Although I had grown up listening to the distant rumble of the Indianapolis 500, I was 21 before I decided to go with some friends. We left at 5:00 to avoid traffic and get the best seats, packing an ice chest with enough drinks and sandwiches to last a week. Once the gates opened we rushed to find seats in the infield close to the fence in the 4th turn. Quickly we unpacked our blankets to save spots for less punctual friends and sat down to wait for the race.
“In all his work Percy depicts the modern “looniness” of an individual who “doesn’t know who he is, what he believes, or what he is doing.” No longer is man on a purposeful journey in life with an eternal destiny, but is seeking “creativity, autonomy, rewarding interpersonal relations and so forth.”
I had brought along J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings to read while waiting. Soon after opening the book, the world of the Indianapolis 500 faded. When dozens of racecars began roaring around the track a few yards away and hundreds of thousands of fans began cheering their hearts out, I hardly noticed. I was escaping from dark riders with Frodo and his companions, desperately running through the long dark of Moria and fighting evil Orcs.
Later my friends teased me for coming to the greatest car race in the world and disappearing into a book. How could I explain the effect of Tolkien’s world on me? Why is this strange world of Hobbits, Wizards, Elves and Dwarfs so compelling? Why does this book and story have such a powerful effect on so many who read and re-read it?
To answer these questions, I am going to take a rather odd excursion by briefly examining another gifted author, Walker Percy, who wrote fiction at the same time as Tolkien. Yet their writing could hardly be more different. By contrasting Percy and Tolkien we can see two entirely different strategies of writing fiction; but by using Percy as a mirror we may be able to bring Tolkien’s writing into sharper focus.
Percy is seeking to diagnose the spiritual maladies of modern times. At one point Percy suggests that the best training for a novelist may be an internship at Cook County Hospital. In Percy’s view, the artist, and particularly the novelist, must adopt the posture of clinical observer. Such a literary diagnostic method enables the author to discover in his characters the very problems and disorders that one sees and experiences in the modern world. Percy argues that the final goal of such a diagnostic author is to identify the “peculiar lesion of the age.”
“Fantasy for Tolkien then is not an escape from reality, but is a doorway to reality. From experiencing the joys that a true fantasy provides someone may be stirred to the real world and the truths that such a story may picture. Consequently Tolkien’s world gives spiritual joy, insight and food for spiritually hungry modern people.”
This modern cancer, according to Percy, is the loss of a “common consensus about the meaning of life and the world and man’s place in it.” Percy argues that moral, relational and sexual problems are merely symptoms of this loss of purpose. In all his work Percy depicts the modern “looniness” of an individual who “doesn’t know who he is, what he believes, or what he is doing.” No longer is man on a purposeful journey in life with an eternal destiny, but is seeking “creativity, autonomy, rewarding interpersonal relations and so forth.”
Like cutting the tap root of a tree, the modern loss of purpose, eventually kills the tree. Such a tree may appear healthy for a time, but it is decaying internally. It creates “a sense of dislocation, a loss of personal identity, an alternating sentimentality and rage which, in an individual patient, could be characterized as dementia.” Thus there is often no clear plot in Percy’s work. He places his characters in worlds in which they wander bumping up against other lost souls.
Yet there is ultimately hope behind Percy’s work. Percy’s task is not a pathogist’s Kafkaquese duty of the dismemberment of the dead corpse. Rather Percy intends to trigger a response to his writing, hoping the patient will get better. And the first step of this treatment plan is honest description. “What kind of truth is a serious writer after … a deeper truth about the way things are, the way people are; in a word, a truth about the human condition.” Thus Percy’s role is to give, “the sickness a name, to render the unspeakable speakable.” Occasionally Percy has had the experience of achieving his goal when a reader tells him, “Yes! That’s how it is! I didn’t know anyone had ever felt that way!” We see a picture of this when one of Percy’s characters wakes up in the hospital having survived an attempted suicide and sees his doctor and reflects:
He saved me twice. Once the night before by suturing my arteries. The next morning by naming my terror, giving it habitation, standing at the foot of my bed, knowing the worst of me, then naming it with ordinary words, English common nouns, smiling and moving on.
