So, in lieu of the upcoming release of The Hobbit into theaters and my recent foray into Tolkien literary studies, I decided to blog about something that is close to my heart: the Gospel and Tolkien's understanding of it and how it is expressed in his stories, specifically, The Lord of the Rings.
Firstly, Tolkien was a devout Roman Catholic, who was very well trained in theology and philology, specializing in Nordic, German and Anglo-Saxon languages and literature. He is most well known for his Lord of the Rings trilogy and The Hobbit, along with The Silmarillion.
Now, Tolkien wasn't an ordinary fantasy writer, who attempts to sit down, arbitrarily decide languages and histories that may effect the story as a whole, but moves on to another subject shortly after finishing. He spent years and all of his philological knowledge and theological understanding to mold a universe that is pre-Christian, pre-Judaic and largely Nordic while retaining elements of a God [in his universe: Eru or Illuvatar].
Tolkien, in writing LOTR did not set out to make a basic allegory of the gospel as CS Lewis slavishly did, much to Tolkien's chagrin, but instead used his understanding of human nature and pre-incarnational myth and story to mold a mythopoeia that speaks to humanity on an epic and multi-tiered level above race, culture, religion and creed. He made this to connect people to the transcendant, all-loving, all-powerful God who watches over the seemingly arbitrary chaotic events of time to mold a story of his own power, divinity and might.
Here is where we begin. Illuvatar, or Eru, sits alone, and in the beginning, creates the Valar, beings we would understand in our context as angels and Maiar, the lesser angels. He begins a melody, which he commands all beings to take part in and build on. In this he shows his power to imbue life and will, but remains in control of all of it. Each Valar has the ability to build on the Great Music, or tear it down.
There was one Valar, however, who wanted control over the song and over all things, his name was Melkor [Quenya Elvish for "He who arises in Might"]. Since Music was all there is in the beginning, he tried to take control of it. So, he drew other Valar to himself, including Sauron, and began to infect the song with a cacophony of noise and static to drown out Eru's making. In this, he failed, Illuvatar halts the song, and builds on and redeems the noise into his own song. Rather than utterly drown out Melkor, Eru brings it to himself to show his ultimate creative glory. At the third redemption, Eru halts the song, and reveals to the Valar that this song will be the theme of Middle Earth. Born in creative glory, marred by evil, redeemed and brought back to glorify the Lord.
See any parallels yet?
Melkor and several righteous Valar go down to Middle Earth to conquer or mold, respectively. Melkor constantly battles to destroy and conquer, marring all good things that the righteous Valar mold.
Here we should probably delve into Tolkien's understanding of evil. He understood evil in a largely Augustinian way. Evil itself did not have substance or power, but rather the ability to mar and stain the good. Evil is a force of destruction and unraveling. It cannot create, it cannot bind anything together, but fragments, shatters and breaks down. Good, however, has the ability to create and redeem. It builds great out of good and brings healing to broken-ness. It is growth, redemption, community and truth. Goodness is humility and also a yielding to the will of God, or Eru. Evil attempts domination of everything, and if it destroys everything, then it, in a way has made itself dominant.
Just as Jesus' mission was healing and redemption through humility, Melkor and Sauron's mission is destruction and rebellion through destruction. They cannot create community, they cannot heal, but give deceitful promises of riches and growth, if only to control and subjugate all things, even God.
This is why Sauron attempts so greatly to retrieve his ring. The Ring itself is power. It promises the ability to conquer all things, including Sauron. None of the characters in LOTR are lying when they say they want to use the ring for good to conquer Sauron. But multiple times, it shows us that this would only make them evil and the good they accomplish would be through coercion and power, rather than humility and good example and teaching. Gandalf even admits that if he used the ring, it would unravel him, in spite of his desire to do good for the weak. To paraphrase, he would empower the weak, but not strengthen them. To bring them out of weakness and despair would result in their reliance on him and on power, not on humility and Illuvatar.
The only good thing to do for the creatures of Middle Earth is to abandon all power and follow the will of Illuvatar, that is, to create and mold for good rather than evil and to give all power to the true creator, Illuvatar.
Just as Jesus gave up power to bring such great healing, so also the people of Middle Earth must abandon and relinquish power to become great. All must be laid down for the raising up of all good things.
This event is what Tolkien referred to as the "Eucatastrophe." Eu meaning "good" in Latin and catastrophe meaning "an unraveling or overturning" in Greek. These two seemingly contradictory terms from two opposed cultures comes together to make a beautiful, gospel centered paradox. The good catastrophe.
The Eucatastrophe of LOTR is in the unraveling of power, the destruction of the ring, and the sacrifice of Frodo and Sam's well-being, honor and dignity. They abandon all for the beauty of goodness and truth. They humble themselves and abandon power [which is complicated by the action as the Crack of Doom at the end of The Return of the King, but we won't get into that]. They stay the tide of destruction by unraveling the power to destroy and take pride in might. From this catastrophe, goodness flourishes in Middle Earth for a time.
The Eucatastrophe of Scripture is found in 3 places.
1. The Eucatastrophe of human history is completely changed at the Advent of Jesus in 0 A.D. Time itself now revolves around the birth of God into human history. The transcendant brings catastrophe to human history by becoming bound within time, relinquishing glory.
2. The Eucatastrophe of God is completed in the Cross and the Resurrection. At this point, Jesus relinquishes power and the glory of complete domination and justice in an instant for 33 years of torment, pain and torture at the hands of those who he comes to save. God himself is overturned by his own justice to bring mercy. But the greatest part of the catastrophe is found in the freedom and healing found in the cross and the new life brought by his conquering of sin and death at the resurrection, which promises new life, the availability of the Holy Spirit and eternal life.
3. The Final Eucatastrophe is God's return to Earth to bring judgement and end all the pain of time to bring endless joy to his people, dwell among them, and bring destruction to the unredeemed wicked. In this his "Great Music" will be fulfilled and all the cacophony will be laid to waste.
This is the Gospel according to Tolkien. Let me know what you think, leave some comments!!
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