The Meaning of Middle Earth: Personal Reflections on J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings"

My personal reflections on my favorite book of all time in light of liberty, tyranny, choice and the Catholic faith that Tolkien and I share. This is both textual analysis and a kind of journal entry, but I've been thinking a lot about this subject lately and I might do a follow-up sometime because I've only scratched the surface in this video. Below are some Tolkien quotes about the State and about the Catholicity of his most famous work:



"My political opinions lean more and more to Anarchy (philosophically understood, meaning the abolition of control not whiskered men with bombs) — or to unconstitutional Monarchy. I would arrest anybody who uses the word State (in any sense other than the inaminate real of England and its inhabitants, a thing that has neither power, rights nor mind); and after a chance of recantation, execute them if they remained obstinate! If we could go back to personal names, it would do a lot of good. Government is an abstract noun meaning the art and process of governing and it should be an offence to write it with a capital G or so to refer to people. [] Anyway the proper study of Man is anything but Man; and the most improper job of any many, even saints (who at any rate were at least unwilling to take it on), is bossing other men. Not one in a million is fit for it, and least of all those who seek the opportunity. At least it is done only to a small group of men who know who their master is. The mediaevals were only too right in taking nolo episcopari as the best reason a man could give to others for making him a bishop. Grant me a king whose chief interest in life is stamps, railways, or race-horses; and who has the power to sack his Vizier (or whatever you dare call him) if he does not like the cut of his trousers. And so on down the line. But, of course, the fatal weakness of all that — after all only the fatal weakness of all good natural things in a bad corrupt unnatural world — is that it works and has only worked when all the world is messing along in the same good old inefficient human way. [] There is only one bright spot and that is the growing habit of disgruntled men of dynamating factories and power-stations; I hope that, encouraged now as patriotism, may remain a habit! But it wont do any good, if it is not universal."


"The Lord of the Rings is of course, a fundamentally religious and Catholic work; unconsciously so at first, but consciously in the revision."


"Of course God is in the Lord of the Rings! The period was pre-Christian, but it was a monotheistic world."


P.S. Should have done a final edit, some of the slides are a few seconds late, but I'm sure you can figure it out.

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[SvenTviking]

Also, the morality of Tolkien's work seems to be more generally Christian than singularly catholic, and CS Lewis is much more openly expousing christian values in "The Lion the witch and the wordrobe." And as an Anglo catholic, living in a very protestant country and writing at first for British audiences, making too strong a catholic point to his novels might have caused unpopularity.

[tumbleweedjoe]

@SvenTviking Concerning concerning your second point, read the following from Tolkien's mouth: "The Lord of the Rings is of course a fundamentally religious and Catholic work," he wrote, "unconsciously so at first, but consciously in the revision. That is why I have not put in, or have cut out, practically all references to anything like "religion", to cults or practices, in the Imaginary world. For the religious element is absorbed into the story and the symbolism" (Letter 142).

[SvenTviking]

I think you missed the point of the Lord of the Rings and the Silmarillion. Sauron and his master, Morgoth rebel against the order and law of the Valar and the creator Iluvatar. They are anarchists reveling in chaos. The end of the LOTR sees the whole of middle Earth become one kingdom under Elessar.

[tumbleweedjoe]

@SvenTviking Concerning your first point, Tolkien again: “My political opinions lean more and more to Anarchy (philosophically understood, meaning abolition of control not whiskered men with bombs) — or to ‘unconstitutional’ Monarchy. I would arrest anybody who uses the word State (in any sense other than the inanimate realm of England and its inhabitants, a thing that has neither power, rights nor mind); and after a chance of recantation, execute them if they remain obstinate!…

[tumbleweedjoe]

@SvenTviking ...Government is an abstract noun meaning the art and process of governing and it should be an offence to write it with a capital G or so as to refer to people… The most improper job of any man, even saints, is bossing other men. Not one in a million is fit for it, and least of all those who seek the opportunity" -J.R.R. Tolkien. So, while its true that Middle Earth is united under one kingdom, still Tolkien seems to view the just king as a necessary evil, not desirable in itself.

[Billhawk74]

I don't know if you'll see this comment as this video is nearly a year old, but have you read or listened to any of Peter Kreeft's work about L.O.T.R. and Catholicism?

[tumbleweedjoe]

@Billhawk74 No I haven't. I didn't know he'd written anything in that area. I'll have to check it out.

[noisss1000]

@SvenTviking Evangelical Christianity is very untolerant, I've seen evangelicals burning LOTR books accusing it with magic and occultism (lol). In Catholicism you can meet God by science, book, poem or movie. It means that you can find allegories and recreate the bible story as it reflects again and again. Bible is the root story in our culture from which we extrapolate emotions to.our everyday life - thats why we're so delighted with books and movies like LOTR. Sorry for my english

[noisss1000]

@tumbleweedjoe Frodo, Aragorn and Gandalf are like tree types of Christ.

[Zodslayer]

You said something powerful in this video. "Evil is not an original thing, but rather the perversion of something good." That statement belongs to me now and for that I give this video a thumbs up. Thanks!

[Zodslayer]

I liked your video. I too have drawn some personal meanings from the Lord of the Rings Trilogy. It is right up there with The Matrix for me personally. For me, Middle Earth is my mind. Remember how Wormtongue had taken control of The mind of King Theoden? When the Wizard released Theoden from the evil whisperings of Wormtongue, Theoden was ready to defend his kingdom. The world is constantly trying to make us believe that self destructive thoughts are our own, but they are not.

[EnochEmery251]

I found Lord of the Rings in the same way. I watched that animated version all the time as a small kid, and then wanted to read the books.

[thruthebook]

Tolkien never mentioned the heavy symbolism from Freemasonry in the Lord of the Rings which cannot be coincidence. He was most probably a high level witch (Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn) and channeled his work from the demonic realms. LOTR is undoubtedly a view of REAL history from the point of view of witches. Even Tolkien didn't lie when he said his work was HISTORY. He was also probably a Jesuit who are at the top of the witch pyramid.

[thruthebook]

I hope you find out what witches think of the Lord of the Rings. Look at John Todd on YouTube.

[thruthebook]

I hope you find out what witchs think of the Lord of the Rings. Look at John Todd on YouTube.