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THE LORD OF THE RINGS---
A CATHOLIC VIEW
By Charles A. Coulombe
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Mr. Paul Edwin Zimmer, of Greyhaven, remarked to me once
that most analysis of the work of J.R.R. Tolkien was undertaken
from the Evangelical Protestant or from the Anglican point
of view. As Tolkien himself was a fervent Catholic, he
reasoned, a Catholic critique might shed new light. Thus
encouraged, I began.
It will be the contention of this paper that much of Mr.
Tolkien's unique vision was directly shaped by recurring
images in the Catholic culture which shaped JRRT, and
which are not shared by non-Catholics generally. The expression
of these images in Lord of the Rings will then concern
us.
To begin with, it must be remembered that Catholic culture
and Catholic faith, while mutually supportive and symbiotic,
are not the same thing. Mr. Walker Percy, in his Lost
in the Cosmos, explored the difference, and pointed out
that, culturally, Catholics in Cleveland are much more
Protestant than Presbyterians in say, Taos, New Orleans,
or the South of France. Erik, Ritter von Kuehnelt-Leddihn,
points out that the effects of this dichotomy upon politics,
attributing the multi-party system in Catholic countries
to the Catholic adherence to absolutes; he further ascribes
the two-party system to the Protestant willingness to
compromise. However this may be, it does point up a constant
element in Catholic thought---the pursuit of the absolute.
Here we must make an aside in regard to the U.S. Catholic
culture in America is practically non-existent, except
in attenuated form among such peoples as the Hispanos
and Indians of Northern New Mexico, the Cajuns and Creoles
of Louisiana and the other Gulf States, and the old English
Catholic settlements of Maryland and Kentucky. Elsewhere
the Faith was brought by immigrants, and its attendant
culture has, like all imported ones in the States, veered
between preservation and assimilation. This was exacerbated
by the fact that Catholic leadership in the United States
was early committed to a programme of cultural melding.
In addition, this leadership was primarily Irish, a nationality
which had been deprived of much of its native culture
by centuries of Protestant Ascendancy. Hence it has been
extremely difficult for Americans, even American Catholics,
to understand or appreciate the Catholic thing (as Chesterton
described it) in a cultural context. I am reminded of
the astonishment of a classmate of mine (from a typical
American Catholic High School) at seeing an anthology
of Catholic poetry. This situation has been greatly accentuated
in the past twenty years by the changes occurring after
Vatican II.
This being so, it will be necessary to describe a little
of the uniquely Catholic world view. In fine, it is a
sacramental one. At the heart of all Catholic life is
a miracle, a mystery, the Blessed Sacrament. Surrounded
traditionally by ritual and awe, it has been the formative
aspect of Catholic art, drama, and poetry. The coronation
of Kings, swearing of oaths, marriages, celebrations of
feast-days, all have a Eucharistic character. Before the
advent of Cartesianism, it was held (among other and higher
things) to be the highest act of Magic, before which all
other acts of theurgy, goetia, or sympathetic magic were
as nought. It was the unitive force of the Catholic world,
mystically uniting in sacrificial bond all the altars
across the globe.
This great miracle was held to be prefigured by the sacrifice
of the Jewish temple, and indeed to have been foreseen
in some dim way also by the mysteries and philosophies
of the ancient world. Hence nothing that was not evil
in these older faiths was rejected out of hand, although
a clear distinction was made between them and Catholicism.
Under this influence, Catholic societies were societies
of wonder. Life was held to be a series of miracles. With
God Himself appearing on the altar, in consumable form,
how difficult were wizards, elves, or the change of seasons?
As Aragorn replied to Eothain: "The green earth,
say you? That is a mighty matter of legend, though you
tread it under the light of day!" So might reply
any European of the past, or a Cajun, Galwayman, Sicilian,
Micmac, Tagalog, Alfur, or Baganda of today. It is this
quality which leads us to dub those peoples "mythopoeic,"
and their modern equivalents "superstitious"
or "backward."
Politically, traditional Catholic culture has been hierarchical.
