The Lord of the Rings is a Catholic story?

I teach the Catholic faith to adults and teens alike. The problem is most of them have been so compromised by the pop culture that they immediately hit the boring button when I explain the Biblical story. However, thanks to author J.R.R. Tolkien’s work in Lord of the Rings there is an alternative way to teach people the Catholic faith.

In Lord of the Rings, Tolkien uses a tactic that moms often use when feeding spinach to a baby. The only way the baby can get the nutrition they need in them is the mom has to sneak it in by way of cover - like pretending the spoon is an airplane. To give people the nutrition they need, Tolkien implants the Biblical message into another story that people in the pop culture will perceive as "cool." In Lord of the Rings, Tolkien smuggles the Biblical story to those who are typically uninterested in anything religious. In one of his letters, Tolkien revealed that: “The Lord of the Rings is, of course, a fundamentally religious and Catholic work.” Now, if you’ve read the book or have seen the movies you might be thinking – what? Lord of the Rings hardly seems anything like the Biblical story. Well, the whole point of Tolkien was to showcase the Catholic faith in a hidden and subtle way in which the reader would have to hunt for it.

Let us now take the journey into the heart of Lord of the Rings to unlock the Catholic imagery on full display. Lord of the Rings focuses on middle-earth. Middle-earth represents our world a long time ago. At the beginning of Lord of the Rings is the creation story as it mirrors the Genesis account. In Lord of the Rings, the elves tell of this creation story in which the One, who represents God, designs a great music of creation. The One's design comes with a great gift. The gift is free will. In the beginning of the story, the free will One creates is represented by rings he gives to his creation. Like God giving humanity free will, One gives his creation rings. One's creation is asked to do something with this gift of free choice. One asks the angels to participate and play in his great symphony of music with him. However, there was one angel who used his choice (ring) for evil instead of good.

As the angels were playing this grand music to the glory of its composer, the mighty of its angels, Melkor, didn’t want to play. He decides he wants to play his own tune. When Melkor plays his own music, disharmony and discourse enter the music and ruin everything. Melkor the great then loses the right to his name and after his fall he is forever known as Morgoth. Morgoth uses his power to influence others angels and recruits powerful demons underneath him. The greatest of Morgoth’s demons is Sauron the dark lord. Sauron like Morgoth is a fallen angel. Under Sauron other dark wizards appear that include Saruman and Wormtongue. Further down the dark hierarchy are these deformed creatures called Orcs. Orcs are warped and fallen elves. With the imagery of Sauron and his evil empire, Tolkien shows us what evil is. Evil is not a created thing. Evil is when a created thing decays and withers away by its own choosing. Thus, evil is like the cavity in your tooth or a rusted out car. Cavities and rust appear when a created thing goes bad. Of course, in the Biblical story evil is brought about by the sickness of sin. In these evil creatures, Tolkien shows us what sin is. Sin takes the real you away and makes you a wretched version of the person you were meant to be. The more you sin, the less you is there. You become a false version of you, and you become like the rust on a car. The rust is an eating away of the good, natural version of that created thing. Evil is a parasite; an emptying out of what was once good. This image is showcased throughout the story.

What decays all these creatures and causes this evil - the ring. At the heart of the story of Lord of the Rings is the fallen nature of humans. The ring has destructive power. The ring is craved by all and becomes addictive to anyone who lays eyes on it. The ring represents sin. Sauron wants this ring of power back and with it he will be able to dominate middle-earth. When you put the ring on what happens? You disappear. While you physically disappear from this good world that God created, you become more visible than ever to Sauron. You enter the evil Sauron dimension. When you put the ring on the real you is gone in this world, and as you leave the good world the dark power can now see you. As you become visible to Sauron, he draws you into him so he can take you over and destroy you. The ring takes you away from who you really are. Your real you goes away, and you become a fake version of yourself. You lack being really you. With the ring, we see what sin does to a person. Sin makes you less you and destroys your soul. While Lord of the Rings shows the physical destruction caused by the ring, the Christian story identifies the immaterial destruction of the soul by sin.

