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J.R.R. Tolkien’s
Sanctifying Myth: Understanding Middle Earth by Bradley J. Birzer Rating: ••• (Recommended) |
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Holy Hobbits When I first read Tolkien’s Lord of the
Rings in the late 1960s, I certainly noticed and paid attention to the
Christian humanist themes throughout the three books. Many years later, when
I read the trilogy aloud to my younger son, those themes seemed more
prevalent than I recalled. When I watched the first Peter Jackson film, the
Christian themes seemed even stronger than I recalled from reading the books
(twice). Thanks to a new book by Bradley Birzer, I’ve come to understand that
the themes I kept seeing are the ones that Tolkien spent his life pondering.
In J.R.R.
Tolkien’s Sanctifying Myth, readers are presented with a brief life of
Tolkien, and lots of explication of themes from his writing. The 140 pages of
this book illuminate what Middle Earth meant to Tolkien, and helps readers
understand how the author thought about myth and its value to all of us. Here’s an excerpt from the chapter on
Heroism (pp. 70-71): At first glance, Frodo seems the hero in The Lord
of the Rings. Fulfilling the role of priest, he
carries the Ring—the cross of Christ, the sins of the world—into the heart of
hell (Mordor). Frodo does this out of profound love for his friends and for
life itself. And, perhaps equally important, he understands and
accepts that this is his duty alone, Iluvatar chose him, though Frodo does
not know that name. Frodo survives the journey, but
the experience of carrying the Ring, and ultimately succumbing to its
temptation, transforms him profoundly He knows the experience of mortal sin
firsthand, and he repents by embracing mercy In the "Scouring of the
Shire," Tolklien shows Frodo asking his fellow hobbits not to kill, even
for defensive purposes. He even allows Saruman to escape, unpunished, only to
have Grima Wormtongue betray and rail on the defrocked wizard, killing him.
Frodo seems to have so embraced mercy that he has become a thoroughgoing
pacifist.'" In accepting and carrying the
burden of the Ring, Frodo has poured his spiritual as well as his physical
being into the task, taxing both to the breaking point. Though he served in
politics briefly as the mayor of Michael Delving and wrote the history of the
‘War of the Ring,’ he remains restless and, ultimately, without his pre-quest
physical constitution. Mentally, he seems to have slipped as well. In
Tolkien's poem, "The Sea Bell," Frodo appears to be slowly
descending into madness. "For a year and a day there mist I stay:
beetles were tapping in the rotten trees, spiders were weaving, in the mould
heaving puffballs loomed about my knees," says Frodo. "Never again,
as in sad lane, in blind alley and in long street ragged I walk. To myself I
talk; for still they speak not, men that I meet.” To heal, Frodo crosses the
sea to Tol Eressea with Gandalf and many of the leaders of the Third Age.
Frodo's final journey, Tolkien explained, was a purgatorial one, but one of
healing, not suffering. Yet, although he appears to be
the hero of The Lord of the Rings, Frodo
lacks the depth and nuanced personality possessed by several of he other
characters in the legendarium. "Frodo is not so interesting because he
has to be highminded, and has (as it were) a vocation," Tolkien
explained. He "will naturally become too ennobled and rarefied by the
achievement of the Quest. " Though Frodo develops a deep appreciation of
pity and mercy, he remains throughout the story "a fixed point."
Other characters around him change, such as Sam, but Frodo continues in the
role of "suffering servant," heading toward Mordor to fulfill his
specific purpose. And though he grows weary, he remains faithful to his task
to almost the very end. Only in the last moments of his quest does he falter,
as the burden of the Ring—representing the weight of sin and
temptation—becomes too great for him. Even at the Cracks of Doom, he has
merely played out God's role for him. Carrying the cross changes him
permanently, and he fails to reenter normal existence with any real degree of
success). Until he departs for the Grey Havens, he remains somewhat alienated
from the hobbitic life, which now seem; too quaint. The purpose of his quest
was for others to live normal, productive, and happy lives. When he leaves
for Tol Eressea, he departs the world he preserved for them but cannot now
enjoy himself. It is the hobbit in Frodo's
shadow. Samwise, who proves to be the true hero of The Lord of
the Rings. The unsupecting reader expects little from Sam. At
the beginning of The Fellowship of the Ring, he appears merely the ignoramus and the fool. The
reader first encounters him in a pointless and frustrating argument with
Ted Sandyman. In a Bywater bar, Sam speaks openly about rumors of Trolls and
walking trees and of darknesses spreading outside the Shire and possibly even
penetrating the Shire itself. Others in the bae, all provincials who have
never traveled outside the boundaries of the Shire, led by the cynical Ted
Sandyman, poke fun at Sam's ideas. Sam, tellingly, refuses to back down, but
his evidence does seem shaky. Even his first name, Samwise, does not portend
great things, meaning merely "half wise." I Yet Sam has one great virtue, and
it proves the virtue that sanctifies his character: loyalty Sam's is the
loyalty, for Tolkien, that characterized the common man in he trenches of
World War I. According
to Birzer, Tolkien hated the modern world, and wanted to restore England to
its pre-World War I bucolic life. Through the pages of this interesting book,
readers can understand how Tolkien accomplished what he wanted through myth. Steve Hopkins, January 14, 2003 |
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ã 2003 Hopkins and Company, LLC The
recommendation rating for this book appeared in the February 2003
issue of Executive
Times URL
for this review: http://www.hopkinsandcompany.com/Books/Tolkien’s
Sanctifying Myth.htm For
Reprint Permission, Contact: Hopkins
& Company, LLC • 723 North Kenilworth Avenue • Oak Park, IL 60302 E-mail: books@hopkinsandcompany.com |
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