Feudalism itself was formed in great degree by the Faith,
as is shown by the great difference between the Feudal
system of European history, and its equivalents in the
India of the Mughals, the Japan of the Tokugawa, and the
China of the Warring States. Ideas of Chivalry and Hierarchy
suggested by the Church did not merely shape European
Catholic polity, but continue to determine political structures
in such settings as Catholicised African tribes, ethnic
Catholic Asian settlements, and Latin America. The relationships
of King to Subject, of Lord to Vassal, of Comrade to Comrade-in-Arms
remain, though often under other names.
In traditional Catholic societies, the King is, in a lessened
sense, the Vicar of God. While not approximating the Sacral
Kingship of non-Catholic peoples, the Catholic Monarchy
nevertheless retains a certain sacredness. This remains
the case, even when in conflict with the Church. After
the calamities of the Reformation, English Civil War,
Glorious, French, Industrial, and Russian Revolutions,
etc., the King became more than that; he became the exiled
leader of the faithful, whose return alone would bring
a return to the old ways, and an end to change and unrest.
These various themes continue to affect Catholic consciousness
today. We will observe how far Tolkien was a cultural
as well as a doctrinal Catholic (despite being raised
in a Protestant land) and how these themes emerge in Lord
of the Rings.
The Birmingham Oratory which provided the backdrop of
JRRT's life from 1904 to 1911, was founded by Cardinal
Newman and remained a stronghold of cultural Catholicism.
Fr. Francis Morgan, JRRT's guardian, he described as a
"Welsh-Spanish Tory," surely as Ultramontane
a combination as one could wish for. Even today, with
some few exceptions, the houses of the Oratory around
the world are renowned for both orthodoxy and learning.
It was here that our author's religious sense was formed,
and during this time that his literary and linguistic
interests began. Later, his studies were confined primarily
to works of the pre-Reformation. Beyond Chaucer, he had
little interest. Judging by his later work, his early
environment and studies supplied that which would have
been supplied had he lived in a Catholic country. Had
he lived away from the Oratory, a living example of Catholic
culture, one wonders what the effect on his work would
have been.
In the sphere of doctrine, of course, the influence of
Catholicism upon JRRT is readily apparent. In this regard
he himself admitted as much, when he wrote in a letter
to Deborah Webster of 25 October 1958, "far greater
things may colour the mind in dealing with the lesser
things of a fairy-story."
The Blessed Sacrament was very much at the heart of JRRT's
devotional life. As he informs his son on p. 339 of his
Collected Letters:
I myself am convinced by the Petrine claims, nor looking
around the world does there seem much doubt which (if
Christianity is true) is the True Church, the temple of
the Spirit dying but living, corrupt but holy, self-reforming
and rearising. But for me that Church of which the Pope
is the acknowledged head on earth has as chief claim that
it is the one that has (and still does) ever defended
the Blessed Sacrament, and given it most honour, and put
(as Christ plainly intended) in the prime place. "Feed
my sheep" was His last charge to St. Peter; and since
His words are always first to be understood literally,
I suppose them to refer primarily to the Bread of Life.
It was against this that the W. European revolt (or Reformation)
was really launched---"the blasphemous fable of the
Mass"---and faith/works a mere red herring.
This one finds echoed in the figure of lembas, which "had
a potency that increased as travellers relied on it alone,
and did not mingle it with other foods. It fed the will,
and it gave strength to endure..." (Vol. III, p.
262). This is all very reminiscent of the large literature
of Eucharistic miracles, and of such people as St. Lydwine,
St. Francis Borgia, and Theresa Neumann, who lived off
only the Blessed Sacrament.
Another unique feature of Catholic life which distinguishes
it from that of other Christians is the veneration of
the Blessed Virgin Mary, which JRRT shared enthusiastically.
As an example, we cite a letter to Robert Murray, S.J.,
in which he speaks of "...Our Lady, upon which all
my own small perception of beauty, both in majesty and
simplicity is founded." To a degree in the figure
of Galadriel, but more particularly in that of Elbereth
may one discern the shadow of Mary:
Snow-white! Snow-white! O Lady clear!
O Queen beyond the Western Seas!
O Light to us that wander here
Amid the world of woven trees!
Gilthoniel! O Elbereth!
