by Joseph Pearce
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As J.R.R. Tolkien fans awaited the December
opening
of the film The Lord of the Rings, Seattle Pacific University's C.S.
Lewis
Institute hosted a special conference to explore the epic's place in 20th
century
literature and culture. "Celebrating Middle Earth: The Lord of the
Rings
as a Defense of Western Civilization" attracted 600 people to campus
November 9-10
to hear presentations by Tolkien biographer Joseph Pearce, author Peter
Kreeft,
and SPU faculty members John West, Janet Blumberg, Phillip Goggans and Kerry
Dearborn.
Also on the program were a medieval banquet and a performance of
The Lord of the Rings Symphony by the SPU Symphonic Wind Ensemble.
"When I heard about the new film version of The Lord of the Rings,"
says
John West, associate professor of political science and conference
organizer, "I
thought it would provide a wonderful opportunity to explore the theological
and
ethical dimensions of Tolkien's saga. I was also reading Joseph Pearce's
biography
of Tolkien at the time, and I thought it was so insightful that I wanted to
invite
him to SPU."
Pearce, whose book Tolkien, Man and Myth was published in 1998, spoke
about
the Christian foundation of The Lord of the Rings. "Far from being an
escapist fantasy," he told his audience, "The Lord of the Rings is a
theological thriller." Included below is an edited version of his remarks.
Tolkien and other British Christian authors have been the subjects of study
at
the Seattle Pacific C.S. Lewis Institute for more than 25 years. Today the
Institute
is a joint project of SPU's
Society of Fellows and
the Discovery
Institute.
The November conference was co-sponsored by the Intercollegiate Studies
Institute,
which provided funding for the event, as did the Eahart Foundation.
J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord
of the Rings has emerged as "the greatest book of the twentieth
century" in several major polls conducted in Britain in recent years. In one
poll of more than 25,000 bibliophiles, conducted by a major bookselling
chain and a national television channel, one-fifth nominated The Lord of
the Rings as their first choice. It was a runaway winner, securing 1,200
votes more than George Orwell's 1984, its nearest rival.
Many literary experts greeted Tolkien's triumph with contempt.
British writer Howard Jacobson dismissed Tolkien as being "for children
… or
the adult slow." Susan Jeffreys, writing in the Sunday Times,
described The
Lord of the Rings as "a horrible artifact" and added that it was
"depressing …
that the votes for the world's best 20th-century book should have come from
those
burrowing an escape into a non-existent world." Rarely has the cultural
schism
between the literati and the reading public been highlighted to such an
extent.
Most of those who sneered at The Lord of the Rings are outspoken
champions
of cultural deconstruction and moral relativism. They would likely treat the
Christian
beliefs of Tolkien with the same disdain as they have his writings.
But then some of Tolkien's critics are Christians. They remain suspicious of
The Lord
of the Rings because they see within its mythological setting hints of
neo-paganism,
possibly even Satanism. Can anything containing wizards, elves, sorcery and
magic
be trusted? Certainly, in the wake of the worldwide success of the Harry
Potter
books, many Christians fear the effect that fantasy literature might be
having on
their children. Are these fears justified? Should Christian parents prohibit
their
children from reading The Lord of the Rings?
I believe the answer to this question is an emphatic "no." Far from being
prohibited,
Tolkien's epic should be required reading in every Christian family. It
should take
its place beside the Narnian chronicles of C.S. Lewis (Tolkien's great
friend) and
the fairy stories of George Macdonald as an indispensable part of childhood.
The profoundly Christian nature of Tolkien's work can be seen by looking
more
closely at Tolkien the man, at his philosophy of myth, and at the particular
myth
he weaves so beautifully in The Silmarillion and The Lord of the
Rings.
Tolkien the Man
Tolkien was born in 1892. His father died in 1896, so Tolkien barely
remembered
him. His mother died in 1904, when Tolkien was only 12. Following his
mother's
death, he and his brother were sent to live with a distant relative, where
they
never really felt at home.
In 1916, within weeks of his marriage, Tolkien went off to fight in the
First
World War and was involved in the Battle of the Somme, one of the war's
bloodiest
conflicts. Tolkien referred to this battle when speaking of the "animal
horror"
of trench warfare. When people accuse Tolkien of escapism, they should
consider
the stark reality he lived through as both an orphan and a soldier.
Raised as a Roman Catholic, Tolkien had four children, and his role as
father was
crucial to his becoming a writer. He wanted to entertain his children, and
this
was the motivation for writing The Hobbit, the children's story that
became a bestseller and established Tolkien's reputation as a writer.
Among the biographical facts that Tolkien admitted were significant to his
works
were his upbringing in a "pre-mechanical" age and his academic vocation as a
philologist at Oxford University. His "taste in languages," he said, was
"obviously
a large ingredient in The Lord of the Rings."
