Tolkien's Mythology and Your Own Spirituality

[Folca]

Tolkien is as close to religion for me as I will likely ever be for the remainder of my life. When I first read The Lord of the Rings just over five years ago, the character traits and the story moved me more deeply than any other literature. So, I try to adhere to the characteristics I admire and recognize as "good." They aren't necessarily new or different, but I like having a neutral source that doesn't cater to any specific gods as recognized on this earth.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

What a great thread to make your first post in! And a great post it is (even though it reminds me that I still haven't said what I want to say in this thread).

[Jnyusa]

Nor have I.

Much appreciation to merrybesq for starting this thread. It's one of those topics that could be a book, at least!

Glad to see you jumping in to the discussion, Folca!

[MithLuin]

I fell in love with LotR when I was 12.

When I was in high school, I found Carpenter's biography in the school library. I remember picking it up nervously, almost afraid of what I would find. For one thing, I knew it would confirm that the man was dead. Up until that point, I didn't officially know that. My copy of LotR was a paperback from 1972, so it referred to him as a living author. But, I kinda suspected that in the 20 year interval, that might not be true any more....so yeah, I flipped to the end and read the part about his tombstone first, just to get that shock out of the way.

But the other reason I was nervous was because I loved the world he created so much - and what if he turned out to be a jerk or something? I was hoping not, but I knew next to nothing about the man, so you never know. My Mom was always really good about liking people because there was *something* she could admire about them, even if overall, they weren't the greatest people ever. Like Benjamin Franklin - I think he was always her favorite of the founding father types, though maybe second to Patrick Henry. But I suspected it would hurt my appreciation of his story a little bit if I was really, I dunno, betrayed by what sort of person he was.

But anyway, I hugely digress. Reading through Carpenter's biography, I was gratified to find out that he was a decent guy. He seemed to love his wife and kids, lead a decent but quiet life, have a neat job, etc. I did not know he was Catholic before reading that, but it was...I don't want to say a relief, but kinda exciting to find out that we had that in common. It helped me to understand a little more about why the story resonated so deeply with me, though I hardly recognized many of the spiritual themes at that age. I think I was most aware of Frodo's journey in Mordor being a pilgrimage, but I wouldn't have put it in those words at the time.

(This was all good bolstering for when I got to college and read Letters, only to discover his rather low opinion of American engineers .)

I think the most spiritual theme in his books is hope - his good guys don't give up, not because they have a reasonable expectation of winning, but just because you never give up - you might unexpectedly win, no matter how dark or hopeless it seems. In other stories, this kind of plot looks contrived...the author saves the day! But Tolkien gets away with it. It really is the unexpected happy ending that makes his story worthwhile, and he understood this - his 'eucatastrophe' in 'On Fairy-stories', and his elven concept of estel being the type of hope that is not based on reasonable expectation, but on....well, what is it based on? That the world is ultimately a good place? That God looks out for us? That good things come to those who wait?

That was his genius - he gave us the conclusions (his world does work in a very Christian way), but left the explanations as to 'why' for the reader to puzzle out. It is left up to our interpretation, on some level, which is why not only Catholic people recognize something spiritual or religious in what he wrote. It makes it very like the real world - we just have events, not the explanations for them, and we don't always see the whole picture. (I'm not saying he never explained anything, but that he was purposely vague about some of it, and didn't hammer us over the head with an explanation for Divine Providence in the few places it popped up in his story.)

I suppose I feel as though the world he created is like our real world, but more breath-takingly beautiful (and a lot scarier, in some places!) It is a good way to reawaken an awe that gets swept aside when you get used to your day-to-day surroundings. There are other ways of doing that. My sister may be delivering her first baby as I write this. Getting to meet my new niece will also be awe-inspiring, I'm sure!

[merrybesq]

Hi Folca, and hi again Mithluin!

Watching "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe" really brought home to me the great gift of the spiritual within Tolkien's mythology. Lewis was SO hammer-you-over-the-head with his parallels to his own faith. As a non-Christian, it makes you wince. It becomes something you have to consciously ignore your way through just so you can enjoy the story as it was meant to be enjoyed. You actually have to work at NOT resenting being slapped upside the head.

Not so with Tolkien. I know people from all sorts of faiths --including, but not limited to, Catholics, various Christians (from liberal to conservative), Moslems, Jews, Unitarian-Universalists, neo-pagans, 'doing their own spiritual thing'-ers, and at least one atheist-- who are incredibly moved by Tolkien's mythology. That's only possible because he didn't insert preachiness. He was all about the essence, maybe because he so loved pre-Christian myths himself. It's as though he put in the most intense Christian themes, but in an archetypal form that transcended even the "greatest story ever told". What a gift, especially when that one story was THE story in the faith to which he was so devout. I think few people could love their faith as he did and then NOT be preachy on some level.

