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
Lord of the Flies (The X-Files) departure in 1968. Two songs from Barrett's 1970 solo album "The Madcap Laughs", "No Good Trying" and "Terrapin", are featured in the episode. "Lord of the Flies" first premiered on the Fox network in the United States on December 16, 2001. "Lord of the Flies" earned a Nielsen household rating of 6.2, meaning that it was seen by 6.2% of the nation's estimated households and was viewed by 6.54 million households, and 9.9 million viewers. "Lord of the Flies" was the 51st most watched episode of television that aired during the week ending December 16. The episode eventually aired on