crusader4life:
There is Catholicism in the LOTR series. I read a book describing all the deeper meanings to Tolkien’s books. (I forgot the title) It was interesting and I was surprised how deep the stories really are. I can give a couple of brief examples:
The Ring represents sin and all of its temptations, only Frodo could destroy the ring, and in a way he represented Christ. Once Frodo saved Middle Earth he couldn’t find rest there, so he went into the West. Just as Christ had to go to heaven after saving the world.
Galadriel, at one point, represented Mary. She was given the chance to use the Ring, but she denied it and remained humble, just as Mary remained humble throughout her life.
The culture of the Elves represent the types of people who are scientific, and artistic (or something like that). And they don’t like change, so they do what ever they can to preserve the past. That’s why in the book the culture of the elves kept separate/isolated from the men.
There is much more to the book. If I remember the title I’ll post it up.
Tolkien himself would tend to downplay such interpretations where there is a one-to-one correspondence between things in the book, and things in real life. First and foremost, Frodo is Frodo, the Ring is the Ring, Galadriel is Galadriel, the Elves are the Elves, and the story is the story. But perhaps we can see things in the story, or in individual characters, that remind us some transcendent Truth - that is, something that is true in the story just as it is true in our own world. Perhaps we can see an analogy between the sufferings of Frodo carrying the ring to Mordor, and the suffering of Christ carrying the cross to Calvary. Just as we can think of our own sufferings in analogy to Christ’s sufferings. If someone reads the story of our own lives, and our own sufferings, they wouldn’t automatically say that we represent Christ. But in all stories, real or fictional, of suffering borne with strength and fortitude, there is a certain similarity to the suffering of Christ.
If you actually try to look at LOTR (and most other stories) as a bunch of things, each of which represents something else, you will end up with a big jumble. I happen to think that Frodo, Aragorn, and Gandalf all share in having some Christ-like qualities. But we can’t read any one of them, or their stories, or their struggles, as telling the story of Christ.
There’s lots more to be said here… besides similarities between characters or events and “real things”, there are thematic elements as well that give the book a Catholic character. A big one (I think) is the sense that we are sometimes called upon and bound by duty to do things we would rather not do. There are a lot of things in the world that are beyond your control, but what matters is that, in whatever situation you find yourself, you do the right thing, you do the best you can with the hand you’re dealt, and you don’t give up. If you die trying, at least you did what you could. Another important one I think is summarized by Sam somewhere near the end of the second book, where he looks up at the night sky, obscured by dark clouds, and realizes that somewhere, far above all of this evil and darkness, the stars are still shining, and will continue to shine, even if the forces of evil win this particular battle. I read in that something more than just “good will triumph over evil”, but rather that “good is so much greater than evil, that evil can’t possibly even touch it”. Light can banish darkness, but darkness can not overcome the Light. Down here on earth, bad things may happen due to Satan’s influence, but God is totally in control. It’s not like some Zoroastrian battle between forces of good and evil that are almost evenly matched, where good just somehow manages to win in the end. In other words, it’s a very Catholic worldview. Anyway, I think there’s more than that, and these thematic elements are potentially a lot more interesting that just trying to say which characters represent what.
