What can we learn about land stewardship from The Lord of the By
John Amodeo, ASLA Build me an army worthy of Mordor,” commands
Sauron in The Fellowship of the Ring. With a maniacal greed for
power, the easily corrupted Saruman turns his cavernous lair
beneath Isengard into a frenzied factory of orcs and armor,
fueled by burning the region’s trees, which he clear-cuts with
reckless abandon. When an orc reports to Saruman, “The trees are
strong, my lord; their roots grow deep,” Saruman barks, “Take
them all down,” and down they come. Thus J. R. R. Tolkien draws
the lines of evil in his wondrous tale, The Lord of the Rings.
Since the trilogy’s initial publication in 1954, many have
analyzed, debated, and deconstructed Tolkien on the topics of
linguistics, history, anthropology, sociology, mythology, and
war, but rare is the discussion on Tolkien’s environmental
commentary, though all the signs are there. Although Tolkien,
who died in 1973, vehemently discouraged using his books as an
allegory for real events, h