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Middle-earth Is God's Country - J.R.R. Tolkien's deplorable cultus should go to church

December 24, 2003
Submitted By Armenelos

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Thanks for the link, Armenelos! I would never have found the article otherwise, and I really enjoyed it.

--Elven*Warrior

Comment by Elven*Warrior - December 24, 2003 @ 9:39 AM
Like much of Northern European culture, LOTR owes as much to "the nameless North" (JRRT's phrase) as to Christian morality. Of course, one could also argue that since it's Catholicism in particular, the pagan elements are baked in twice, so to speak.

If Frodo's quest is a Christian thread in the books, then Aragorn's is pagan in equal amounts, from calling on the dead oathbreakers to marrying a half-elf.

Comment by Axordil - December 24, 2003 @ 12:24 PM
and didn't like anyone "worshipping" him.

It's bad enough, as the article indicates, that he worried that creating another world was too God-like in its power. Reminds me of some "old-time religionists" of early American protestant faiths who didn't read fiction because it was inherently a lie.

But to have worshippers, followers, fans--oh my!!

Actually, with the constant obsession we have with Hollywood celebrities, I find Tolkein's humility refreshing.

Comment by aughra - December 24, 2003 @ 2:19 PM
Where Elijah Wood describes himself as a Christian and that his family raised him as one. Where do these nutcase white supremists get the idea from that he was Jewish? I like Tolkien's reponse to the German Nazis, wishing he was descended from this 'gifted race'. Good on ya mate!

As for Aragorn being pagan???????

Aragorn was a type of Christ. He was the Returning King. The Paths of the Dead are a mere echo of 'The Dead shall Rise' when He returns...both sinners and saved. Aragorn as Christ had every right to call on the oath breakers to fulfill their oaths. There are many Christian symbols regarding Aragorn in Tolkien's works. The idea that he married a half elf is symbolic of the Bride of Christ...The redeemed who though born originally of Adam, became God's children through the 2nd Adam, Christ, and thus became his bride. Very appropriate for Aragorn to marry a half elf as you put it Axordil. I see nothing pagan about that but something splendidly Christian. It may not fit your world view, but it certainly fits Tolkien's!

Comment by LadyCoralie - December 24, 2003 @ 2:32 PM
Alas.... takes all kinds to make up Tolkien fandom... just as Middle Earth itself if people by Hobbits, Dwarves and Elves... but also orcs, trolls and goblins.

Shakespeare, the Bible, patriotism, and scientific theories have all been rationales used by scoundrels who want not to learn and serve their fellow humans, but to hate and dominate them. We must not give too much emphasis to the likes of these.

Comment by Marea - December 25, 2003 @ 11:52 AM
The Paths of the Dead are a mere echo of 'The Dead shall Rise' when He returns...both sinners and saved.

If one must strain to hear an echo, it ceases to have significance. The effort required would be better spent in rereading the Prose Edda and the Niebelungenlied, where the consequences of oathbreaking are detailed.

The idea that he married a half elf is symbolic of the Bride of Christ...The redeemed who though born originally of Adam, became God's children through the 2nd Adam, Christ, and thus became his bride

While there is a place for reader response-based criticism (as in the title of the comment), I do think that at least a bit of attention should be paid to the author's comments now and again. To wit: "I despise allegory." Trying to assign specific allegorical meanings to events and characters in LOTR is not just contrary to JRRT's wishes and design, but is missing what he _did_ place there that is undeniably Catholic: the sensability of the story.

Evil cannot be defeated by force or arms, or by heroic quests, or by any power that we have. Only Grace can defeate Evil, and its workings are, to human eyes, capricious. And yet the human elements of the struggle are also necessary...that's the Christian (and specifically Catholic) content of LOTR. It is decorated with pagan elements because that's what JRRT studied for a living--the tales and languages of the pre-Christian Germanic (and to a lesser extent, Celtic) peoples.

Comment by Axordil - December 27, 2003 @ 6:41 AM
You are seeing it through your own world view and not Tolkien's.

Yes he disliked allegory...but we are talking about symbolism. There is a vast difference.

I think that you just don't wish to admit that LOTR reflects Tolkien's beliefs as they don't sit well with you on a personal basis. Here is an article for your perusal...laced with many anecdotes and memories of the great man himself.

Finding God in
"The Lord of the Rings"

by Jim Ware

September, 1931
It was a dark and stormy night. Well, windy, at any rate. On the grounds of Magdalen College, Oxford, two tweed-jacketed, pipe-puffing professors go crunching down the gravel path known as Addison's Walk, under the deeper shadows of a grove of trees.

