Lord of the Rings -cont-

Now, getting back to the Lord of the Rings.

Tolkien's intent was to write a good story. He believed that obvious stories were not enjoyable, but he also believed that they didn't stimulate the imagination, they didn't invoke the kind of response and the kind of thought he was interested in.

In his own life, Tolkien had been deeply impacted by language. Even as a child the sounds of different language evoked images in his mind and inspired him to imagine stories that might go with the sound of those words.
Most of Tolkien's creative endevours were shaped by his love of language. Particularly he was expert in the norse and germanic languages. He believed that culture, and the character of a people were inseperable from their language. Language could not be properly understood apart from the context in which it evolved. That was his particular expertise, philology. The study of how words developed.

Tolkien was particularly impacted by the Finnish language and the mythology of the norse people. the imagery of it strongly impacted Tolkien's own imagination. So it is no mistake that there is a good deal of Norse influence in the Lord of the Rings. Much of the imagery is taken from Norse folklore and myth. Many of the names used have their roots in Norse epic poetry, such as Gandalf, and most of the dwarves.

In fact the whole world of middle earth and its history began in response to a single line of an old english poem that Tolkien heard in his youth.

"Eálá Earendel engla beorhtastOfer middangeard monnum sended"

"Hail Earendel, brightest angel over middle earth to men sent."

So Tolkien began constructing a whole world and its history which was cast in the imagery of northern european mythos, yet in the end, conformed to Tolkien's beliefs about truth. There was also a very strong element in Tolkien's work of trying to create a story which acted as a sort of Christian myth of northern europe. It took the elements of the northern european mythos, and explained them in a way which meshed with Tolkien's Christian beliefs.

thus for example there are the Valar, the powers of the world who resemble the gods and goddesses of northern europe in imagery, yet in the context of Tolkien's mythos they are explained as archangels tasked with maintaining the creation. Tolkien explains their appearence as gods in human history as the result of man's mind being corrupted and darkened through the influence of the fallen prince of darkness. He estranged men from the Valar through fear and superstition and in their darkness men made gods out of their false knowledge and the lies of the enemy.

Through out Tolkien's works there are several over arching themes. Again, not written to make statements, but simply the fact that Tolkien's own beliefs became embodied in his story.



One of the common themes in Tolkien's work is the graceful white lady.

This one may not be terribly acceptable to protestants but this theme is drawn from two sources in Tolkien's life. One is his Catholic faith. This theme draws strongly on Tolkien's beliefs about Mary. In his belief, Mary embodied true beauty and grace and that is seen in many of the female characters of his stories. The second source is Tolkien's own relationship with the love his life, his wife Edith. The story of Beren and Luthien and the story of Aragorn and Arwen are direct take offs on his story with his wife Edith.

He was orphaned while still relatively young and was taken in and raised by a Catholic priest. His wife was from a protestant family who didn't think that a Catholic orphan was a good prospect. The result was that Tolkien had to work hard and 'bootstrap' himself up in order to earn the right and the ability to seek his love's hand in marraige.

Probably the single most prominant theme in Tolkien's work is the corruptive influence of the desire for power. People always propose various ideas for what the ring might represent. It 'represents' exactly what it is.. the power to dominate others. The power to bend the wills of other people to your own.
Tolkien frequently explores the difference between power and authority. The desire to have power corrupts, even if someone desires power to do good. Yet authority does not.

In the Lord of the Rings specifically, the difference between power and authority is the real issue between Saruman, and Gandalf. They are both of the same order. They are spirits, angels who are sent in human form to minister to the free people. They were specifically forbidden to seek rulership, or to seek to bend people to their wills. They were sent to sway people by wise council, to influence people to good deeds and courage. To inflame the hearts of the free peoples and to inspire truth and courage.

Of all the angels sent, Gandalf is the only one who stays true to his purpose. He remains a wanderer. He never has a home, or a place of his own. He never owns anything except his staff and his cloths. Even his horse was on loan from Theoden of Rohan. On the other hand, Saruman very quickly secures himself a fortress and settles down. He takes in servants to do his will, and while he pretends to study the enemy looking for ways to defeat him, in truth he is looking for ways to expand his own power. One of the most interesting questions, to me, in the character of Saruman is how much of his own motive was known to himself.