That is Percy’s role, naming the present world with simple English common nouns.
Tolkien seeks to create an entirely new world with simple English common nouns. It would be hard to imagine a more different fictional world than Tolkien’s Middle Earth.
If Percy can be pictured peering through a microscope analyzing the spiritual cancer of modern mankind, Tolkien could be depicted gazing through a telescope to an alien world light years from earth.
“It is exactly at this point where Percy’s strangers in a strange land and Tolkien’s Hobbitts are walking the same path. Percy uses fiction to diagnose modern man’s loss of purpose and his resulting ethical hollowness and relational superficiality. In contrast, Tolkien’s world is pulsing with purpose and is filled with characters who struggle to make ethical choices between good and evil and who have lifelong companions who help each other in this quest. Percy has identified the crucial need of modern man and Tolkien feeds this hunger for an objective purpose, ethical wholeness and relational authenticity.”
For Tolkien, joy is “the mark of the true fairy-story.” If a fantasy is able to elicit joy, it helps people taste reality. A true fantasy author, Tolkien argues, “hopes that the peculiar quality of this secondary world (if not all the details) are derived from Reality… The peculiar quality of the “joy” in successful Fantasy can thus be explained as a sudden glimpse of the underlying reality or truth.” Fantasy for Tolkien then is not an escape from reality, but is a doorway to reality. From experiencing the joys that a true fantasy provides someone may be stirred to the real world and the truths that such a story may picture. Consequently Tolkien’s world gives spiritual joy, insight and food for spiritually hungry modern people.
Only now can we begin to answer our question: Why is Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings so compelling to the modern reader? Tens of millions reading the book, and watching the movies, have found that Tolkien’s tale touches some internal spiritual chords. Many have had an experience similar to the one that I had when the Indianapolis 500 became mere background noise. What is it about this world that is intriguing and fascinating for the modern reader? The Lord of the Ring gives individuals a taste of reality as it truly is and many individuals long for more of it.
Literature is a concert hall for the soul. It is the place where melodies writers have composed touch readers’ hearts. Thus many individuals turn to fiction to gain emotional sustenance for their everyday lives. Cultural moods and needs are visible in the purchasing trends of a particular type of literature. One obvious example is the explosion of romance novels in 20th century America. What does this show? That American women are emotionally and romantically satisfied? No, the reverse. To be equal in our criticism we can easily see modern males’ raw emotional needs in the colossal growth of pornography on the Internet. In a less obvious way the Lord of the Rings provides a world that somehow meets the desires of modern readers. A story of furry toed hobbitts and cloaked wizards speaks to millions of souls.
It is exactly at this point where Percy’s strangers in a strange land and Tolkien’s Hobbitts are walking the same path. Percy uses fiction to diagnose modern man’s loss of purpose and his resulting ethical hollowness and relational superficiality. In contrast, Tolkien’s world is pulsing with purpose and is filled with characters who struggle to make ethical choices between good and evil and who have lifelong companions who help each other in this quest. Percy has identified the crucial need of modern man and Tolkien feeds this hunger for an objective purpose, ethical wholeness and relational authenticity. I would like to spend the rest of this article unpacking these three elements of Tolkien’s world that especially speak to modern readers: Purpose, Ethics and Relationships.
We can understand Tolkien’s resonance with modern readers by understanding where they are reading from. Tolkien draws a stark and stirring picture of individuals sacrificing and even dying to accomplish their mission. Yet this story of heroism and sacrifice sounds a bit alien in our current context.
“Over the last 40 years there has been a sea change in how Westerners think about and live life. Forty years ago, most individuals’ primary concerns centered on their loved ones’ economic, social and emotional well being. By the late–1970s these concerns had been flipped on their head as most were far more concerned about their own personal, economic and social well being. In short, most individuals’ primary goal in life became seeking their personal happiness. From this cultural perspective, there is no external quest to achieve. Life is an attempt to create a comfortable situation which will satisfy one’s desires.”
