Tolkien and Catholicism
Inspired by this excellent post by 
liv about C S Lewis, I wish to ask a similar question about the works of Tolkien:
When did you become aware of the influence of Tolkien's Catholicism on his fantasy writing? How strongly do you think the Middle Earth Legendarium reflects its creator's faith?
(Less important, secondary question: aside from Tolkien's obvious interest in matters Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic, and his religious faith, what other mythic or mystical influences do you see in his work?)
My take: I read The Hobbit at primary school, and didn't spot any of its influences myself, but my mother (a former English and Anglo-Saxon scholar) pointed out the main links to Beowulf when I talked to her about it. It wasn't until I was at a Catholic secondary school that I read LotR - a book which my mother dislikes as strongly as she likes The Hobbit. And it didn't strike me as a particularly religious book. In contrast with the extensive coverage religion got in my favourite RPG settings, Middle Earth seemed mostly quite irreligious. One or two things in the appendices caught my eye, but I didn't think much of it.
Then I read The Silmarillion, which aside from overturning how I pronounced several key names, also threw a lot of LotR into a strikingly different context. I also became very preoccupied for a while with Tolkien's concept of 'Ages', and his very catastrophist, quasi-dispensationalist cosmology. It was only later that I learned how this fitted into esoteric thought from the era when he first set all this down. the main impact of The Silmarillion at the time was to send me back to LotR to view it in a Catholic context.
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liv about C S Lewis, I wish to ask a similar question about the works of Tolkien:
When did you become aware of the influence of Tolkien's Catholicism on his fantasy writing? How strongly do you think the Middle Earth Legendarium reflects its creator's faith?
(Less important, secondary question: aside from Tolkien's obvious interest in matters Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic, and his religious faith, what other mythic or mystical influences do you see in his work?)
My take: I read The Hobbit at primary school, and didn't spot any of its influences myself, but my mother (a former English and Anglo-Saxon scholar) pointed out the main links to Beowulf when I talked to her about it. It wasn't until I was at a Catholic secondary school that I read LotR - a book which my mother dislikes as strongly as she likes The Hobbit. And it didn't strike me as a particularly religious book. In contrast with the extensive coverage religion got in my favourite RPG settings, Middle Earth seemed mostly quite irreligious. One or two things in the appendices caught my eye, but I didn't think much of it.
Then I read The Silmarillion, which aside from overturning how I pronounced several key names, also threw a lot of LotR into a strikingly different context. I also became very preoccupied for a while with Tolkien's concept of 'Ages', and his very catastrophist, quasi-dispensationalist cosmology. It was only later that I learned how this fitted into esoteric thought from the era when he first set all this down. the main impact of The Silmarillion at the time was to send me back to LotR to view it in a Catholic context.
This entry was originally posted at DreamWidth and has
comments. You can comment there using your LiveJournal name via OpenID.