Finding God in 'The Lord of the Rings'

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Special: Harry Potter
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

Coming soon: film reviews of Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings!

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 Potterand Lord of the Rings? Aren't they pretty much the same: magic, wizards, monsters and so on?

In Finding God in the Lord of the Rings, Jim Ware and Kurt Bruner reveal J.R.R. Tolkein's faith and the Christian foundation of his books.

Available November 16!

"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.

Intentions
Just how serious were these writers about the Christian purpose of their "verbal inventions"? Let's ask them.

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.

Jim Ware is crazy about Celtic music. In fact, he plays the guitar and the hammered dulcimer, and he's likely to show up wherever there's an opportunity to play a few jigs and reels! But writing is his real passion. Jim is the author of three novels for children, as well as the co-author (with Kurt Bruner) of Finding God in the Lord of the Rings. He lives in Colorado Springs with his wife, Joni, and their six kids.

1. From "Sometimes Fairy Stories May Say Best What's To Be Said," in Of Other Worlds; ed. Walter Hooper, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, New York, 1966.
2. Tolkien, The Silmarillion, Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, 1977; p. 98.

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[jrherreid]

Probably the best book I've read on this subject is "Tolkien: Man and Myth" by Joseph Pearce. He explains that, while LOTR is not a direct allegory of any sort, it is informed by the author's deep religious faith.

And you have to read the feminist interpretation of Frodo and Sam's encounter with Shelob--it is as funny as it is sad!

Anyhow, I'm looking forward to the movie. I would like to see what BBC would do with it, given a proper budget. Each book given six hour-and-a-half segment... drool.

[AppyPappy]

Young lady, God is missing. Do you have a explanation? [tapping foot]

[prisoner6]

The map is not the territory. Words and symbols are not the things they denote. Dressing up as a vampire (or even as the devil himself) does not necessarily imply that one believes in the existence (or righfullness) of either. The actor who plays the role of the bad guy is not necessarily an evil person. Celebrating Halloween because it amuses you is not the same thing as doing so because you have any of the same beliefs as did those who originated Samhain.

We are quite in agreement. I never meant to imply that enthusiasm for - or as much the case is with Lewis and Tolkien repect for - a particular work is inherently evil or wrong.

However Tolkien's Great Trilogy is such an amazing accomplishment that it is easy for some to become so imersed they tend to ingore reality. In the case of The Silmarillion the absorbtion can reach the point where it replaces The Scriptures upon which the work is based.

I find that tragic, and certainly not what Tolkien would have ever intended.

I also recall a passage, from perhaps the same letter quoted above, wherin J.R.R.T. responded to the question of why he wrote TLOTR. He replied he wondered whether it would be possible to write a fiction of heroism and mythology that would enrapture and adult reader.

He succeeded, and I salute him for that achievment!

Finally may I as well thank you and everyone else who've contributed, for a very interesting topic and quite a welcome, albiet brief diversion from things more depressing, if not important!

prisoner6

[constitutiongirl]

As long as you're not stripping off all your clothes and running headlong into battle to honor your ancestors. lol

[Paul Atreides]

Ivan, Obubba Been Laiden's only commandment is "Thou shalt not disfigure the penis" and he's already bent that rule!

[sourcery]

Osama Bent Ladle?

[sourcery]

[MadameAxe]

Dec. 19 bttt...

[SauronOfMordor]

I can't wait to see how it comes out

he he ....

[general_re]

I can't wait to see how it comes out

Not to wreck the plot too much, but I have a feeling things aren't going to go well for you ;)

[DebtsPaid]

[Texaggie79]

That's a cool pic. But why did you post it on this thread?

[Texaggie79]

Not that you are not supposed to. I was just wondering.

[GeekDejure]

Thanks 4 the Ping !!!

I keep on trying to pull my sword out, but it always gets stuck in my skivies !!!

[Arthalion]

I'm sorry, but I don't understand how anybody can find Christian allegory in the Middle-Earth creation myth. The legend laid out in the Sillmarilion is blatantly polytheistic and pagan. Furthermore the one "high god", if you will, was totally uninvolved in the creation of mankind, and not even remotely related to their daily lives. The book even specifies that nobody, not even the gods, knew what happens to the human soul after death. Heck, the lead characters even redeem the world and vanquish the "satan" character on their own...WITHOUT Gods help. That's about as un-Christian as you can get.

What the Lord of the Rings is, is a stunningly well told tale of good versus evil. It's a tale where nobility and strength of character are proven to be mightier than even the worst evils. It's a tale about facing darkness, adversity, and your greatest fears to do good. It's a tale about the good one small group of people can do when they are willing to put their lives aside and TRY. And finally, its a tale that explores our own mythologies, and tries to tie them all together. But above all, it's fantasy. As much as I love Tolkiens works, I never let myself forget that they were written for entertainment (though I myself own a $300 leather bound LotR set printed on Bible paper with beautiful gold inlay).

Some aspects of the books may in fact reflect Christian ideals, but claiming that Tolkien intended LotR to be a tool to spread the Christian message ignores the upfront polytheism and legends he wove into them. I've read every work by J.R.R. Tolkien several times, and most of the backround writings released by his son Christopher. I personally feel that Tolkiens Middle-Earth series is probably one of the few pieces of modern literature that genuinely qualifies as "art", but I think that attempts to find religious or spiritual meaning in the stories are rather pathetic and are a definite reach. It's just a story folks.

[JenB]

Of course it's fiction; if that's all you get out of it, well, it's worth the money. However, there are so many little things you see when you read the books, and the Silmarillion. For instance, all the elves you meet in Middle-Earth are "fallen" elves who cannot go home until they redeem themselves. After the destruction of the Ring, they are forgiven and allowed to lave - but those races who remain in Middle-Earth are made poor. Bilbo was able to give up the Ring before it got a hold on his soul; this saved him.

Many images and themes in these books are Christian; and as for the Creation myth in the Silmarillion, you should read the similar story in Lewis' "Magician's Nephew" for the full power to hit you. And reread it - who is in control of the Music? Who can take Melkor's discordant strains and make a far more glorious piece of them? Is it not an allegory of the One who took Satan's deception of mankind and made a far more glorious redemption?

[billbears]

I agree with you that especially with the Simarillion there was not a real tie to Christianity.. But OTOH I will say that the first time I read the original series, several characters really stuck out as allegorical examples within Christianity and the Bible, Gandalf in particular

[Dialup Llama]

Should I read the book first or just see the movie?

[sourcery]

My advice is to read both The Hobbit and The Fellowship of the Ring immediately before seeing the movies, but then to see the remaining movies first before reading the corresponding books (The Two Towers, The Return of the King).

Here's why:

1. There is much introductory and expository information in the books that may not come across as clearly in the movies. Most of the essential information of this nature is in The Hobbit and The Fellowship of the Ring.
2. By reading at least The Hobbit before seeing the movies, you will have a chance to form your own vision/interpretation of Tolkien/Middle Earth, without outside interference.
3. By not reading The Two Towers or The Return of the King before seeing the movies, you will be able to experience that part of the story on film de novo, instead of already knowing the basic plot.

[BradyLS]

Lucius' Balrog is EXACTLY as I imagined it!

AAIIIEEE! A BALROG IS COME!!! --Legolas