Guest post by: Justin Orr
Was JRR Tolkien a hypocrite?
When JRR Tolkien set out to write The Lord of the Rings, he included in the foreword of The Fellowship of the Ring a line about his detestation of allegory. He stated “I cordially dislike allegory in all its manifestations, and always have done so since I grew old and wary enough to detect its presence.”
And yet, Tolkien has also stated about the trilogy that it is “a fundamentally religious and Catholic work; unconsciously so at first, but consciously in the revision.”
Is the greatest fantasy author of all time trying to pull the rug out from under us? How can these two seemingly opposite ideas about storytelling, specifically about his own storytelling, be true?
Allegory and Friendship: Tolkien vs. C.S. Lewis
One explanation for this comes in the way of comparison to another author whom Tolkien befriended. CS Lewis, in his Chronicles of Narnia series, places direct allusions and perfect allegories into the stories written on those pages. Aslan as a Christ figure, the stone table representing Jesus’s crucifixion, and Edmund’s betrayal aligning to the actions of Judas, though I prefer to think of him as Peter. His actions did not end in tragedy for his life, but the opportunity for redemption when standing before Christ again. All of these take place in one of the seven stories of the world, and there are numerous other allegories one can draw from the series.
Lewis placed these in the story on purpose, with their representations meant to draw the reader toward the beliefs and arguments that Lewis held dear. This is what allegory is, as Tolkien stated in that foreword, “the purposed domination of the author.”
Allegory can be seen throughout much of modern writing, in novels, television and film. It is the beliefs held by those with the pen being pushed upon the reader, whether it is a message they wish to receive or not.
Tolkien’s Subtle Faith and Unconscious Influence
In Tolkien’s work, while still formed and shaped by his Catholic faith, the utilization of his faith in his writing is more subtle, and I believe the key is in the quote above. The Lord of the Rings is unconsciously Catholic. Tolkien did not set out to write a story that retold the tale of Christ’s passion and resurrection for us. Instead, he built a world (one with no connection to Christ at all), filled it with characters who know nothing of Catholicism, and wrote the story of them living a life and fighting the greatest war of their time.
There is no resurrection, there is no cross, there is no betrayer. The writing is devoted to telling the stories of these characters, and with no conscious bias or background message to the story, Tolkien was free to have the characters act as they should in every moment. Without a planned theme, the story can tell a thousand themes, and that is the magic behind it.
Applicability Over Allegory
Tolkien’s work is Catholic because he was Catholic. The worldview of his religion shaped the way his mind worked, shaped the way he saw the world and how he acted within it. Therefore, it shaped and colored his writing, unintentionally at first. With a story that puts theme last, it allows the reader to find the theme in the words that mean most to them.
In The Lord of the Rings, people can pull out the value of friendship between Sam and Frodo, of honor and valor in Aragorn’s rise to the throne, of light overcoming darkness in Gandalf’s charge at Helm’s Deep, of determination and persistence in the face of trials, of forgiveness and belief in others not matter who they are, etc. This list could go on for pages and pages, but I have a word limit so I will stop there. These are all Catholic virtues and Christian ideals, even though these characters live in a world that Christ never visited.
Honest Storytelling and Enduring Truth
To me, this is the way writing should be. Authors putting pen to paper (or more likely fingers to keyboard) and telling the story as truthfully as they can. Letting the characters, the plot, and the world dictate the actions and message of the story without trying to force a message into the narrative.
This is the way I write. In my first novel, debuting this December, I had no theme, no message to make sure the audience understood by story’s end. When the first draft was finished and I reread it before beginning to edit, that was when I found the theme that resonated with me: what does it mean to be strong. But my favorite part is that my early readers have all come back with different themes that stood out to them, which tells me something went right in the book.
With the recent success of Project Hail Mary at the box office, stories told this way can resonate with everyone, because all readers have the opportunity to find what is meaningful to them. To quote Tolkien once more from the foreword in The Fellowship of the Ring, “I think many confuse applicability with allegory, but the one resides in the freedom of the reader, and the other in the purposed domination of the author.” Applicability is what gives stories their timelessness and what audiences enjoy because it feels as if the author is writing exactly for them.
Tolkien’s Way
So is Tolkien a hypocrite? I do not believe so. I believe that these two seemingly opposite ideas, despising allegory and writing a fundamentally Catholic work, are not so opposite after all. And I believe that Tolkien wrote the story as the story needed to be told, that is why it has stood for nearly one hundred years and still reigns supreme in epic fantasy.
Tolkien told his story honestly, and as readers, there is nothing more we can want.
About Our Guest Blogger
Justin C. Orr is the founder of Bright Fantasy Books, and imprint focused on restoring virtue, valor, and nobility to modern fantasy literature. He lives in Ohio with his wife and son and can often be found cooking Italian food and dreaming of his novels’ next scene.
