Tolkien Anarcho-Monarchist confirmed? 😳🔥🤘 Joking aside, another fantastic video. I love how, even though the Shire has often been equated to Tolkien’s idea of paradise, Tolkien wasn’t afraid to show that even a utopia such as the Shire had weaknesses. As with everything in his work, there is nuance and complexity to the Shire that is often not seen upon a cursory examination.

In case anyone is curious, Tolkien's mill was later restored and is now a popular attraction for Tolkien fans.

When I was a kid, I had so much fun exploring everything in the Shire in the Hobbit game. Idk why since there wasn’t much to do, but it was just cool to see the little village filled with a lot of Hobbits

I remember reading the descriptions of Tolkien's political views and thinking I have no idea how he thought that could work. The Shire relied on it being populated by a species with significant differences from actual humans and even then, as you pointed out, it was extraordinarily vulnerable to crises and relied heavily, if unknowingly, on outside forces to help keep it safe or rescue it when needed. There was much truth in the latter part of this quote from Frodo: "I should like to save the Shire, if I could - though there have been times when I thought the inhabitants too stupid and dull for words, and have felt that an earthquake or an invasion of dragons might be good for them."

I think Tolkien's remarks about anarchy and monarchy (in Letter 52) have been misinterpreted. He is holding them up as alternatives, both of which hold an appeal. The Shire is anarchy (or close), made possible by (1) the natural goodness of the hobbits (2) its defence being handled by the Rangers. Gondor and Arnor are "unconstitutional monarchies" ruled by a King with divinely sanctioned authority. Rohan, Dale and the Dwarf-kingdom are likewise monarchies with the king always drawn from a royal house. The only republic in Middle-earth is Laketown, possibly modelled on Venice and portrayed as a corrupt oligarchy. Generally any kind of politics is a bad sign; in LOTR the only recognisable "politician" is Saruman.

When I was a child, i thought that would be a wonderful way of living...Now as I grew old, I know we will never live in that way, and my heart aches.

Tolkien's views of an ideal government are... interesting. I think time has proven that while a government like Tolkien describes would be nice to have, the reality is that society needs strong checks and balances to prevent opportunistic scoundrels from amassing too much power and taking advantage of everyone. Perhaps Tolkien himself offers this perspective to the reader in his narrative of the scouring.

The stability of The Shire was assisted by that fact that enterprising individuals, repelled by the narrow - mindedness and provincialism of the inhabitants, left in search of adventure (like Bilbo) and seldom returned. In Tolkien's early ideas about LOTR "wild hobbits" like this would join The Rangers who were not yet recruited from the ancient kings. But later this idea was dropped, and little more was heard of the wild hobbits though they remained canonical.

I would imagine that most other things involving committee planning would have been done by committees. Like an old-fashioned British volunteer club. Obviously the gardening and food related committees would be the biggest and most important.

What's the problem with hospitals? Of course there were no state hospitals in the Shire, but there was some (presumably herbal) pharmacy - Bilbo gifted Old Gaffer with "a bottle of ointment for creacking joints" and Merry later wrote a book "Herblore of the Shire". Some hobbits presumably were specialized ointment-makers and herbalists, as there were specialized "millers, smiths, ropers' and cartwrights", so if you get ill, you would go to such a specialist and buy some medicine to treat your illness.

Often Saw the Shire as well England past. I wondered how the average Hobbit felt once the truth of how protected they were kept for centuries without knowing And how the king enforced their New protection.

As an anarchist I’ll take that as a win!

I believe haywards are concerned with stray farm animals, e.g. cows. I think the Shire embodies several different periods of English history i.e. late Victorian, late mediaeval and Anglo-Saxon. E.g. the late mediaeval is when surnames came into common use, something relatively recent in the Shire. The political set-up is based on an Anglo-Saxon shire, but with variations. In an actual shire the civil authority was a shire-reeve, or sheriff, appointed by the King. The leader in war was an Ealdorman, usually a nobleman. "Thegns" (so spelled) were approximately knights, holding land from the King. There was a Shiremoot but it was a law-court convened by the sheriff and made up of the thegns. There were also folkmoots, gatherings of the whole people. All in all Tolkien's Shire is a bit more democratic. (And Jackson's is a lot more democratic). Details from Constitutional History of England by Bishop Stubbs, a book I believe Tolkien would have known.