However, it was his Christian faith that Tolkien said was the single most
important
influence on his writing of The Lord of the Rings. Indeed, it would
be a
mistake to see Tolkien's grand story as anything other than a specifically
Christian myth.
Tolkien's Philosophy of Myth
This paradoxical philosophy was destined to have a profound influence on the
non-believer C.S. Lewis. In September 1931, Lewis, Tolkien and their mutual
friend
Hugo Dyson walked together and discussed the nature and purpose of myth.
Lewis
explained that he felt the power of myths, but that they were ultimately
"lies
and therefore worthless, even though breathed through silver." Tolkien
argued
that we have come from God, and the myths woven by us, though they contain
error, reflect a splintered fragment of God's eternal truth.
Building on this philosophy of myth, Tolkien and Dyson went on to express
their
belief that the story of Christ was simply a true myth, a myth that really
happened.
God, the omnipotent Poet, told the True Story with facts, weaving his tale
with
the actions of real men in actual history.
Tolkien's arguments had an indelible effect on Lewis, and the foundations of
his
Christian faith were laid. It is interesting — indeed astonishing
—
to note that without J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis might not have come to be
known
and loved throughout the world as the formidable Christian apologist and
author
of such sublime Christian myths as The Lion, the Witch and the
Wardrobe.
Integral to Tolkien's philosophy of myth was his belief that the gift of
creativity
was a mark of God's divine image in man. Only God could bring something into
being
out of nothing. Man, however, could sub-create by molding the material of
Creation
into works of beauty, including art, music and literature.
The True Myth
Tolkien's own version of the Creation bears a remarkable similarity to the
Creation
story in the book of Genesis. In the beginning was Eru, the One, who "made
first
the Ainur, the Holy Ones, that were the offspring of his thought, and they
were
with him before aught else was made." Eru then allows the Holy Ones, or
archangels,
to share his creative gifts, and they bring forth the Creation of God as a
symphony
of praise in his honor.
Disharmony is brought into the cosmic symphony of Creation when one of the
archangels
decides to play his own tune in defiance of the will of the Composer. This
disharmony
is the beginning of evil. The rebel archangel is named Melkor, later known
as Morgoth,
and is obviously Middle Earth's equivalent of Satan. Shortly after
describing Melkor,
Tolkien introduces Sauron, the Dark Lord in The Lord of the Rings.
Sauron
is described as a "spirit" and as the "greatest" of Satan's servants.
The magnificence of Tolkien's mythological vision in The Lord of the
Rings
precludes an adequate appraisal, in an essay of this length, of the
Christian theology
that gives it life. In the impenetrable blackness of the Dark Lord and his
abysmal
servants, the ring-wraiths, we feel the objective reality of evil. In the
reluctant
heroism of the hobbits we see goodness and courage ennobled by humility. In
Gandalf,
we see a powerful — at times almost Christ-like — prophet who
beholds
a vision of the Kingdom beyond the understanding of men. In the true, though
exiled,
Kingship of Aragorn, we see glimmers of the hope for a restoration of truly
ordained
authority. In Boromir, we see the human capability for repentance and the
promise
of redemption.
Ultimately, The Lord of the Rings is a mystical Passion Play. The
carrying
of the Ring — the emblem of sin — is the carrying of the Cross.
The
mythological Quest is a veritable Via Dolorosa, or road to the Cross.
Many have failed to grasp this ultimate truth at the heart of Tolkien's
myth.
But one is reminded of the words of C.S. Lewis that a diligent atheist or,
for
that matter, a delicate agnostic, cannot be too careful of what he or she
reads.
In straying deeply into Tolkien's world, people will find a world of truths
not
previously perceived. And they might even come to see that the exciting
truths point
to the most exciting Truth of all.
Tolkien's Sources
While Tolkien drew on sources as old and varied as the Norse sagas, Homer
and the
Bible, his most fascinating influences came from the two bodies of
literature
that were the focus of his scholarly career. These were both English,
Medieval and
Christian, and grew out of periods of conversion and revival.
The first was Anglo-Saxon poetry (AD 600-1000), which Tolkien describes in
"Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics" as containing "an instinctive
historical
sense" from which its sadness and beauty chiefly derived. Lovers of riddle,
hero
tale and elegy, Anglo-Saxon poets represented Christ as the young
battle-leader
who died and was mourned by his followers despite his defeat.
But Tolkien also drew upon High Medieval chivalric works such as The
Pearl
and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, fourteenth-century poems that
reflected
the synthesis of Aquinas and Dante with their highly ordered European
Christian
vision of all things consummating in the eternal Heavenly Rose.
