The Embeddedness of Mind, Body and Spirit in Nature: An Exploration of Ecopsychological Tenets in The Lord of the Rings

Abstract

Tolkien’s trilogy - The Fellowship of the Ring (1954), The Two Towers (1954), and The Return of the King (1955) - is among the most analysed and studied classics in the world. It contains various themes which can be explored from several perspectives and in different contexts. The way nature is represented with the attribution of strong agency and the significance of strong communication between the human psyche and nature are worth mentioning since the trilogy provides an opportunity to explore the ecopsychological cruciality of human-nature togetherness for tranquillity in the human soul and sanity in the human mind. Moreover, with fictional places like Mordor and Isengard, the trilogy brings the degradation and destruction of nature to attention. Elvish geographies and the Shire enable us to appreciate and celebrate reciprocal and affirmative relations with nature. The psychology, unity, and agency of Nature with spiritual and fantastic characters such as Ents are foregrounded in the novel. By focusing on the fictional characters, this article aims to explore the ecopsychological facets of the places in the trilogy and how the human psyche is affected depending on natural or greenless places.

Keywords

• Ecopsychology
• Nature
• J. R. R. Tolkien
• The Lord of the Rings

Zihin, Beden ve Ruhun Doğa ile İç İçeliği: Yüzüklerin Efendisi'ndeki Ekopsikolojik İlkelerin Keşfi

Abstract

Tolkien’in üçlemesi – Yüzük Kardeşliği (1954), İki Kule (1954) ve Kralın Dönüşü (1955) – dünyada en çok incelenen ve çalışılan klasikler arasındadır. Farklı bakış açılarından ve farklı bağlamlarda keşfedilebilir birçok tema içerir. Üçleme insan ruhundaki sakinlik ve aklındaki sağlık için insan-doğa birlikteliğinin ekopsikolojik önemini keşfetmekte bir fırsat tanıdığı için güçlü bir öznellikle doğanın temsil ediliş şekli, insan ruhu ve doğa arasındaki güçlü iletişim bahsetmeye değerdir. Buna ek olarak Mordor ve Isengard gibi kurgusal mekanlarla üçleme, dikkati doğanın aşağılanmasına ve yıkımına çekmektedir. Öte taraftan Elf coğrafyaları ve Shire doğayla karşılıklı ve olumlu ilişkinin değerini anlamamıza ve kutlamamıza imkân tanımaktadır. Romanda Entler gibi ruhani ve fantastik karakterlerle doğanın psikolojisi, bütünlüğü ve öznelliği öne çıkarılmıştır. Kurgusal karakterlere yoğunlaşarak bu makale üçlemedeki mekanların ekopsikolojik yönlerini ve insan ruhunun doğal ya da yeşilsiz mekanlara bağlı olarak nasıl etkilendiğini keşfetmeyi amaçlamaktadır.

Keywords

• Ekopsikoloji
• Doğa
• J. R. R. Tolkien
• Yüzüklerin Efendisi

References

1. Abram, D. The Spell of the Sensuous: Perception and Language in a More-than-Human World. USA: Vintage Books, 1997.
2. Abram, D. “The Ecology of Magic. T. Roszak” in Ecopsychology: Restoring the Earth Healing the Mind, Eds.: M. E. Gomes and A. D. Kanner, 301-315. San Francisco: Sierra Club Books, 1995.
3. Aizenstat, S. “Jungian Psychology and the World Unconscious” in Ecopsychology: Restoring the Earth Healing the Mind, Eds.: M. E. Gomes and A. D. Kanner, 92-100. San Francisco: Sierra Club Books, 1995.
4. Armstrong, J. “Keepers of the Earth” in Ecopsychology: Restoring the Earth Healing the Mind, Eds.: M. E. Gomes and A. D. Kanner, 316-324. San Francisco: Sierra Club Books, 1995.
5. Auden, W. H. “Good and Evil in The Lord of the Rings,” Tolkien Journal 3/1, (1967): 5-8.
6. Brown, L. R. “Ecopsychology and the Environmental Revolution: An Environmental Foreword” in Ecopsychology: Restoring the Earth Healing the Mind, Eds.: M. E. Gomes and A. D. Kanner, xiii-xvi. San Francisco: Sierra Club Books, 1995.
7. Commoner, Barry. The Closing Circle: Nature, Man, and Technology. New York: Random House Inc, 1971. Deborah DuNann. Ecological Psychology: Healing the Split Between Planet and Self. London: Psychology Press, 2003.
8. Fisher, A. Radical Ecopsychology: Psychology in The Service of Life. Albany, NY: SUNY Press, 2003.

