Super-fan Giorgia Meloni opens Rome Tolkien exhibition

ROME

Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni formally opened a Rome exhibition on Nov. 15 about "Lord of the Rings" author J.R.R. Tolkien.

Marking 50 years since the British academic died and since the publication of first Italian edition of "The Hobbit," the exhibition was conceived and promoted by Italy's culture ministry with the enthusiastic support of the prime minister.

Meloni, 46, often talks about how she has loved since her childhood Tolkien's magical tales about good battling evil, a feeling shared by many on the far-right.

In her 2021 autobiography, Meloni recalled how she and fellow members of the youth wing of the post-fascist Italian Social Movement (MSI) used to dress up as "Lord of the Rings" characters, called together by the horn of the warrior Boromir.

Long before the story was turned into blockbuster movies, she chose to dress up as Samwise Gamgee, the best friend and trusty side-kick of Frodo Baggins, whose quest to destroy the ring and its evil powers are at the center of the books.

Sam is not a king, or a magician, or warrior elf, "he is just a hobbit, he works as a gardener. Yet without him Frodo would never have accomplished the mission," Meloni wrote.

"He knows that it will not be his deeds that will be sung about in the future, but it is not for glory that he risks everything," she added.

Many academics have written about the fascination of the far-right with Tolkien.

The world of Middle Earth is a pre-industrial, feudal world, where the values of fraternity, chivalry, tradition and national identity hold sway over faceless industrialization.

"He was a convinced Catholic who glorified the value of tradition, of the community and of the history to which he belongs, a true conservative, one might say," Culture Minister Gennaro Sangiuliano said in September.

His department has sponsored the exhibition at a cost of 250,000 euros, according to La Repubblica newspaper. But many note that he was also popular with the hippies in America in the 1960s, perhaps by offering a vision of a purer world.

The Rome exhibition promises to tell "the human journey, the academic work, the narrative power, the poetic strength" of the writer.

"Tolkien: Man, Professor, Author" runs through Feb. 11, 2024, at the National Gallery for Modern and Contemporary Art.