Sometimes, I think of it as echoing Arthurian legend (which I absolutely love) while fusing it intensely with a Divine Sacrifice story... Those interweaving narratives...Aragorn and Frodo... it is just so powerful.

[Folca]

"I think the most spiritual theme in his books is hope - his good guys don't give up, not because they have a reasonable expectation of winning, but just because you never give up - you might unexpectedly win, no matter how dark or hopeless it seems. In other stories, this kind of plot looks contrived...the author saves the day! But Tolkien gets away with it. " -MithLuin

I agree. The very best messages are of hope. I won't say that I haven't had the worst life, but the trials I have had so far have been more than enough and I am sure more are to come. But I have never forgotten that there is always hope, despite the circumstances of the present. The other themes that are so prominent are Friendship/Loyalty, primarily in the Fellowship members and especially in Sam. I would love to know I have a friend that loyal. Another is sacrifice, that while some live their lives largely ignorant of what threatens them there are those who CHOOSE to suffer on their behalf by acting to secure the safety and well being of others. Being a public servant, I truly admire that quality in people it is found in.

And, thank you for the welcome, everyone.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

I think what Tolkien's writings have done for me more than anything is help to make it possible for me to believe in a higher power outside of an organized religion. Of course it is not necessary to believe in a higher power to appreciate Tolkien's work, but the concept of a higher power certainly is present throughout, to a greater or lesser degree. But, despite Tolkien's own devout Catholicism, that concept is almost entirely divorced from the specifics of his own religion.

In the unfinished "time travel" story The Lost Road, Elendil is talking to his son (here named Herendil) about the changes that Sauron has brought to Númenor. In talking about what it was like before Sauron came, he says:

'There were no temples in this land. But on the Mountain we spoke to the One, who hath no image. It was a holy place, untouched by mortal art.'

I could write a thousand words, and still not be able to express how deeply that touches my soul.

[merrybesq]

Voronwë, that is so beautiful, and pierces straight to the heart of what I've been trying to express.

[Rowanberry]

'There were no temples in this land. But on the Mountain we spoke to the One, who hath no image. It was a holy place, untouched by mortal art.'

That line resonates with me as well. In the middle of nature, I feel closer to the divine than I ever could in any church or temple.

[MithLuin]

Because his created world existed in a pre-Christian time, he could not have any religion that would be 'true' - not to him, anyway. The trappings of actual religion tend to be for the worship of Morgoth or Sauron, not Ilúvatar, in his works. I do not think that Tolkien himself found a problem with organized religion, as such, but that he was not comfortable creating his own. Strange, that he could create a pantheon, and put God into his works, but not feel comfortable 'trespassing' on that territory. But over and over again, he shies away from putting something like the Incarnation or the Resurrection into his works, and that was one of his main dissatisfactions with Narnia (other than the fact that the world was rather haphazard). He comes close a few times - the Fall of Man in Genesis is certainly alluded to in the dark shadow that mars the origins of Men in the East in the Silmarillion. Andreth tells Finrod of her people's hope that Ilúvatar himself will enter into Arda someday. But, to keep his good guys noble pagans, they had to make do with very little understanding and no organization like a codified religion. Wise women and tales and the occasional hymn suffice.

That, and the Silmarillion was close enough to the beginning that the main characters could speak to the Valar directly. The concept of faith and worship didn't really make much sense in that context. You do not need liturgy to symbolize a reality that you already experience directly. Signs and symbols are always less direct. But still, meaningful from afar, hinting at large vistas, which is very much in line with Tolkien's way of describing things. He kept sacramental meanings of bread and wine, stones and water - but kept them as just that, a part of life not ritual. Lembas and miruvar and Entdraughts are special, hardly ordinary - but just food and drink.

All that being said - I think there is something to be said for meeting God on mountain tops and in deserts. When we travel away from the ordinary, away from our every day lives, and away from other people...we get a unique perspective on life. Tolkien's holy places are silent. [Númenor's Meneltarma, Minas Tirith's Rath Dinen, Halifirien, and the Ring of Doom in Valinor.] Whatever we experience there, we may bring back with us to our ordinary lives. And that is why so many of us are able to get some real spiritual meaning out of these fictional, non-allegorical works. The author tries his best to remain silent about religion, and to show us the world as we have not seen it before. But he does his best to show it to us truly.

[Folca]

Things are too well organized for there not to be something greater than ourselves involved in its creation. What I don't believe is that whatever it is that started it actually cares for the individual. But I live, have the chance to experience life for what I make of it, and for that I am grateful for the opportunities and events I do enjoy.