Over the last 40 years there has been a sea change in how Westerners think about and live life. Forty years ago, most individuals’ primary concerns centered on their loved ones’ economic, social and emotional well being. By the late–1970s these concerns had been flipped on their head as most were far more concerned about their own personal, economic and social well being. In short, most individuals’ primary goal in life became seeking their personal happiness. From this cultural perspective, there is no external quest to achieve. Life is an attempt to create a comfortable situation which will satisfy one’s desires.
The Lord of the Rings, as a Quest, depicts a purpose which is beyond the emotions and desires of any one individual. In the beginning of the book, the wizard Gandalf reveals the evil nature of a magical ring and charges Frodo with its keeping. Frodo expresses his fear and frustration to Gandalf, “Why was I chosen?” Gandalf’s bluntly responds: “You may be sure that it was not for any merit that others do not possess: not for power or wisdom, at any rate. But you have been chosen, and you must therefore use such strength and heart and wits as you have.” Gandalf places this unwanted burden on Frodo to achieve a difficult task against various foes with a strong dose of humility – in a word, a quest. This is the nature of a quest; a stark burdensome responsibility to achieve an external goal against many evil enemies, obstacles and dangers.
Intuitively this echoes what we know of life: Life is hard and sometime oppressive and dark. What most modern individuals don’t have is the clarity of Frodo’s quest which is giving them clear direction in their lives. These readers of Tolkien’s tale experience an internal ache that they don’t have such a purpose which gives their life meaning and significance. They long for Frodo’s clarity of vision even in the midst of his pain and struggle.
After enduring many hardships, Frodo finally arrives at Rivendell, his initial goal. But there the burden of the quest begins yet again. It is decided at the council that the ring must be destroyed at Mount Doom in Mordor. When Frodo realizes that the wise ones Gandalf and Elrond will not accept the ring for they fear the temptation of its power, “a great dread fell on him.” He understands that they believe it is his task to be the ring bearer. Finally he quietly offers, “I will take the Ring, though I do not know the way.” Thus begins the mission of the nine companions to accomplish Frodo’s quest to destroy the ring. The quest is extended with more companions but the risks have elevated, not decreased. Frodo knows what he is called to do and is willing to attempt it, although he hopelessly admits, “I do not think I shall ever get there.”
The reason for Frodo’s despair is the evil power and reach of the enemy Sauron. While once Mordor and Sauron were distant shadowy names “ominous and disquieting,” they become real through the menacing presence of the black riders. One can feel Sauron’s evil throughout the tale in a variety of forms. The ring, a creation of Sauron’s, is an object of intense depravity, ultimately corrupting all who wield it. Those men who Sauron corrupted with the nine rings become the ringwraiths, disembodied terrifying shades. The orcs and trolls are creations of Sauron to enforce and extend his depraved will. Gollum becomes a twisted creature through long contact with Sauron’s ring. Eventually even when Gollum encounters good and beautiful things, such as delicious Elfish wafers, he spits them out and accuses Frodo of poisoning him. Evil at the end experiences goodness and beauty as evil.
All of this brings the idea of quest into sharper focus. A quest for good is ultimately a fight against evil – personified in this case in the powerful Sauron. The mission of the nine companions is designed as a strategic move to defeat Sauron’s purposes. It is important to emphasize that this is personalized evil not a blind nebulous force. Sauron is an evil being whose malice, hatred and lust for power knows no limit. Gandalf explains to Frodo why Sauron would be interested in the Shire, “hobbitts as miserable slaves would please him far more than hobbitts, happy and free. There is such a thing as malice.” Sauron’s great fear is that the ring will be found and wielded by one of the mighty like Elrond or Gandalf. The Council’s strategy to destroy the ring is therefore inconceivable to him and this very blind spot is Frodo’s one possibility of success.
“What most modern individuals don’t have is the clarity of Frodo’s quest which is giving them clear direction in their lives. These readers of Tolkien’s tale experience an internal ache that they don’t have such a purpose which gives their life meaning and significance.”
