You have some interesting ideas, but this paper needs a lot of work.
First: your thesis statement is extremely weak.
The first three sentences have no relevance to your topic, which is the influence of Christianity, more particularly the Roman Catholic faith, on Lord of the Rings. Also your last sentence is incorrect and invalidates your entire paper; there is nothing unconscious about this on Tolkien’s part. He stated very clearly in a letter to a Jesuit friend that Lord of the Rings was both a Christian and a Catholic book. (This letter is quoted in Shippey.)
Most of your paper is a series of summaries of various books and articles; your voice is almost entirely missing. This is a problem for many of the students in the class, as I pointed out last Thursday. You need to have a clear idea of what you want to say and develop your own argument, using these sources for support, not just tell your reader what other authors have said. Because you have not done this you include a lot of redundant material — you make some of your points several times.
Your conclusion is also weak; you repeat most of your thesis statement. You need to sum up the argument of your paper in your concluding statement, not just make vague generalizations.
I strongly suggest that you show this paper, with my comments, to a tutor at the Writing Help Desk in Butler Library 214. You have the makings of a good paper, but you need to develop your own ideas instead of paraphrasing those of other scholars.
Hey Keilah! The content of your paper is amazing and very informatve. All of the information that you included was well thought out and your paper was very fluent. The only recommendations that I could make would be minor grammar adjustments. These simple adjustments will make the overall message you are trying to portray stonger. Carly Lopez? November 15, 2008, at 11:05 PM
Your paper seems to be very well written and is very long, probably meaning you have a lot of information. You describe all of your points in great detail. All of your sources seem to be cited well. Donald Turner November 13, 2008, at 04:52 PM
You have a very interesting topic and paper. Your explanations were informative and captivating. I am surprised to see how much information you were able to obtain. Steven Wilser? November 13, 2008, at 04:34 PM
This paper is really well done, and you do a great job of describing the connections between Christianity and Lord of the Rings. Your introduction however seems to infer a lot of opinion with the statement “If Christian belief is correct.” I would just reword it so you aren’t proposing any judgements. Eligh Hanning
This is a great topic and the paper is well written. I never realized that there was were so many direct connections between Christianity and LOTR. Great job on your paper!Sarah Chudyk? November 13, 2008, at 09:31 AM
In my experiences, bringing religion into a conversation or topic of any kind is sticky business. I think you handled it well, and produced an informative, and well-thought out paper. Good Job! Joseph Bella? November 13, 2008, at 01:36 AM
You use your sources to their full extent, however you need to change your citations to include the author’s name. Better use of transitions will allow your ideas to flow together more easily. You have a good amount of information, just develop your ideas and take what your sources say to the next level to add more depth to your paper. Brian Nacov November 12, 2008, at 10:35 PM
Sometimes transitions between paragraphs were a bit sudden, but other than that, I really liked your discussions. Like what Sarah said, I thought Lembas bread, at least in my mind, was more of a manna reference than communion, as it’s more for sustenance than recreating a holy event. Devon Cozad? November 12, 2008, at 08:18 PM
Great job so far! I really like the section of your paper where you talk about the connections between religious figures and specific characters from the book especially the part about Aragorn and Christ. I feel that your paper can be even better if you expand on your conclusion. Elizabeth Delano? November 12, 2008, at 05:49 PM
You are doing great with the paper so far. You need to work on your paragraph transitions. That the whole essay must be seen as one piece of work in to which there is a flow from one paragraph to the next. Trudy Antwi November 12, 2008, at 05:05 PM
There were many portions that I found interesting in your paper especially the comparison of Boromir to Judas. The portion about Lembas bread I found to be an unexpected connection to Christian beliefs. Perhaps if Lembas was not meant to represent the bread of communion as Foster points out, it could have paralleled “manna” which sustained the god’s chosen people in the desert. Job well done I look forward to reading your final! Sarah McNutt November 12, 2008, at 08:23 AM
