[Pyro7480]

The above is a wonderful article on part of the theme behind Tolkien's Lord of the Rings. Please read this carefully.

[Pyro7480]

Ping! (and please ping people who may be interested in reading this)

[RosieCotton]

Two points in particular from the article that stood out for me - I'd never noticed / thought of these things before before:

"I should say," he wrote, explaining the final climatic moments on Mount Doom when the Ring is finally unmade, "that within the mode of the story [it] exemplifies (an aspect of) the familiar words: 'Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive [those who] trespass against us. Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.'"

As a Catholic, Tolkien knew March 25 was the date in which God had "unmade" Original Sin, which, like the Ring, has brought humanity under the sway of the Shadow. If the Ring, which is unmade at the culmination of Tolkien's Quest, is the "one ring to rule them all... and in the darkness bind them," the Fall was the "One Sin to rule them all... and in the darkness bind them." On the twenty-fifth of March the One Sin, like the One Ring, has been "unmade," destroying the power of the Dark Lord.

Very interesting article - thanks for posting it!

[NYer]

It is very comforting in the midst of these dark days that the most popular book of the twentieth century, and the most popular movie of the new century, draw their power and their glory from the light of the Gospel.

Dark days, indeed!! This production of LOTR is superlative! What a letdown there will be after Part 3 is released and been viewed. Perhaps, they will follow this with the original book The Hobbit.

[Pyro7480]

Ping!

[Maximilian]

Sorry, I can't buy any of this. Catholics make this enormous stretch to try to justify Lord of the Rings while condemning Harry Potter.

Let's take just one issue: there is no God in the books. No mention ever of a supreme being, no reference even to life after death. What happens to these characters when they die? From a truly Catholic perspective, that is the only issue that really matters. Yet LoR ignores it entirely, even though basic consistency of plot would require some explanation of what happens to elves when they die as opposed to living forever.

[MrConfettiMan]

Ring Ping.

[Pahuanui]

Still, nothing explains the presence of Tom Bombadil in LOR, and I find no way to reconcile his nature or presence with anything particularly Catholic.

[Thorin]

Thanks for posting this great piece. Those who doubt the depth of Tolkien's faith, or that his faith informed his writing, have only to read his letters, many of which discuss his religion, and the religious themes in his work, in detail.

[Destro]

Actually, Lord of the Rings is an ode to the pre Christian Paganisim that was seeing a revival in the late 19th and early 20th century, especially after WWI tore apart the fabric of European civilization.

The Lord of the Rings was written by Tolkien in support of the old ways and is anti-industrialization and pro monarchy/nobility. It is a view of the world along Jeffersonian econimic ideals a world of rural yeoman farmers under the protection of noblemen.

The theology is pure modern recreated Druidisim - nature worship - but not for the sake of Pagan gods but to drive a point that the earth is holy and provides life if treated as life (the villans are anti-earth - they rip down trees so they can build things of war for example).

[Penny1]

ping