Middle Earth in Tehran, Tolkien for Protesters

Iranian Government Hopes to Pacify Citizens with Lord of the Rings

Jul 5, 2009

During the past weeks, thousands of Iranian citizens have marched in the streets of Tehran, protesting the results of the election. Will Frodo and Sam quiet the masses?

With the Iranian populace marching in the streets in June and July 2009, the Iranian government is attempting to pacify the people by showing Peter Jackson's film adaptation of Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings.

Anonymous Report from Tehran, Dedicated to Neda, the Student Killed in Protests

Appearing on Salon.com, dated June 24, 2009 is a message which reports on Iranian government and television airing movies which the Iranian people seldom see. The hope is that people will stay home to be entertained and forget about the contested election. Nevertheless, the writer notes that selecting a film about overcoming a repressive and deadly regime has the potential of empowering people rather than quieting them.

The anonymous writer asks, "Who picked this film? I start to suspect that there is a subversive soul manning the controls at Seda va Sima, AKA the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting."

One commentator, Christopher Knight wonders if the Iranian government realizes the theme of The Lord of the Rings. In his Knight Shift, Knight writes, "Methinks that this might not be a good move on the part of the Iranian government, especially since one of the bigger messages of The Lord of the Rings is that "Even the smallest person can change the course of the future" :-)"

Does the Iranian Government Know that The Lord of the Rings was written by an anarchist?

It is unclear at this point exactly who in the Iranian government chose The Lord of the Rings in an attempt to stop the citizen protests in hope that they would stay home and watch televised movies, and forget about their political passions.

J.R.R. Tolkien, the esteemed scholar and professor, was an expert in linguistics and Old English literature. Yet, Tolkien is also a self-identified anarchist. According to the anarchist philosophy, people can live and thrive without government, taking responsibility for their actions.

Whatever the intent, showing The Lord of the Rings to protesters could change Iranian history.

Curry, Patrick. Defending Middle-earth: Tolkien, Myth, and Modernity. New York: St. Martin’s. 1997

Knight, Christopher. "Iranian Government Using Lord of the Rings to Stifle Protests." The Knight Shift.

Tolkien, J.R.R. The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien. Ed. Humphrey Carpenter. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1981.

The copyright of the article Middle Earth in Tehran, Tolkien for Protesters in Activism is owned by Teresa Knudsen. Permission to republish Middle Earth in Tehran, Tolkien for Protesters in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.