Hobbit gay
Home / gay topics / Hobbit gay
This is “fantasy” in the deepest sense of the word, evoking the underlying archetypes of the human psyche that C. G. Jung and subsequent psychologists, anthropologists, and literary critics have articulated.
In his own reading of mythology, Jung highlighted the archetypal “hero’s journey” as emblematic of the process of self-discovery and self-actualization that he called “individuation.” For heterosexist Jung, individuation was always spurred by a man’s relation to his internal feminine “soul figure,” known as anima.
When Bilbo studies and debates Gollum, who’s about his own size, he’s confronting his alter ego. He trembled.” This description of Gollum as living a life deprived of sunlight, fresh air, and love speaks to the collective suffering of all the sexual outcasts in Tolkien’s era.
Love that Goes Beyond a Masculine Fellowship
A gay-themed reading of The Hobbit is bolstered by the emotions expressed in the moving scene that reunites Thorin and Bilbo just before Thorin’s death.
According to Colin Duriez in J.R.R.
I couldn’t find you.”
“Well, you have now, Sam, dear Sam,” said Frodo, and he lay back in Sam’s gentle arms, closing his eyes. “He was in fact held by all the hobbits of the neighborhood to be ‘queer’—except by his nephews and nieces on the Took side, but even they were not encouraged in their friendship by their elders.” Viewed as queer by those around him, Bilbo, like the author, finds a measure of peace in composing his memoirs.
How heartening that the film also amplifies Frodo’s growing empathy with Gollum, offering a vision of the approach a gay man can take when confronting his own feelings of inferiority. What’s more, this primary transformative relationship occurs in the context of many other abiding same-sex attachments—whether between hobbit and wizard, elf and dwarf, man and elf, or hobbit and man—that contribute to the hero’s accomplishment of this mission.
The homoerotic aspects of this motif of male partnership are strikingly evident in Tolkien’s novel, in which Sam is portrayed as much more than just a close friend to Frodo.
Because Jackson has successfully applied an amazing hyper-realism to this fantasy character, Gollum seems utterly believable on screen. The controversy generated by the gay themes in Jackson’s film adaptations and the varying opinions expressed by films critics have obscured a fundamental point: Jackson’s films bring forth the sexual subtext that is already strongly featured in the books.
The Hobbit on film may spark deeper analysis of the sexuality in the original book in the years to come, and the character of Bilbo Baggins, so long a favorite with readers, may be headed for new life as a gay icon.
Bilbo’s sexual awakening has begun, but he’s bewildered and conflicted.
The Door Jam is a place to squeeze in relevant articles written about C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. The show’s creators don’t want to alienate potential viewers. When asked at Comic Con if an LGBTQ character could appear in The Rings of Power, showrunner Patrick McKay said, “Maybe you have already.”
I hope McKay was simply trying to placate an LGBTQ fan catching him in a difficult spot by asking that question in a public setting.
The nightmarish, Freudian qualities of the encounter are emphasized by the pools of water, as if Bilbo is surrounded by dark mirrors that reveal his unconscious thoughts. The conventional theme of male warriors removing their defensive masks when one of them is wounded is dramatized with even greater intensity in Tolkien’s The Two Towers. Frodo is initially disgusted by this creature, even wishing his death, but he eventually develops a strong empathy for Gollum.
More sinister were the films that portrayed homosexuals as malevolent, deranged villains, such as the type played by actors like Peter Lorre. The bright, vivid colors of his clothing and his long, curly hair fly in the face of sartorial traditions for English men of Tolkien’s era. As Tolkien puts it: “the two were in some way akin and not alien: they could reach one another’s minds.” This bridging of the divide between the hero and his inferior shadow—between ego and unconscious—is a poignant evocation of the psychological integration required for any man’s self-actualization.
IN THE CINEMATIC version of Lord of the Rings—a series of three films directed by Peter Jackson (The Fellowship of the Ring in 2001; The Two Towers in 2002; and The Return of the King, to be released later this year)—the dynamics between Frodo, Sam, and Gollum have been notably altered from Tolkien’s books.
He is dominated by fear and shame, yet in many ways he’s the least repressed creature in Middle-earth, full of vitality and agility.