Never has it failed … this fact that every ‘artist’, implicitly or explicitly expresses his or her work after  his or her own world view. J.R.R. Tolkien is no exception.

"I am a Christian..." he writes, and his ‘art’ in weaving words and meanings to form breathtaking stories shows it!!

J.R.R. Tolkien spent quite a time “sub-creating” what he called a Middle-earth that encloses physical creatures representing all that is good and bad in our earthly journey. There are Orcs , Hobbits, Dwarves, Elves, Ents, Trolls… all with a complete “bible” of their languages, history, challenges, cultures, and myths — to mix it up with humans in a striking epic battle with evil.

The Lord of the Rings trilogy was also “converted” into a popular film trilogy. But like all book-based movies they differ a bit from the original…. Anyhow, book or movie, Tolkien novel is NOT meant as a Christian allegory; rather Christian tradition appears in the work in similarities of pattern, and shared symbols. Thus, we find Tolkien stating, "The Lord of the Rings is of course a fundamentally religious and Catholic work; unconsciously so at first, but consciously in the revision." Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy is set in a pre-Christian world, and for this reason it cannot adopt a plain overt Christianity; but this invented myth shadows many Christian and Catholic truths.

In his book (The Philosophy of Tolkien: The Worldview behind the Lord of the Rings.), Dr. Peter Kreeft tells us that “J. R. R. Tolkien, like most Catholics, saw pagan myths not as wholly mistaken but as confused precursors of Christianity. Man's soul has three powers, and God left him prophets for all three: Jewish moralists for his will, Greek philosophers for his mind, and pagan mythmakers for his heart and imagination and feelings. Of course, the latter two are not infallible. C. S. Lewis calls pagan myths "gleams of celestial strength and beauty falling on a jungle of filth and imbecility" (Perelandra, p. 201). “

But in what ways then (The Lord of the Rings) reflects Christian truths?

We’ll take few examples:

Gollum: 

symbolizes people who are addicted to a vice till they lose their human nature. This character makes us understand how anyone who abandons virtue ceases to be a man, since he cannot share in the divine nature – becomes instead a beast. We are made in the image of God, and when we lose the divine image, we lose our personality and we lose the holiest thing of all... Gollum is obsessed with his possession of the Ring that he almost has no self left…he’s confused about who he is. He speaks of himself in the third person: “Don’t let them hurt us, precious”!! Alas, it’s the Ring that’s now the Precious, and Gollum has lost his preciousness, his value. He has become its slave; it has become his master…. Dr. Kreeft calls this” fetishism: where you worship the fetish. You let the object become your subject, your master. In fact, the object has now become the person, the self, the actor, and Gollum has become its object, its “it”. He put his soul inside the fetish, so that without that thing his soul is literally torn in two. He’s nothing. He can’t distinguish himself from the Ring; he is the Ring. The person has become a thing, he lost his soul: and that’s the psychology of damnation!”

Gandalf:

One of his reflections is papacy. Gandalf is leader of the free and faithful. He is steward of all things good in the world, but he claims rule over no land. As the Popes did in history Gandalf crowns the king and blesses him to rule with justice and peace.

Galadriel :

She has different titles, The Lady of Lorien, Lady of Light, The Lady of the Wood, and simply The Lady : she is an indication to the Virgin Mary.

She gives a lot of gifts but the two that are most important are the lembas bread and Phial of Galadriel a “light when all other lights go out”.

Lembas is special bread made by the Elves that stays fresh longer than normal bread, and sustains life better than normal bread. Basically it’s a symbol of the Eucharist : it nourishes humans on their tough journey! 

So, Galadriel is likened to Mary who gave us Jesus the living Eucharist and the Light of the world … 

There is no one complete, concrete, visible Christ figure in The Lord of the Rings. But He is present in Gandalf, Frodo, and Aragorn. 

For all three “heroes” undergo different forms of death and resurrection. All three have the portrayal of saviors: through their self-sacrifice they help saving all of Middle-earth from the demonic control of Sauron. And last but not least they exemplify the threefold Messianic symbolism of prophet (Gandalf), priest (Frodo), and king (Aragorn).

A lot more can be added…. it is sufficient to say that books were written to explain the hidden Christian patterns in Tolkien’s work. Thus, we can terminate this small review affirming that (The Lord of the Rings) stands firm as a ‘unique testimony to the power of a Christian pen’. Such work has good impact on many souls; we can count one example who is CS Lewis: a British novelist, poet, academic, literary critic, and essayist, who became a theologian and Christian apologist after conversion from atheism to Christianity. C.S. Lewis recounted in his autobiography, that the relationship between Christianity and pagan myths of salvation, death, and resurrection was one of the key steps in his own conversion. He concluded: Christianity was "myth become fact".