I thought that you did a fantastic job in describing the likenesses between holy figures and Tolkien’s characters, especially since you did not fall into the trap of describing it as allegory. This is a great paper, just make sure that you expand on your conclusion. Lauren Brych? November 11, 2008, at 04:09 PM
I really enjoyed your explanation regarding how people hear God but do not see him, and how this is opposite with Sauron, how we see his evil but do not hear his voice, and the picture of the Eye throughout the book. In your introduction, you say that the incorporation of Christianity was “subconcious,” although I think that Tolkien may have consciously done so as he incorporated other parts of his life consciously. Also, in the tenth last paragraph you say that “characters form the trilogy are EQUAL to religious figures.” I think you need to be careful with this wording, as it makes your points seem more allegorical, which Tolkien said LOTR wasn’t. Also, you say a few times things such as, “which will lead into the next topic (7th last paragraph) and “This leads into the next topic of this paper” (4th last). These kinds of phrases are unnecessary because the reader should be able to tell this themselves. Also, you say in the beginning that Sam is untempted by the Ring, but he is tempted for a brief moment when he envisions himself as powerful and “Samwise the Great” (I think that’s the phrase). Your descriptions involving Gandalf and reincarnation, etc. were really great and I think you covered a good amount of information in your paper. Good job! Kelsey Till November 09, 2008, at 03:18 PM
You point out many interesting links between Christianity and The Lord of the Rings in your paper. Great job! I suggest starting your paper with a stronger statement; religion may not even have existed since the beginning of time, as it has been developed by man. In other words, aviod these kinds of controversial statements. This is just my opinion. Another thing I suggest doing is editing your citations. For example, in the sixth paragraph, as a reader, it is not clear to me what source you are using, so you need to include the author’s name in both citations. We were told in class to cite Tolkien’s books as Shippey does in Author of the Century, so make sure to do that when editing your paper. Also, you may want to include somewhere in your paper that Tolkien admits to his use of religion in Middle Earth. I used this quotation by Tolkien himself in my paper:
“The only criticism that annoyed me was one that it ‘contained no religion’ (and ‘no women’, but that does not matter, and is not true anyway)” (Letters 220). Emily Marvin? November 09, 2008, at 02:01 PM
This is a really interesting topic and you do a nice job of developing your ideas. I would suggest that you use some quotations from The Lord of the Rings to bring your reader into the text instead of just using plot summary. Great work!! Annika Laughlin? November 11, 2008, at 08:28 PM
3,760 words
Christianity in The Lord of the Rings
Ever since the beginning of time, religion has been a focal point for many people. If Christian belief is correct, all of the creatures of the world are here now because the basis of religion, or rather a higher power known as God, created and placed us here. There is a lot of literature that has been created with Christianity in mind over the years. J.R.R. Tolkien’s trilogy, The Lord of the Rings was created with a subconsciously heavy focus on Christianity throughout the story.
J.R.R. Tolkien was a Catholic throughout his life. He held many accomplishments such as poet, English writer, professor at Oxford teaching Anglo-Saxon, creator of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, influencer of many other fantastic novels, veteran of World War I, philologist, and husband. Some people would disagree, but many people are sure that at least two major factors were influences in Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings: World War I and Catholicism. There is evidence of both. Through the discreet use of Christianity and war in his trilogy, Tolkien definitely shows us his view on many things in the world. The Lord of the Rings is a story about the face off between good and evil. The aspect of Christianity will be explored throughout The Lord of the Rings in this paper. More specifically, the depiction of evil, the call to Frodo, the connection of Tolkien’s characters to Christian figures, and Reincarnation will be explored.