It is this very stern, difficult and objective purpose that western man does not have. But this is what every honest agnostic wishes that he did have. Human fulfillment is not found as a result of surrounding oneself with a collection of things, hard bodies, and eating of pleasurable foods. True joy in life is not a hot tub of pleasure. Eventually the search for pleasure becomes hollow and jaded and dirty. Human beings are only fulfilled when they have a quest for good, against evil, to help, not to hurt or take from others.
Tolkien’s quest is a cosmic battle between good and evil set across Middle Earth’s broad landscape. But the quest is also internal, a struggle between good and evil in every character’s soul. Frodo is traveling toward Mount Doom to destroy the ring, but he is also on a journey in his soul. He is an unlikely hero who fails and stumbles toward maturity. Yes, he saves his companions from the dangers of the Old Forest and again against the Barrowwight; but he also fails miserably on several occasions receiving the wounds of knife, sting and tooth. Behind the second aspect of the quest is this ethical reality. A hero, in Tolkien’s view, is primarily an ethical accomplishment. Mistakes do not undo or stop heroic achievement.
In Tolkien’s world, a quest requires ethics of truth and goodness fighting against falsehood and evil. When Eomer is confronted by the phantoms of Aragorn, Gimli and Legolas springing from the grass, he wonders, “How shall a man judge what to do in such times?” Aragorn sternly responds with an ethics lecture, “As he ever has judged. Good and ill have not changed since yesteryear; nor are they one thing among Elves and Dwarves and another among Men. It is a man’s part to discern them.” And beyond discernment Tolkien clearly teaches an ethics of struggling to master vice and to achieve virtue.
At some level every central character goes through crises which reveal both the strengths and weaknesses of their character. Thus Tolkien doesn’t provide black and white cartoonish characters who perfectly embody virtues and vices. Rather we see characters who feel torn and twisted by good and evil desires. They struggle with their choices, mistakes and failures.
At the heart of this ethical growth is a struggle with one’s very self; including self-deception, despair and weakness of will. Pippin after stealing a magical orb tries to rationalize: “I wish I had known all this before. I had no notion of what I was doing.” Gandalf has no patience for such self-delusions: “Oh yes, you had. You knew you were behaving wrongly and foolishly; and you told yourself so, though you did not listen.”
“Tolkien’s quest is a cosmic battle between good and evil set across Middle Earth’s broad landscape. But the quest is also internal, a struggle between good and evil in every character’s soul. Frodo is traveling toward Mount Doom to destroy the ring, but he is also on a journey in his soul. He is an unlikely hero who fails and stumbles toward maturity.”
Even the classical hero Aragorn struggles painfully with his mistakes. After the death of Boromir, Aragorn agonizes, “’This is a bitter end. Now the Company is all in ruin. It is I that have failed. Vain was Gandalf’s trust in me.’… He knelt for a while, bent with weeping.” We see this same struggle with self in Frodo’s foolish failure to follow Gandalf’s instruction to not put on the ring, and as a result, he is wounded by the Lord of the ringwraiths. “He (Frodo) bitterly regretted his foolishness, and reproached himself for weakness of will; for he now perceived that in putting on the Ring he obeyed not his own desires but the commanding wish of his enemies.”
The characters of the Lord of the Rings are confronted by their ethical failures, mistakes and weaknesses including pain, grief, doubt, despair, a slavery to the power of evil and temptation. Each of these provides opportunity for the individual’s growth or atrophy. All of these ethical dilemmas have the same sources; the self. The solution for Pippin, Aragorn, and Frodo’s quandaries is also the same; living with integrity and faithfulness. Pippin needs to be honest, Aragorn needs to persevere and Frodo needs to humbly follow wise advice. In a phrase, these are characters with real ethical choices with real consequences. We see this with three virtues: courage, faithfulness and perseverance.
