Sex, Drugs, Tolkien: An Exploration of Rock N’ Roll’s Connection to Lord of the Rings Part IV: The Power of the Ring
Exploring the hold of the Ring
One of the main facets of the series is the power possessed by the Ring: the Ring controls the one who bears it and slowly changes them as they wear it. Tolkien shows the most explicit example of how the ring alters its bearer through Gollum. Gollum was once a hobbit of River-folk. His brother Daegol discovered the ring, and Gollum killed him to take the Ring. While this would have been enough to show the devastating powers of the Ring, this event is just the start of the dangerous usage of the Ring throughout the series. Perhaps the most vivid instance of how Tolkien shows the Ring’s disastrous nature through what it does to Smeagle. The ring transforms Smeagle into Gollum, a pale, lonesome creature that makes noises with his throat and lives in the dark off of raw fish. Tolkien depicts Gollum in The Two Towers by stating;
Down the face of the precipice, sheer and almost smooth it seemed in the pale moonlight, a small black shape was moving with its thin limbs splayed out. Maybe its soft clinging hands and toes were finding crevices and holds that no hobbit could ever have seen or used, but it looked as if it was just creeping down on sticky pads, like some large prowling thing of insect-kind. And it was coming down head first, as if it was smelling its way. Now and again it lifted its head slowly, turning back on its long skinny neck, and the hobbits caught a glimpse of two small gleaming lights, its eyes that blinked at the moon for a moment and then were quickly lidded again (598).
To me, this description makes me feel empathy for the creature that was once Smeagle and shows how horrific the Ring treats its possessor. It manages to completely transform the bearer and allow their thoughts to remain on it alone. All that Gollum desires is the Ring. He lets him tear him apart because he cannot be without it. In a way, the power that the Ring holds over its bearer is similar to heroin, which is a highly addictive drug derived from morphine that produces euphoria and eventually, addiction in its user. In his article entitled, “Gollum for Medieval Tragedy to Liberal Tragedy in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, Masoud Tadayoni and Mohsen Hanif write of Gollum by stating, “In the conversation with Frodo, Gandalf upholds Gollum’s madness and his lack of will to control the disease. He claims that Gollum has an ambivalent attitude towards the Ring and himself but cannot heal because ‘he has no will in the matter.’” Their depiction of Gollum as a figure unable to overcome his addiction to the Ring is similar to a drug addict. Once one is physically addicted to a drug or the Ring, they are unable to change without strong willpower. Unfortunately, in Gollum’s case, he does not have the willpower to overcome the addiction to the Ring. Although there are moments in the series where the reader can see that he wants his hobmanity (humanity for Hobbits–termed by my classmate, Christine) back, but he cannot stop desiring the ring.
This is the connection between the Ring and rock n’ roll. The Ring and its ability to transform the bearer physically and mentally makes it similar to a drug that has plagued the genre for decades. In a way similar to Gollum, many musicians have been transformed and had relationships impacted because of their addictions. There are countless rock bands that have split up because of drug addiction. The same way that the reader feels sympathy for Gollum and his lack of awareness of all that the Ring has robbed him of is the same way that I (and many others) feel about musicians that have destroyed their careers because of drugs. The same bands that I discussed in the first two parts of this series struggled because of addiction. In fact, Black Sabbath actually kicked their lead singer Ozzy Osbourne out of the band in 1979 after several drunken and drug addled tirades. While Osbourne would go on to form a successful solo career, he would continually struggle with drug addiction for years. Similar to Gollum, Ozzy was transformed from years of drug addiction and is lucky to be alive today.
Another way to connect the Ring to rock and roll, is the idea of the Ring bearer. In the series, Tolkien makes it a point to highlight the necessity of having a proper carrier for the Ring. Over the Lord of the Rings series, it passes from Bilbo to Frodo who eventually disposes of the ring. While on the journey, Frodo attempts to offer the Ring to powerful figures like Galadriel, but she refuses because she believes the power of the Ring would negatively affect her. This instance and the many others in Lord of the Rings stresses the idea of a proper Ring bearer. While there are some musicians that could handle occasional drug usage and that credit it to their songwriting, most would struggle with these habits for the remainder of their professional careers. While Frodo could responsibly carry the Ring for the journey and not be possessed by it, Gollum let it destroy his life. The same can be said for musicians. While drug addiction would not have been a common topic during Tolkien’s writing, the author managed to create an item and character that serves as a perfect analogy for the effects of drug addiction. Similar to my segment on pipe weed, his usage of the Ring allows for the work to expand beyond his intended connections with his readership. In this way, the Lord of the Rings was ahead of its time. The connection between the Ring and drug addiction also serves as another possible reason for why musicians felt they could relate to the series. As musicians (myself included) have all experienced either directly or indirectly through their peers, the dangers of substance abuse.
While Tolkien did not mean to establish the connection between his Ring and drug addiction, it is one that seems strikingly obvious when read by a modern reader. I think that’s the key to understanding the connection between rock n’ roll and Lord of the Rings. Tolkien’s ability to create a timeless series allowed for audiences reading years after its publication to make their own connections and relationships to Middle Earth. In my research, I garnered a new respect for Tolkien’s writing and an appreciation for counterculture’s ability to make a work of art or literature larger than life. As we continue to stray from the original publication year and many more people read the series, I am interested to see the connections made in the future to the series and how people will make sense of the world and music around us with the help of Lord of the Rings.
Just concluding, I’d like to offer a few additional resources in case anyone found this series or area of scholarship as interesting as me.
Additional Resources:
https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20141120-the-hobbits-and-the-hippies
Works Cited:
Tadayoni, Masoud and Hanif, Mohsen (2023) "Gollum from Medieval Tragedy to Liberal Tragedy in J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings," Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature: Vol. 41: No. 2, Article 9. Available at: https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore/vol41/iss2/9
Tolkien, J. R. R. The Lord of the Rings. HarperCollins, 1991.
I really enjoyed your take on this novel using real life examples. Like the characters in the book, the Ring has also had me in a trance. One thing I focused on early in the book was how the Ring was an addiction to them (which also kinda resembles Rock and Roll culture). It’s intriguing for a first time reader to not understand why Frodo knows the Ring should not be put on, yet he continues to do it. I think you make great comparisons to this genre because of this and how it has transformed our hobbit friends.