"Look!" says one of them, a tall, long-faced fellow with the furrowed brow and twinkling eyes of a sage . . . or wizard. He points to a large oak. "There it stands," he says, "its feet in the earth, its head among the stars. A majestic miracle of creation! And what do we call it? A tree." He laughs. "The word falls absurdly short of expressing the thing itself."

"Of course it does," responds the other, a round-faced, slightly balding, bespectacled man in his mid-30s. "Like any word, it's just a verbal invention — a symbol of our own poor devising."

"Exactly," says the first man. "And here's my point: Just as a word is an invention about an object or an idea, so a story can be an invention about Truth."

The other rubs his chin. "I've loved stories since I was a boy," he muses. "You know that, Tollers! Especially stories about heroism and sacrifice, death and resurrection — like the Norse myth of Balder. But when it comes to Christianity . . . well, that's another matter. I simply don't understand how the life and death of Someone Else (whoever He was) 2,000 years ago can help me here and now."

"But don't you see, Jack?" persists his friend. "The Christian story is the greatest story of them all. Because it's the Real Story. The historical event that fulfills the tales and shows us what they mean. The tree itself — not just a verbal invention."

Jack stops and turns. "Are you trying to tell me that in the story of Christ . . . all the other stories have somehow come true?"

A week and a half later, Jack — better known to most of us as C.S. Lewis, teacher, author, defender of the Christian faith, and creator of the beloved Chronicles of Narnia — writes to his friend Arthur Greeves: "I have just passed on from believing in God to definitely believing in Christ — in Christianity. My long night talk with Tolkien had a great deal to do with it."

June, 2001
A muggy, dusty afternoon at the local Renaissance Festival. I'm taking a break in the shade with my fellow festival musicians. Around us swirls a crowd of armored knights, brown-robed friars, gauzy-winged fairies, and white-whiskered wizards. It's the closest thing to the Middle Ages — or Middle-earth — that you're likely to find here at the beginning of the 21st century.

Tom, a fiddler in a feathered cap, asks what I've been up to. I tell him about the writing project I've taken on with my friend and collaborator, Kurt Bruner: a book of Christian reflections on The Lord of the Rings.

"The Lord of the Rings!" laughs Tom (who does not consider himself a believer). "Isn't that a pretty pagan book?"

December, 2001
New Line Cinema's big-screen version of The Fellowship of the Ring — part one of The Lord of the Rings trilogy and one of the most anticipated film events of the past several decades — hits the theaters after more than a year of hobbit-hype. Since January, fans have been visiting movie-related Web sites and waiting in line overnight just to see the trailer. So forget about Star Wars and Space Odyssey. In 2001, the place to be is Middle-earth.

And yet, hype or no hype, there are a few filmgoers who are still wondering what it's all about. Especially serious-minded Christians. Elves, dwarves, wizards, goblins, magic rings — haven't we been through this kind of thing before — recently? Isn't The Lord of the Rings just another romp through the occultic world of Harry Potter?

For answers, let's go back to Jack and "Tollers."

Background

What's the difference between Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings? Aren't they pretty much the same: magic, wizards, monsters and so on?

"Tollers" (a nickname used by some of his closest friends) was, of course, J. R. R. Tolkien himself: creator of Middle-earth and author of The Lord of the Rings, the fantasy trilogy hailed by some as "the book of the 20th century." And yes: It was Tolkien who helped Lewis take that final decisive step toward faith in Christ.

Their long night talk about symbols and verbal inventions was just the beginning. Through the years, Lewis and Tolkien were to spend long hours refining their ideas and incorporating them into their literary art. In part, they did this with the help of a group of like-minded Christian friends: The Inklings.

Tuesday mornings at the Eagle and Child (an Oxford pub); Thursday evenings in Lewis' rooms at Magdalen; year in and year out, the Inklings met, talked, sipped tea, and critiqued one another's manuscripts-in-progress: books like Lewis' That Hideous Strength, Williams' The Place of the Lion, and, of course, The Lord of the Rings. Their goal? To find ways of pouring the steaming, bubbling, heady stuff of the Real Story into the molds of their own invented stories.

Lewis made no secret of his intentions. "Supposing," he once asked himself, reflecting on the nature of God, the sufferings of Christ, and other fundamental Christian truths, "that by casting all these things into an imaginary world, stripping them of their stained-glass and Sunday school associations, one could make them for the first time appear in their real potency. . . ." This, he said, is exactly what he was trying to do in The Chronicles of Narnia.1

As for Tolkien, he would have been shocked and angered to hear Tom refer to his work as pagan.

