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
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