When Myth Becomes Fantasy

They skip, twirl and dance in the nooks of trees. A bright trail of glitter reflects off the moss and leaves in behalf of the moon-lit sky. The fairies continue their festivities in a trance as they listen to nature's melody. Their luminous glow fades as fly towards the heavens and blend into the countless bright stars. Of course, fairies are creatures found in legends. A false or incredible story that developed into fairy lore and fairy tales are mythical and underlying themes. Fairies represent no source of power or faith. They come from an alternate world created to satisfy the needs of your imagination. They are not creatures of darkness, nor are they creatures of light (Fairy 3 Tolkien). The reason for creating alternate worlds is to escape a place of evil, unhappiness or fear. Tolkien dissects the definition given in the Oxford English Dictionary in order to start his open-ended question to fantastical creatures in Tree and Leaf (1965). Lewis, Tolkien and J.K. Rowling's are the creators and gods of literary fantasy for this era's youth.

Myth becomes legend, which than becomes fantasy, or is it history? Tolkien writes fantasy in order to re-write history by using death, good, evil, courage and justice as his underlying themes. These are not the only themes that are present in Tolkien's Christian work. Although Tolkien denies any parallelism to the Gospels and Lord of the Rings (1954) literary scholars dare to prove him wrong, including myself. Tolkien writes a letter to Unwin addressing received criticism for the beginning installments of The Ring. He alludes to the fact that allegory should not have been expected. "There is a 'moral,' I suppose, in any tale worth telling (Letters 3 Tolkien)." The different interpretations allow it the story to be myth and not just allegory. It's a key example of what Tolkien wants to accomplish i.e. he eliminates all religious elements so that cycles back to religion. Tolkien creates his alternate world so readers can escape from the past and current history and horrors of modern life. In Tolkien's letter to Unwin he says that light (the good before the Fall) and darkness represent time periods in history. During the 20^th century Pope John II referred to our era as the "culture of death (The Gospel 1 Wood)." Tolkien cures our horror with a dose fantasy. Agreeing with Woods, he has achieved a "remarkable accomplishment by embedding the Gospel as the underlying theme of his book, its deep background and implicit hope (The Gospel 3 Wood)."

The Gospel is in his book. Although he claims no formal connection between religion and his work, Tolkien is wrong. By omitting the thought that religion influenced his text, it makes the elements of Christianity reflect evenmore. For instance, Woods highlights in The Gospel According to Tolkien.

It is true that the hobbits do not pray, although the Numernoreans pause before meals. Neither do the Shire-dwellers build temples or make ritual sacrifices. In extreme distress, however, Sam and Frodo cry out to Elizabeth - the elvish name for Varda, who is the wife of Mawnee and the compassionate queen on the stars. So is the elven-food called lembas clearly reminiscent of the Eucharistic wafer: its airy lightness gives strength in direct disproportion to its weight (The Gospel 3-4 Wood)

Tolkien declares that the presence of religion is excluded, but the elements are hidden throughout. "The religious element is absorbed into the story and the symbolism (The Gospel 4 Wood)." God cannot identify himself because than Lord of the Rings would be religious, so in order to hide the theme Tolkien puts religious significance out of his plots, characters, images, tone, landscape and point of view (The Gospel 4 Wood). It is paganism in so many ways because its Christian not being Christian. The very Christianity that would be in Lord of the Rings empties itself out into what it is not. This is not to argue that pagans are Christian as if they were lesser myths, but this is to say that for a Christian to be Christian in Tolkiens view he would have to recognize himself as the pagan. This would be a fallen world in order to be on the journey to the city of God.

Religious image and tone can be spotted as Bilbo says to Gandalf, "I might find somewhere I can finish my book. I have thought of a nice ending for it: and he lived happily ever after to the end of his days (Book 1 Chapter 1)." Bilbo thought it was time to leave the shire, and he couldn't just leave quietly. Bilbo has power and money. He uses the word queer to show that he has power, and because of money his relatives are envious. He decided to have a gala, party, a celebration! Bilbo Baggins was in fact turning one hundred and eleven. He was excited, and sad but he was ready to finish the adventure of Gandolf, Bilbo and the magical ring! The ring was magical since the day he found it. It has to poses great significance, when Bilbo put it on he suddenly became invisible. He did just that as his grand finale to his party. Gandalf paid him a visit before he left. He was waiting there in the study and soon enough Frodo had the ring. Little did he know what powers the ring posses. The Ring of Power. The ring was thought to be lost and now it was being searched for by the Dark Lord. Gandalf said that there was only one way to destroy the ring. Frodo had to find Mount Orodruin in Mordor and throw the ring into the fire depths to completely destroy its evil. Frodo was scared, but he was chosen as the one to destroy the evil that powered the ring. Providence goes right to work as Frodo accepts the mission and Sam goes with him.

