Since the Rings of Power are the central motif of the Lord of the Rings, it is a political work par excellence. Tolkien's epic is imbued with Catholic nostalgia for an organic, agrarian, pre-modern society and skepticism about a mechanical, industrial, modern society.

Tolkien wrote his work deeply inspired by Celtic , Germanic and Finnish mythology as well as his Christian heritage. There are elements of Beowulf, the Song of the Nibelungs and the Arthurian myth. In a sense it is the new epic of our civilisation, just as Virgil's Aeneid was the new epic of classical civilisation, written roughly 1000 years after Homer.1

As much as the work is steeped in his deep Christian faith, we also find quite clear 20th century influences. His experience on the modern battlefield of the First World War and the invention of a more efficient, modern way of killing led him to a sceptical view of the world. It was these inventions that he attributed to abominations, and from his perspective history is one long defeat - with occasional hints of ultimate victory.2

At first glance, we have the image of a coalition of Free Peoples of Middle Earth, which recalls the then Cold War expression Free World. Those that have not fallen under Sauron's shadow or the influence of world communism. And perhaps the image of an idealized community of medieval European kingdoms is "Res Publica Christiana".

The enemies of the Free Peoples are Sauron and Saruman , who completely dominate Mordor and Isengard. At first hearing, the word Mordor is reminiscent of the English term murder. Mordor in Elvish means Black Country and it seems that this may have been an allusion to the English Black Country , an industrial landscape dominated by the huge tower of Barad-Dur and the industrial chimneys respectively. Tolkien must have brought his experience of the devastation of the First World War battlefields into this. Mordor is a centralized dictatorship, with Sauron's influence spread throughout the south and east of Middle-Earth. In some ways it is an abstraction of the collective enemy of the West, which throughout history has taken the form of vast empires, from Arab to Mongol to Communist. It is quite possible that the terms of Mouth of Sauron at Morannon (that everything east of the Anduin belonged to Sauron and the countries of Rohan and Gondor were his satellites) were perhaps an unconscious echo of the Yalta Settlement - when Stalin annexed the Baltic states and eastern Poland, and Central Europe became his satellites after the Second World War. Frodo and Sam had to hide from the Eye of Sauron (the ubiquitous secret police?) during their journey through Mordor. Evil in Tolkien's world is a huge alienating force that goes against nature .

Isengard is translated by Tolkien as enclosure of iron, a those knowledgeable of German will quickly recall the German word "Eisen" meaning iron. Isengard is dominated by a tower resembling a chimney, and Isengard is full of furnaces and various iron wheels -in short, an industrial hell. Tolkien, in the words of Treebeard, claims that Saruman now has " a mind of metal and wheels"3. Saruman has built a dam and had all the trees cut down in Isengard and is obsessed with technology and militarism .

Even Tolkien portrays him as a very capable orator who can charm an audience. His prepared speeches are reminiscent of a modern politician4: saying nothing of substance but sounding wise. Saruman's color was initially white, but later he calls himself the Saruman of the Many Colors-it does not necessarily mean that Saruman is going to push a rainbow agenda, but rather that Saruman considers himself an expert on everything. Hecounts himself among the Wise - in today's parlance, the expert-scientist who should therefore rule over Middle-Earth.

His slogan Knowledge, Rule, Order has been likened to Nazi propaganda5. Saruman's Isengard is initially part of the Free Peoples but then betrays this alliance and allies himself with Sauron, and begins to copy his methods. He decides to breed an elite race of Ubersmensch, or Uruk-hai6. In the end, it turns out that Isengard's betrayal was twofold -he betrayed Sauron as well. Saruman's Isengard is eventually defeated by the Ents - the ancient forces of nature. It is a reminder that all our attempts to subdue and destroy nature are futile, and the natural order will eventually be restored.

