Italy's Far-Right Leader Giorgia Meloni Is a 'Lord of the Rings' Stan

A version of this article originally appeared on VICE Italy.

Italy has just elected the far-right party Brothers of Italy to head its future government. Its charismatic leader, Giorgia Meloni, is a young politician who reinvigorated the conservative movement’s messaging, often borrowing from rather unexpected sources. One of the authors she likes to cite – a lot – is none other than fantasy novelist J. R. R. Tolkien, who wrote the Lord of the Rings saga between 1937 and 1949. 

Her fascination with the books may sound bizarre, but Tolkien has been an icon in the Italian far-right for the last 50 years. It started in the 70s, with the publication of the Italian translation of Lord of the Rings. The preface of this first edition was written by Elémire Zolla, an expert in the history of religion and esotericism and a philosopher of great influence within the Italian right.

According to Zolla, the novel should be understood as a hymn to tradition, Christianity and purity. This interpretation was seemingly confirmed by Tolkien himself, who described his book as a “fundamentally religious and Catholic work” in a letter to Jesuit priest and close friend Robert Murray. According to this interpretation, Frodo could be seen as a Christ-like figure whose ultimate purity of the soul allows him to sacrifice himself to destroy the ultimate evil (AKA the ring) for the sake of humanity.

The arrival of the book in Italy coincided with a deep identity crisis inside the country’s far-right circles. The Italian Youth Front, a far-right youth movement, was growing more and more distant from its affiliated party, the Italian Social Movement (MSI), which was founded in 1946 by veterans of the fascist regime. Many of them struggled to integrate into Italy’s post-fascist political system, and the youth branch of the movement didn’t fully identify with their old-school ideals and symbols.

To many in the Youth Front, the world imagined by Tolkien offered an opportunity to re-articulate their political identity around the values of virtuousness and anti-modernity that are so present in this universe. The story of the humble hobbits and their good-guy allies protecting their idyllic homeland from hordes of orc invaders was adopted as a metaphor for the fight against mass immigration.

In 1977, the Italian Youth Front even organised its first Hobbit Camp, a two-day festival where far-right sympathisers from all around Italy gathered together to sing songs and discuss ideas.

One of the bands that played at the camp was La Compagnia dell’Anello (“The Fellowship of the Ring”), a fan favourite in extremist circles; their song “Il Domani Appartiene a Noi” (“Tomorrow Belongs to Us”) later became the anthem of the Youth Front. The song is believed to be a nod to a scene of the movie Cabaret, where a member of the Hitler Youth performs the similarly titled song “Tomorrow Belongs to Me”.

Meloni took her first political steps in this cultural context, spending most of her early career rising through the ranks of the youth wing of the National Alliance, the successor of the MSI. Always a big fantasy fan, Meloni has nodded to the Lord of the Rings saga throughout her political career, even referring to it as “our Bible” in a 2002 interview. 

In 2008, when she was youth minister, she was profiled in an Italian magazine where she posed in a photo next to a statue of Gandalf riding his horse. On the night of the Italian elections, when her victory became clear almost from the get-go, her sister Arianna posted a letter on Facebook to celebrate her that was full of Tolkien references. 

But Meloni’s public fascination with Tolkien’s work has understandably split the fandom. For Andrea Massimi, a 25-year-old student from Rome and long-time Tolkien fan, the Italian right’s use of the Lord of the Rings content for political messaging is a form of cultural appropriation. “Of course, Tolkien was a Catholic,” he says, “but he never, ever wanted politics in his books. He specifies that several times in his letters.”

Massimi believes that the Italian right “reads what it wants to read” into the story, misinterpreting the hobbits’ struggle as a mission to preserve traditions against advancing change. “It’s a very superficial reading,” he adds.

Tolkien, who wrote the book during the high point of Nazism and fascism, has publicly distanced himself from antisemitism. He also refused to published The Hobbit in German after he was asked at the time to prove he was of Aryan descent – yet his fantasy world hinges on the premise of many distinct races, divided into different roles and societies, based on biology alone. 

The movies that propelled Lord of the Rings into renewed cult status have also been criticised for overwhelmingly centering whiteness and not including any main characters of colour. The newly-released Amazon prequel series Rings of Power also stirred up controversy because Black characters were, for the first time, written into the story.

Davide Anedda, 21, from Cagliari, Sardinia, is a militant in Meloni’s party. And like Meloni, he too thinks of the Lord of the Rings saga as more than a mere fantasy story. “I believe I was simply destined to make the moral values ​​told in those books my own,” he says. “Those values ​​run in my blood.” 

Anedda rejects the idea that Tolkien’s story is being misused as propaganda, since he regards the British author as “one of the many founding pillars of right-wing thinking”. To him, Lord of the Rings is about a selfless struggle for the defence of a territory and its population. “This is the pillar of right-wing political militancy,” he says, “making yourself available, dedicating your time and money to it since childhood, setting aside any personal interest to pursue those of the community.”

Alice Blangero, 30, a speechwriter from Milan, came to Tolkien via Harry Potter. “I find the fact that Giorgia Meloni identifies with hobbit people quite curious,” she said. “I don't understand what these very quiet creatures – who smoke pipe-weed, tell folktales, and have no problem collaborating with those who think differently from them – have anything to do with her.”

Blangero believes it’s wrong to try to find a political connection between Tolkien’s world and the far-right, especially since the author isn’t around to clarify his views about the current political climate himself. “Fantasy creates parallel worlds where we find ourselves more easily than in real life,” she argues. “We often feel that those stories talk about us in whatever way we project onto them. The reality is that’s simply not the author’s intention.” 

Nicolas Gentile, a 38-year-old pastry chef from Chieti in central Italy, has been a huge fan of the saga since the year 2000, when the release of the first movie was announced. After organising multiple Lord of the Rings-themed events, he bought a piece of land in his home region of Abruzzo where he’s recreating a real-life version of the Shire, hobbit homes and all.

“In 1970s Italy, the right claimed the fantasy genre as its own, while the left stayed away from it because they considered it something for kids,” he says. “This infatuation of the right probably derives from the fact that Tolkien refers to many romantic ideals, heroes and a mythological past.” 

As Gentile noted, the interesting thing is the saga has also become a hit among hippies and peace-loving social rejects. “The reality is, you simply can’t co-opt Tolkien for political speech,” he said. “His stories are universal. Tolkien is for everyone.”