Gríma, Ukraine and what the white flag club will do when it's time for Spain

J.R.R. Tolkien was not a fan of allegories, but his fantasy works are full of reflections of reality.

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The debate between Gríma and Gandalf about the orc invasion of Rohan

One of these reflections can be found in "The Two Towers", the second part of "The Lord of the Rings". In it there is a character called Gríma, son of Gálmód, an advisor to the King of Rohan who insults the wizard Gandalf when he arrives at the court in Edoras, calling him "Láthspell", a Rohirrim word that Tolkien took from an Old English word: láðspel, which meant "bad news". Gandalf answers him:

"You are held wise, my friend Wormtongue, and are doubt- less a great support to your master. Yet in two ways may a man come with evil tidings. He may be a worker of evil; or he may be such as leaves well alone, and comes only to bring aid in time of need."

A subtle argument breaks out between Gríma and Gandalf, the purpose of which is to determine King Théoden's position in the face of the invasion of Rohan by the Orcs of Isengard. Gríma, who secretly serves the lord of Isengard, Saruman, has made every effort possible to prevent Rohan from defending itself against the invasion, to the point of managing to imprison Éomer, third marshal of Rohan and nephew of King Théoden, who was in favour of confronting Saruman's Orcs.

On the contrary, Gandalf intends for the King to react to the invasion and defend his people. When the magician has already managed to convince the King to take up arms, Gríma makes a new attempt appealing to the comfort of the monarch:

"I care for you and yours as best I may. But do not weary yourself, or tax too heavily your strength. Let others deal with these irksome guests. Your meat is about to be set on the board. Will you not go to it?"

When the King refused to heed the suggestions of his disloyal advisor, Gríma complained that the wizard had "bewitched" Théodem, to which the lord of Rohan replied with these words:

"If this is bewitchment, it seems to me more wholesome than your whisperings. Your leechcraft ere long would have had me walking on all fours like a beast."

Gríma was well portrayed by Peter Jackson in his film version of The Two Towers (2002), where American actor Brad Dourif masterfully played the role of the royal advisor. In the film, Gríma complains about Éomer's "warmongering" when he shows her evidence of the orc invasion, in the form of an Uruk-hai helmet with the white hand of Saruman painted on it.

A reminiscence of what Tolkien experienced during World War II

As I have already said, Tolkien was not a fan of allegories, but in his work, whether he did so voluntarily or not, he reflected experiences from his own life. Gríma is like a reflection of those who wanted to appease Hitler and let him invade half of Europe without resistance, and, keeping in mind the differences, Gandalf's words encouraging the King of Rohan to respond to the invasion are very reminiscent of Winston Churchill's speeches motivating his British compatriots to resist the nazis.

During World War II, communists loyal to Stalin (then Hitler's ally) blamed the French and British for the outbreak of the war, a war started by the Germans and Soviets with their joint invasion of Poland. The communists openly appealed to cowardice and surrender. In 2020, I already mentioned here that the Spanish Communist Party even attacked Spanish exiles who wanted to fight Hitler in France in 1940, since Stalin and Hitler were still allies and the communist parties loyal to Moscow acted as the voice of their Soviet master.

The new Grímas and the Russian invasion of Ukraine

History has repeated itself in recent years. With the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the far left has taken on the same role as the communists in 1940, openly promoting defeatism and trying to convince us that Russia was invincible and that the most sensible thing to do was to surrender to it. Those who for many years praised those who said that it was better to die standing than to live on your knees (a phrase attributed to Emiliano Zapata and which the Spanish communist Dolores Ibárruri uttered in Paris in 1936 at a rally in support of the Republican side in the Spanish Civil War), have tried to convince Ukrainians that it was better to live on their knees than to resist the invader and defend the freedom and independence of their homeland.

The betrayal of patriotism by the Putinist far right

The attitude of the extreme left was predictable. Even stranger was the attitude of the extreme right, which is always talking about patriotism and recalling heroic acts of resistance from our past (an evocation that seems correct to me, it must be said), including episodes in which our ancestors preferred death to surrender, making the name of Spain associated with an indomitable spirit of which many Spaniards are proud. The extreme right put Putinism and patriotism on the scales, and Putinism weighed more, that is, its admiration for a criminal tyrant simply because in some aspects he defends conservative theses. They have cared little Putin's Soviet nostalgia and his alliance with all communist dictatorships, including North Korea, the country where Christians are most viciously persecuted.

Now, when some are toying with the possibility that Russia will get what it wanted by invading Ukraine, which is what they have been supporting in a more or less hidden way for years, the Putinists do not hide their joy and start insulting those of us who have supported Ukraine, in a scene that is very reminiscent of Gríma's insults to Gandalf in the palace of Edoras.

In the end, after years of evoking past glories and episodes of patriotic heroism (even battles such as Krasni Bor, where the Spaniards fighting in the Blue Division demonstrated their bravery, even though it was not their homeland that they were defending), the Putinist extreme right has been reduced to a white flag club, a group of shrill voices calling on brave patriots to surrender, simply because they like the invader very much, and who now do not hesitate to mock the Ukrainians and insult those of us who support them simply because there is foreigners trying to decide the fate of Ukraine without taking into account the Ukrainian people.

The white flag club and its role in Spain

Years ago, I swore to defend Spain even if it cost me my life. I confirmed that commitment by kissing the Spanish flag. I have defended and will continue to defend the cause of Ukraine as a matter of principle, because no country has the right to invade a neighbouring country simply to satisfy imperialist desires, something that was true for Poland in 1939 and remains true for Ukraine today.

Furthermore, I defend the cause of Ukraine because if Spain were to be invaded one day, I would also want others to support our cause, and with Moroccan ambitions over Ceuta and Melilla now fuelled by the Kremlin's encouragement of cowardice in the West, Moroccan aggression against Spain is now more likely than before. It is not hard for me to imagine what the white flag club will do when Spain's time comes. All the miserable arguments of the apostles of cowardice and surrender favour Morocco and will serve in the future to fuel its expansionism.

When the White Flag Club mocks Ukraine and its allies, as we have seen in recent days even from so-called patriotic platforms, what it is mocking is brave patriots who have defended their country from an invader, and who have defended and will continue to defend the need to support the invaded, because if we do not, tomorrow other countries could suffer the same fate. One day we will know which Saruman our particular Grímas serve, because I find it hard to believe that there are people capable of lowering themselves morally in this way without expecting some kind of compensation, however poor and pathetic they may be.

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Image: frame from the film "The Two Towers" (2002), directed by Peter Jackson.