J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy has made a cultural impact that other books could only dream to come near to. Tolkien created not only numerous books read by millions, he created a universe with its own languages, species, time, and mythology. While many argue that his work was solely fantasy and was only a glorified bed-time story, some believe that Tolkien had a deeper meaning. One could argue that The Lord of the Rings specifically is a prolonged allegory for World War One. At least an allegory for Tolkien’s own experiences in WW1, specifically his involvement in the Battle of the Somme. While Tolkien has denied it repeatedly that the books were written to comment on the war, it is undeniable that there are numerous coincidences between events in the books and in the war that scholars suggest otherwise.

Michael Livingston’s article, “The Shell-shocked Hobbit…,” delves into J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-Earth universe and how Tolkien’s experiences in World War One had helped shaped the places and characters in the Tolkien-verse, specifically ones from The Lord of the Rings. As said in the article, his purpose is to show how specifically the battle of the Somme formed many elements in LoTR and that Frodo shows almost all signs of having PTSD after the Ring is destroyed in Mount Doom (much like many soldiers had started experiencing during and after the war). Livingston first gets out of the way that in many interviews Tolkien denies that LoTR is an allegory of the world wars and that there are only similarities between some of the elements. He then goes on to say that while Tolkien may have not consciously written them that way, there are parallels that cannot be ignored and that even though the wars are not the sole reasons for the books, they had an influence on him. Livingston then lists some of the major parallels and incorporates eye witness accounts of the battle of the Somme to give the reader a firsthand look at what Tolkien was seeing while he first got the inspiration for writing his books. The second half of the article deals with how psychologists first started diagnosing soldiers with PTSD during the war and that Tolkien may have suffered some form of it. Then he relates the symptoms of having Post Traumatic Stress Disorder to what Frodo has at the end The Return of the King. 

 . It is important to know the specific background to this work because it shows how Tolkien’s simple point of view about good and evil and how it relates to the characters. Besides Gollum, hardly any of the characters in The Lord of the Rings cross the lines between good and evil. Most men, dwarves, elves, hobbits, and ents are good, and all goblins, orcs, uruk-hai, and Nazgul are bad. Knowing that he was a soldier, he is trained to believe that the allied powers (Britain, France, U.S., and Australia) are good and the central powers (Germany and Austria) are bad. While All Quite on the Western Front might dispute this, Lurtz is not shown having remorse for killing Boromir and the only one shown to have jumped ship from one side to the other is Saruman.