"The Lord of the Rings," he wrote in a letter to a friend, "is of course a fundamentally religious and Christian work; unconsciously so at first, but consciously in the revision."

Humphrey Carpenter, author of Tolkien's authorized biography, takes this claim seriously. Tolkien's writings, he says, are "the work of a profoundly religious man." According to Carpenter, God is essential to everything that happens in The Lord of the Rings. Without Him, Middle-earth couldn't exist.

But be forewarned: Evidences of God's presence are not as obvious in Tolkien's work as in Lewis' more allegorical style of writing. They are there, however — firmly embedded in the tales he insisted on calling "inventions about Truth." In fact, if you know what to look for, you may find them popping up everywhere. Here are a few things to keep in mind as you set out on the quest.

"The Story"

First, stay alert to the importance of story. The Lord of the Rings is actually a story of stories — a vast web of histories, legends, tales, and songs in which every character has a crucial role to play.

"What a tale we have been in, Mr. Frodo, haven't we?" reflects Sam after a harrowing encounter with their enemies. As a Christian, Tolkien understood that we've been in a tale, too. Like the adventure of his hobbits, he saw the adventure of our lives as part of a story that begins "once upon a time" and moves toward its eventual "ever after" — a tale full of meaning and purpose, composed by the grandest Author of all.

The Power of Sin

You'll also want to keep an eye on Gollum, the pitiful, wretched creature who discovered the great Ring — his "Precious" — and kept it for many years in dark places under the earth. So long did he possess and cherish the sinister talisman that he has become the possessed. That's because Tolkien's Ring is an image of the unwholesome, perverting power of evil and self-serving sin — a progressive, growing, encroaching power that starts small and ends big. The apostle James described it like this: "Each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death" (James 1:14-15).

Good Out of Evil

Notice, too, that Middle-earth is full of battles and conflicts — images of the spiritual war in which we are engaged as Christians: "For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world" (Ephesians 6:12). We're not talking generic good vs. evil here. The evil in Tolkien's universe is personal. It takes shape as an Enemy who relentlessly hounds and pursues his prey with ill intent: "Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour" (1 Peter 5:8).

That's not the end of the story, of course. Because at its deepest level, The Lord of the Rings is also a tale about the sovereignty of God. The God whose love and power are so great that He is able to work all things together for good (Romans 8:28). The God who uses even the Enemy's wicked designs to bring about the ultimate fulfillment of His perfect plan. Within that plan, even Gollum has an indispensable part to play in the saving of Middle-earth. As Tolkien wrote in The Silmarillion, "Evil may yet be good to have been . . . and yet remain evil."2 This is a great mystery and a profound Christian truth.

Small Hands

Finally, take a close look at the members of the Fellowship of the Ring as they go trekking across the movie screen. Ask yourself which one looks the most like an epic hero. Is it the handsome, mysterious, swashbuckling Aragorn? Keen-sighted, swift-footed Legolas? Hard-fisted Gimli? Strong, dauntless Boromir? Wise and aged Gandalf?

Each is a hero in his own way, of course. And yet not one of them is chosen to carry the perilous Ring into the heart of Mordor. Instead, it's a hobbit — a boyish-looking halfling — who bears the burden of the world to its final destination.

This idea — that God uses small hands to accomplish great deeds — could almost be called the heart and soul of The Lord of the Rings. It's Moses and Pharaoh, David and Goliath, Gideon and the Midianites all over again. But the mission of Frodo and Sam isn't just your typical underdog story. It's something much more. In a way, it's a desperately needed reminder that God's ways are not our ways (Isaiah 55:8) — that when the power of evil confronts us with overwhelming odds on its side, the answer is not to fight fire with fire, but to look for deliverance in unexpected places. Hope and salvation, Tolkien seems to say, often arise in small, unnoticed corners. Like a hobbit-hole in the Shire.

Or a manger in a Palestinian stable.

Looking . . .
A late night in the spring of the year. Lewis' sitting room is strewn with papers, books, and empty teacups. The other Inklings have gone. Jack yawns and stretches.

"Tollers," he says as Tolkien gets up to leave, "there is too little of what we really like in stories. I am afraid we shall have to try and write some ourselves."

And so they did.

But with what results? When we drink from the cup of their "verbal inventions" is it really the Living Water we imbibe? Or did my friend Tom get it right — are their tales merely exercises in "pagan" imaginative art?

You've seen what they had to say. Now you'll have to decide for yourself . . . when you go looking for God in The Lord of the Rings at a theater — or bookstore — near you.