The story leaves the question up to the reader, but there are hints that Saruman himself may not have really known his true motives in the beginning. In otherwords, he deceived himself. He allowed his desire for power to grow, but he cast it in terms of power to defeat Sauron, power to do good, to accomplish his mission...

This is a great truth of human existence. We are masters of self deception, and the slide into corruption very rarely takes place all at once. You take a step here and there, justified for good reasons, until suddenly you find yourself serving the very evil that you once thought you were fighting.



The contrast between Gandalf and Saruman is also a very biblical theme. The contrast of the wanderer, the stranger in the land with no settled home against the settled person who makes a home in the world. Gandalf also demonstrates the very biblical principle of the unwelcome prophet. Gandalf is always showing up when things are at their worst and he frequently brings dire news, and for that reason men dislike him and even disdain him. In fact he is bringing hope and aid in time of trouble, but he is charged, like many a prophet, with never having anything good to say. Never bringing good news.



To begin the discussion of Gandalf and magic, I'll give the run down on who Gandalf is.



In Tolkien's world there are two general orders of angelic beings. The Valar and the Maiar. The Valar are the great powers, the Arch Angels, the angel princes. The Maiar are generally lesser angels but they have a wide a variety of greatness, or power. Maiar is a general group within which there are many different types and orders, which are only hinted at.



The characters in Lord of the Rings which are Maiar, or angelic beings include, Gandalf, Saruman, Radaghast, Sauron, and The Balrog. Of course Sauron and the Balrog were fallen angels, having fallen long ago in the original rebellion. Saruman fell to temptation, and Radaghast, though he never became evil, miscarried in his responsability by allowing himself to be distracted.



The Valar, or arch angels dwell in a paradise land in the west of the world. When middle earth was originally created it was a flat world and the paradise realm of Valinor (the undying lands) was on the western edge of the world. when the Numenorean kings, (aragorns ancestors) were decieved by Sauron they attempted to lay seige to Valinor and the Valar took the issue before God, who changed the world. Numenor was destroyed and only the righteous remnant (lead by Elendil, Aragorns direct ancestor) escaped. The world was made round and Valinor was removed from the physical world, yet a way was left by which the elves could sail over the western sea and come to valinor.



At that point the Valar largely ceased to intervene openly in the course of history. So when Sauron, a fallen angel, began to gather power again in middle earth, and the whole of middle earth was in danger of being conquered by darkness, the Valar dispatched five messangers who were sent under cover.



These five were Maiar who were sent secretly to the grey havens in human form. Only Cirdan, Elrond, and Galadriel knew who they really were. Galadriel having known both Gandalf and Saruman in their angelic forms in the first age when the elves dwelt in Valinor.

These five were required to take on human form, and in so doing they were given specific limitations. They could experience pain, they were subject to all the necessities of physical life such as eating and sleeping and they could be killed. Yet they aged very slowly, if at all, appearing for the most part as already aged men. These five became known as "the Istari".



There were two main reasons for the limitations applied to the Istari. In the first age the Valar had intervened openly in the affairs of the elves in order to protect them from the enemy. The result was mixed, but elements of it were disasterous. It played a key role in the elves rejecting Valinor. The Valar basically decided never again to interfere directly and visibly in the affairs of men and elves. Partially this was a realization on their part that God did not intend things to work that way.
The second reason is an outgrowth of the first. Because the Istari were sent to be secret ministers, they were forbidden to openly reveal themselves. They were restricted from commanding mortal beings according to their will etc. They were only allowed to try to influence people through wise council, and to give limited aid.

So Gandalf, Saruman, Rhadagast, and the two 'blue wizards' (they don't appear in any of the stories) arrived in middle earth.
They were organized as a council, each Istari had a color corresponding to his rank in the council. Each also had a staff which was the symbol of his authority (consider Moses and Aaron and their staves).

The names of each of the 'wizards' is a name that was given them by the various peoples with whom they interacted. Thus Gandalf, is not actually Gandalf's true name. His real name is actually Olorin. Gandalf is what the hobbits and the Breelanders called him.

This is thus a reflection of how Gandalf was percieved by those people. The elves called him Mithrandir "the grey wanderer (or pilgrim)", and so on.

None of these people knew who and what he really was, nor were they supposed to.

