Catholic Artist: J. R. R. Tolkien

First of all, yes, I know I haven't hosted the award ceremony for Strangest Character yet! Hang in there! Coming soon! (It's not my turn yet. And the Tolkien Blog Party is here, so...Tolkien.)

I was going to tackle a different artist for the first of the Catholic Artist series, but since Hamlette is hosting the Tolkien Blog Party (aka possibly the most fun blogging week of the entire year) this week, it seemed meet to talk about Tolkien first. Eheh. This is not intimidating at all. 

(Y'see, I love Tolkien, he also has incredible depth to his work, and he was fairly prolific, so...trying to talk about his Catholicity in one post seems like an overwhelming task. Especially since many smart people have written entire books on the topic. But I'm going to do my best. What would a series on Catholic artists be without Tolkien?) (I told a friend of mine that I was struggling to feel like I was doing this post justice, and he suggested I just write a book on the topic and ask y'all to buy it. Not a bad idea. I'd probably have enough material.)

(One other note before we start: throughout this post series, I'm going to talk a lot about Catholic belief and thought. This doesn't mean no other Christian groups believe the things Catholics believe or think, but I'm not familiar with what every other Christian group believes. For all I know, they might believe some of the things I'm talking about, too.)

I thought I'd tend to start these posts with a list of the author/artist's (fiction) works I've read, and another list of other works which I haven't read, so that you can get an idea of what I'm basing my analysis/opinions/&c on. In this case, I'm also adding a list of other blog posts I've written about him, since there are several. 

What I've Read:
The Lord of the Rings (The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, The Return of the King)
The Hobbit
Farmer Giles of Ham
The Adventures of Tom Bombadil
"Leaf by Niggle"
Smith of Wootton Major
The Silmarillion
Unfinished Tales 
Mr. Bliss
Roverandom

What Else Tolkien Wrote:
The Father Christmas Letters
(A series of 12 books collected by Christopher Tolkien, containing the fragments "left over" after LOTR, The Silmarillion, and Unfinished Tales. Of these, I've only read snippets.)

What Other Posts I've Written About His Work:
A Tolkien Blog Party: Christ Figures in Lord of the Rings
Tolkien's True Myth & Tropes In Fiction
Samwise Gamgee, the Chestertonian Everyman, and Mysticism
Kairos in The Lord of the Rings
The Issue of Purgatory: Leaf by Niggle vs. The Great Divorce

One of the most oft-quoted lines by Tolkien, at least in the circles which I frequent, is "The Lord of the Rings is of course a fundamentally religious and Catholic work; unconsciously so at first, but consciously in the revision." 

To a certain extent, this is a facepalm moment. Tolkien, my dear man, of course LOTR ended up being a fundamentally religious and Catholic work. You're a devout Catholic, with a thoroughly Catholic imagination, baptized by reading things like George MacDonald, Chesterton, fairy tales, &c. And all of your other works have echoes of that Catholic imagination, too. Obviously your works, coming, as they do, through you, will be Catholic. 

But also, to someone unfamiliar with the Catholic or even just the Christian tradition, the fundamental religion and Catholicity of the work is perhaps not so obvious. It was even not all that obvious to me when I first read it. (Although, I think to some extent that might be because I am steeped enough in the Catholic/Christian tradition that when something is very consonant with it, I don't always notice, whereas when something is dissonant with it, it's very obvious to me. This does, notably, make this post series a bit hard to write. XD) As I got older and read more of his work, including his collected letters, which are amazing (although I will always be mad at Stupid Humphrey Carpenter [yes, that is his Homeric epithet] about how few letters he included), the Catholic resonances became more obvious.

(Joseph Pearce's books, Bilbo's Journey and Frodo's Journey, both very short, but excellent nonetheless, also helped. There's a certain amount of Pearce's thought that's made its way into this post. There. Debt acknowledged.)