********

Personally, I like to believe Tolkien himself, when he said that the Lord of the Rings.... "is of course a fundamentally religious and Christian work; unconsciously so at first, but consciously in the revision."....Otherwise you make a liar out of him.

Comment by LadyCoralie - December 27, 2003 @ 8:14 PM
... I have to agree with Lady C on this to a degree, although I also agree with part of what you say. I don't think Tolkien was using Christian symbolism as directly as Lady C indicates.

However, LOTR reflected Catholic view more than any other story I've ever read. The thing is, most people (including most Catholics) don't know their own faith, and thus miss it.

The pagan elements made up the setting, but the world view behind it is thoroughly Catholic.

That being said, Truth is Truth, and Tolkien knew this (another Catholic thought). He loved the Truth, distorted as it may have been (to him) in the Pagan myths-- Honor, Sacrifice, Love. He took these, and "baptized them" in the story, showing them in a Catholic light.

Without any doctrine or dogma. Amazing bit of work, that.

When folks ask me to explain my religion, I often say "read Lord of the Rings". Not by any means a complete answer, but one that speaks very directly to the heart.

Comment by Elmtree - December 28, 2003 @ 7:42 AM
.. your quote is not quite right... Tolkien said "fundamentally religious and Catholic work"...

Comment by Elmtree - December 28, 2003 @ 7:49 AM
I myself AM Catholic, and therefore have more than just a literary love of Tolkien's work. Though he may have not drew actual allegories, he definatley gave our Chruch lots of similarities to draw from, ergo, Lembas and the Eucharist. As a Catholic, whether or not Tolkien intended it, I can find a lot of things to bolster my faith with in the story, and no one can accuse me for using so great a literary work to support my beliefs.
Not everyone will see it as we do, though, and I think Tolkien knew this. Rather, I should think he wrote it to work as it would on different human souls, " Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam". And that's no elvish.

Comment by *mushroom_dudes* - December 28, 2003 @ 1:10 PM
I don't think Tolkien was using Christian symbolism as directly as Lady C indicates.
...

I didn't state it Elmtree...Tolkien did himself in the above quote. He first wrote the Christian faith into it unconsiously then deliberately did so in the revision....

"The Lord of the Rings," he wrote in a letter to a friend, "is of course a fundamentally religious and Christian (Catholic) work; unconsciously so at first, but consciously in the revision....JRR Tolkien."

Catholic actually means Christian. Roman Catholic refers to the Roman Catholic faith.

Growing up as an Anglican, I used to have to say the creed which included "I believe in the Holy Catholic Church...." I questioned this as my Church was the Church of England. It was explained to me that 'Catholic' means Christian, and not the denomination.

Tolkien as a writer of the Oxford Dictionary and a superb linguist used the word 'Catholic' in its truest sense of the word. It is just our lack of education and modern habit for shortening words that leads us to believe incorrectly that 'Catholic' refers only to Roman Catholicism. Tolkien was a Christian first and a Roman Catholic second. The very fact that he said that he 'consciously wrote a fundamentally religious and Catholic (universally Christian)' work cannot be ignored, whatever your own religious persuasion and world view.

As far as I'm concerned Roman Catholics are Christians if we want to get really nit picky, and I don't see a conflict here at all. As I've said before...there is a vast difference between allegory and symbolism. Yes Tolkien hated allegory, but he was most partial to symbolism. And if you read the article carefully above...Tolkien deliberately set out to write about the 'REAL story' in Lord of the Rings.

From The Oxford Dictionary

catholic

• adjective 1 including a wide variety of things: catholic tastes. 2 (Catholic) Roman Catholic. 3 (Catholic) of or including all Christians.

• noun (Catholic) a Roman Catholic.

— DERIVATIVES Catholicism noun catholicity noun Catholicize (also Catholicise) verb.

— ORIGIN Greek katholikos ‘universal’.

From the Webster Dictionary

cath·o·lic ( P ) Pronunciation Key (kth-lk, kthlk)
adj.
Of broad or liberal scope; comprehensive: “The 100-odd pages of formulas and constants are surely the most catholic to be found” (Scientific American).
Including or concerning all humankind; universal: “what was of catholic rather than national interest” (J.A. Froude).
Catholic
Of or involving the Roman Catholic Church.
Of or relating to the universal Christian church.
Of or relating to the ancient undivided Christian church.
Of or relating to those churches that have claimed to be representatives of the ancient undivided church.

n. Catholic
A member of a Catholic church, especially a Roman Catholic.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Middle English catholik, universally accepted, from Old French catholique, from Latin catholicus, universal, from Greek katholikos, from katholou, in general : kat-, kata-, down, along, according to; see cata- + holou(from neuter genitive of holos, whole. See sol- in Indo-European Roots).]

