Leadership in Middle-Earth by Urick Michael J.;

Author:Urick, Michael J.;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Emerald Publishing Limited
Published: 2021-03-05T00:00:00+00:00

THE ROLE OF SONG

Actions are key ways in which characters (Samwise and Aragorn included) communicate in Middle-earth. A less subtle form of communication is explicitly through song, and both poetry and music are leveraged throughout Tolkien’s tales. There are several ways in which leaders use songs to influence followers.

One way in which a leader influences others can be through helping to create something and, in Middle-earth, songs are powerful tools of creation. For example, leaders work and communicate with others to accomplish a shared mission or goal and often this leads to some new creation. As illustrated in the creation of Middle-earth (and beyond) found in the opening of “The Silmarillion,” song is a powerful enabler of creation. Early in this compiled work, the section entitled “Ainulindalë” illustrates how the Ainur help Eru Iluvatar, the supreme deity of Tolkien’s legendarium, to create the world and the heavens through joining in song. Thus, communication helps to create and, in this case, communication through song creates the entire universe.

But, song is creative on a smaller scale than a universe as well. Tolkien’s use of song also creates and strengthens cultures. The songs in Middle-earth tell stories which, in turn, reinforce a group’s culture. Every group, whether a two-person dyad, a small team fellowship, or a nation state like Gondor, has a culture, which sets expectations of its members and carries on the group’s collective traditions.

To paraphrase esteemed cultural research Edgar Schein (2017), a culture consists of three levels: assumptions, values, and artifacts. Assumptions are taken-for-granted beliefs and worldviews that are so deeply held and shared among a group’s members that they are rarely (if ever) discussed. One reason behind a lack of discussion of assumptions is that sometimes they are so deeply ingrained in a group that they are difficult to articulate. Values are derived from a group’s assumptions and are stated or enacted ideals, aspirations, goals, or principles that illustrate what the collective culture cares about. Artifacts are the physical manifestations of cultures that can be experienced with the five senses.

Artifacts are built upon values which, in turn, are built upon assumptions. In this way, artifacts are the ways that people physically experience what is important to a group of people within a culture. Artifacts help to illustrate to members of a group what normal and expected behaviors are. They also help to preserve the values of a group of people so that the culture can be passed on. In essence, artifacts help people to make sense of what is important in a culture.

In Middle-earth, songs are one type of artifact and these communicate aspects of cultures. The hobbits have songs about things that are important to them and they are often focused on beer or food which is telling of the culture of the Shire, their home. However, Bilbo also sings “The Road Goes Ever On and On” which documents his philosophy of journeying. Bilbo is, of course, unique among most hobbits as many of the species have never left their homeland.

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