Evil can come in many forms. One of the many forms that it can surprise us in is temptation. Temptation is when a creature is being enticed towards something. Sometimes they do not even realize that they are being lured towards something, especially something evil, until it is too late. In The Lord of the Rings and Philosophy Scott A. Davison says that the pivotal scene in The Lord of the Rings is when Frodo gives in to temptation and claims the ring to himself (99). At that point, evil takes over for a second. All throughout the trilogy, Frodo is making the journey with the fellowship (later on just Sam) to the Cracks of Doom so that he can help his world by destroying the ring. He tries to fight the growing temptation to keep the ring to himself forever all the way. In The Return of the King he can no longer stand it and, slipping the ring on his finger, declares to Sam that the ring is his (239). After a horrible journey that included close death and fear the whole way through, we get about five sixths of the way to the end of the trilogy and Frodo finally caves. This shows how evil, sinful and powerful temptation can really be.
Mike Foster in his article, The Power of the Ring: The Spiritual Vision Behind the Lord of the Rings, reviews Caldecott’s work. Caldecott looks at Frodo as a failure in his last temptation. Frodo gave in and said that he would not let the ring go. Caldecott says: “Thus in the end it is not Frodo who saves Middle-earth at all, though he bore the ring to the Mountain, nor Gollum who took the Ring into the Fire. It can only be God himself…” (294). So Caldecott says that basically, even though Frodo caved in to temptation, he had done God’s will and taken the ring on the journey to have it destroyed. In the end, God loved his creatures so much that he came to help finish the battle and bring about good. Temptation was a powerful evil that Frodo gave in to, but as Christians believe, God loves you and will help his creatures on the track.
On the other hand, in the article The Text Tale of Frodo Nine-fingered by Maria Prozesky, it is suggested that Frodo is an epic hero. Pity and hope are two Christian qualities which Frodo displays. This is based on a new thinking on heroism that reflects Christian and contemporary thinking (36). Frodo displayed pity with Gollum many times because he really thought that Gollum might be of some help. He felt bad that Gollum had become such a pathetic creature because of the ring. He also displayed hope by letting Gollum help and lead him to the Cracks of Doom. He was basing much of the journey on the hope that Gollum had some good left in him. He was also hoping that they would get to the Cracks of Doom alive so that they could fulfill the journey.
In the article, Frodo’s Faith by Ralph C. Wood, we find another character that had succumbed to evil through the temptation of the ring: Boromir. He is described as the “Judas of the story” (24). Boromir breaks the trust of the fellowship by trying to take the ring away from Frodo. This causes Frodo to have to wear the ring to get away. Boromir comes to his senses before he dies only minutes later and realizes what he did was wrong. He dies by fighting the orcs until they kill him. At this point, we see that Boromir realizes he failed. He realizes that he gave in to the temptation (24–25). This was a tragedy resulting from the sin temptation.
Marjorie Burns talks about the sin possessiveness as the greatest evil in The Lord of the Rings in her article, J.R.R. Tolkien: The British and the Norse in Tension. To be possessive of something shows that there is an addiction or an obsession taking place. Burns gives a couple examples of possessiveness that are shown in the trilogy. First, there is materialism which obviously centers on the possession of the ring. There is also domination, enslavement, and control (50). The domination, the concept of enslavement, and the idea of control all center mainly on Sauron throughout the books. This makes sense as he is a very evil being and seems to sin more than the other characters.
Tom Shippey also talks about Frodo in his book, J.R.R. Tolkien: Author of the Century. He explains that we see the unclear beginning of temptation in the beginning of the story when Gandalf asks Frodo to see the ring real quick. This, if looking through the Boethian view, shows that Frodo is unconsciously set against parting with the ring if only for a short time. Clearly something so powerful as this ring has the potential to go against Christianity and lead someone into evil temptation. By the time we reach the Crack of Doom Frodo has what feels to him like a physical magnetism towards using the ring. When asked, Sam is able to gently pull Frodo’s arm away from it. This shows that temptation is able to overtake somebody physically as well as mentally. By this point, Frodo had no choice in the matter of destroying the ring and the decision was made for him by the power of the ring to stick with it and never let it go (135–140). Had it not been for Gollum, the story potentially could have gone a whole different route.