Comment by LadyCoralie - December 28, 2003 @ 2:27 PM
And everything to do with misunderstanding the relationship between symbolism and allegory. An allegory is a story composed of coherent symbols that directly parallel another story. A Christian allegory is thus one that follows the life of Christ.

There is no denying that there are Christian _symbols_ and _elements_ in LOTR. But trying to spin them into a complete allegory, where various characters line up neatly with others, such as Christ, is a misreading of JRRT's work. It would be just as wrong to try to consolidate the Germanic pagan elements into a Nordic allegorical reading, or the echoes of WW 1 into an allegory of the Great War.

Again, LOTR has a Christian _sensability_. That's not a license for reading every event as being a topos of the life of Christ. The author says he doesn't like that kind of work, and I see no reason for one to contradict him simply because one _agrees_ with his world view.

Comment by Axordil - December 28, 2003 @ 3:59 PM
Perhaps it is difficult for you to see the Christian symbolism if this is not your faith, but to deny its existence is to deny Tolkien's own words.

True, Tolkien knew and admired the myths of the Norse and Anglo Saxons through his knowledge of linguistics, (eg translating Beowulf, which is considered by most scholars to contain Christian allegory), but he does not say himself that pagan mythology is the prime influence of his writings. Rather it was the form...eg saga that attracted him, and he wished to create a mythology (saga) for his beloved England.

"It was Tolkien’s view of myth that that most aided C. S. Lewis in his pilgrimage to accept Christianity. All the other myths of the world, Tolkien said, are a mixture of truth and error - truth because they are written by those made by and for God - error because written by those alienated by God. But the Bible is the one true myth. It is a true accounting of truth, while everything else we do is mimicking. This perspective was decisive in Lewis’ conversion to Christianity.' Rev. Curles on Tolkien, Christianity, Friendship.

Yes, Tolkien had a strong dislike for allegory and used a much more subtle technique in his writing. He did this deliberately. The man was brilliant. He wanted to write a Christian epic without stating the obvious, which is why LOTR is peppered with so much Christian symbolism. The themes of the work are undoubtedly Christian, but not overtly so.

Many parallels can be drawn between LOTR and Christian belief.

As I stated before, Aragorn was a type of Christ...He was the one true king, the returning king, the one who had healing in his hands, the rightful heir who had been hidden from Sauron from birth...sound familiar? He was a humble man who possessed great power and commanded respect, he was not notably handsome or elegant in his appearance and was not readily recognisable as the true King... "For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.....Isaiah 53: 1-3 (KJV)

He had authority over the dead (Jesus was given the keys to hell and death), he could only claim his bride after he had claimed his throne, he fulfilled the prophecies concerning him just as Jesus did.

But again I must refer to what Tolkien said himself about the story. After all he wrote it, and I prefer to hear what he said rather than mere conjecture based on personal opinion. Here is an eyewitness account.

Meeting Professor Tolkien

An American professor spent a summer with Tolkien. He remembers the man, his faith, and his writings.
by Clyde S. Kilby

I first met J. R. R. Tolkien late on the afternoon of September 1, 1964. His fame was then rapidly on the rise and he had been forced to escape his public whenever he could. Visitors were more or less constantly at his door and his telephone busy. Phone callers from the United States sometimes forgot the time differential and would get him out of bed at two or three o'clock in the morning. He was paying the price of sudden emergence from the relative obscurity of a professional scholar to the glare of publicity accorded to any internationally known writer.

Close encounter
With great hopes and some fears I walked to 76 Sanfield Road, opened the gate, nervously approached his door and rang the bell. I waited what seemed to me a very long time and was on the point of a reluctant departure when the door opened and there stood the man himself. Tolkien matter-of-factly invited me inside. … We went into his downstairs office, remodeled from a garage. Possessing no automobile, he was then using taxis for errands to Oxford, two miles away, and elsewhere. This little office was pretty well filled up with a desk, a couple of chairs, and bookcases along the walls.

After his sober greeting at the door, I found him immediately friendly as we sat down. Tolkien was a most genial man with a steady twinkle in his eyes and a great curiosity—the sort of person one instinctively likes.

