It’s a big, bad world out there and it is nice to find something that adds to our protection.This can range from vaccines against viruses, to seatbelts in cars, to laws against causing physical harm. As a naked ape we are not especially intimidating on our own and we often seek out tools to make us safer.
No such anguish had Shelob ever known, or dreamed of knowing, in all her long world of wickedness. Not the doughtiest soldier of old Gondor, nor the most savage Orc entrapped, had ever thus endured her, or set blade to her beloved flesh.” Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien (Image by Tony Galuidi; main image by Alan Lee)
One of the key points of “The Lord of the Rings” (and all of Tolkien’s writing) is that small, seemingly ineffectual, individuals can make a real difference in the world. It’s not by chance that hobbits are smaller than humans, weaker than dwarves, less knowledgeable than elves. Tolkien emphasised their ‘normality’.
Hobbits do have their strengths though, especially in resilience. They are able to withstand the corruption of the ring far longer than other races. Boromir, a doughty man, only has to see the ring once before plotting to ‘borrow it’ for helping with his people. Both Bilbo and Sam, ordinary hobbits, are both able to wear the ring and give it up freely, which no others have done.
Still, even Tolkien realised that the hobbits needed a little bit of an assist, something that would help to bring out their resilient traits. Tolkien chose to give each hobbit a long dagger with an ancient pedigree. Sting was found by Bilbo. It was a blade that shone with a faint light when evil was near. Sting was made long ago in the first age by elves of Gondolin. Tom Bombadil rescues the hobbits from a barrow wight and gives them each a dagger of Westernesse. These were made a couple of thousand years before in the early Third Age by men of the Dunedain Northern kingdom.
Each of these blades become crucial to the hobbits achieving beyond their expectations. Pippin stabs a troll chief, who are largely immune to most weapons, and makes a difference at the Battle of the Moranon. Merry cuts the Witch King’s sinews allowing Eowyn to destroy the head Nazgûl in the Battle of the Pelennor Fields, when no one else can touch him. Sam uses Sting to wound Shelob and scare her off, when nothing else would work.
Importantly, the blades were built with different foes in mind. The blades of Westernesse were built to fight the Witch King and his minions but are useless against giant spiders. Sting was built at a time when Ungoliant’s spider brood were numerous and roaming the world, and so it is effective against Shelob and her webs.
“No other blade, not though mightier hands had wielded it, would have dealt that foe a wound so bitter, cleaving the undead flesh, breaking the spell that knit his unseen sinews to his will.” – Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien
So, the hobbits left the Shire with their natural hardiness and common sense, but were primed with blades to make themselves more resilient to the difficult situations that they were to face.
There is a similar concept when it comes to immune systems. Most plants and animals have evolved sophisticated immune systems that respond to pathogens in the surrounding environment. Having a complex immune response is especially important in dense populations where disease and parasites can quickly spread. One such situation is with crop species.
Crops, where individuals from one species are packed tightly together, are targets for various pest species that can infect an individual and easily move to the next. For the last 100 years or so we have had the luxury of applying chemicals to help keep the plants healthy by reducing pathogens. This is no longer an an attractive option as it once was as pathogens have become resistant and people have become less tolerant of nasty chemicals in their landscapes and food sources.
One solution is to create induced resistance through biological and chemical inducers. These inducers can artificially trigger immune defences and enhance their responses. For example, grape crops can suffer from downy mildew. Chitosan, a sugar obtained from the shell of crabs, can be sprayed on vines, triggering immune responses that can reduce downy mildew by 90%, compared to what would happen if grapes responded ‘normally’!
Just like the blades of Westernesse helped the hobbits, these inducers allow the individuals to respond faster, more intensely, and achieve more than they would otherwise be able to do. Some inducers are useful for a variety of pathogens in many crops, such as Acibenzolar-S-methyl (ASM), and some are very specific, such as Saccharomyces yeast extract.
Helen Rees, Lincoln University, and colleagues from Plant and Food, University of Auckland, and Scotland’s Rural College have put together a review in the journal Phytopathology about where the field of induced resistance in crop species stands. They look at what has worked on particular crops and the future roles and opportunities for inducers. They conclude that it is an exciting time for this field and that future crop protection may revolve around the next generation of inducers, playing a pivotal role in moving to a reduced pesticide future.
While inducers may not have the glamour of a Bilbo using Sting to free dwarves from giant spider webs in Mirkwood, they have world-wide contributions to make to feeding a hungry planet by countering the ravening hordes of crop pathogens. Cutting edge indeed!
Adrian Paterson is a lecturer in Pest-Management and Conservation at Lincoln University. He likes Sting (both in the Lord of the Rings and in The Police).
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