Characters such as Tom Bombadil and Sam were able to resist the temptation of the ring. Davison talks about this in The Lord of the Rings and Philosophy. Both Tom and Sam were content with the world that they were living in. They did not want any power which they already did not have. Sam was perfectly happy knowing that he could work in his own garden with his own hands. These two characters might be considered as a sense of purity because they were able to deny the effect that the ring had on so many other characters of the story.
Along with temptation, evil can sneak its way into stories through characters. In the chapter “Evil Intentions” found in Finding God in The Lord of the Rings, Bruner and Ware show this. Everybody knows the story of Lucifer. He is the most evil entity behind the worst evil in the Christian world. He was once a servant of God who turned prideful. He hoped to exceed his creator and become the highest being equivalent to God. Lucifer was then exiled. He seeks domination still. In The Lord of the Rings, Sauron is the Lucifer. Lucifer seeks world domination in the Christian views and Sauron seeks domination of hobbits and Middle-earth. Evil, destruction, and enslavement are what these two beings represent in Christianity (17–20).
As Sauron is equivalent to our modern day thoughts of Lucifer, he is the complete opposite of God. First, God is good and Sauron spells the words evil and sin. Second, we usually hear the word of God, but we see the evil of Sauron. In The Gospel According to Tolkien, Ralph C. Wood explains this opposite effect. God has never been seen. He is our God through aural ways. This way, faith is achieved when a creature believes in God though he has never seen him. Also, one is not able to ignore God’s word. We are not able to shut our ears so that we can no longer hear. On the other hand, we can shut out whatever we see by closing our eyes and blocking out all visions. Sauron is represented by a gigantic lidless eye in The Lord of the Rings. Since this is all he has, he is deaf and can not make sense of much. Everything is chaotic and senseless. Evil is said to be chaotic and senseless. It runs into despair which in turn is the constant temptation of the fellowship. They constantly feel like they would be content with giving up, surrendering, and escaping (58–61). Here evil and temptation are shown through the character Sauron.
Back to The Lord of the Rings and Philosophy, it is explained that the ring is not evil all in its own. Sauron is the evil behind the ring because he created it in his quest for world domination. This provides evidence that the Boethian view discussed before was accurate when talking about Frodo not being able to separate from the ring if even for a short time. “We must remember that the One Ring has the powers it possesses only because it was created by Sauron to aid in his quest for world domination. This means that the Ring is not an example of the Manichean idea of an independent evil force in the world, since it is animated by Sauron’s will and power (Davison, 100–101)”. This quote gives us evidence of temptation, evil, and sin. Sauron was tempted to create a ring to control everybody so that he ended up with his world domination. He sinned by corrupting people through the use of the ring by his free will. This is evidence of pure evil. All of this is the evil that Christianity fears.
Davison explains that Sauron is the clearest that we can see of the nature of evil. He sets everything according to his desire for ruling and power. After Frodo gives in to the temptation to keep the ring, Gollum’s greed saves a life. Gollum bites off Frodo’s finger because he wants the ring so bad. In the muddle of things, Gollum falls off the edge into the lava and destroys his self and the ring. The destruction of the ring destroyed Sauron as well. This all happened because of three evil doings: Frodo’s desire to keep the ring, Gollum’s desire to snatch the ring back from Frodo, and Sauron’s one focus that happened to be world domination. These three evils came together to destroy the single evil that all Christians fear: A being that desires a higher power than God.
Aside from evil sins such as temptation, there are many other subjects in The Lord of the Rings that represent Christianity. One resemblance is “the call”. As Christians, it is a belief that God calls to people to do God’s will. Christians are supposed to live good lives and follow in the footsteps of Christ. In the end, if Christian’s have done God’s will and have had found and kept faith, they are called to eternal life in Heaven. In the chapter “The Call” of Finding God in The Lord of the Rings, Bruner and Ware talk about this call according to the trilogy. On Quoting Bruner and Ware: “The call to follow Christ is a call to adventure-inconvenient, imperious, and irresistible” (11–15). This is applicable to The Lord of the Rings just as much as to Christianity.
