Christianity in Middle-earth

Tolkien stated in the foreword to the second edition of The Lord of the Rings that "it is neither allegorical nor topical ... I cordially dislike allegory in all its manifestations ... I much prefer history, true or feigned, with its varied applicability to the thought and experience of readers."[T 4] Shippey comments that Tolkien certainly did sometimes write allegories, giving the example of Leaf by Niggle,[6] and that there is meant to be some relationship between his fiction and fact.[7] He notes, too, that Tolkien deliberately "approach[ed] to the edge of Christian reference"[8] by placing the destruction of the Ring and the fall of Sauron on 25 March, the traditional Anglo-Saxon date of the crucifixion of Christ and of the annunciation, and of the last day of the Genesis creation.[8] Other commentators have noted further echoes of Christian themes, including the presence of Christ figures,[9] the resurrection,[10] hope,[11] and redemptive suffering.[12]

Commentators disagree on whether The Lord of the Rings in particular is a Christian work, despite Tolkien's statement that it is.[13][14]

In favour is the scholar of theology and literature Ralph C. Wood with his 2003 book The Gospel According to Tolkien, which concludes "Christians are called to be hobbit-like servants of the King and his Kingdom. Frodo and Sam are first in the reign of Iluvatar because they are willing to be last and least among those who 'move the wheels of the world'".[13] Wood notes, too, that the elves' lembas waybread is "reminiscent of the eucharistic wafer: its airy lightness gives strength in direct disproportion to its weight".[15]

An ambivalent position is taken by Paul Kocher, in his book Master of Middle-earth. He writes that "having made the times pre-Christian, [Tolkien] has freed himself from the need to deal with them in a Christian context, which would be awkward if applied to elves, ents, dwarves, and the rest."[16] On the other hand, Kocher notes that Elrond ascribes purpose to events including the summoning of the Free Peoples to his council; Elrond uses the words "purpose", "called", "ordered", and "believe", implying "some living will".[17] Similarly, he comments, Gandalf firmly tells Denethor, the despairing Steward of Gondor, that suicide is forbidden and indeed is "heathen".[18]

Against is Catherine Madsen, who found herself drawn to faith by the novel, "yet not particularly to the Christian faith".[14] She notes that Tolkien wrote that "Myth and fairy-story, as all art, reflect and contain in solution elements of moral and religious truth (or error), but not explicit[ly]".[T 5] She states that Tolkien clearly "did not intend his work to argue or illustrate or promulgate Christianity".[14] In her view, Tolkien uses "Christian magic", not doctrine; she notes that Tolkien wrote that Middle-earth was "a monotheistic world of 'natural theology'".[T 6] The "natural religion" of the book is, she argues, based on matters such as the Elves and their longing for the sea, creating a "religious feeling ... curiously compatible with a secular cosmology".[14] A world of religion without revelation, she writes, is necessarily ambiguous, and any triumph over evil also diminishes the good, so the world inevitably fades. Hence, what The Lord of the Rings offers is not a supernatural hope, but what Tolkien called "recovery", the reawakening of the senses, an unmediated attention to the present, as when Sam looks up into the night sky in Mordor, and is struck by the beauty of a star. To Madsen, this is "the most compelling thing about the book, and also the least Christian ... available to anyone of any persuasion, and not contingent upon belief."[14]

Commentators have compared Frodo to Christ, and Sam, who carried Frodo on the way to Mount Doom, to Simon of Cyrene, who carried Christ's cross to Golgotha.[20] Church of St. John Nepomucen, Brenna

The philosopher Peter Kreeft, like Tolkien a Roman Catholic, observes that there is no one complete, concrete, visible Christ figure in The Lord of the Rings comparable to Aslan in C. S. Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia series. However, Kreeft and Jean Chausse have identified reflections of the figure of Jesus Christ in three protagonists of The Lord of the Rings: Gandalf, Frodo and Aragorn. While Chausse found "facets of the personality of Jesus" in them, Kreeft wrote that "they exemplify the Old Testament threefold Messianic symbolism of prophet (Gandalf), priest (Frodo), and king (Aragorn)".[9][21][22]