For Tolkien, a virtuous life is a heroic life. When the Elves encourage Frodo to be courageous, Frodo responds, “But where shall I find courage?” … That is what I chiefly need.” Yet it is courage which Frodo finds time and again. In the darkness of the Barrow he did not abandon his friends but courageously fought back, even without hope. With his last energy he defied the dark riders across the ford near Rivendell. Perhaps most sacrificially, he courageously sought to protect his companions by going alone to dark Mordor. Lastly Frodo often saw the worst of himself and yet didn’t give up. This is a long courage and Frodo became an embodiment of this virtue.
As Frodo is a picture of courage, Aragorn is a model of integrity and faithfulness. For decades Aragorn, son of kings, had served without thanks or praise as a bulwark against evil. He was the inspiration for the poem “All that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost.” He was derided and disrespected as Strider in Bree, yet he faithfully protected those unthankful souls. He did what was right with integrity. He explains how someone can be faithful, and yet fail: “There are some things that it is better to begin than to refuse, even though the end may be dark.” Faithfulness, not success, is his primary goal.
“ The characters of the Lord of the Rings are confronted by their ethical failures, mistakes and weaknesses including pain, grief, doubt, despair, a slavery to the power of evil and temptation. Each of these provides opportunity for the individual’s growth or atrophy. All of these ethical dilemmas have the same sources; the self. The solution for Pippin, Aragorn, and Frodo’s quandaries is also the same; living with integrity and faithfulness.”
Perseverance is a crucial component to the success of the companions. Frodo and his companions persevered in the face of opposition and pain. Frodo perseveres after being wounded by the Ringwraith. The 9 companions lose their leader Gandalf to Moria and yet continued the fight. Boromir fought on to his death in his effort to protect Merry and Pippin. Aragorn, Gimli and Legolas persevere for days running across the plains in their effort to rescue their friends. The entire tale of the companions is a story of perseverance often with little hope of success.
Behind all this discussion of vices and virtues is the reality of ethical growth and decline. The enemies of evil lose companions not only to death, but to temptation and compromise. Boromir was seduced from the path of faithful by a siren call of glory. Likewise, Saruman is slowly corrupted from being the leader of the white council by his hunger for knowledge and power. And even the corrupting source of evil itself, Sauron, we are told, was not originally evil, but good. A failure in ethics is not merely incidental lapses of behavior, but possibly the choosing of a declining path that leads to depravity.
Likewise ethics can mean a growth of character. Frodo grows in the story from a kind but fearful hobbit to a brave lord who upon his return takes charge of the liberation of the Shire. Sam was stunned by the vision of this moral stature when Frodo confronts Gollum.
It appeared to Sam that his master had grown and Gollum had shrunk: a tall stern shadow, a mighty lord who hid his brightness in grey cloud, and at his feet a little whining dog.
Another example of this moral growth is Sam himself. He was a simple and silly gardener who through the simple virtues of friendship, humility, faithfulness and perseverance became a heroic figure. As Frodo explained to Sam’s future wife, “He’s now one of the most famous people in all the lands, and they are making songs about his deeds from here to the Sea and beyond the Great River.”
The reality of purpose for The Lord of the Rings characters flows into their ethics. The demanding ethics of Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings is not the self-congratulatory self-esteem programs of contemporary culture. Tolkien’s characters do not struggle with self esteem but with their selves. They have an ethical problem, not a therapeutic one. Nor is it the values clarification of “what seems to be right to me.” Rather we see Tolkien’s characters struggling with what they have done and with what they haven’t done - with who they are. They want to live the truth and do battle against themselves.
This struggle strikes a cord in modern readers’ hearts. We struggle, we fail, we rationalize; this struggle with self is at the center of life. How do we resolve this basic self awareness that we have failed miserable at times? How do we change and grow? Individuals reading Tolkien identify with imaginary individuals who also do battle with their dark side.
“That virtue comes from a profound understanding of purpose is not a surprise. For hundreds, indeed thousands of years, people have taught that a life of purpose is a life of virtue. What many have not understood is that purpose is just as intimately connected to relationships. The quality and depth of one’s relationships to others is a result of one’s purpose.”
