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An expert endorses the Christian dimension of Tolkien and The Lord of the Rings'

Medieval History professor Alejandro Rodriguez de la Peña notes that the legendary English writer wrote to her pastor and said he was "a novel in its production Catholic unconsciously and consciously Catholic in its final review"

Professor of Medieval History and Dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Communication Sciences, Universidad San Pablo-CEU, Alejandro Rodríguez de la Peña, supports the Catholic dimension of John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, the legendary English writer author of The Lord of the Rings and great reference world of fantasy literature. According to a report

VERITAS by the agency this Wednesday, May 18, in an interview with Rodriguez de la Peña, coordinator of the day Catholic Tolkien and the mists of England, held at San Pablo-CEU, Tolkien himself wrote to his priest and said The Lord of the Rings was a "Catholic novel in its preparation unconsciously and consciously Catholic in its final review." The respondent also claims that the author "believed that mythology was a way to explain certain transcendental truths that are almost inexplicable within the confines of the novel 'realistic'."

For your interest, we reproduce VERITAS published interview, in which Rodriguez de la Peña speaks in turn of the issues which refer to a Christian dimension of the generation of English Catholic writers and the common ground between Tolkien and Chesterton.

- Experts do not agree on whether Tolkien wanted to do a work based on Catholicism or if you wanted to make a narrative work in which, whatever their intention, let us see their beliefs as a Catholic. What is your opinion?

- Alejandro Rodriguez (AR): It is a matter of opinion, is a matter of proven facts. Tolkien himself gave the definitive answer to this debate when he said that most significant event in his life and his work was his being a Christian, specifically Catholic faith.

addition, on another occasion he wrote to his priest that The Lord of the Rings was a novel development in Catholic unconsciously and consciously Catholic in its final review.

- What are the themes of The Lord of the Rings which refer to a Christian dimension?

- AR: As demonstrated by Joseph Pearce, these issues are numerous. The One Ring forged by Sauron (Morgoth-servant of Satan) to "bring them all and in the darkness bind them" is an allegory of Original Sin.

the day Frodo destroys the Ring is the 25th of March (as we read in the appendices of the work). March 25 is the day that marked the Middle Ages the crucifixion of Christ and is currently celebrating the Annunciation to the Virgin, the two key dates in the Redemption of Original Sin, that is, the destruction of the Ring. In fact, Frodo's character is in some sense an allegory of Christ, like Gandalf (who dies for his friends in Moria and rises in a body of glory) and Aragorn (image of Christ the King).

Elvish songs found in the Marian hymns, the "Elbereth Gilthoniel" is a "Hail Mary" in Quenya language and "Namárië" Galadriel is singing "Salve Regina." If we look, in addition to the Silmarillion, the works in which condenses all the "background" mythological Middle Earth, see how the creation of the world by Eru Iluvatar (God) is inspired by the Genesis or the figure of Morgoth, the archangel (Ainur) dropped, is clearly equivalent to that of Satan.

In any case, issues like the struggle of the humble servant (Frodo-Christ) against the supposedly invincible Original Sin (Single Ring) or the power of grace over that of the Nietzschean will to power are unmistakably Christian.

- Why a work as "Nordic" as "The Lord of the Rings" has been so successful in public?

- AR: One might wonder why a devout Catholic like Tolkien used as the main source of inspiration for his imaginary world the mythological heritage of Germanic and Celtic paganism the Middle Ages and late antiquity. A first answer is obviously refers to its status as a medievalist.

But a second further reflection: Tolkien believed that mythology was a way to explain certain transcendental truths that are almost inexplicable within the confines of the novel "realistic."

These great metaphysical truths, such as fight against good and evil and the triumph of humility over power always attract readers. And, although their stories were based on the creation and description of a fantasy world supported Celtic and Germanic mythology, are therefore no less full of metaphysical truths. The power of a legend is to be true (metaphysical truths) and not be based on facts and concrete.

- Where does this generation of English Catholic writers and how important was the time?

- AR: This generation comes from the momentum that had Catholicism in England after the Oxford Movement and, above all, the conversion of its leader, John Henry Newman, a Catholic.

Many writers and intellectuals felt drawn to Catholicism, then we can say that it became attractive for "high spirits" of England, beginning with the son of the Anglican Primate, RH Benson. Even decadent as noticeable as the repentant homosexual Oscar Wilde ended his days within the Catholic Church (in France had happened to Baudalaire and Verlaine).