The Shire is what rural England used to be...

Shire hobbit frowning up at Aragorn: "We don't have a Lord. The Shire's an anarcho-syndicalist commune. We take it in turns to act as a sort of Thain-of-the-week-"

I never thought I would hear the term anarcho-monarchism used unironically...

Wonderful video!

I always wondered about this. Great video and topic.

The way you describe the shire as being ruled by a monarchy who don't exercise their powers, and people who don't have great ambition leading to a utopia of sorts sounds like Australia

Mainly by a clan honor system keeping its members holding the Law of the King. Clan conflicts were resolved by the Thain, probably by negotiations. The shiriffs helped people find lost animals, and an ad-hoc border guard controlled and at need threw out unruly outsiders. After the return of the King it is probable that the Thain rose in power, but more as a military leader in response to the diminished presence of the rangers.

Could you make a video about Tol-Fuin Island? I think it would be very interesting, since it is speculated that many creatures of the first age still inhabit that place. I don't know why, but I get the impression that it is Tolkien's version of Skull Island, or the Lost Land.

i just watched a video on the shire then wondered if you'd uploaded literally 7 minutes ago

Thanks for the video 🙃

"The class system wasn't so rigid that you couldn't advance. . ." and procedes to use Sam as an example. Sure, advancement isn't hard. You just have to help a wealthy kid save the entire world. No big.

We haven't got a lord...we're an autonomous collective!

I come from a family with a history of working the underground economy. Always remember, without the assistance of those people in positions of power, there is no underground economy. Point being, the taint of Melkor shall always seep into the power structure of government. Or whatever you choose to call it. Corruption and power run hand in hand.

Everyone knows Gandalf was secretly planning to take over Shire by manipulating Arnor and Took family from the very start.

''I thought they were an autonomous collective''

With a yardstick.

Great video! do you plan on ever doing map videos again like you're people of series?

Of course there are herbalists in Shire, you wouldn't die.

The Shire is the highest of fantasies. People living in perfect harmony with nature and no government or taxes.

What do you think would have happened had Castamir and his sons won the gondorian civil war (the kinstrife)?

Epic content 🎉😊

No way that shire is size of slovakia👁👄👁. I suppose most of it is not settled land anyway but still. Pretty huge if you ask a fellow Slovak

Will you do a video on the fate of the Dwarfs of Nogrod and Belegost,after the early second age they prety much dispapir?

I've joked about Hobbits being Rastafari, but with these details in mind perhaps it's not so far off. Some sort of medieval proto-Rasta.

Neat

Who needs a hospital when you have kingsfoil, other weeds, and a shortcut to mushrooms. Hooray for magic

I don't know why you call Tolkien a strange guy. He actually makes perfect sense. We live now in a strange world and I guess some accept it.

Based Anarcho-Monarchism lol😂

I wonder if this "anarcho-monarchist" stance would make more sense if understood as yearning for a world similar to the millennial reign in the Christian sense: a world where the governance of nations are on Christ's own shoulders, but where it isn't overly intrusive, corrupt, or bureaucratic in the way our governments always devolve into, and where war and unnecessary violence are done away with.

Weird note to end on

In wouldn't say his political views were strange at all. There to my mind very good views. Anarcho-eco-monarchism

Most certainly fascism. You can see this by how well everything is organized and no person is without a job. It could be nazism as they seem to push for a racial purity where goblinoids are to be exterminated, but that kind of racism is common with all non-goblinoid races so I doubt it.

Hobbit dark lord

Wow... I had no idea I've been following Tolkien's political view for most of my life entirely accidentally... Although considering I've read the LoTR like 27 times in my life I suppose I was indoctrinated without noticing

None of this is in the books or movies so this is just this kids made up version of what he thinks happened with some made up characters