In short, both Isengard and Mordor operate as totalitarian, centralised dictatorships (Sauron's lieutenants in Minas Morgul and Dol Guldur are just that - governors who carry out their master's will by command), where there is no significant respect for individual life. Agriculture in Mordor depends on slave labour on the plains of Núrnen (perhaps an allusion to the kolkhozes?). In short, Mordor and Isengard operate as a militarized military-industrial complex without any respect for nature, and a crossbreed of humans, ogres, and trolls. The vocabulary of abominations reflected the expression of the lowest classes of society and conscripts in the military at the time. Sauron's Nazgûls resemble the secret police of the oprichniks during the reign of Ivan the Terrible.

The author may even predict how evil can be defeated. The War of the Ring does not end with a large-scale offensive and occupation of Mordor, but with victory by non-military means7. And it happened because of how a certain magician in white constantly travelling encouraged (although he is a Wizard, his main role is not magic like in Harry Potter but rather wise words and encouragement) Free Peoples to resist Evil, just as the oft-travelled Pope John Paul II contributed greatly to the defeat of Communism in Eastern Europe without the need for a military confrontation with the Soviet Union, which simply fell apart. Apparently, the hit goose has honked, as one Russian author has written a view of "The Last Ring Bearer8" from the opposite side's point of view, and there were even plans in Moscow to build a tower with the Eye of Sauron.9

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Tolkien's work, in short, is skeptical of technological progress. In addition to Mordor and Isengard, two other nations attempted technological advances: the Dwarves in Moria dug too deep until they awakened the Balrog, which meant the demise of their kingdom. The Noldor Elves' attempts at technological domination of nature through Feanor's Silmarils, and later through Celebrimbor's Rings of Power, proved to lead to the tragedy not only of their own nation, but of Middle-Earth as a whole.

On the other hand, places where one lives close to nature and with a simple or almost non-existent political structure - the rustic Shire, the idyllic Rivendell, Lórien as an earthly paradise, or the mysterious forest of Fangorn - represent oases in troubled times, places of refuge and joy.

The Shire is a pretty clear image of the idealised English countryside - England itself is traditionally divided into numerous shires (Oxfordshire, Warwickshire, Yorkshire...), and the hobbits in the Shire are descended from three tribes that came there from the east, from an area called The Angle, a direct allusion to the Germanic tribe of the Angles. Like Britain protected by the English Channel, the hobbits could afford splendid isolation as they were protected by Aragorn's tribesmen. To the west of the Shire we find the Elvish Lindon, divided by the Bay of Mithlond into which the River Lune flows. The River Lune bears a striking resemblance to the Severn, and the Gulf of Mithlond finds its parallel in the Gulf of Bristol - making northern Lindon the equivalent of Wales and southern the equivalent of Cornwall, both of which spoke Celtic languages. The Elves in Lindon speak Sindarin, which is a heavily Welsh-inspired language. Charles Coulombe sees10 in the political organization of the Shire a vision of an ideal society in the spirit of the encyclicals Rerum novarum and Quadragesimo anno, with limited ceremonial (thains) and popular (the mayor of Michael's Delving) power, with full subsidiarity, and with the organic character of society preserved. And in the last chapter (The Scouring of the Shire) we have Tolkien's dystopia11: an industrial Shire, full of Prescriptions, internment, collaborators.

The kingdoms of Arnor and Gondor appear to be paralllels of a Roman Empire divided into West and East. The division of Arnor has its parallel in the collapse of the Frankish Empire after the death of Charlemagne. The memory of the Anglo-Saxons' struggles against the Vikings seems to have been reflected in the struggles of the successor kingdoms of Arnor against Angmar, which was to the north-east.

Gondor is explicitly Mediterranean, acting as a combination of the Byzantine Empire and the Roman Empire - the seven levels of Minas Tirith are perhaps directly comparable to the seven hills of Rome12 where the White Tree rises . Gondor at the time of the Lord of the Rings is already very exhausted and resembles the exhausted Byzantine Empire, which has lost all its holdings east of the Aegean and Sea of Marmara (or the Anduin River). In Minas Tirith the image of Rome, Vienna and Constantinople, the three cities that represented the seat of imperial power in the West, is unified.13