Sam was chosen as so was Frodo. If Sam wasn't meant to be chosen he would not have been cutting the hedges and listening at that exact moment. Frodo is giving up his life and saving middle-earth. Giving up what we have is very Augustinian. "The greatest sin, is love of self over God (Be like God but not submitted)." For Tolkien, this would be a modern form of sin. Frodo and Sam were chosen because their smallness enables them to complete tasks. Sam would not be able to do it without Sam. Providence works in the relationship between Sam and Frodo. Sam is chosen to complete tasks and to help Frodo in areas where he cannot. Even though they are on their way to Mount Doom they need the help of Gandalf and the elves (Like 1 Corinthians). There are certain tasks for everybody. Frodo depends on Sam, and Sam depends on no one. He is a great character in this story because as soon as he does what he thinks is wrong he is quick to ask for forgiveness (he acknowledges sin). Sam is the everyday guy in the battle field that puts his heart into fighting for his country.

Natural theology is prevalent in The Lord of the Rings; you don't need a revelation to know that. Christianity is engulfed in this work when we compare Gandalf to Christ and an angel, and Sauron as Satin (the fact that we have good and evil). When we talk about certain morals like death, good, evil, courage and justice it makes it Christian (courage vs. cowardness). Christianity is there when we talk about moral values and courage to face death, and those are Christian values. We cannot separate morality from values of Christianity. "Why should we rise to the aid of those who did not come to ours?" The answer to this is because it's what Jesus would do (WWJD). He would not be selfish. The question many have come to conclude is why an all powerful God would create evil. Recapping Augustinian, evil is good that has been tainted. Evil is a simple corruption of good.

Augustinians state that evil came from the freedom that God gave us, the ability of choice after Adam and Eve ate from the tree. In the Fall we have Adam who chose to rebel steering away from the creative order. For instance, the scene from Return of the King

Gollum on the edge of the abyss was fighting like a mad thing with an unseen foe. To and fro he swayed, now so near the brink that he almost tumbled in, now dragging back , falling [...] Suddenly Sam saw Gollum's long hands draw upwards tohis mouth; his white fangs gleamed, and then snapped as they bit. Frodo gave a cry, and there he was, fallen upon his knees at the chasm's edge. But Gollum, dancing like a mad thing, held aloft the ring, a finger still thrust within its circle [...] 'Precious!, precious, precious!' Gollum cried. 'My Precious! O my Precious!' And with that even as his eyes were lifted up to gloat on his prize, he stepped to far, toppled, wavered for a moment on the brink, and then with a shriek fell. Out of the depths came his last wail precious, and he was gone (Return of the King Tolkien Chapter 3 248-249).

Gollum is a good example of good that has fallen into evil. Unlike the iron wheels, darkness and hammers of machines that over took nature with the use of power. Gollum was enticed by the power of the ring. He came from a prestigious family, he was smart, the best of the best, river folk. The power of the ring exemplifies queerness that is already there. It's a bad is if he uses the ring for power, self-less power corrupts. Gollum went crazy trying to gain self-less power. Gollum can almost be good, but he would never be restored because his purpose, his evil, would call him to the fiery cracks of his own death and with his evil good prevailed. We will never own power over the ring once it has consumed us: the only power we have is to stray away from temptation. Instead of being the best of the best Gollum ends up exhiled as the ring pulls him to shadow and darkness. Providence brought Smiguel to destroy the ring. The ring betrayed Gollum. Frodo is not discouraged by the power of the ring. He only wears it when he must use evil to get away from evil. In terms of war, the battle was for the purpose of good and killing is for the purpose of war.

Wood was right in concluding the underlying theme of religion in Tolkien's acclaimed, un-Christian work.

Citations
Tree & Leaf (1968) Tolkien
The Lord of the Rings (complete series) Tolkien
The BIble, Oxford Edition
Fairy, Tolkien