I briefly explained who I was and told him that, like thousands of others, I had come to love his great story and regard it as something of a classic. He laughed at the idea of being a classical author while still alive, but I think he was pleased. He then became a bit apologetic and explained that people sometimes regarded him as a man living in a dream world. This was wholly untrue, he insisted, and described himself as a busy philologist and an ordinary citizen interested in everyday things like anybody else.

He told me, surprisingly, that he and his good friend C. S. Lewis had long before agreed to do narratives dealing with space and time. Lewis wrote Out of the Silent Planet and Perelandra and thus fulfilled his part of the plan to write on space, but Tolkien said he had never embarked on a story about time.

Second impressions
To my surprise, at the end of our brief visit, Tolkien warmly invited me back for the morning of September 4, the day before I was to fly home to the U.S. At that time Mrs. Tolkien greeted me at the door and showed me upstairs to her husband's main office, a room crowded with a large desk, a rotating bookcase, wall bookcases, and a cot. I was received like a longtime friend.

While he talked he stood up and walked about or else sat on his cot. Like C. S. Lewis, when I visited him some years earlier, Tolkien continually fiddled with his pipe but actually smoked little. As his talk grew in enthusiasm, he would sometimes come very close to me and put his face almost against mine, as though to make sure the point of some remark was completely understood. One had the feeling that he had thought considerably about whatever opinion he was expressing and simply wanted to state it accurately.

A deep-rooted faith
I do not recall a single visit I made to Tolkien's home in which the conversation did not at some point fall easily into a discussion of religion, or rather Christianity. He told me that he had many times been given a story as an answer to prayer. Mrs. Tolkien joined him in remarking that one of their children had been cured, as they firmly believed, of a heart ailment, through prayer. He commonly referred to Christ as "our Lord" and was much upset when he heard others address God as though He were the Lord Mayor.

Tolkien did indeed have a special reverence for the Virgin Mary. One of his observations was that she must have jealously guarded her pregnancy since had it been discovered Mary would either have been stoned as an adulteress or, if she had tried to explain, stoned for blasphemy.

He was moved by the degradation of the birth of Christ in a stable with its filth and manure and saw it as a symbol of the real nature of holy things in a fallen world. He spoke of his special regard for the Book of Luke because that writer included so much about women.

He believed that creativity itself is a gift of God. After years of teaching aesthetics, I cannot but conclude that the whole of that difficult subject is comprehended in a single line from Tolkien's "On Fairy-stories": "we make still by the law in which we're made."

The Secret Fire of Middle-earth
Responding to a letter from Father Robert Murray suggesting Tolkien's story impressed him as entirely about grace, Tolkien wrote: "I know exactly what you mean by the order of grace; and of course by your references to Our Lady, upon which all my own small perception of beauty both in majesty and simplicity is founded. The Lord of the Rings is of course a fundamentally religious and Catholic work; unconsciously so at first but consciously in the revision. I … have cut out practically all references to anything like 'religion,' to cults and practices in the imaginary world. For the religious element is absorbed into the story and the symbolism. However that is very clumsily put, and sounds more self-important than I feel. I should chiefly be grateful for having been brought up since I was eight in a faith that has nourished me and taught me all the little that I know … "

Professor Tolkien talked to me at some length about the use of the word "holy" in The Silmarillion. Very specifically he told me that the "Secret Fire sent to burn at the heart of the World" in the beginning was the Holy Spirit.

He described his problem in depicting the fall of mankind near the beginning of the story. "How far we have fallen!" he exclaimed—so far, he felt, that it would seem impossible even to find an adequate prototype or to imagine the contrast between Eden and the disaster which followed.

Clyde S. Kilby was a Wheaton College (IL) professor who, in 1965, established at that college a center for the study of Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, G. K. Chesterton, George MacDonald, Dorothy L. Sayers, Charles Williams, and Owen Barfield. Later named after a benefactor, the Marion E. Wade Center (wheaton.edu/learnres/wade/) houses a major collection of the books, papers, photographs, and mementos of these writers, including such items as Lewis's family wardrobe and Tolkien's desk.

Kilby's first visit to Tolkien took place in Fall 1964. After returning to the U.S., Kilby wrote to Tolkien, offering to come to Oxford to help him put into publishable form the many scattered manuscripts treating the early history of Middle-earth.

Tolkien gratefully accepted Kilby's offer, and Kilby spent the summer of 1966 in Tolkien's company. In the end, the publishing of Middle-earth's early history would await the labors of Tolkien's son, Christopher (The Silmarillion was published in 1977, four years after Tolkien's death). But Kilby gained rare insights into Tolkien's character, which he gathered and published in the book from which these excerpts are quoted with permission: Tolkien and the Silmarillion (Harold Shaw, 1976; now copyright 2003, The Marion E. Wade Center, Wheaton College, Illinois).