While Tolkien borrowed from the later chivalric worldview for his histories
and
characters, he set his tale deliberately within the darker Anglo-Saxon
elegiac
worldview, in which one is forced to choose the Good, regardless of whether
or
not that side will ultimately win out. Tolkien, like C. S. Lewis, saw great
danger
to Christianity if believers accepted the gospel in order to be on the
winning
side, leading to hedonistic selfishness, the antithesis of spirituality.
Only loving
the Good, even in its defeat, is true loyalty to Christ.
Tolkien and Lewis, Scholars and
Friends
As Joseph Pearce points out in his essay above, J.R.R. Tolkien helped
introduce
his friend and fellow Oxford scholar C.S. Lewis to Christ, thereby making
possible
Lewis' prolific career as a champion of "Mere Christianity."
But Tolkien benefited from Lewis's friendship as well.
Wracked by self-doubt, Tolkien probably never would have finished The
Lord of
the Rings without the faithful encouragement of Lewis, who was the
story's
chief booster during the more than a decade that it took Tolkien to write
his epic.
Tolkien would read parts of his developing story to Lewis, and Lewis would
respond
with criticism, praise, and even tears. Lewis also held Tolkien accountable.
In 1944,
Tolkien wrote that Lewis was "putting the screw on me to finish" the story.
Even
so, it would take Tolkien another five years!
After Tolkien achieved international acclaim from The Lord of the
Rings,
he wrote a correspondent that "I have never had much confidence in my own
work,
and even now when I am assured — much to my grateful surprise —
that
it has value for other people, I feel diffident, reluctant as it were to
expose
my world of imagination to possibly contemptuous eyes and ears."
According to Tolkien, it was Lewis who convinced him The Lord of the
Rings
was worth publishing and who kept him going during hard times. "Only by
support
and friendship did I ever struggle to the end of the labour," Tolkien wrote.
What an incredible testimony to the power of a friend's encouragement.
A Student's Review of the
Film
The transition from a book to a movie often ends in disappointment. The
producer
of The Lord of the Rings faced the challenge of adequately condensing
the
trilogy to make three movies of reasonable length while maintaining a
cohesive
storyline. Since the storyline is immense, misrepresentation seemed
inevitable.
Although the writer and director took some artistic license — such as
with
the omission of Tom Bombadil and the overemphasis of the elf princess
Arwen's role
as a warrior and as Aragorn's lover — these changes did not detract
from
the overall experience for me. I found the film version of The Fellowship
of
the Ring to have been surprisingly well done, and it captured two of the
major
themes in the tale: duty and friendship.
A strong sense of duty permeates Tolkien's epic. I think the movie correctly
portrays Frodo's reluctance to bear the ring and his ability to overcome a
sense
of inadequacy in order to fulfill his duty. Within The Fellowship it is
understood
that individuals are important, yet there are greater ideals worthy of
personal
sacrifice to attain. In this light, death is never in vain and can be noble,
as
in the case of Boromir.
Tolkien also had a high regard for companionship and friendship. The Lord
of
the Rings shows how the weaknesses of one can be supplemented by the
strengths
of another. Even though Frodo is inadequate to carry his burden, his eight
friends
come beside him and make his journey possible.
Despite the changes and necessary condensing, I think Tolkien's true vision
for
The Fellowship of the Ring was preserved in the film.
Tolkien was suspicious of paying too much attention to biographical details
about
the author in deciding whether a book was good or bad, and for the most part
I
agree with him. Nonetheless, Tolkien couldn't have written The Lord of
the Flies
any more than William Golding could have written The Lord of the
Rings.
Obviously, there is some profound correlation between an author and his
work.
Tolkien's philosophy of myth derives directly from his Christian faith. He
understood
the nature of myth in a manner that has not always been appreciated by
critics and
readers. For many people, a myth is merely another word for a lie, something
that
is intrinsically not true. For Tolkien, myth had virtually the
opposite
meaning. It was the only way that certain transcendent truths could be
expressed
in intelligible form.
Tolkien's last and unfinished work, The Silmarillion, forms the
theological
foundation and mythological framework for The Lord of the Rings. And
the
Creation myth in The Silmarillion is perhaps the most significant and
most
beautiful of all Tolkien's work.
Joseph Pearce is the author of a number of books, including Tolkien,
Man and Myth:
A Literary Life; Solzhenitsyn: A Soul in Exile; Wisdom and Innocence (a
biography of
G.K. Chesterton); and Literary Converts (a book about the spiritual
lives
of Waugh, Muggeridge, Lewis, Chesterton, Sayers and other British
writers).
He is currently co-editor of the St. Austin Review and
writer-in-residence
at Ave Maria College in Michigan.
More About Tolkien
By Janet Blumberg, Professor of English
By John West, Associate Professor of Political Science
By Brent Diebel, Senior Philosophy Major
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