s reading of Tolkien’s homes, categorising the guest-host dynamics and xenia paradigms into three broad categories: good, bad, and ambiguous. Williams presents this through an intuitive structure, with the development of The Hobbit’s narrative corresponding to the development of ethics, particularly in the character of Bilbo Baggins. Indeed, at the beginning of this chapter, the first hospitality scene at Bag End is presented as a negative example. Compared to Calypso’s treatment of Odysseus, Bilbo’s treatment of Gandalf and the Dwarves echo the goddess’ desire for comfort, which fuels both characters’ xenophobia. But neither are dwarves, as guests, innocent. Their abuse of Bilbo’s home is parallel with that of the suitors who challenge Telemachus’ authority. Williams returns to Bilbo’s hospitality at the end of the chapter, designating his development from xenophobia to xenophilia as the “real moral progression” of the novel (p. 86). His conclusion places these ethics of hospitality within other modern receptions of ancient Greek hospitality models, such as Derrida’s Of Hospitality. Through this clear structure, Williams’s reference to Classical models provides a richer understanding of the ethical and religious utopia of Middle-earth.

The exploration of the sublime aspects of nature in the third chapter lacks the clarity and persuasiveness of the previous case studies, though it still holds its own. Williams presents a convincing argument that Tolkien made use of Ovid’s Metamorphoses in the writing of the forest narratives of The Fellowship of the Ring. Williams puts the chapters of LOTR set within the Old Forest in dialogue with the Actaeon and Orpheus narratives in the Metamorphoses, centring on the experiences of the characters when confronted by the sublime. A particular strength is the exploration of the ambiguous and often overlooked character of Tom Bombadil. Williams presents a convincing comparison between Tom Bombadil and his power over nature through music to Orpheus in Ovid’s Metamorphoses. Williams again ties in Tolkien’s theology, highlighting Bombadil’s role in defeating Old Man Willow as marking the victory of order over chaos. Christian theology, through a Classical medium, is shown to create an ethical paradigm in this secondary world.

As such, the issue present within this chapter is not the relationship with Classics but rather utopianism. Upon first reading, the relation of the sublime to utopianism lacks the clarity of the previous chapters. Much of this is up to the unclear definition of “sublime”. Williams capitalises on the ambiguity by describing the places associated with and the emotions created by the sublime, but fails to define “the sublime” itself. What Williams seems to mean is a transcendental moral or spiritual experience. It is unclear if this ambiguity is intentional, providing flexibility in its application, however, this construction of utopia would be easier to understand, and to relate to the monograph as a whole, if the sublime and its relation to utopianism were more clearly defined. This issue continues in the conclusion of this chapter, which compares how 17th- to 20th-century Anglo-American authors and hobbits react to ruined historic landscapes. Although he includes “archaeological ruins of the past” as a place of the sublime at the beginning of the chapter (p. 104), Williams fails to demonstrate how this relates to the sublimity of nature, the central focus of the rest of the chapter. The conclusions of this section may have been better placed in the exploration of lapsarian narratives due to the creation of an ideal in the face of a once great, now fallen society, as displayed through the ruins.

Williams’s epilogue leaves the three narratives as distinct case studies but pulls together the various components of each chapter to display how they work to develop his overall thesis. The epilogue is essential in clarifying most confusions developed in the body of the argument and draws together all elements of Williams’s monograph to display how Classical narratives have shaped the creation of ideals in a post-Classical and modern context. These case studies are viewed from a broader perspective to display how Tolkien’s use of the ancient world is “governed by an overarching utopianism” (p.139). 

Overall, Williams’s monograph presents a well-supported and thorough argument for the influence of Classics in Tolkien’s utopianism. Although there are occasions where greater clarity of structure and definition would have been helpful, Williams is successful in drawing together the influences that informed Tolkien’s Middle-earth, and the integral role of Classical narratives in its construction.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Utopianism and Classicism: Tolkien’s New-Old Continent (1–16)
1. Lapsarian Narratives: The Decline and Fall of Utopian Communities in Middle-Earth (17–58)
2. Hospitality Narratives: The Ideal of the Home in an Odyssean Hobbit (56–96)
3. Sublime Narratives: Classical Transcendence in Nature and Beyond in The Fellowship of the Ring (97–136)
Epilogue: Ancient Trees in Tolkien’s Forest (137–42)