It is not uncommon among a certain class of literary critic to view the writing of John Ronald Reuel Tolkien as unimportant. Usually, this type of critic will dismiss Tolkien's work as "mere" something: mere allegory, mere escapism, or mere fantasy. Bradley Birzer's J.R.R. Tolkien's Sanctifying Myth
takes the reader into the heart of Tolkien's mythology and shows the complexity of its underlying meaning. He illustrates how Tolkien's Catholic beliefs shaped Middle-Earth and created anything but a "mere" trifle.It is no surprise that Tolkien has come under attack by so many modern critics. His mythology, principally detailed in
The Lord of the Rings and
The Silmarillion, is the product of 19th century values. Tolkien never made peace with modernity. In fact, he refused to own a car throughout the majority of his life. He was influenced by a world that is now barely recognizable. Tolkien was an original member of The Inklings, a group of professors at Oxford that one student described as "politically very conservative, religiously very Catholic (either Anglo or Roman), and artistically very antimodernist". Their aim was "redirecting the whole current of contemporary art and life". It is difficult to imagine such a group existing at a prominent university in 2003.
Birzer argues, "Tolkien believed that he served as a poet-recipient of God's secondary myths, that he was a recorder rather than an inventor". Thus, Tolkien saw God as the author of his mythology, and himself as merely the receiver of these revelations. In other words, Middle-earth was a sanctified myth, inspired by Grace. Birzer believes that "
God remains off-stage in
The Lord of the Rings. He is, rather, contained within the very fiber of the story". In essence, Tolkien meant his mythology to reflect God's existence and involvement in a pre-Christian world.
That Tolkien saw
The Lord of the Rings as a way to glorify God's creation explains the hostility his work faced in the mainstream literary community. A literary culture hostile to religion in general, and Christianity specifically, is not amenable to a work so imbued with faith in Christ. Edmund Wilson described it as "juvenile trash". One English professor complained that it lacked "a serious controlling principle". This last critique is puzzling considering the case Birzer lays out for the effect of Tolkien's Catholicism on his works. It is no mystery that Christianity is the "controlling principle" of
The Lord of the Rings. However, those critics who worked in a literary community devoid of Christians might miss the religious current that runs through Tolkien's mythology.
The accusation that
The Lord of the Rings is mere allegory is a common one. Critics have suggested that Sauron represented Hitler or Stalin. Some thought that the "enemy" in the book was meant to be fascism or communism. These critics were all wrong. Birzer effectively lays out his case for the origin of many of the ideas in the book:
While no single character or place within The Lord of the Rings directly parallels the places, events, and the people of the Christian story - to do so would have made the myth a formal allegory - the myth is, as Tolkien explained, "consonant with Christian thought and belief". Throughout the story, one finds strong Christian symbolism, especially symbolism of a Catholic flavor having to do with prayer, the Eucharist, and the Virgin Mary. The legendarium should "be accepted - well, shall we say baldly," Tolkien concluded, "by a mind that believes in the Blessed Trinity".Examples of Christian symbolism in the book include the Elven lembas bread that Sam and Frodo eat to sustain them throughout their journey, which is widely interpreted as a symbol for the Eucharist.
Birzer's work is a thoroughly engrossing journey through the greater meaning of Tolkien's mythology. It is a refreshing reminder that beauty and imagination are vital components of great literature. Several generations should be grateful that a bored J.R.R. Tolkien absent-mindedly wrote on the back of an exam paper, "In a hole in the ground there lived a Hobbit." Those ten words have helped to inspire millions more. There will certainly be millions more to follow.
Tim O'Bryhim has worked as a magazine editor and writer in Newport Beach, CA. He is a certified history teacher in Kansas and also works as a freelance writer. Tim is the author of several pieces of published and unpublished short fiction.
To view the original text of this review, please visit TownHall.com.