Tolkien showcases the destructive nature of the ring most clearly in the character of Gollum. When you look at Gollum, you look at the destructive decaying power of sin. Gollum used to be a good, healthy hobbit named Smeagol. However, his possession and addiction to the ring turned him into a nasty little creature named Gollum. Notice that Gollum calls the ring his “precious.” When you become addicted to the sin, all you want is the sin, and you begin to rot and wither away. You become a pathetic parity of the good person you were meant to be. Gollum is obsessed with his cause, with his possession of the ring. Gollum has no self left. He’s so selfish. He talks to himself more than to others. He makes no distinction between himself and his “precious.” He’s confused about who he is. He speaks of himself in the third person: “Don’t let them hurt us, precious!” Listen to that: “Don’t let them hurt us, precious.” It’s the ring that’s now the precious, and Gollum has lost his true preciousness; his value. He has become its slave; it (the ring) has become his master. Gollum can’t distinguish himself from the ring; he is the ring. At this point, the person has become a thing. He’s lost his soul. This is the psychology of damnation. We want this Gollum character to go away in the story. But, he is there for a reason because he represents what our soul looks like when we keep putting the sin on. As sin is always there, Gollum is always there. Now, if you’re overcome by sin, what do you lose? You lose the divine image. You lose the holiest thing of all - your personhood. Gollum gradually loses the ability to say I. He says we and us, and in most scenes he showcases a multiple personality where Gollum controls Smeagol and Gollum speaks over Smeagol.

Tolkien counters the evil characters with a group of smaller, friendly characters called hobbits. Hobbits live in a comfy cozy, warm hobbit hole in the Shire. Hobbits enjoy a simple life of farming, reading, smoking their pipe, and social gatherings displayed by good food and drink and playful giddiness. They are very comfortable in their hobbit hole in the Shire. The worst thing a hobbit wants is an adventure. Adventures are nasty uncomfortable things that make them late for tea. This image can be clearly seen in The Hobbit, when Bilbo becomes very reluctant to join the dwarfs on an adventure. To which, Gandalf replies, “You can use a good adventure, Bilbo.” The hobbits are meant to be like us – we want to stay in our comfort zones and refuse the adventures of life as they are too dangerous. Throughout the Biblical story, God forces people to break out of their self-fulfilling comfort zone and moves them to a larger mission beyond themselves (Moses, Joseph, Jacob, Jonah, 12 disciples, Paul, etc.).

The Christ figures in Lord of the Rings figures are subtle, but their roles are reflected in that they give themselves up through a dying of the self and rising of the self. The Christ figures fit perfectly with the titles that Jesus has in the Bible of Priest, Prophet, and King.

Priest – As Frodo is the ring bearer he represents a Christ figure. If wearing the ring is committing a sin, bearing the ring is carrying the cross. Frodo represents a priest because he makes a sacrifice. He is going to sacrifice himself. He carries the ring to destroy it much like Jesus carried the cross to destroy sin. Carrying the weight of sin is a painful process. Look at what carrying the ring does to Frodo. He goes mad as throughout his journey Frodo becomes mentally and physically drained by the ring.

Prophet - Gandalf represents Christ as a prophet. Gandalf is displayed as the wise teacher that prophesizes and explains the story throughout the journey. Additionally, Gandalf lays down his life for his friends. He dies at the bridge of Khazad-dum fighting the great dragon. In fact, when he is fighting the beast he says, “I am a servant of the secret fire.” This is the only line in the story that directly references God. The secret fire, of course, is the name of the Holy Spirit. We think Gandalf is dead for hundreds of pages. He then rises from the dead, and when he does he transforms like a transfiguration from Gandalf the gray to Gandalf the white (see Jesus transfiguration – Matthew 17:2). The dying and rising representing the gleaming white robes of the risen Christ. When Gandalf first appears after his transfiguration, his robes are so dazzling that the Fellowship has to shield their eyes.

King - Aragon is the king. He is the return of the king of Gondor much like Jesus is the return of King David (only much bigger). Aragorn goes under the mountain to the realm of the dead to rescue the lost souls and calls them into battle. This scene is reminiscent to the line in the Apostles Creed that states “Jesus descended into hell.” Both kings go to the realm of the dead to rescue the lost souls. Aragon calls the lost souls back to fight in arms with him and he leads them on to charge. He is the king that has gone down to the realm of the dead and now has risen. Notice during this episode, Aragon is holding the fixed sword – and he leads his followers into battle to overcome the evil powers. The scenes of Aragon with “the sword of Anduril” parallels Jesus statement “I did not come to bring peace, but a sword” (Matthew 10:34). The sword Jesus is referring to is the truth (see Hebrews 4:12, John 18:37). Much like Aragon brings a physical sword to fight physical evil, Jesus brings the sword of truth to destroy evil

Mary figure –Galadriel represents Mary. In the scene where Galadriel appears, the elves are singing the mystical hymns of Mary - hymns like the Salve Regina or Queen of Heaven the Ocean Star. Galadriel did not give into the temptation of the ring – she passed the test. At the Annunciation, Mary did not give in to the temptation of doubt despite not understanding how she was to bear God into her. Galadriel gives Frodo the instructions of how to carry out his mission – which he is to go it alone. She initiates his mission. Who was it that initiated Jesus’ mission? It was Mary in the scene at the wedding in Cana (see John 2:3-4).

