This bundle was carried by a lictor, a minor officer of state. One of these was the mark of the escorts to Roman magistrates, the fascis, a bundle of birch rods with an axe in the middle, the sign that a magistrate had the power to inflict not only corporal punishment-the rods-but even death-the axe-on citizens. Mussolini, to make his power look like a natural historical progression, began using ancient Roman symbols. In Italy, in 1922, he organized a march on the capital, Rome, which would lead to his becoming the head of state (although Italy remained a monarchy, the monarch, Vittorio Immanuele III, was brought out for state occasions only). Was the first of these who actually succeeded in coming to power.

(Here’s a LINK if you want to know more.) Then, fascists were believers in a kind of militarized state, in which the economy might be in the hands of the government, and the government in the hands of a few (a kind of oligarchy) or even of one, a dictator. In this posting, we want to look at it from another direction and to view Sharkey’s Shire as a kind of proto-fascist state.Īlthough the word “fascist” is now used pretty loosely as a verbal attack on politicians and political parties with a rightward-lean, it had a more specific meaning in the 1920s and 1930s. Some time ago, we did a posting on The Return of the King, Book Six, Chapter 8, “The Scouring of the Shire”.Īt that time, our emphasis was upon its reflection of JRRT’s dislike for the effects of the Industrial Revolution on rural EnglandĪnd the importance of the chapter to closure in The Lord of the Rings.

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