Tolkien is also interesting in that alone among the artists who I'm planning on writing about, as far as I know, none of the characters in any of his works is, strictly speaking, Catholic, even a bad Catholic. (One could argue that Niggle in "Leaf by Niggle" is an exception, but since that's an allegory, and religion one way or another is not stated in the work, I'm going to say it doesn't count.) Tolkien solidly lives in the realm of fantasy, and thus relies on the truth, beauty, and goodness that I talked about in my initial post in this series to make his works Catholic. 

And now I'm stalling, because I'm having a hard time figuring out what to start talking about, so I'm just going to dive into some bullet points about ways in which Tolkien conveys Catholicity in his work. (This is harder than it sounds, let's just be clear. XD)

(Lastly: the irony of using LOTR movie gifs when I'm only discussing the books (+ a bit about The Hobbit and The Silmarillion) does not escape me, but without them, the post looked really boring, so here we are.)

1. Tolkien is not a wimp when it comes to portraying darkness. I mean, the villain of the Silmarillion is literally Satan. The devil is not an easy villain to combat or defeat, let alone portray. The thing is dark. And LOTR's villain is a henchman of the devil, and very nearly wins. Tolkien's characters often despair of vanquishing the darkness, because the darkness seems to have spread to cover the entire world. In fact, at the end of LOTR, the entire world literally goes dark, covered in gloom. Neither sun nor stars are visible, though a little light gets through, because of the darkness emanating from Mordor. Tolkien takes portraying darkness seriously. 

And yet.

And yet, while the darkness he conjures with his words obscures the world, it's not all there is. 

“There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach.” --The Return of the King

“Suddenly, caught by the level beams, Frodo saw the old king’s head: it was lying rolled away by the roadside. ‘Look, Sam!’ he cried, startled into speech. ‘Look! The king has got a crown again!’ The eyes were hollow and the carven beard was broken, but about the high stern forehead there was a coronal of silver and gold. A trailing plant with flowers like small white stars had bound itself across the brows as if in reverence for the fallen king, and in the crevices of his stony hair yellow stonecrop gleamed. ‘They cannot conquer for ever!’ said Frodo.” --The Two Towers

Even amidst the gloom, there is hope, and things higher and further above the darkness. And the darkness doesn't win. At least, it does not win all of the battles, and it certainly does not win the war, which is an extremely Catholic point of view. We do believe that the devil is the villain in history, and that the world is in gloom under his dominion, the dominion of Death, which, on the other hand, has been completely taken away by Christ. 

"Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy victory? O death, where is thy sting?" --Corinthians 15:55

Even if we can't see the vanquishing of death in this world yet, because this world is still broken and fallen and all of that, it has been accomplished. Which Tolkien also does a good job of portraying.

2. Well, I have two jumping-off points from that first point, but one of them has to go first, so let's arbitrarily decide on the slightly easier one, which would be spiritual warfare. (Yes, I meant easier to explain, not easier to actually engage in. XD) Y'see, Catholics (and Christians in general, I think?) believe that life is literally a fight between good and evil during which everyone has to fight either for the good side or the bad side, ultimately, while still it being a given that we're human and will make mistakes, sin, &c. Which means that sometimes those fighting for the good side are up against things (fallen angels) far stronger than them, since the other side is pretty unscrupulous. We do have lots of backup, but the fact remains:

"We are not contending against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness." --Ephesians 6:12

And Tolkien portrays this in his work, too. As I noted above, the villains of various works are not simply bad people, but literally the devil and his fallen angels. Various characters, such as Beren & Luthien (more on her in a moment) and Isildur physically go up against Morgoth and Sauron, and other characters, like Sam and Frodo, go up against them by either fighting their armies or destroying things important to them. 