Frodo was frightened to carry out his mission. Therefore, Galadriel gave Frodo a charm to have during his mission and instructed him to recite a passage with the charm. She said this charm would be “your light in the darkness.” This charm represents praying the rosary. Indeed, Mother Teresa called the rosary “a great weapon against darkness.” Throughout the story, Galadriel looks over Frodo and the mission much like a guiding mother figure.

Sacrament of Confession – This is showcased in the scene of Boromir’s death. Boromir confesses his sins before his death. He is forgiven by the king. He told Aragon, “I have paid. I have failed. I tried to kill Frodo and take the ring.” Aragon – acting as a priest in the person of Christ says, “No, by confessing you’ve won a great victory.” The race of men are mortal. Every man figure in the Fellowship is Boromir. Boromir is the only man in the Fellowship. He also gives into the ring. He is weak. It is the man who betrays the Fellowship. It is man who tries to steal the ring. However, with his confession before he dies, Boromir has obtained the grace to die in honor. He is then honored in the story as a worthy man because of his confession.

Exorcism - In the Bible, Jesus performed numerous exorcisms as it reads “he cast out many demons” (Mark 1:29-34, see also Matthew 8:16, 8: 28-34, Luke 4:41). There is only one church in the world that consistently and successfully performs the rite of exorcisms. In fact, the Vatican routinely holds conferences on exorcism healing. Gabriele Amorth is the lead exorcist at the Vatican and in his book An Exorcist Tells His Story, he showcases the over 40,000 exorcism cases he has overseen. Tolkien displays the rite of exorcism in the scene where the Fellowship approaches the city of Rohan. In this scene, Théoden, King of Rohan, has been under the dark spell of the demonic figures of Saruman and Wormtongue. This demonic spell has caused Théoden to lose all judgment and physically wither away. Gandalf performs the exorcism of Théoden by tricking the evil powers into thinking his humble presence poses no threat. When Gandalf performs the exorcism of King Théoden, he uses his staff and has to recite certain words. Gandalf's staff represents the holding of the crucifix to break a demonic spell in an exorcism. Interestingly, Father Amorth points out in his book that humility, the crucifix, and reciting certain prayers are the key ingredients for priests in performing exorcisms. We see parallels of all three of these in this particular scene of The Two Towers in Lord of the Rings.

Sacrament of Communion/Eucharist - What was the food that Frodo and Sam had to eat to sustain them on their journey into Mordor? It was called Lembas bread. In the book, we learn that Lembas bread means “life bread.” So, this bread was the source of survival for the Fellowship on their voyage from one land to the next land. In this “life bread” Tolkien is illuminating the great Catholic teaching of the Eucharist. As it reads in the book:

"Eat little at a time, and only at need. For these things are given to serve you when all else fails. The cakes will keep sweet for many many days, if they are unbroken and left in their leaf-wrappings, as we have brought them. One [God] will keep a traveler on his feet for a day of long labor."

In the above passage, Tolkein is showing that this bread is much more than a symbol, and that in fact, One (God) is physically in the bread. In the book, the elves commented, "We call it lembas or waybread, and it is more strengthening than any food by men.” In The Fellowship of the Ring, before departing Lothlórien, Legolas commented to Merry and Pippin that "one small bite is enough to fill the stomach of a grown man." The description of the Lembas bread throughout the book sounds curiously like the “bread from heaven” passages in Exodus 16 and the “bread of life” passages in John 6. What is also interesting is the recipe of the Lembas bread comes from Galadriel ,who then passed it on to the elves. Hmm…the actual bread of life coming through Mary - where have we heard this before?

The bread was very nutritious, stayed fresh for months when wrapped in mallorn leaves, and was used for sustenance on long journeys. With the importance of the bread being kept in mallorn leaves we see the similarities of God’s instruction to Israel to keep the bread placed in a “golden urn” (see Exodus 16: 32-34, Hebrews 9:4) Of course, these instructions still go on today in the Mass. We notice the Eucharist is placed in a golden urn - the Tabernacle in the church after Communion. Like other items of the elves, the bread was offensive to creatures corrupted by evil. Gollum outright refused to eat it, and in one scene Gollum frantically destroyed the bread. In that particular scene, Gollum had already been taken over by the demonic.

At this point, we’ve hit the ground running unlocking the Catholic themes throughout Lord of the Rings. There are much more hidden gems in this story to uncover, but in part II of this blog, I’ll zoom out and look at the big picture of this story. I bit of a word of caution - the book will showcase these themes much more than the movie. As is typically the case, the Hollywood movies have watered down the deeper message of the author in the book. Although the movies still hold many of the author’s themes - the book is better.

Once people understand the hidden meaning of the Bible displayed through an epic story like Lord of the Rings, they are less likely to hit the "boring button" and more likely to hit the "I’m interested button." Check out J.R.R. Tolkien's story now in a new light.