Tolkien, Lunatic Physicists, and Abnegation by Cynthia (Cindy) Gates  

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Tolkien had a complex relationship with science and technology (Larsen, 2022), and we can see that throughout his legendarium. My own relationship with Tolkien became more complicated in late 2006 when I read American Prometheus, the biography of Robert Oppenheimer, shortly after re-reading The Silmarillion. At that point, I had been a scientist for 18 years in the pharmaceutical industry, which arguably does not pass “scientific purity tests.”

So, for me, Tolkien’s comment on “lunatic physicists” hit a nerve and provided inspiration not only for my fan fic, but also for this presentation.

On the 30th of January 1945, Tolkien wrote to his son Christopher:

“As the servants of the Machines are becoming a privileged class, the Machines are going to be enormously more powerful. What's their next move?” (Carpenter & Tolkien, 1981) [Letter 96].

This was answered approximately 6 months later when atomic bombs detonated over Hiroshima and Nagasaki on the 6th and the 9th of August 1945.

In a subsequent letter to Christopher, Tolkien wrote bitterly of the atomic bomb and called the scientists behind it “lunatic physicists.” (Carpenter & Tolkien, 1981) [Letter 102].

About 10 years later in his letter to Joanna de Bortadano (Carpenter & Tolkien, 1981) [Letter 186], Tolkien opined that that “If there is any contemporary reference in my story at all it is to what seems to me, the most widespread assumption of our time: if a thing can be done, it must be done. This seems to me wholly false.”

He went on to state that abnegation is the “greatest action of spirit and of reason” when power becomes dangerous.

In contrast, Robert Oppenheimer said:

“When you see something that is technically sweet, you go ahead and do it and you argue about what to do about it after you have had your technical success. That is the way it was with the atomic bomb.” (In the Matter of J. Robert Oppenheimer: Transcript of Hearing before Personnel Security Board and Texts of Principal Documents and Letters, n.d.)

With those juxtaposed comments in mind, I’ll discuss abnegation, defined as the denial and rejection of a doctrine or belief or as the renunciation of self-interests in favor of the interests of others, in the context of what the Manhattan Project scientists faced and compare and contrast these with examples from The Silmarillion.

• The cost of creation (Szilard and Fëanor)
• The refusal or acceptance of moral responsibility (Oppenheimer and Finrod)
• The seduction of craft (Teller and the Gwaith-i-Mírdain)

Given this audience, I’m assuming deep familiarity with The Silmarillion and associated works, but I’d like to briefly refresh everyone on the timeline of the Manhattan Project. I’d also like to note that my presentation takes a 30,000 ft view of both, which are vast and deep topics.

The coinciding events of World War II and the Manhattan Project are shown here at a very high level. About a year after the US entered the war, US President Roosevelt approved the creation of atomic weapons. Los Alamos, New Mexico, was selected as the site of the central bomb laboratory, and Oppenheimer was named the director. From 1942 to 1945, the Manhattan Project employed about 600,000 people. In addition to Los Alamos, the sites at Hanford Washington and Oak Ridge Tennessee were instrumental in the development of the atomic bomb. Germany surrendered in May 1945, but the war with Japan continued and so did the Manhattan Project. The Gadget was successfully detonated on the 16th of July 1945. Ultimately, and not without controversy, President Truman ordered the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Let’s step back to the discovery of nuclear fission and its impact.

This critical discovery was made at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Chemistry in December 1938. The key scientists involved were Meitner, Frisch, Straßmann, and Hahn. Meitner and Frisch called the previously unknown nuclear reaction ‘nuclear fission’, a term that quickly caught on.

Many physicists around the US knew as early as Feb 1939 that an atomic bomb was a real possibility. European émigrés were especially alarmed. As Isidor Rabi said, “Who were the German scientists? We knew them all.” (Bird & Sherwin, 2005).

A month before war broke out in Europe, Leo Szilard, with the assistance of colleagues Albert Einstein, Edward Teller, and Eugene Wigner, wrote the famous “Einstein Letter” warning President Franklin Roosevelt of Germany’s potential plans to create an atomic weapon and urging the United States to do the same. The letter helped launch what would become the Manhattan Project (Bird & Sherwin, 2005).

Szilard knew something terrible: that knowledge alone was no longer neutral. That knowledge, once born, could not be returned. Thus, he warned the US government of the danger. However, after Germany surrendered, Szilard tried to restrain the fire he had helped ignite. He repeatedly attempted to persuade Truman not to use atomic weapons against Japan. Szilard’s conscience turned from advocating development of the bomb to its abnegation as a weapon.

Now turning to The Silmarillion, we have the example of Fëanor. He forges the Silmarils—the jewels that capture the light of the Two Trees. But once they exist, he is bound to them. They become a moral trap, and his knowledge has become a burden.