Looking at Gandalf's uses of magic you will find a few different things. He makes use of 'spells' on a few occasions, at other times he seems just to do things of magical nature, he also makes reference to words of command.

The first point to understand is that middle earth is a magical world. Most of the ancient cultures viewed nature itself, the world around them as magical. Tolkien picks that up and runs with it. Thus the dwarves have a kind of magic which is what we might call 'technology'. Their magic is based on skill with tools, and knowledge of technique.

The elves have a kind of magic which is similar to the dwarves, but it is different in the same way that art is different from technology. They both involve skill and knowledge yet there are significant differences. Thus the elves are able to make many items which have "magical" powers, like the dwarves are, and even much more powerful than the dwarves are capable of. What is really involved is not 'supernatural power' in the strictest sense, but harnessing of nature either through art, or technology.

In addition to that, the elves have a distinctly spiritual element which is mixed with their natural arts. There are two broad groups of elves in Middle earth. Those who went to valinor and those who didn't. The ones who never went to valinor have all the artistry, though probably not as developed, but they have very little of the same spiritual power that the other elves do.

the high elves, Elrond, Galadriel, etc are those who have connections to valinor. They literally lived among angels and in the imperishable light from before the world. The result is that they have significant spritual understanding, insight, and power which they have mixed with their artistry.

So, when Gandalf stands before the gates of Moria and recites all the spells in the tongues of elves, and dwarves, ever used for securing a door, the way it should be understood is that dwarves and elves, in their technology, and artistry made use of words to control things like doors etc. Gandalf is trying to figure out what word they used to govern the door.

An important note here is that we can get confused by the language involved. Tolkien was an expert on language and words. When he used a word like 'spell' he knew exactly what it meant, where it came from etc, and he used it to mean something sepecific.

To us, the word 'spell' just means he invoked magic power. What the word spell actually means is a spoken word or words. It derives from the ancient german "to speak" and in old english spell meant spoken words. The word 'gospel' is an example of this. It means good news. News was communicated verbally, it was spoken words, a message, so the word god spell, which meant "good words" eventually evolved into gospel, or "good news".

the reason spell came to mean invoking a magic power was because the ancients, down through the medieval world beleived that spoken words were powerful, particularly names. Thus when some one 'cast a spell' what it literally meant was they were "throwing words" Casting spells was quite literally just saying the right words to invoke some response.

tolkien knew that, and thats how he used it.

So when Gandalf was trying to open the doors of Moria, he was essentially just trying to figure out what the 'password' was.

Gandalf frequently was known for using magic related to fire. Many of his magic tricks, his fireworks, the words he spoke during the warg attack before Moria etc, were all fire related.

The reason for this is that he secretly posessed the elven ring of fire. The three elven rings each related to an element. Water, Air, and Fire. Elrond's ring was water, which is why he was able to control the river at the fords of Bruinen. Galadriel's ring was air. In addition to that the elven rings had more abstract, subtle powers, such as slowing the passage of time, or at least lessening the impact of change which always comes with time.

Gandalf was able to exercise control over fire, because he had the elven ring of fire.

In most of the other cases Gandalf either uses persuasive power to bring hope to people and courage. Or he invokes spiritual power such as when he fights the balrog and he invokes his authority as an angel, a minister of God, or when he wards off the Nazgul outside of Minas Tirith with a peircing ray of white light.

Lets look at Gandalf and the Balrog, since both are angelic beings.

In the original confrontation, Gandalf senses the presence of the balrog through a door that gandalf is trying to hold shut. Gandalf said that he used a shutting spell, (ie a shutting word) on the door. The balrog perceived gandalf and his spell, and countered it with one of his own. So Gandalf was forced to use a word of command.

What is going on there is a battle of authority. Gandalf attempted to shut the door by using his authority to command it to be shut. The balrog came up and matched Gandalf with his own spiritual power, ordering the door to open.

Gandalf, in response utters a word of command, which appears to be something above and beyond his own normal authority. the result is so great a release of power that the door shatters and the whole room on the other side colapses.

My conception of it is that Gandalf first used his own authority, then resorted to invoking God's authority, or at least the authority of something significantly higher than himself.