3. One viewpoint Tolkien held which isn't necessarily a doctrinal point of Catholicism but is an extremely Catholic view is that of history as one long defeat. As he says:

"I do not expect ‘history’ to be anything but a ‘long defeat’— though it contains (and in legend may contain more clearly and movingly) some samples or glimpses of final victory" --Letter 225

If one reads The Silmarillion, after every victory, things go downhill. In fact, even after LOTR, Tolkien started writing a story in which Aragorn's heirs dropped the ball and the darkness had spread again. (Am I the only one who's glad that never got published? 😅 Because I really am glad.) 

As I said above, the world is currently under the domain of Death & the devil, although Christ's victory has opened the gates of Heaven and ultimately unseated the devil. But even so, history is a story of the devil winning battle after battle (though losing some) but God ultimately winning the war, through the Resurrection of Christ. 

So that's probably part of why Tolkien wrote Middle-Earth's history the way he did. 

But ALSO, I think Tolkien knew a lot about human nature, being a sensitive and fairy-tale-loving and Catholic man and all that. 

And the truth about humans and history is that, even after the eucatastrophe of Christ's life, this literally always happens. Things get better, awesome even for a bit, and then they get worse.

Because we mess up. Again. 

For example (and I know this is pre-Christ, but we're starting there, hold on), in the Old Testament, the period of the Judges? The Israelites fall away from God, they get attacked, they go "oh no, maybe we shouldn't have abandoned God, oops" and call out for help, God sends them a judge who gets them out of their problems (e.g., Gideon, Sampson, Deborah, and, my personal favorite, Ehud, who defeated his enemy because he was a lefty. As am I. :P), and then as soon as life gets good again, they fall away from God again.

My brain is a little dead from how busy my September has been, but one easy example that springs to mind from the centuries AD (and which Tolkien definitely would have known) is Charlemagne's reign and the decline after him. 

So, anyway. Tolkien writes this way because a) it's realistic, and b) it's a Catholic view. (Not the only Catholic view. But one possible Catholic view.)

4. I wrote a post about this already, (several years ago, and it's linked above), but Tolkien includes a LOT of Christ figures in his work. (I assume I don't need to explain why this is a Christian/Catholic thing?) But the cool thing is that none of his Christ figures is completely Christ. Instead, each of them reflects a different aspect of Him. This differentiation supports the fact that while no one is Christ, we're all called to be like Him, to each be, in some way an "alter Christus" or "another Christ". 

They're so fun to spot, guys, and to think about how each one reflects a different aspect of Christ and how it's showcased in the character. For instance, Gandalf represents Christ's priestliness. He's the one who faces off with evil and offers a sacrifice--himself--and then rises. Whereas Aragorn represents Christ's kingliness. "The hands of the king are the hands of a healer." (Side note: I get a tiny lump in my throat every time I read or write that sentence out. Tolkien really has a way with words.) Whereas Frodo represents His carrying of our sin unto the bitter end. And I could go on for much longer, and in fact, did do so--thus, I will direct you to the post. (Which I also linked right there, because I need to stop being lazy.)

5. A lot of Tolkien's writing echoes the Bible. Not in content, necessarily (although there's a little of that, too, because really good literary themes persist), but in writing style, and in allusions. It's the little things, and I'm hard pressed for examples, because it floats just at the level where one would need to reread multiple times to catch it--but a friend who has also reread multiple times agrees with me, and mentioned the Biblical-ness of Tolkien's writing often enough that I remembered to include it in this post--but I can think of two examples (besides the fact, as the same friend just reminded me, that his characters often talk as if they're in the King James Bible): 

An example of allusion: "Down snake...down on your belly!" (Two Towers) versus "to the serpent...upon your belly you shall go" (Genesis)

An example of similarity of writing: There's a section of Unfinished Tales which is the chronicles of the Kings of Numenor, which sounds a whole dang lot like the books of 1 & 2 Kings as well as 1 & 2 Chronicles. 

