Themes of The Lord of the Rings This is, according to Shippey, a very modern, 20th-century theme, since in earlier, medieval times, power was considered to "reveal character", not alter it. Shippey mentions Lord Acton's famous statement in 1887, that ""Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men..."" He then goes on to point out authors that were dealing in the same themes of power and corruption at around the same time as Tolkien wrote his work. These authors include George Orwell with "Animal Farm" (1945), William Golding with "Lord of the Flies" (1954), and T. H. White with
The Fox, the Flies and the Hedgehog sixteen lines to relate the story told of a “Lazar” (leper) and fifteen to draw the moral. The Fox, the Flies and the Hedgehog The fable of the fox, the flies and the hedgehog is ascribed to Aesop’s Fables. From its beginning it was applied satirically to political leaders and is numbered 427 in the Perry Index. An enfeebled fox is plagued by flies, ticks or mosquitoes, of which a hedgehog offers to rid her. The fox refuses such help on the grounds that the insects have already gorged themselves on her blood and hardly trouble her now, but they