page_title: Environmentalism in The Lord of the Rings
section_title: The Scouring of the Shire
hierarchical_section_title: Environmentalism in The Lord of the Rings / A longed-for restoration / The Scouring of the Shire
caption_attribution_description: French; Hunting horn; Ivories-Horn
context_page_description: The theme of environmentalism in The Lord of the Rings has been remarked by critics since the 1970s. The Hobbits' visions of Saruman's industrial hell of Isengard and Sauron's desolate polluted land of Mordor have been interpreted as comments on modern society, while the destruction of Isengard by the tree-giant Ents, and "The Scouring of the Shire" by the Hobbits, have a strong theme of restoration of the natural environment after such industrial pollution and degradation. However, Tolkien's love of trees and unspoilt nature is apparent throughout the novel.
context_section_description: Critics since the 1970s have commented on Tolkien's environmentalism as seen in The Lord of the Rings, especially in the chapter "The Scouring of the Shire". One of the first to note this was Paul H. Kocher, who wrote "Tolkien was an ecologist, champion of the extraordinary, hater of 'progress', lover of handicrafts, detester of war long before such attitudes became fashionable." 
  Birns calls the chapter "as much conservationist as it is traditionalist", writing that it presents a strong pro-environmentalist argument in addition to its other themes. Plank describes the chapter's emphasis on the "deterioration of the environment" "quite unusual for its time", with the hobbits returning to the England-like Shire finding needless destruction of the old and beautiful, and its replacement by the new and ugly; pollution of air and water; neglect; "and above all, trees wantonly destroyed". 
  The chapter has been seen as something of a call to arms, a wish to rouse people to environmental action in their "own backyard".
caption: The Tolkien scholar Tom Shippey suggests that Tolkien wished he had the Hobbit Merry's magic horn to rouse people to environmental action in England.[20] Illustrated is a French 15th century hunting horn.
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