Comment by LadyCoralie - December 30, 2003 @ 11:07 AM
As I stated before, Aragorn was a type of Christ...He was the one true king, the returning king, the one who had healing in his hands, the rightful heir who had been hidden from Sauron from birth...sound familiar?

Sure. It's every mythic king in Western literature, pre- and post-Christian. I would say rather that both Christ and Aragorn are types. But there are elements in Aragorn that are not present in Christ. The hidden part, for example, does not ring very true for me in the Christ story. When someone's birthplace and lineage are prophesised, it's hard to think of them as being hidden.

Be that as it may, there is still too little that is _exclusively_ Christian, especially in light of JRRT's knowledge of pre-Christian European literature, for me to give primacy to the Christian symbolism in the Aragorn and the West story threads.

BTW, I was raised Christian, intensely so, so I'm quite familar with the worldview. I have no trouble seeing it at work in LOTR. I just don't think it's alone, or even terribly active at the surface. I would compare JRRT's writing to Graham Greene's in this regard. And that is a compliment to both.

Comment by Axordil - December 31, 2003 @ 8:03 AM
What Mythic King in Pre Christian Western literature are you talking about as returning?

Which king can heal with his hands? Aragorn & Jesus

Please name one King from pre Christian Western Literature that can heal with his bare hands.

Which King was hidden and taken to another land/realm/country at birth in pre Christian Western literature? Aragorn & Jesus

Which King in pre Christian Western Literature was unrecognised and uncrowned by his own people?
Aragorn & Christ

Which king in pre Christian Western literature's true identity is only revealed when he becomes a man? Aragorn & Christ

Which king in pre Christian Western literature lived as a commoner amongst his own people as well as foreigners and did good to both? Aragorn & Christ

Which King in pre Christian Western literature can only claim his bride after he has gained the throne and defeated the enemy...A type of Satan? Aragorn & Christ

Which King in pre Christian Western literature is wise and able to give good counsel? Aragorn & Christ

Which King in pre Christian Western literature speaks and others follow? Aragorn & Christ

Which king in pre Christian Western literature defeats death and its power? Aragorn & Christ

Which King humbles himself as a servant to others and does not proclaim his own kingship in Pre Christian Western literature? Aragorn & Christ

Which king in pre Christian Western literature submits his will to a higher authority? Aragorn & Christ

Which king in pre Christian Western literature remains faithful and true to his beloved and is prepared to lay down his life for her? Aragorn & Christ

Which king in pre Christian Western literature's ascension to the throne ushers in a new age? Aragorn & Christ

Which king in pre Christian Western Literature was not considered comely or kingly in appearance? Aragorn & Christ

Which King in Pre Christian Western literature spent time in the wild fighting off the enemy? Aragorn & Christ

Which king in pre Christian Western literature protects his people with his life from the enemy both spiritual and physical? Aragorn & Christ.

Which king in pre Christian Western literature's coming was long foretold over thousands of years? Aragorn & Christ.

Which king in pre Christian Western literature was descended from a fallen king and restores the throne and the kingdom to its rightful place? Aragorn & Christ

Which king in pre Christian Western literature resists temptation and does not fall? Aragorn & Christ

Which king in pre Christian Western literature can call forth the dead and make them obey him? Aragorn & Christ

Which king's followers faltered and rebuked him before he claimed his kingdom and questioned his authority in pre Christian Western literature? Aragorn & Christ.

Which king in pre Christian Western literature has a face to face encounter (sans sword) with the Enemy and defeats him? Aragorn & Christ

Which King in pre Christian Western literature endures taunts and insults and does not speak a word in his own defence? Aragorn & Christ

Which king in Pre Christian Western literature shows mercy to those who do not deserve it or have not earned it? Aragorn & Christ ..This is purely a Christian notion...

I'd really like to know the sources for Pre Christian Western literature that have all these elements. Which king is represented in here in Tolkien's works? It is overwhelmingly Jesus Christ. You say you were raised as a Christian, but how could you not know that Jesus was hidden at birth from the false king Herod as Aragorn was hidden from Sauron who falsely declared himself as the king and not see the similarities? There are just too many similarities to draw upon and as Tolkien said himself that this was his intention, what evidence do you have from either anecdotal records or his notes that prove otherwise?

I would like some empirical evidence and names of Kings in pre Christian Western literature that support your theory and meet all of these elements rather than just bandying about generalities as you have done. Can you please place the name of a pre Christian Western literature king beside each one of the examples above?

