The definitive (though certainly not the only) film version of L. Frank Baum’s The Wizard of Oz
was released in the summer of 1939, less than a month before World War
II officially began. Though started as early as 1937, The
Lord of the Rings was largely composed during the war
years, but not published until somewhat later.
Therefore, it is by no means impossible that J.R.R. Tolkien saw the
magnificent MGM movie before he wrote most of his magnum opus. Could
Oz have influenced his tale somehow, consciously or unconsciously?
Please note that ever since I was young, I’ve loved both stories and deeply respect their authors. As far as I know, this idea was first put forth by my glorious brother Aldo, largely (I think) as a joke, so blame him. Though the similarities are numerous and interesting, I believe it’s more likely due to the mythic archetypes both drew upon, than a case
of Tolkien plagiarizing, especially considering that weird Jitterbug – Shelob thing.
It should be noted that other interpretations abound, at least about
The Wizard of Oz. It is
thought by some that L. Frank Baum wrote the original book as a political allegory concerning America in 1900.
Dorothy, in this view, represents Everyman, with the Scarecrow
as farm workers, the Tin
Man as the urban proletariat,
etc. The Yellow Brick Road represents
the Gold Standard (“Oz” itself being the abbreviation for “ounce”) and the Wizard none other than William Jennings
Bryan (!).
Or perhaps a mystical interpretation
is in order. After all, Dorothy and Co. represent the human,
animal, plant,
and mineral realms. The spiraling Yellow Brick Road, the Emerald
City, the “man behind the curtain”, even the Haunted Forest have all sorts
of interesting kabbalistic implications.
Or maybe it’s all about drugs.
Dorothy, a dweller of a dull monochrome
land, gets knocked out by a flying window which, oddly enough, doesn’t shatter. The blow gives her visions of another world in dazzling technicolor — “windowpane” was a pure and highly potent form of LSD back in the early 1970s (long after the movie came out, but still.) That’s not the only strange anachronistic connection, either: some people claim to have noticed certain peculiar musical
synchronicities with Pink Floyd’s classic Dark Side
of the Moon.
Maybe that’s a wee bit of a stretch, but it’s undeniable that it’s poppies that put Dorothy and friends to sleep before they reach the Emerald City, and “snow” that wakes them up again. And why do the horses there keep changing
color, anyway?
As for Tolkien, he detested allegory and adamantly maintained that there was little parallel between the War of the Ring and the Second World War. The One Ring, he always insisted, was
not the A-bomb, if only because the
Bomb was ultimately used, and the Ring could never be. However,
it is likely that only in a world graced with beings as wise as Gandalf
and as pure as Frodo, would the Bomb not have been dropped.
Perhaps we should remember that The
Lord of the Rings was not intended as a call for a
holy war between East and West, either...