In Christianity, God seems to call out to normal average people who get by making a normal living to do his will. Often times, he asks them to go out on a limb and do something that they never thought would be possible. As Bruner and Ware explain, in many cases, there is “reluctance, resistance, and protest” (14). The chosen people try to get out of the job. In the end, after the begging is through, these people get up and they most likely will graciously do God’s will (15).
The same is applied to Frodo in The Lord of the Rings. For some reason, Bilbo left the ring behind and it became Frodo’s responsibility to “do the will” and take the ring to be destroyed. “As [Frodo] felt the weight of the Ring on the palm of his small hand, as he trembled inside, staring into the glowing embers and picturing the fabled fires of Orodruin, it dawned on him that, for all the danger, for all the terror, for all the unthinkable labor and pain it might involve, there simply was no other choice. And though he felt ‘very small, and very uprooted, and…desperate,’ he knew he had to go” (15). This is the description that Bruner and Ware give of Frodo after he realizes and comes to terms with the fact that he was the chosen one. In the book Walking With Frodo: A Devotional Journey Through The Lord of the Rings, it is said that Frodo has the choice, “to humbly persevere in the tasks our Savior-King has chosen for [him] to do, or slowly succumb to the darkness” (XIX). You see the process of resistance, reluctance, and protest going through his head until he reaches that moment of epiphany and accepts his responsibility to help the world out of the path of destruction.
Another big topic that signifies that there is Christianity in The Lord of the Rings is that characters from the trilogy are equal to religious figures. In the book Finding God in the Lord of the Rings, Aragorn is portrayed as resembling Christ. Aragorn goes through the journey as a normal man would throughout the story. Nobody really knew that he was a meant to be the king. When the other characters did find out, some of them still did not believe that he really was supposed to be a ruler. While everybody was figuring out who Aragorn really was, he remained as humble as ever. He remained modest and caring for his people still. Bruner and Ware describe the crowning of Aragorn in a very religious way. “At last Aragorn arose and stood before them, a king indeed. All gazed upon him in silent awe. For it was as if they were seeing him for the first time. He was like a new man , ancient of days, but vigorous, hale, and hearty, a man they had known well and yet had never known before” (94). This quote sounds like what we would describe the coming of the Christ as. On pages 94 and 95, Aragorn is described using words that we connect with Christ: leader, mighty, wise, patient, and compassionate. It is clear to see from this description that Aragorn is a close match to the Christ in Christianity.
In the book Walking With Frodo, there are two characters that are portrayed as religious figures. Gandalf is described as Jesus and Frodo is described as a servant to Jesus. Gandalf is described as Jesus first on page XVIII when Sarah Arthur says they have both “fought the powers of hell on our behalf and returned from the dead in order to save us in our darkest hour of need”. Jesus was treated brutally and died on the Cross to save human kind from their sins. He was resurrected and rose back up for us because he loves humans and cares for them. Gandalf died by falling off the Bridge of Khazad-dum in Moria when he was fighting the Balrog. He was resurrected and came back to help save the fellowship and many others as Gandalf the White in the forest of Fanghorn. He cared for them and loved them. The point is that Gandalf came back for the creatures he cared for to help them win against the darkness as Jesus came back to save human kind from their sins (14–19).
In the same book, Arthur implies that Frodo is portrayed as one of the servants of Jesus. She says that victory can only be ahead if people are willing to be humble and do whatever Jesus wants them to do. Arthur says that Frodo is humble and is willing to serve [Gandalf] who is portrayed as Jesus. Frodo goes through the journey of taking the ring to be destroyed without thinking about all that he will lose or has already lost in the discovery of the ring. He does not even think about the outcome in the grand scheme of things. Instead, he focuses on the task at hand and what Gandalf and the Council of Elrond told him he had to do. He is just a normal average hobbit leading a normal life who comes to be portrayed as a humble servant (36–37).