Then again on the bridge. Gandalf informs the balrog that he is a servant of the secret fire, a weilder of the flame of Anor.

this reference is not explained in the Lord of the Rings, but in the silmarillion it is found that the Flame of Anor is the fire that God sent to burn at the heart of the world, it is the fire that gave being to all things. God had thought up the entire creation, and history, and then when he wanted it to come into being, he sent forth the flame imperishable which became the foundation fo the world, of existence itself.

To me a comparison to the Holy Spirit is inescapable. The Spirit of God, linked repeatedly to fire, which energized the creation when He hovered, or 'vibrated' over the face of the deep.

so with that view, Gandalf is essentially telling the Balrog, a fallen angel, that he is facing up agaisnt someone who is a servant of and wields the power and authority of God and he may not pass.

Now, many christians would then say, why does gandalf have to fight so much, why isn't the balrog instantly banished etc.
In answer I would point out the reference in Daniel where Gabriel battles the prince of persia (a fallen angel principality). The prince of persia battles Gabriel for something like 21 days. Even though gabriel is on a divine mission from God. Only when Michael came to help him was Gabriel able to even get past. Even then they did not outright defeat the prince of persia, and Gabriel was on his way back to join the fight again.

Spiritual warfare is not as simple or clean cut as many christians would like to imagine it. Again look at Jesus exchange with his disciples when they could not cast out a demon. He told them that particular kind of demon did not come out "except by prayer and fasting". In otherwords, unless the person attempting to cast that spirit out had actively followed the disciplines of prayer and fasting, they would likely not be able to cast that spirit out.

In other instances the disciples had no such difficulty despite the fact that they had not been fasting etc.

Another common question is why isn't God more visible in the Lord of the Rings. Even in the Silmarillion God is portrayed clearly in the creation story, then rarely referenced anymore.

I think the answer is that Tolkien wanted to portray the subtlety of real life. God is rarely obviously visible in real life. Only those who specifically look ever really see his hand at work.
Jesus said to nicodemus, that people can see and feel the effects of the wind, but they don't know where it is coming from, nor where it is going.

Thats how it is with God. When we look, we can see the effects of his work, and we can feel it, but we can't see him, and his ways are mysterious. We rarely understand why he does, or doesn't do things, until long after the fact.

I think that is exactly what Tolkien is portraying. If you look in the Lord of the Rings, and related works you will find hints here and there, such as Gandalf telling Frodo "there was another power at work, all I can tell you is that bilbo was meant to find the ring, and not by its maker. In that case you too were meant to have it" (paraphrased).

The whole predominating theme of the story is providence. The quest, the central plot point of the story is stated over and over again to be impossible under the power of the characters. They CAN NOT accomplish it on their own. Gandalf keeps pushing them, despite the fact that they can't succeed in their own power, he keeps pushing them to do everything they can, and do what is right, and trust that in the end, providence will carry them through.

Consider how the story ends. It ends with failure. At the last, at the key moment, the cusp of temptation, Frodo fails. He gives in and tries to poses the ring. It is only providence that brings success.. and from the most unlikely source imaginable. Gollum of all people completes the quest.. and he does so despite desiring, and intending to do the exact opposite.

The lesson is that although we have freedom of will, God's plan always comes to pass. Gollum did what he willed, but it still served God's purpose. Frodo failed, but it didn't stop God's plan. In the end, it all worked together like precision clock work. You may call it fate, but when set in the context of Tolkien's world, it is clearly God.

then when you have that in mind, jump back and consider the role of Gollum, particularly his interactions with bilbo and frodo.. both had the chance to kill him, and though he deserved death, they showed him pitty and even tried to save him. Their kindness and pity, was used by God to save the whole world. Even though gollum was a lost cause, and it seemed they would only receive grief for their kindness, God used it to save the world from darkness and domination.

That to me has always made the moment in moria where Gandalf says to frodo "before this is over, the pity of Bilbo, may rule the fate of many", one of the most potent moments of the movies.


It is clear that Tolkien deliberately used the imagery of northern european mythology. Yet he also deliberately cast it in the context of his own christian beliefs. That is why he himself said that the Lord of the Rings was a specifically christian story.

when I read the Lord of the Rings, I find it to be a many layered tapestry of insights and truths. In addition to that, it has impacted me on a level that awakens vision, rather than just communicating fact. I can honestly say, for good or for ill, JRR Tolkien has been probably the single greatest influence, aside from scripture, in shapping my worldview.