Few people think about whether Tolkien's trilogy "Lord of the Rings" contains people. This is a good question, because we are used to personalize the image of power in the person of Sauron, Saruman or Aragorn, but is there a people? We have to understand that the "Lord of the Rings" is a logical but heterogeneous phenomenon in terms of political and cultural models. There are different loci, cultural spaces and different political systems.
Curiously, a quest by Frodo and the Guardians of Hobbitania, of Shire, begins. Then the heroes return there. And Tolkin, as we remember, not without reason gives the original name Shire, and this is not a proper name, but just a county. That is, Hobbitania is a mini-England. Tolkien was asked what his political convictions were, and in one of his letters he clearly stated that his political convictions were monarchical anarchism or anarchical monarchism. For Tolkien it is very important that there is a king who has all the earthly power of his own accord. But it is important that this king does not interfere in the daily life of ordinary inhabitants and the county. If we remember, Hobbitania has self-governance, and municipal self-governance.
The second curious point is the modern model of governance, which is absolutely not medieval. In the finale of The Lord of the Rings, when everyone returns to their own circles, they do not find themselves in Hobbitania, where everything is good, but on the contrary, in Hobbitania, where everything is bad. In one of the translations this chapter is called "Defiled Hobbitania": Saruman came there and arranged something strongly reminiscent of a totalitarian system, and frankly socialist, early socialist, with dispossession. All Saruman's supporters, the half-orckeys, are busy "gathering things together, but not sharing anything. All products are accumulated in some barns under protection, and hobbits starve.
Despite the fact that Frodo and his heroes are no longer ordinary hobbits, acquired the status of epic characters, the dominion of Saruman is overthrown by ordinary hobbits, which are united in the force that expels the invaders from the ground. It is not Frodo who leads this force, but Sam, Pin, Mary, who are the non-headed heroes, except Sam. This is very important. From Tolkien's point of view, the control should not belong to the heroes. The control should belong to ordinary people who know better what is required for their land. Yes, not all hobbits are good. As we remember, one of them became a traitor, went to work for Saruman.
A sincere belief in the virtues of the common man is a very English trait, Chestertonian, if you will. Chesterton also has a monologue in the parable "The Man Who Was Thursday", dedicated to the fact that meritocrats and noble lords can make mistakes, but an ordinary man can't make mistakes. We must understand that Tolkin opposes the concept of Ortega y Gasset, which he described in the "Mass Rebellion". If Ortega suspected and felt that the totalitarian system would march around the world - Nazism, a crowd that does not argue as a whole - Chesterton literally tried to oppose the valor of an ordinary man a hundred years ago. The average man is not a pejorative concept for him. It's Sam, on whom everything is based.
Sam did not just appear in Lord of the Rings. This is a note Pickwick club Dickens. Dickens was very important place to pay attention to the concept of an ordinary person. These ordinary people carry the weight of ordinary life on their shoulders. Chesterton continues here Dickens, Tolkin - Chesterton. This is completely lost in the screening, because the screening focuses on a strong personality. I don't want to offend anybody, but Peter Jackson got Wagner, especially with Aragorn's coronation. Tolkien's world is being saved by the weak. When he was once again asked about the hobbits and how he perceives himself, he said: "I am a hobbit in everything but growth. Hobbits - it is we, if we found ourselves in the world of cool epic heroes, but not on them, and depend on us, the fate of the world. We should perceive it that way.