Clear are thy eyes and bright thy breath,
Snow-white! Snow-white! We sing to thee
In a far land beyond the sea.
O stars that in the Sunless Year
With shining hand by her were sown,
In windy fields now bright and clear
We see your silver blossom blown!
O Elbereth! Gilthoniel!
We still remember, we who dwell
In this far land beneath the trees,
Thy Starlight on the Western Seas.
One is immediately reminded of the English hymn by John
Lingard, with which JRRT was certainly familiar:
Hail, Queen of Heaven, the ocean star,
Guide of the wand'rer here below:
Thrown on life's surge, we claim thy care---
Save us from peril and from woe.
Mother of Christ, star of the sea,
Pray for the wanderer, pray for me.
Sojourners in this vale of tears,
To thee, blest advocate, we cry;
Pity our sorrows, calm our fears,
And soothe with hope our misery.
Refuge in grief, star of the sea,
Pray for the mourner, pray for me.
As earlier observed, the Catholic view of the world is
a sacramental one; the centre of Catholic life, according
to C. G. Jung, "...is a living mystery, and that
is the thing that works..."
Opponents of the Church have often claimed that the sacraments
are "mere" magic. The phrase hocus pocus is
a parody of the words of consecration, Hoc est enim corpus
meum. As Galadriel observes, "...this is what your
folk would call magic, I believe; though I do not understand
clearly what they mean; and they seem also to use the
same words of the deceits of the enemy." Indeed,
one may go so far as to say that the effect of magic,
wielded for good, is in Lord of the Rings the same as
that of the Sacraments upon the life of the devout Catholic.
Protection, nourishment, knowledge, all are held to flow
in supernatural abundance from them. In his prayer after
communion, St. Thomas Aquinas asks that the Blessed Sacrament
be "...a strong defence against the snares of all
enemies, visible and invisible." St. Bonaventure
declares it to be "...the fountain of life, the fountain
of wisdom and knowledge, the fountain of eternal light..."
In a word, as the Sacraments are the means of Grace in
the Catholic world, magic---wielded by the wise---is the
means of Grace in Middle Earth.
The Sacraments are the centre and cause of all authentic
Catholic Mysticism, and the Saints have owed their remarkable
careers to them. Certainly, in terms of the physical phenomena
of Mysticism (Eucharistic miracles; ecstasies; the stigmata;
levitation; bilocation; luminous irradiance; supernatural
fragrances; infused knowledge; vision through opaque bodies;
supernatural power over objects, etc.) the great mystics
have often performed wonders worthy of Gandalf and Elrond
(one thinks of St. Jean Vianney, the Cure d'Ars, for example,
or of Padre Pio). This too is something of which JRRT
would have been aware. As Arthur Machen observed, the
only realities are sanctity and sorcery.
From the realm of Myth, Magic, and Mystery, we now descend
to that of history. There is a particularly Catholic view
of history, summed up by JRRT in a letter to Amy Ronald
of 15 December 1956: "actually, I'm a Christian,
and indeed a Roman Catholic, so that I do not expect 'history'
to be anything but a long defeat---though it contains
(and in a legend may contain more clearly and movingly)
some samples or glimpses of final victory."
In the range of modern Catholic history, there are certain
archetypes, which, it may be argued, are reflected in
Lord of the Rings , in the manner he described. The ones
we will examine are: a) the age of Faith, or the organic
state; b) Church versus State; c) the great King; d) the
onset of modernity and the martyr-King; e) the Restoration
(successful or otherwise).
The concept of society as an organic whole, without class
conflict, with a communal structure, is one that has characterised
Catholic social thought since the Roman Empire. In many
ways the Shire expresses perfectly the economic and political
ideals of the Church, as expressed by Leo XIII in Rerum
novarum, and Pius XI in Quadragesimo anno. Traditional
authority (the Thain), limited except in times of crisis;
popular representation (the Mayor of Michel Delving),
likewise limited; subsidiarity; and above all, minimal
organisation and conflict. It is the sort of society envisioned
by Distributists Belloc and Chesterton in Britain, by
Salazar in Portugal, by the framers of the Irish Constitution,
by Dollfuss in Austria, and by Smetona in Lithuania. How
ever far short or close these dwellers in the real world
came to their goal, the fact remains that it is something
very close to the Shire they had in mind.