After Morgoth and Ungoliant destroy the Two Trees, Yavanna appeals to the Valar. She argues that the light of the Trees resides only in the Silmarils and that their light could be used to rekindle the Trees. However, Fëanor refuses to release the light of the Silmarils, and I quote.

“It may be that I can unlock my jewels, but never again shall I make their like; and if I must break them, I shall break my heart, and I shall be slain.” (Tolkien, 1977)

Fëanor would not sacrifice his creations, even when the life of his world hung in the balance, and we know how Tolkien viewed Fëanor with respect to this lack of abnegation.

Eighty (80) years ago this week, the first atomic bomb detonated in the New Mexico desert.

In an interview with Chet Huntley on NBC in 1965, Oppenheimer said that as the atomic fireball rose into the sky, he recalled a line from the Bhagavad Gita: 
“Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds…” (Giovannitti & Freed, 1967).

If taken without further context, Oppenheimer’s words are often interpreted as a cry of guilt. However, his remark on Vishnu persuading Prince Arjuna to do his duty lends a deeper meaning. Oppenheimer had a longtime engagement with the Gita, and he embraced its philosophy. Oppie saw himself, like Arjuna in the Gita, as an instrument of a higher will—detached from consequence and bound by duty. The government and policy-makers assumed the role of Vishnu, determining the fate of the bombs. Oppenheimer abnegated moral ownership, claiming the role of the executor of possibility, but not the moral arbiter. This was a stance he consistently took during and after the Manhattan Project (Hijiya, 2000).

Compare this to Finrod Felagund in The Silmarillion.

When Beren comes to Nargothrond seeking aid in his quest, Finrod recalls his oath to Barahir. He lays down his crown, forsakes his people, and goes with Beren into the dungeons of Sauron. Not because he must, but because he was once bound by an oath of friendship. He sacrifices not only power, but his life, out of loyalty and love in an act of moral clarity (Tolkien, 1977).

Finrod’s abnegation is not moral detachment—it’s moral commitment. Oppenheimer’s abnegation is more ambiguous: a relinquishment of responsibility, not power. It’s strategic compartmentalization, not sacrifice.

After the war, the Manhattan Project’s legacy did not end. It deepened and arguably continued beyond necessity. The hydrogen bomb, thousands of times more powerful than the fission bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, became the next objective (Bird & Sherwin, 2005).

Physicist Edward Teller was its most vocal proponent. He saw the development of “the Super” as not only necessary—but as an inevitable invention. One might argue that the hydrogen bomb’s creation was not driven by necessity—but by the momentum of invention. The work on thermonuclear weapons continued long after wisdom might have said: Enough.

As Szilard predicted, dropping the bombs on Japan did not deter the Soviet Union, but instead ignited an arms’ race. Subsequently, policy makers during the Cold War argued the development of thermonuclear weapons was necessary in the face of the Soviet Union’s nuclear program.

The creation of the Rings of Power provides a Tolkienian example of the perils of invention and not knowing what the consequences would be.

Tolkien was critical of the motives driving the creation of the Rings of Power (Carpenter & Tolkien, 1981) [Letters 151, 153, and 181]. He wrote that the Noldorin Elven-smiths were “always on the side of ‘science and technology’” and desired the power to arrest change and keep things always fresh and fair. They were “…not wholly good or in the right. Not so much because they had flirted with Sauron; as because with or without his assistance they were 'embalmers'. They wanted to live in “…Middle-earth because they had become fond of it (and perhaps because they had the advantages of a superior caste), and so tried to…stop its growth, keep it as a pleasaunce, even largely a desert, where they could be 'artists'…” (Carpenter & Tolkien, 1981)[Letter 154].

Were the Rings of Power necessary or were they created as an act of hubris in the heat of invention? Galadriel counseled abnegation of the Rings when she said, 'They should have destroyed all the Rings of Power at this time, ‘but they failed to find the strength.’ She counseled that the Three Rings of the Elves should be hidden, never used, and dispersed far from Eregion where Sauron believed them to be (Tolkien, 1980).

A positive outcome of the lack of abnegation was that their keepers were able to maintain enchanted enclaves of peace where Time seems to stand still and decay is restrained, and also healing of the real damages of malice.

Celebrimbor himself abnegated in the sense that he gave up his life rather than revealing the whereabouts of the Three Rings to Sauron. Yet, it is of note that it was the Three Rings of the Elves that Celebrimbor would not give up.