9. Gore, A. Earth in the Balance. NY: Taylor & Francis, 2013.
10. Greenway, R. “Ecopsychology: A Personal History,” Retrieved 22 September 2023. https://www.ecopsychology.org/journal/gatherings/personal.htm
11. Greenway, R. “The Wilderness Effect and Ecopsychology” in Ecopsychology: Restoring the Earth Healing the Mind, Eds.: M. E. Gomes and A. D. Kanner, 122-135. San Francisco: Sierra Club Books, 1995.
12. Hillman, J. A. “Psyche the size of the Earth: A Psychological Foreword” in Ecopsychology: Restoring the Earth Healing the Mind, Eds.: M. E. Gomes and A. D. Kanner, xvii-xxiii. San Francisco: Sierra Club Books, 1995.
13. Honegger, Thomas M. “From Bag End to Lórien: The Creation of a Literary Work” in News from the Shire and Beyond - Studies on Tolkien, Eds.: Peter Buchs and Thomas M. Honegger, 59-82. Zurich: Walking Tree Publishers, 2004.
14. Kırer, Oğuz. “The Archetypal Criticism of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings.” MA Thesis, Erciyes University, 2010.
15. Louv, Richard. Last Child in the Woods. Algonquin Books, 2008.
16. McCallum, Ian. Ecological intelligence: Rediscovering ourselves in nature. Colorado: Fulcrum Publishing, 2008.
17. Metzner, R. “The Psychopathology of the Human-Nature Relationship” in Ecopsychology: Restoring the Earth Healing the Mind, Eds.: M. E. Gomes and A. D. Kanner, 55-67. San Francisco: Sierra Club Books, 1995.
18. Moorman, Charles. “The Shire, Mordor, and Minas Tirith” in Tolkien and the Critics: Essays on J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, Eds.: Neil D. Isaacs and Rose A. Zimbardo, 201-217. London: University of Notre Dame Press, 1968.
19. Roszak, Theodore. “Where Psyche Meets Gaia” in Ecopsychology: Restoring the Earth Healing the Mind, Eds.: Theodore Roszak, Mary E. Gomes and Allen D. Kanner, 1-17. San Francisco: Sierra Club Books, 1995.
20. ———. The Voice of the Earth. New York: Touchstone, 1992.
21. Ruekert, William. “Literature and Ecology: An Experiment in Ecocriticism” in The Ecocriticism Reader: Landmarks in Literary Ecology, Eds.: Cheryll Glotfelty and Harold Fromm, 105-123. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1996.
22. Shepard, Paul. Nature and Madness. Athens: The University of Georgia Press, 2011.
23. Simpson, William M. R. “The Science of Saruman: Nature, Structure and a Mind of Metal and Wheels,” Journal of Inklings Studies 5/2, (2015): 85-112.
24. Spacks, Patricia M. “Power and Meaning in The Lord of the Rings” in Tolkien and the Critics: Essays on J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, Eds.: Neil D. Isaacs and Rose A. Zimbardo, 81-99. London: University of Notre Dame Press, 1968.
25. Tneh, David. “The Human Image and the Interrelationship of the Orcs, Elves and Men,” Mallorn: The Journal of the Tolkien Society 55, (2014): 35-39. https://www.jstor.org/stable/48614822
26. Tolkien, J. R. R. The Fellowship of the Ring. London: Harper Collins, 2017.
27. ———. The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien. London: George Allan and Unwin, 1981.
28. ———. The Return of the King. London: Harper Collins, 2017.
29. ———. The Silmariallion. London: Harper Collins Publishers, 1994.
30. ———. The Two Towers. London: Harper Collins, 2017.
31. Winter, D. D. Ecological Psychology: Healing the Split between Planet and Self. USA: Allyn & Bacon, 1996.