Then came the two great writers converts Hillaire Belloc and GK Chesterton, who led this generation to the early twentieth century. Follow this trail Tolkien, Graham Greene (with his doubts) Evelyn Waugh, TS Eliot and CS Lewis (these two converts to Christianity but within the Anglican Church). This generation is without doubt, the leading literary contemporary England, well above the Bloomsbury group (the Virginia Woolf) or Fabian George Bernard Shaw.

- What points in common were two writers as different as Chesterton and Tolkien?

- AR: They shared their Catholic faith, his patriotic love for medieval England, the true Catholic England before the Reformation, his traditionalism that made them against the Industrial Revolution and the French, his love for the small, by rural (reflected in the Shire of the hobbits), his horror of the twentieth century and its ironic contempt for the demagogues of Modernity relativistic.


Author: Solidaridad.net-Date: 2005-05-18

Root Beer Extract Concentrate

Robert Murray, SJ

Father Robert Murray, grandson of Sir James Murray (founder of Inglés Oxford Dictionary) and close family friend Tolkien, had read part of The Lord of the Rings in the proofs and typed copies and, at the instigation of Tolkien, had sent comments and criticisms. He wrote that the book had produced a strong feeling "of a positive support to the order of grace" and comparing Galadriel's image with that of the Virgin Mary. He doubted that many critics could find a great meaning to the work: "Do not have a box to place it before."

76 Sandfield Road, Headington, Oxford

2 December 1953

Dear Rob:

was wonderful to receive your long letter this morning .... I regret that some random words of mine said they were busy because of you to criticize my work. But to confess the truth, although the praise (or, which is not exactly the same and better yet, the expressions of pleasure) is welcome, encouraged me especially what you said, this time and before, because you're more perception, especially in certain directions than others, and even I have revealed more clearly certain aspects of my work. I think I know exactly what you mean with the order of grace; and, of course, with your references to Our Lady, which is based on my limited perception of beauty both in majesty and simplicity. The Lord of the Rings is of course a fundamentally religious and Catholic work, unconsciously so at first, but then I became aware of it in the review. That is the reason why I did not include, or have removed any reference to anything resembling a "religion", whether cults or practices, in the imaginary world. For the religious element is absorbed into the history and symbolism. But all this is said awkwardly, and it sounds like I gave more importance than sorry. Because, to tell Indeed, I have consciously planned very little, and should be grateful for having been brought up (from eight) in a faith that has nurtured me and taught me what little I know, and I owe to my mother, who stuck to his conversion and died young, largely by the hardships of poverty, which were the consequences.

Incidentally, I have nurtured English literature, I do not think you know more than you, for the simple reason that I never found much in it which could stand on my heart (or heart and head together.) I was trained in the classics and first discovered the sensation of literary pleasure in Homer. Also to be a philologist, and having obtained much of the aesthetic pleasure that I am capable of form of words (and especially the association new form of the word with its meaning), I have always enjoyed the work more in a foreign language or a language so remote that it seems (as the Anglo-Saxon). But enough about me.

I'm afraid that what you say about critics and the public is highly unlikely as to make it real. The publication is scaring me because it will be impossible to ignore what is said. I have set my heart to shoot it. I think the editors are also anxious; and are keen to have as many people as possible read advance copies and form a kind of opinion before the critics mediocrity Drive the tooth ....

sorry to hear that now you have after moving cello somewhat (I'm told) in the art of this beautiful and difficult instrument. Anyone who can play a stringed instrument like a witch me worthy of greater respect. I love music, but I have no capacity for it, and efforts to teach me to play the violin in my youth I have left only a feeling of veneration to the violinists. Slavic languages \u200b\u200bare to me almost in the same category. In my time I tried to learn several languages, but I'm not "linguist" in the ordinary sense, and once spent time trying to learn Serbian or Russian has been instrumental not only a strong impression of the structure and verbal beauty ....

Please forgive the apparent enmity of my typing! My capacity for it does not improve. Except for speed. I am now much faster than my laborious hand, which should stand as fatigue and pain quickly. I have no doubt that you'll soon have news of Edith.

Sincerely,

Ronald Tolkien.

(Carta 142)