But consider this: Tolkien appears to exonerate the Gwaith-i-Mírdain in his letter to Peter Hastings (Carpenter & Tolkien, 1981)[Letter 153]. Here he gives a pass to scientists engaged in gas and explosives research, for which they would not necessarily be to blame, even if aware of them. Would Tolkien extend the same sentiment to the “lunatic physicists” of the Manhattan Project?

Maybe Tolkien was harsh. “Lunatic physicists,” he called them. But he was also conflicted, honest, and—above all—haunted by power that exceeds human wisdom. Tolkien wasn’t doctrinaire. He never doubted that nuclear weapons were terrible, but he did entertain the political justifications when he wrote:

“…one good thing may arise out of it, I suppose, if the write-ups are not overheated: Japan ought to cave in.”

Was Tolkien’s judgement fair? Were the physicists of the Manhattan Project “lunatics” for consenting to develop the atomic bomb. Could they have abnegated their role when they believed that Germany might get there first?

We can reach a moral verdict if we wish, and say that “the physicists should have abnegated, that greatest action of the spirit and reason.” However, our judgment cannot coincide with any decision taken by anyone relevant at that time, and perhaps, neither can Tolkien’s.

What does this mean for us? Has technology outpaced our capacity for ethics and wisdom? Humankind continues to be faced with great power that endangers our species. The atomic sword of Damocles still hangs over our heads. Climate change impacts us all. Scientists and policy-makers have called for pauses in giant artificial intelligence experiments (Pause Giant AI Experiments: An Open Letter, 2023) and an outright moratorium on creation of mirror organisms (Adamala & et alia, 2024). Will we be able to abnegate? Will we be Fëanor or Finrod?

References

Adamala, K., & et alia. (2024). Technical Report on Mirror Bacteria: Feasibility and Risks. https://stacks.stanford.edu/file/druid:cv716pj4036/Technical Report on Mirror Bacteria Feasibility and Risks.pdf

Bird, K., & Sherwin, M. J. (2005). American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer (First). Alfred A. Knopf.

Carpenter, H., & Tolkien, C. (Eds.). (1981). The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien. Houghton Mifflin Company Boston.

Giovannitti, L., & Freed, F. (1967). The Decision to Drop the Bomb (First). Routledge Library Editions.

Hijiya, J. (2000). The Gita of J. Robert Oppenheimer. Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, 144(2), 123–167.

In the Matter of J. Robert Oppenheimer: Transcript of hearing before personnel security board and texts of principal documents and letters: Hearing before the US AEC, 1954.

Larsen, K. (2022). "I am Primarily a Scientific Philologist: J.R.R. Tolkien and the Science/Technology Divide. Journal of Tolkien Research, 15(2).

Pause Giant AI Experiments: An Open Letter. (2023). https://futureoflife.org/open-letter/pause-giant-ai-experiments/

Tolkien, J. R. R. (1977). The Silmarillion (C. Tolkien, Ed.; First American). Houghton Mifflin Company Boston.

Tolkien, J. R. R. (1980). Unfinished Tales (C. Tolkien, Ed.; First American). Houghton Mifflin Company Boston.

Errata in the presentation

• The “Gadget” was an implosion-design plutonium bomb, not uranium.
• Robert Oppenheimer grew up on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, not the Upper East Side.

Appendix

Resources for further context of the Manhattan Project

The Dead: The estimated death toll from the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki was 150,000 to 246,000 people, mostly civilians, by the end of 1945. Many more died from the sequelae of radiation exposure later.

The Displaced: In 1942, the U.S. Army gave 32 families on the Pajarito Plateau 48 hours to leave their homes and land, in some cases at gunpoint, to build the lab that would create the world's first atomic bombs, according to relatives of those removed and a former lab employee. See Loyda Martinez and her contributions to the Los Alamos workers’ rights and safety; thousands were displaced in Hanford, WA and Oak Ridge, TN.

The Downwinders: Nearly half a million people, many of them Hispanos and Indigenous peoples, lived within a 150-mile radius of the detonation (Tularosa Basin)—some only 12 miles away. These people and others downwind of the blast became the first victims of nuclear fallout.

Not All White Men…

Many Black Americans supported the Manhattan Project in multiple roles, including scientists: J. Ernest Wilkins, Jr. PhD; Samuel Proctor Massie PhD; Moddie Daniel Taylor, PhD; William Jacob Knox, Jr, PhD.

The Lost Women of the Manhattan Project (Scientific American podcast) and Their Day in the Sun: Women of the Manhattan Project by Ruth Howes and Caroline Herzenberg

Native Americans and the Manhattan Project

Tewa Pueblos at the Dawn of Atomic Modernity by Dmitri Brown, PhD (highly recommended).

Oppenheimer - And the Other Side of the Story from Tewa Women United.

Refer to the Atomic Heritage Foundation as an informational starting point.