"He was born in the year 1634, and ruled for 160 years; he surrendered the sceptre in 2029, an died in 2035. He was a mighty King, but greedy of wealth." --Unfinished Tales

"And the time that Jeroboam reigned was twenty-two years; and he slept with his fathers, and Nadab his son reigned in his stead." --1 Kings 14

"[H]e was like his father proud and greedy of wealth, and the Numenoreans in his service exacted heavy tribute from the men of the coasts of Middle-Earth." --Unfinished Tales

"And he walked in all the sins which his father did before him; and his heart was not fully true to the LORD his God" --1 Kings 15

"Tar-Palantir repented of the ways of the Kings before him, and would fain have returned to the friendship of the Eldar" --Unfinished Tales

"He was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem...he did what was right in the eyes of the LORD...removed the high places, and broke the pillars, and cut down the Asherah...he held fast to the LORD; he did not depart from following him." --2 Kings 18

6. The way Tolkien portrays women also, I think, reflects a Catholic worldview. (*hides from the mob coming with pitchforks*) Sure, maybe it doesn't reflect a current worldview on women, but...Catholics have never been good at being on a level with popular culture. That's just not what we do. (Unless Catholicism is popular culture, like during the Middle Ages, in which case...all bets are off.) The thing is, Tolkien's work reveres women. We're not just talking LOTR here, so in addition to Arwen, Eowyn, and Galadriel, we're also talking about Luthien (whose name became his nickname for his wife) and even the sadder women, like Nienor and her mother, and I'm sure many others whose names I don't remember. [This is the moment when I realize I want to go reread all of his stories with women in them and write a whole post on Tolkien's approach to women. Who's with me?] Both he and the male characters in his stories approach them with a reverence not as if they're gods or anything, but just for their womanhood. A natural reverence for the mystery inherent in woman, their modesty and femininity. He writes them with chivalry, and his male characters approach them with chivalry. 

And it's awesome. For instance (this is hard to express, and I couldn't find the exact quotes I wanted to illustrate it, but I hope these ones help):

"seeing in a flare of lightning the body as it seemed of a slain maiden lying upon the mound of Finduilas he was stricken to the heart. But the woodmen lifted her up, and Turambar cast his cloak about her, and they took her to a lodge nearby." --The Silmarillion

"he came upon Luthien...all memory of his pain departed from him, and he fell into an enchantment; for Luthien was the most beautiful of all of the Children of Iluvatar." --The Silmarillion

"queenly she looked, and thought and knowledge were in her glance, as of one who has known many things that the years bring. Above her brow her head was covered with a cap of silver lace netted with small gems, glittering white; but her soft grey raiment had no ornament save a girdle of leaves wrought in silver. " --The Fellowship of the Ring

And many of them are awesome, too. For example:

"Then Sauron sprang upon Luthien; and she swooned...but even as he came, falling she cast a fold of her dark cloak before his eyes; and he stumbled" --The Silmarillion 

"she did not blench: maiden of the Rohirrim, child of kings, slender but as a steel-blade, fair yet terrible. A swift stroke she dealt, skilled and deadly. The outstretched neck she clove asunder, and the hewn head fell like a stone." --The Return of the King

"Then tottering, struggling up, with her last strength she drove her sword between crown and mantle...the sword broke sparkling into many shards. The crown rolled away with a clang." --The Return of the King

This feminine awesomeness is also a very Catholic thing, just like the chivalry. The most awesome human in Catholic tradition (excluding Jesus, Who in addition to being fully human is also fully God) is the Virgin Mary, who, while being a woman with feminine mystery, worthy of chivalry, also is portrayed crushing the head of Satan in our iconography on a regular basis. Hence, Tolkien writing characters like Eowyn and Luthien, who go head-to-head with evil, is not at odds with Catholic tradition of reverence for womanhood, but actually incredibly in sync with that tradition. (Perhaps one could say that Catholics do also believe that women are kick-butt awesome, just in a slightly different way than popular culture?)