In the ages of faith, while both Church and State were
dedicated to roughly the same ends, they often differed
as to how to go about achieving them. Then too, human
nature and greed often sowed discord. Sometimes the life-and-death
struggle with Islam was hindered by these quarrels. In
Lord of the Rings, we see these struggles reflected in
the tension between Gandalf and Denethor II. Gandalf,
indeed, partakes of much of the nature of the Papacy.
He belongs to no one nation, and in a very real sense
he is leader of all the free and faithful. This is so
because his power is magical rather than temporal, just
as the Pope's is sacramental. Denethor's interest is wholly
national. To his statement "...there is no purpose
higher in the world as it now stands than the good of
Gondor," Gandalf replies, "the rule of no realm
is mine, neither Gondor nor any other, great or small.
But all worthy things that are in peril as the world now
stands, those are my care...For I also am a steward."
Thus might Boniface VIII have spoken to Philip the fair,
or Gregory VII to Henry IV, or Innocent III to King John.
Gandalf also reminds one of the Fisher-King in the Grail
legends, who himself is a symbol of Peter-in-the-Boat.
On the other hand, the Catholic imagination was also haunted
by the image of the great Kings, like Arthur, St. Ferdinand
III, and St. Louis IX. These were held to have been the
ideal prototypes for rulers: pious, brave, wonderful in
a manner unapproachable for those of later times. In three
characters in particular, Elendil, Gil-Galad, and Durin,
do we find the yearning for the great King in terms with
which Western Catholics of yesteryear and Third World
Catholics of today would be familiar:
Gil-Galad was an Elven-King.
Of him the harpers sadly sing!
The last whose realm was fair and free
Between the Mountains and the Sea.
and again:
The world was young, the mountains green,
No stain yet on the moon was seen.
No words were laid on stream or stone,
When Durin woke and walked alone.
The world was fair, the mountains tall,
In Elder days before the fall
Of mighty kings in Narthgarond
and Gondolin' who now beyond
Western Seas have passed away:
The world was fair in Durin's day.
So might have a Medieval minstrel mourned the Nine Worthies;
so might a modern one mourn the Negus, or the Mwami, or
the Kabaka. The forms change, but for a Catholic, the
subject rarely does.
The upheavals earlier referred to destroyed Catholic unity,
splintered society, and destroyed much that was beautiful.
The enclosures and various other economic measures ended
Western Society's communal nature. The great present-day
expressions of these forces of modernity are Capitalism
and Communism, with all they represent. JRRT's feelings
about such things are clear. In The Hobbit, we are told
of Goblins that "they invented some of the machines
that have since troubled our world, especially the ingenious
devices for killing large numbers of people at once, for
wheels and engines and explosions have always delighted
them..." Of course, the descriptions given in The
Scouring of the Shire are particularly apropos.
In the struggle between Tradition and Modernity, three
famous monarchs lost their lives: Charles I, Louis XVI,
and Nicholas II. While the first and last were not officially
Catholics, they were at least culturally so. Traditional
forces in England, France, and Russia were solemnly canonised
by the Anglican and Russian Orthodox Churches; Louis XVI
is still regarded as a martyr by thousands of French Royalists.
Each owed their deaths to two items: a desire to uphold
the Traditional constitution of Church and State in their
respective realms, and a personal weakness or flaw which
reduced their effectiveness in so doing. They also shared
heroic deaths which, to great degree, redeemed their mistakes
in the eyes of many of their subjects. All of this applies
to Isildur as well.
The social ideas earlier referred to were contradicted
by the events of history. With their end as fact, they
became hope. This hope became concentrated in the cause
of the deposed sovereign, who would, upon his return to
power, set all things to rights again:
'Till then, upon Ararat's hill
My hope shall cast her anchor still,
Until I see some peaceful dove,
Bring home the branch she dearly love;
Then will I wait, till the waters abate,
Which now disturb my troubled brain:
Else never rejoice, till I hear the voice,
That the King enjoys his own again.