Several commentators have seen Gandalf's passage through the Mines of Moria, dying to save his companions and returning as "Gandalf the White", as a symbol of the resurrection of Christ.[10][23][12][24] Like Jesus who carried his cross for the sins of mankind, Frodo carried a burden of evil on behalf of the whole world.[25] Frodo walks his "Via Dolorosa" to Mount Doom just like Jesus who made his way to Golgotha.[26] As Frodo approaches the Cracks of Doom, the Ring becomes a crushing weight, just as the cross was for Jesus. Sam Gamgee, Frodo's servant, who carries Frodo up to Mount Doom, parallels Simon of Cyrene, who helps Jesus by carrying his cross to Golgotha.[20] When Frodo accomplishes his mission, like Christ, he says "it is done".[27] Just as Christ ascends to heaven, Frodo's life in Middle-earth comes to an end when he departs to the Undying Lands.[25]

A theme that runs throughout The Lord of the Rings but is especially clear in The Silmarillion is of light. The scholar of mythology and medieval literature Verlyn Flieger explains that Tolkien equates light with God and the ability to create. She cites from Tolkien's poem Mythopoeia ("Creation of Myth"):[28][T 7]

man, sub-creator, the refracted light
through whom is splintered from a single White
to many hues, and endlessly combined
in living shapes that move from mind to mind.
Though all the crannies of the world we filled
with elves and goblins, though we dared to build
gods and their houses out of dark and light,
and sow the seed of dragons, 'twas our right
(used or misused). The right has not decayed.
We make still by the law in which we're made.[T 8]

Coat of arms of Gondor bearing the white tree, Nimloth the fair, descendant of Telperion, one of the Two Trees of Valinor that once lit the world

Flieger writes that by this, Tolkien meant that an author's ability to create fantasy fiction, or in his terms "subcreation", was derived from and could be seen as a small splinter of the Divine Light, the "single White" of the poem. Further, the whole of The Silmarillion can be seen as a working-out of this theme of Man splintering the original white light of creation "to many hues, and endlessly combined in living shapes" in the forms of light and dark elves, men good and bad, and dragons and other monsters. This creative light, she states, was for Tolkien equated with the Christian Λόγος (Logos), the Divine Word.[28]

The light begins in The Silmarillion as a unity, and in accordance with the splintering of creation is divided into more and more fragments as the myth progresses. Middle-earth is peopled by the angelic Valar and lit by two great lamps; when these are destroyed by the fallen Vala Melkor, the world is fragmented, and the Valar retreat to Valinor, which is lit by The Two Trees. When these too are destroyed, their last fragment of light is made into the Silmarils, and a sapling too is rescued, leading to the White Tree of Numenor, the living symbol of the Kingdom of Gondor. Wars are fought over the Silmarils, and they are lost to the Earth, the Sea, and the Sky, the last of these, carried by Eärendil the Mariner, becoming the Morning Star. Some of the star's light is captured in Galadriel's Mirror, the magic fountain that allows her to see past, present, and future; and some of that light is, finally, trapped in the Phial of Galadriel, her parting gift to Frodo, the counterbalance to Sauron's evil and powerful Ring that he also carries. At each stage, the fragmentation increases and the power decreases. Thus the theme of light as Divine power, fragmented and refracted through the works of created beings, is central to the whole mythology.[29]

Tolkien wrote of the Eucharist or Blessed Sacrament that it was "the one great thing to love on earth"[T 9] where, he advised his son Michael, "you will find romance, glory, honour, fidelity, and the true way of all your loves upon earth".[T 9] He described it as a divine paradox, meaning death but also eternal life.[T 9] Tolkien alluded to a religious significance of the lembas waybread in The Lord of the Rings in a letter to Forrest J. Ackerman in 1958:[T 10]

In the book lembas has two functions. It is a 'machine' or device for making credible the long marches with little provision, in a world in which as I have said "miles are miles". But that is relatively unimportant. It also has a much larger significance, of what one might hesitatingly call a "religious" kind. This becomes later apparent, especially in the chapter "Mount Doom".[T 10]

Based on Tolkien's statements, Christian commentators have argued that a highly developed Eucharistic symbolism is carried by lembas and its history, elaborated further in The Silmarillion, noting that "waybread" can be seen as a translation of viaticum, the Eucharistic food for a journey.[30][31][32] In The Silmarillion, the lembas, for example, is given to the Elves to feed them during their Great Journey to the Undying Lands, recalling to Christian commentators God's gift of Manna to the Israelites during their exodus to the Promised Land at Exodus 14.[30][33] The Maia Melian makes a royal gift of lembas to Beleg, brother-in-arms of the mortal Man Túrin, to be his "help in the wild":[T 11]