That virtue comes from a profound understanding of purpose is not a surprise. For hundreds, indeed thousands of years, people have taught that a life of purpose is a life of virtue. What many have not understood is that purpose is just as intimately connected to relationships. The quality and depth of one’s relationships to others is a result of one’s purpose. Tolkien teaches that having a clear purpose and common ethical standards are foundational for building healthy relationships.
Consider the example of compassion. Compassion seems, at first glance, to be out of place in such an adventure, but we find that it lies at the very heart of the tale. In the early part of the book, Gandalf and Frodo are talking in Frodo’s home and Gandalf comments that Gollum shares a common heritage with Hobbitts. Frodo is indignant about such a suggestion and declared that it was “a pity that Bilbo did not stab that vile creature, when he had a chance.” His was a prideful response which lacked compassion. Gandalf rebuffed him:
Pity? It was Pity that stayed his hand. Pity and Mercy: not to strike without need. And he has been well rewarded, Frodo. Be sure that he took so little hurt from the evil, and escaped in the end, because he began his ownership of the Ring so. With Pity.
Later in the tale we find Frodo remembering this very conversation when he has captured Gollum in Mordor. At this point Frodo has morally grown for now he is more humble and does pity Gollum.
The intriguing element of this story is that Sam has no pity at all for Gollum. Especially after Gollum betrays them to the horrible spider Shelob, Sam is furious at Gollum and would have killed him in a heartbeat. Yet at the end when Sam had the opportunity to slay Gollum, he lets him live. And it was this last bit of compassion that saved both Sam and Frodo and defeated Sauron. For thus Gollum lived to play his last role of unintentionally helping Frodo to achieve his mission of destroying the ring. Yes courage, faithfulness and perseverance are essential, but all would have been lost without compassion. All of this highlights the importance of relationships. Just as ethics grow from the root of purpose, healthy relationships grow from both purpose and ethics.
Tolkien’s characters are real individuals with real relationships. This historical fantasy has created, as Tolkien writes, “joy and sorrow as sharp as swords.” We see this relational reality when dwarf Gimli, after desperately seeking to rescue the captured Merry and Pippin, finally encounters them napping and smoking outside Isengard:
You rascals, you wholly-footed and wool-pated truants! A fine hunt you have led us! Two hundred leagues, through fen and forest, battle and death, to rescue you! And here we find you feasting and idling – and smoking! Smoking! Where did you come by the weed, you villains! Hammer and tongs! I am so torn between rage and joy, that if I do not burst, it will be a marvel.”
“The intriguing element of this story is that Sam has no pity at all for Gollum. Especially after Gollum betrays them to the horrible spider Shelob, Sam is furious at Gollum and would have killed him in a heartbeat. Yet at the end when Sam had the opportunity to slay Gollum, he lets him live. And it was this last bit of compassion that saved both Sam and Frodo and defeated Sauron.”
Pippin, opening an eye, responded: “One thing you have not found in your hunting, and that’s brighter wits. Here you find us sitting on a field of victory, amid the plunder of armies, and you wonder how we came by a few well-earned comforts!” Gimli retorts,
“Well-earned, I cannot believe that!” The onlookers to this exchange burst into laughter and the king Theoden responds, “It cannot be doubted that we witness the meeting of dear friends.” This depth and quality of friendship is a central element of Tolkien’s story and a primary source of its appeal to many readers.
The curious thing about friendship is that it grows best in the soil of adversity. Frodo and his companions have in common -- an enemy, a quest and ethical standards -- and are molded over the course of the struggle into loyal friends. Gimli and Legolas, although traditionally antagonistic as Dwarf and Elf, become fast friends through the danger and toil of their mission.
If Tolkien’s quest requires the 9 companions to live with virtue, we also find that they need the help of one another. Gandalf tells Frodo about his need to escape the Shire and instructs him not to go alone but to bring others “you can trust.” When Frodo is confronted by the dark riders and needs to escape the Shire, his friends confront him with their intention to go with him. Merry explains:
You can trust us to stick to you through thick and thin – to the bitter end. And you can trust us to keep any secret of yours – closer than you keep it yourself. But you cannot trust us to let you face trouble alone, and go off without a word. We are your friends, Frodo.