As time passed, the claims went to heirs, but the ever
hopeful adherents continued their struggle. Thus, the
Jacobites fought for the Stuarts in 1689-1690, 1715, 1719,
and 1745-46; the Carlists in Spain rebelled in 1833-39,
during the 1840s and 50s, and in 1872-76---they also played
a key role in the Spanish Civil War on the Nationalist
side. The Chouans and the Vendeens continued guerrilla
warfare against the French Republic all through the Revolution;
even today, French Royalism flourishes. The Miguelists
of Portugal continued their agitation against first the
liberal monarchy and then the republic down to the present.
Since the fall of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Habsburg
adherents have pursued dreams of restoration. So greatly
did Hitler fear this possibility that he named the planned
invasion of Austria Case Otto, after the exiled heir.
Whatever may become of their political hopes, the canonisation
of Charles, the last Emperor, may be presaged by the incorruptibility
of his remains at Madeira.
However this may be, such people looked to a restoration
to restore the Church to prominence, curb industry, revive
the smallholder and the old order of society. As Robert
Burns observed:
The Church is in ruins, the State is in jars,
delusions, oppressions, and murderous wars.
We dare nae well say it, but we ken wha's to blame,
There'll never be peace 'till Jamie comes hame.
As it became apparent that Jamie would not come home,
nor would Don Carlos, nor Dom Miguel, nor the Comte de
Chambord, many looked for less regal saviours. From such
desires emerged (and emerge) such men as Franco, Pilsudski,
and many of the better Latin American Caudillos. In a
sense, this Catholic political messianism is even present
in the careers of such diverse figures as Kennedy and
Castro.
Aragorn succeeds where Bonnie Prince Charlie and the others
failed. Instead of the field of Culloden's defeat and
mourning, we have the field of Cormallen's victory and
rejoicing. In Middle Earth, the "good old cause"
triumphs. The Dunedain, so like the Jacobites, Carlists,
and Legitimists for most of their history, gain at last
the victory. From being the Young Pretender, Aragorn becomes
Charlemagne, restorer of the Empire. Indeed, his restored
kingdom has much in common with the Carolingian Renaissance.
It would not be unfair to say that it is this which Catholics
have at the bottom of their minds when they consider things
political. In Middle Earth, all things do become well,
for the King indeed enjoys his own again.
There are other symbols time does not allow us to explore:
the dark Lord's forces might represent not only Modernity,
but the Islam which was Christendom's greatest previous
enemy; the Tower of Guard, Minas Tirith, might be seen
as a symbol of the Church Militant, of the Res Publica
Christiana. But we have examined a few of the most evocative
motifs in terms of the Catholic Psyche.
In his Hieroglyphics: Notes on the Ecstatic in Literature,
Mr. Arthur Machen declares, "Literature is the expression,
through the artistic medium of words, of the dogmas of
the Catholic Church, and that which is in anyway out of
harmony with these dogmas is not literature," for
"Catholic dogma is merely the witness, under a special
symbolism of the enduring facts of human nature and the
universe." Whether or no JRRT would have agreed with
this definition, he did say, in the letter to Fr. Murray,
S.J., already cited, "Lord of the Rings is of course
a fundamentally religious and Catholic work; unconsciously
so at first, but consciously in the revision...For the
religious element is absorbed into the story and the symbolism."
It has been said that the dominant note of the traditional
Catholic liturgy was intense longing. This is also true
of her art, her literature, her whole life. It is a longing
for things that cannot be in this world: unearthly truth,
unearthly purity, unearthly justice, unearthly beauty.
By all these earmarks, Lord of the Rings is indeed a Catholic
work, as its author believed; but it is more. It is this
age's great Catholic epic, fit to stand beside the Grail
legends, Le Morte d'Arthur, and The Canterbury Tales.
It is at once a great comfort to the individual Catholic,
and a tribute to the enduring power and greatness of the
Catholic tradition, that JRRT created this work. In an
age which has seen an almost total rejection of the Faith
on the part of the Civilisation she created, the loss
of the Faith on the part of many lay Catholics, and apparent
uncertainty among her hierarchy, Lord of the Rings assures
us, both by its existence and its message, that the darkness
cannot triumph forever.
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2004
© Charles Coulombe
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