The Ered Nimrais (literally White Mountains) resemble the Alps in both name and shape (Albus is Latin for white). At their easternmost tip is Vienna or Minas Tirith. It was at the gates of Minas Tirith that the epic Battle of the Pelennor Fields took place, when the besieged army came to the aid of the Rohirric horsemen led by Theoden. The parallel with the arrival of the Polish winged hussars led by John Sobieski to the aid of besieged Vienna on 11 September 1683 seems quite obvious14. But this battle has also been compared to the Battle of the Catalaunian Fields15, where the Romans (Gondor) and Germanic tribes (Rohan) jointly defeated the Huns, with the fallen Visigothic king Theoderich even having a very similar name to Theoden. Eowyn, who defeated the Witch King of Angmar, has a parallel with the Burgundian princess Brunhilde, who killed Attila, who had the nickname "Scourge of the Earth"16.

Neighbouring nations hostile to Gondor take the distinct form of generalised enemies of Europe - the Wainriders and other peoples from the east as an abstract representation of all steppe peoples from the Huns to the Tartars to the Mongols; the endless battles of Gondor for Umbar analogous to the Crusades. However, Umbar itself is also often associated with the Corsairs who plundered the Gondor coast. Western Europe still had a very vivid memory of the Barbary Corsairs of North Africa. Finally, the port of Umbar may also echo Carthage, which was Rome's rival for control of the Mediterranean, and Carthage was founded by the Phoenicians from the Levantine coast, the area where the Crusades were heading.

Of course, I could go on to look for connections between Esgaroth and Novgorod (both merchant cities on the lake to the northeast), or the Rhovanic kingdom and the Goths on the Black Sea. The master of Lake-Town is corrupt and cowardly in the face of the dragon Smaug, and it is Bard, heir of the royal house, who confronts the dragon and restores the monarchy in Dale.

Both Gondor and Rohan - which are the greatest of the human realms - are monarchies, though initially neither Theoden nor Denethor come across as capable and virtuous rulers. Theoden succumbed to the whispers of Gríma, while the Gondorian Steward Denethor lost hope and succumbed to the images Sauron showed him through the palantir (a parallel of media propaganda?17) The monarch is not an absolutist ruler in either Gondor or Rohan - the local grandees, such as Eomer of the Eastern Hive - have a significant say, in Gondor the fiefs are significant, the most powerful being Belfalas under Imrahil.

In the character of Denethor we see a decadent ruler. In the verbal exchange between Gandalf (representative of spiritual power) and Denethor (representative of temporal power), when Gandalf says that he too is a steward in his own way18 (in the manner of St. Peter's vicar19 ) - this confrontation evokes for us the struggles of temporal and spiritual power, such as the struggle for investiture.

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What does a true king look like? In the Legendarium we find archetypes of the idealised warrior-king: Elendil, Gil-Galad or Durin, like Saint Louis IX or King Arthur. In Isildur we find the personification of all the monarchs who were swept away by the Revolution - as a result of personal weakness (the inability to throw the Ring into Mount Doom), their lives and reigns came to a premature end (the catastrophe of the Gladden Fields), thus redeeming them as martyrs in the eyes of the monarchy's supporters.20

The Return of the King is the fulfilment of all the desires of traditional monarchists - be they Scottish Jacobites, French Legitimists, Spanish Carlists or Portuguese Miguelists21. The lyrics of the song 'El abandonerado De La Tradicion'22 capture this desire best : I know of a king who lived in exile/ The Spaniards who hoped for him/ Wished their king could return// In his absence evil spread/ Another monarch usurped the throne ...This lyric perfectly captures the decline of Gondor under the House of Stewards and the later expectation of the return of a legitimate king.

Aragorn wins where Bonnie Prince Charlie lost, and so instead of lamenting the battlefield of Culloden we have a victory on the field of Cormallen, and he becomes the new Charlemagne, the restorer of the Christian monarchy.

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Is our world more like Middle-Earth, where the mechanical conception of Sauron and Saruman has won, and where Theoden remains paralyzed by the speeches of Gríma, and Denethor has succumbed to media propaganda, or an organic, natural society that has saved the integrity of the Shire, and in which a legitimate king has returned?