When dangers come, true friends come to help. Gandalf argues in the Rivendell council for Pippin and Merry to be Frodo’s companions rather than a powerful Elfish lord like Glorfindel. “I think, Elrond that in this matter it would be well to trust rather to their friendship than to great wisdom.” Lady Galadriel likewise proclaims the requirement of committed relationships for the quest to be achieved: “Hope remains while all the Company is true.” Thus friendships lie at the heart of the strategy of the companions to defeat the dark lord.
“The curious thing about friendship is that it grows best in the soil of adversity. Frodo and his companions have in common -- an enemy, a quest and ethical standards -- and are molded over the course of the struggle into loyal friends. Gimli and Legolas, although traditionally antagonistic as Dwarf and Elf, become fast friends through the danger and toil of their mission.”
The curious thing about close relationships is that they multiply life. Relationships magnify the joys and sorrows of life. The companions discover this reality in the process of their journey. First the companions are stunned by the loss of Gandalf in Moria. Then Gimli grieves to Legolas upon leaving Lorien:
Why did I come on this Quest? Little did I know where the chief peril lay! … Torment in the dark was the danger that I feared, and it did not hold me back. But I would not have come had I known the danger of light and joy.
Legolas responds that such is the bitter-sweet nature of life.
For such is the way of it: to find and lose, as it seems to those whose boat is on the running stream. But I count you blessed, Gimli son of Gloin: for your loss you suffer of your own free will, and you might have chosen otherwise. But you have not forsaken your companions.”
That life and relationships involve pain is yet another truthful echo from Tolkien’s world to our own. This passage also emphasizes the corresponding truth that to forsake one’s companions is to forsake the quest.
“How many modern individuals in today’s individualistic western culture have the depth and quality of relationships that is depicted here? Few I think. To have companions who will stick with you and hold you accountable, you need the common ethic that comes from a common purpose. It is this commitment and affection displayed in the companions’ teasing that many lack in today’s world.”
How many modern individuals in today’s individualistic western culture have the depth and quality of relationships that is depicted here? Few I think. To have companions who will stick with you and hold you accountable, you need the common ethic that comes from a common purpose. It is this commitment and affection displayed in the companions’ teasing that many lack in today’s world.
Tolkien’s Quest Today
From Walker Percy’s perspective, most moderns do not know who they are (identity) and how to live and love (ethics) because they can’t answer why they are alive (purpose). Tolkien has created a world in which the characters’ clarity of purpose speaks to such lost, hollow and isolated individuals. Tolkien’s characters are more real, vibrant, colorful and authentic than a modern or postmodern’s self-absorbed gray existence.
At the heart of Tolkien’s world is a quest to defeat evil. All the elements delineated in Tolkien’s quest (the ugly presence of evil, the responsibility to fight evil, endurance in the face of difficulty, and the idea of a mission more important than oneself) are all essential elements of this purpose. But these are the very elements that many moderns do not have categories for in their current life. Thus readers emotionally yearn for Tolkien’s idea of a quest to fight evil and yet simultaneously feel a cognitive dissonance. They love reading of sacrifice, but do not have an objective purpose to sacrifice for. They long to be heroic, but have no crystal clear ethical convictions which provide the pathway to being a hero. They desire life long companions who share a common quest, but our culture has taught them to avoid commitments, or to discard them upon encountering difficulties.
Many readers find in Tolkien a means to emotionally salve their hearts and minds from their worldview that doesn’t explain the reality that they experience everyday. The hunger for Tolkien’s world is a hunger for reality. Although many of Tolkien’s fans do not know this, their desire to experience the Lord of the Rings’ world is a desire to live a life of purpose, to become an ethical hero and to have life long companions. This is a pretty good summary of the life that Jesus calls his disciples to.
© Dr Greg Pritchard 2005 Source: Link: http://www.euroleadershipresources.org/resource.php?ID=366