The List #26: Maddow v. Tolkien

What J.D. Vance--and everyone else--really sees in The Lord of the Rings.

You may have seen that this week Rachel Maddow of MSNBC is freaking out over J.R.R. Tolkien—the author known for his outlandish stories and imaginative flights of fantasy—presumably because her employers consider him direct competition.

Being apparently unable to find literally anything else bad to say about vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance, Maddow has fixated on his villainous affection for, uh, the most beloved fantasy series of all time. He might look like a devoted husband and father, but behind those rosy cheeks and that friendly midwestern smile there lurks a fondness for...The Lord of the Rings.

And well, of course. For normal human beings—for anyone, basically, not on payroll at MSNBC—legends like Tolkien’s are indispensable. They express something essential to remember but painfully easy to forget, which is that even humble lives of ordinary size are always entwined in a sprawling tapestry of epic significance.

Tolkien drew that idea from his vast reserves of literary knowledge and his love of older myths. One myth in particular moved him, and gave him the material for a book that even some of his most devoted fans might not have read.