There are other Christ type figures in LOTR such as Gandalf, Frodo and Sam...and we haven't even started on those.

Comment by LadyCoralie - December 31, 2003 @ 10:50 AM

LC--

Nothing personal, but one of my resolutions this New Year was no longer to do other's research for them. I would point in the general direction of Joseph Campbell, and perhaps Frazier, and let you go from there. Suffice it to say that the Western definition of kingship draws from both Christian and pre-Christian roots, and that those roots are sometimes hard to disentangle.

The hiding parallel breaks down in particular in that Aragorn was hidden for decades, and his line for centuries, from Sauron, while Jesus was hidden for months or perhaps a year or two, according to scripture. Also, Herod's kingship was inherited, if memory serves, so calling it false seems arbitrary.

Most of the rest of the parallels you cite also strike me as forced. Aragorn was born in Imladris, not taken there. He was a man long before he was revealed as king. Any king whose followers don't respond when he speaks isn't much of a king. Aragorn does not defeat death, or the dead rather, but harnesses them. Etc., etc.

I think it best at this point to terminate the discussion, as I don't think it profitable to either of us. If your reading brings you joy, then it is true for you, and that's what matters in the end, isn't it? It's certainly far more important than convincing some crusty old refugee from academia an ocean away.

Comment by Axordil - January 1, 2004 @ 9:30 AM

I have no inclination to research something which plainly does not exist. Tolkien was not a professor of pre Christian Western Literature, but rather a linguist. He even concluded that Beowulf was written by a Christian author.

You cannot give me any examples of those kings, because it is pure conjecture on your part. I prefer to use the written records, anecdotal notes and memories of Tolkien, his friends and his family in regards to this. Although I feel that it wouldn't matter how much evidence was given to you...Even to resurrect him (Tolkien) from the dead and plainly tell you himslef that this is a Christian work, would make no difference as you refuse to believe.

As for Herod, his kingship was not inherited...He was a Samaritan and appointed by Caesar as a puppet king. Sauron was a puppet of Melkor. Aragorn's ability to harness death is a metaphor for defeating it. The main thrust of the argument is that he has power over it. I don't know anyone other than Aragorn and Christ who could do either in literature pre Christian or not. The parallels are symbols mate. Not exact replicas...Which is why LOTR is not an allegory at all. At least on that point we agree.

Comment by LadyCoralie - January 1, 2004 @ 11:38 AM

A character being a type of something, or suggesting something, does not mean the character "equals" something.

The one to one correspondence of a character and a symbol is allegory, and JRRT detested allegory.

Gandalf, Frodo, and Aragorn each participate in different ways as Christ-types:
Gandalf fought a demon, descended to the underworld, and came back to the living on a mission from the Valar.
Frodo endured excruciating suffering "the Passion" to rid the world of the symbol of evil, also undergoing a symbolic death/resurrection
Aragorn descended to the dead and returned and was crowned king.

Lots of Christian resonance, but I would say none of them = Christ, because that would be direct allegory, and I believe that if an author says his story is not an allegory, than it is not.

P.S. tantalizing note: Denethor, as steward of Gondor, proposes to "burn like a heathen king". In this pre-Christian world, there is some dispensation of grace operating, that is, it is not pure dark paganism.

Comment by maerantha - January 2, 2004 @ 1:13 PM

What a fray we have here! There are no easy answers, either. The best source for what Tolkien's intentions were as seen in his conscious mind are his published letters. The quote mentioned earlier "a fundamentally religious and Catholic work" is from Letter # 142 in Humphrey Carpenter's edition. However, the same sentence continues "unconsciously so at first...". His own words attest to his conscious intent but there are doubtless, and sometimes obvious, indications of subconscious influences that even he may not have been able to articulate, seen as he sometimes contradicts himself.

What is the heart of the matter: what Tolkien felt his intents were or what we might believe that we (not necessarily TORC, but commentors in general)
can see that he could not articulate himself?
Those are two separate entities.

I prefer to take his own words, from his Letters and other nonfiction corpus of work, at face value as reflecting what he himself thought at the time at which it was written. Not to do so opens the way to a completely Decontructionist collapse of meaning to the Weltanschauung of the reader. There are some professional Tolkien scholars who have done some very insightful analysis but for the amateur, as I am, these are deep waters.

Comment by Gil-Estel - January 2, 2004 @ 2:23 PM

News

Middle-earth Is God's Country - J.R.R. Tolkien's deplorable cultus should go to church

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