In the book The Lord of the Rings and Philosophy, there are three entities that are depicted as religious figures. Tom Bombadil is described as being divine, the Undying Lands are described as being equal to eternal life, and Gandalf is (again) depicted as being a Christ figure which will lead into the next topic. Tom Bombadil is described as being divine because he seems pure when the ring is presented to him. He does not desire it at all and has no connection to it. He does not even disappear when he puts the ring on his finger. He is able to hand the ring back to Frodo with no sign of wanting to keep it like we see with so many of the other characters. Tom can also see Frodo when he is wearing the ring (13–14). It takes someone pure with a clear conscious and content in life to not desire something like a powerful ring which is why Tom can be seen as divine. He is not corrupted at all by the evil of it all.
In Foster’s article, he points out that Caldecott seems to have missed an important resemblance of Christianity in the story. He missed the lembas. The lembas is equivalent to the Holy Eucharist of today. This bread lasts Sam and Frodo up until March 25 which is Eastertime (295). This Christian symbol should not have been missed by Caldecott, but Foster caught it.
Next, the Undying Lands are described as being like eternal life in Heaven. In the movie, Gandalf described the Undying Lands to Pippin as they waited for the battle to begin. It sounded beautiful, heavenly, and serene. In The Lord of the Rings and Philosophy, the Lands are described as peaceful and deathlessness. It is a place where Frodo can try and get over his wounds and sadness (126). That is great imagery for what Christians think Heaven is like. Heaven is believed to be the place where you go and stand by God’s side forever. It is the place that one should strive for. As long as one has faith in God and leads a good life, they are said to be going to Heaven. It is a place where you are not supposed to worry anymore and you are supposed to rest in joy and happiness. This is what Frodo was trying to accomplish in The Lord of the Rings when he goes to the Undying Lands.
In the same book, Gandalf is again referred to as a Christ figure in the trilogy. This leads into the next topic of this paper: Reincarnation. It is stated in The Lord of the Rings and Philosophy that, “The most common afterlife fate depicted in Tolkien’s story is reincarnation. The clearest and most spectacular example of reincarnation in The Lord of the Rings is Gandalf’s return” (129–130). The reason that this is reincarnation is because Gandalf came back as Gandalf the White and not the same old Gandalf the Grey. This symbolizes the growth of his soul. Jesus was resurrected, but in a way, he also grew. His love for us grew more than ever as He came back to deliver us free of our sins. He looked the same, but he came back more caring, nurturing, and loving than ever.
Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings clearly has Christianity throughout the story line. There are many points that suggest the resemblance of religion in the story. Ralph C. Wood in his article, Traveling the One Road, suggests that maybe The Lord of the Rings is a story set before the time of religion. Then it proceeds to talk about the one road that we have to travel. Along that road are many temptations that can cause the final ruin for the traveler. What everyone works towards is basically the ruin or the joy that they end at.
Carol Zaleski, in her article, Habits of Hobbits, talks about imagination fatigue. She talks about how Christians do not read Tolkien’s trilogy to seek the Christian resemblances in it, but to re-awaken the imagination. When hobbits, elves, and orcs come into play, it makes Christians re-imagine the angels and men. This way, Christians can keep their beliefs up to par. If they can re-awaken the imagination and think about elves and hobbits, then they can re-imagine and put more belief in angels, God, and faith.
The depiction of evil, the call to Frodo, the connection of Tolkien’s characters to Christian figures, and Reincarnation were the main topics covered in this paper. The Lord of the Rings was created with a subconsciously heavy focus on Christianity throughout the story. Since the beginning of time, religion has been a focal point for many people, which we end up seeing in The Lord of the Rings.
Bibliography
Keilah Bradley November 06, 2008, at 01:11 AM