And she gave him store of lembas, the waybread of the Elves, wrapped in leaves of silver, and the threads that bound it were sealed at the knots with the seal of the Queen, a wafer of white wax shaped as a single flower of Telperion; for according to the customs of the Eldalië the keeping and giving of lembas belonged to the Queen alone.[T 11]

Tolkien immediately emphasizes the special nature of this gift:[T 11]

In nothing did Melian show greater favour to Túrin than in this gift; for the Eldar had never before allowed Men to use this waybread, and seldom did so again.[T 11]

Beleg uses the lembas, along with his Elvish power, to help heal Men of Túrin's company, and later also the Elf Gwindor, who had been enslaved by Morgoth.[T 11]

The motif of hope is illustrated in Aragorn's successful handling of Saruman's seeing-stone or palantír. Aragorn is given the very name of "Hope" (Sindarin "Estel"), by which he is still affectionately called by his queen, Arwen, who at the hour of his death cries out "Estel, Estel!". Only Aragorn, as the heir of Isildur, can rightfully use the palantír, while Saruman and Denethor, who have both also made extensive use of palantírs, have fallen into despair or presumption. These latter traits have been identified as the two distinct sins "against the virtue of Hope".[11]

The Christian theme of the redemptive and penitential nature of suffering is apparent in the dreadful ordeal of Sam and Frodo in Mordor. As another example, Boromir atones for his assault on Frodo by single-handedly but vainly defending Merry and Pippin from orcs,[12] which illustrates also another significant Christian theme: immortality of the soul and the importance of good intention, especially at the point of death. This is clear from Gandalf's statement: "But he [Boromir] escaped in the end.... It was not in vain that the young hobbits came with us, if only for Boromir's sake."[T 12]

The place of Christianity's angels is taken by the immortal Ainur, who are divided into two orders of beings, the Valar and the Maiar. The powerful Valar behave much like the pagan gods of Greek mythology. Flieger calls their role in Middle-earth "eccentric" from a Christian point of view: they are lower than the One God, certainly, but unlike angels they are sub-creators, each with their own realm. So, for instance, Manwë is King of Arda (the Earth), Ulmo is Lord of Waters, Mandos Judge of the Dead, and they were married. This positions them, as Tolkien stated, as demiurges, godlike figures in the Platonic scheme of things with the ability to shape the material world. As with the splintering of light, Flieger writes, the choice of the name "demiurge" implies subdivision, its original meaning including "to do by dividing".[34]

Some Maiar, a lesser order than the Valar, were sent by the Valar into Middle-earth in mortal bodies to influence, but not to direct, events there.[34] These Maiar were Wizards or Istari, of whom Gandalf is the best known to readers. Tolkien stated that they fitted the original Greek description "ἄγγελος" (Angelos) meaning messenger.[35][T 13]

Divine providence is represented in Middle-earth by the will of the Valar. This can be detected but is subtle enough not to affect free will or the need for individual courage.[36] Its action is sometimes hinted at rather directly, as when Gandalf says that Bilbo and Frodo were "meant" to have the One Ring, though it remained their choice to co-operate with this purpose.[37]

The Tolkien scholar Tom Shippey writes that The Lord of the Rings embodies the ancient debate within Christianity on the nature of evil. Shippey notes Elrond's Boethian statement that "nothing is evil in the beginning. Even [the Dark Lord] Sauron was not so",[38] in other words all things were created good; but this is set alongside the Manichean view that Good and Evil are equally powerful, and battle it out in the world.[39] Tolkien's personal war experience was Manichean: evil seemed at least as powerful as good, and could easily have been victorious, a strand which Shippey notes can also be seen in Middle-earth.[40] Brian Rosebury, a humanities scholar, interprets Elrond's statement as implying an Augustinian universe, created good.[41]

Rosebury writes that The Lord of the Rings is saved from simple moralising or allegory by the presence of realistically complicated moral conflict within the characters: the "good" characters are challenged by temptations, while the "evil" characters all have good sides, were once good, or hesitate over evil actions.[41]

This list identifies each item's location in Tolkien's writings.