7. I had originally had this last bullet point in two but decided that I wanted to combine the two concepts I was considering, as they both fall under the umbrella of Tolkien seeing God's providence both in history and in story. Those two concepts are those of "luck" and divine providence (a concept which I'm very in debt to Joseph Pearce for), and that of eucatastrophe, the sudden turning for the better of a story. Especially in The Hobbit, but even a bit in The Lord of the Rings, characters often seem to get out of trouble or not fall into trouble because of "luck". 

"But all that came out with a sudden squeal was: 'Time! Time!' Bilbo was saved by pure luck. For that of course was the answer." --The Hobbit

This seems to break all of the storytelling rules--aren't we always told not to get characters out of trouble in a deus ex machina sort of way? But I think this works for Tolkien for two reasons. One, that he doesn't keep his characters out of all trouble. They have problems. The world is dark, as we've noted. They're not swanning through life without a care in the world. Gollum still wants to eat Bilbo after he answers the riddle. But sometimes, the worst is averted, even just for a time. And two, that Deus (note the capital) ex machina doesn't bother him. God, or rather Iluvatar, the All-Father (aka God) exists in Middle-Earth. And His providence is often seen, by those characters down "in the trenches" as a kind of luck. Bilbo thinks that when he finds the Ring, it's simple luck. Yet, Gandalf notes in Fellowship:

"There are other forces at work in this world, Frodo, besides that of evil. Bilbo was meant to find the Ring, in which case you were also meant to have it. And that is an encouraging thought."

This quote heavily implies a divine providence on Iluvatar's part. Not to keep the characters completely out of trouble, with no suffering in their lives, &c, but to guide their steps for good and not, ultimately for evil.

"For I know the plans I have for you, says the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope." --Jeremiah 29:11

Then there's Eucatastrophe, which Tolkien speaks of thusly:

"[T]he 'consolation' of fairy-tales has another aspect than the imaginative satisfaction of ancient desires. Far more important is the Consolation of the Happy Ending. Almost I would venture to assert that all complete fairy-stories must have it. At least I would say that Tragedy is the true form of Drama, its highest function; but the opposite is true of Fairy-story. Since we do not appear to possess a word that expresses this opposite — I will call it Eucatastrophe. The eucatastrophic tale is the true form of fairy-tale, and its highest function.

The consolation of fairy-stories, the joy of the happy ending: or more correctly of the good catastrophe, the sudden joyous “turn” (for there is no true end to any fairy-tale): this joy, which is one of the things which fairy-stories can produce supremely well, is not essentially 'escapist', nor 'fugitive'." --On Fairy Stories

This whole "eucatastrophe" thing might also seem like a way of getting characters out of trouble. A sudden turn of a story for good! Often (but not always) without the characters' agency! Everyone who has written a book on writing rolls over in their grave! 

But again, this reflects a view of the world in which the history of the world has had its own eucatastrophe in the coming of Christ. It was an unexpected turning for good which was unmerited, unprompted by human agency, and fully and completely a grace from God. So, Tolkien's use of eucatastrophe in his own work reflects, thus, his Catholic view of history, and the intervention of God's providence within it.

Whew! That was a lot! Not, perhaps, as much as I could write on Tolkien as a Catholic author (maybe I will write that book someday...I would highly enjoy it, and there's a gap in the scholarship, I think...), and after all, writing this post sparked the idea for another on Tolkien's writing. But that seems like a reasonable amount for a single blog post! Seven is a good number of bullet points. (Oh, and also: you may have noticed that I didn't mention lembas even once. That was on purpose. Lembas has been talked about plenty, I think, and I wanted to draw attention to more overarching topics. Come at me in the comments. XD)

Happy Tolkien Blog Week everyone--I can't wait to see your posts!!

What is your favorite of Tolkien's works? Least favorite? Have you ever thought about the Catholic and Christian resonances in his work? Who's your favorite of his female characters?