Searching Google still blew my mind, though.
The obvious symbolism is that of good and evil; however, there is a great deal of underlying similarity to influences ranging from Beowulf to Tolkien's central moral and religious principles. Tolkien was a devout Christian and enthusiastic linguist for much of his life, and so that wasn't a huge surprise. (Fun fact-- Tolkien actually invented the languages first, and wrote the stories to complement them.)
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| From lotr.wikia.com |
The similarities to Beowulf are mostly shallow in nature. Gollum, and the orcs, are thought to have been inspired by Grendel; likewise, many of the events in The Hobbit and LotR parallel plot points in Beowulf. By contrast, the religious symbolism (I've used that word too many times, but Tolkien repeatedly stated that he hated allegory) is a little more deeply interwoven with the themes.
Some Google searches revealed that several of the characters are actually thought to represent common archetypes in religion, though no one character is a Christ-figure (as in the case of Aslan.)
First, and most evidently, Gandalf. He is introduced as a wanderer, in the form of Gandalf the Grey. He dies in a battle against a Balrog, sacrificing himself to allow the rest of the Fellowship to escape, and is later resurrected. This appears as an immediate parallel to the death and resurrection of Jesus in Christian beliefs.
Aragorn is thought to represent the 'King' aspect. Like Gandalf, he undergoes a transformation, but in his case, it is a change from the inconspicuous ranger Strider to the king of Gondor; this transformation chiefly occurs at a figurative 'death', when he convinces the dead men to fight for him.
The roots of Frodo and Sam, as characters, are subject to quite a bit of debate. Some scholars hold that Frodo represents humanity and Sam represents Jesus (or the Holy Spirit) in a Christian sense; others believe that both represent different types of sacrifice. I find myself more drawn to the second idea; I do not think that the books were intended to represent religion, but rather that they were written by a religious writer, and thus share some thematic similarity. Additionally, sacrifice in and of itself is a motif in all of Tolkien's works. Examples are found throughout the Silmarillion, especially in the case of [Beren and Lúthien], in which the two repeatedly sacrifice things important to them for the sake of the other.
Tolkien also highly developed the mythology of the elves in a way that paralleled Greek mythology. Many of the principal deities resemble Greek counterparts, and like Greek gods, are separate from the idea of creation.
It is quite easy to see that The Lord of the Rings, together with Tolkien's other works, were highly influenced by various mythologies and earlier literature. The central structure of the world of Middle-Earth, and the characters who inhabit it, are expressions of the most basic archetypes of Tolkien's beliefs.
Do you think that all the characters you mentioned could combine together to form a Christ figure instead of being just partial ones? Or are there three, perhaps Gandalf, Aragorn, and Sam, that symbolize a sort of trinity? Seeing as Tolkein was Catholic, I think that wouldn't be so surprising.
ReplyDeleteAnd finally, do you really buy into the symbolism you read about? I know you have rather vocally opposed a lot of the analysis we do in class, so I'm a little surprised by this post.
It could be-- I think I read one interpretation that cast Sam as the Holy Spirit, for example. But I personally wouldn't agree with that. Most of the elements of the books are based off of non-Christian mythologies and history and it doesn't seem like Tolkien to deliberately introduce such symbols in his books.
DeleteI don't think Tolkien would purposefully model his characters after religious figures-- I guess I'd call it indirect symbolism instead? What seems most likely to me is that as a result of his religious upbringing and belief, Tolkien's subconscious was rife with archetypes such as a Gandalf-esque wanderer.
Additionally, though I didn't mention it in the post, Aragorn was actually a hobbit with wooden feet named Trotter in most of the early drafts of the book, so it seems highly unlikely that the king-aspect symbolism was intentional.
Ah, this is a fantastic comparison!
ReplyDeleteI agree with you very much, firstly, on the idea of indirect symbolism. It's a good answer to the "the curtains were just blue" debate -- being sunk in a certain culture imparts that culture's values, or a rebellion against those values, so it isn't a question of the author shoehorning their own values into a story that would have meaning on its own. A lot of people also accuse Tolkien of having been racist, and if he was (how do you feel about that, by the way?), that would DEFINITELY make it inadvertent.
Sam and Frodo to Jesus is also an interesting comparison. Honestly, they remind me of the two very different schools of thought on Jesus -- the thought that he was tempted severely and his virtue was in resisting, and that he wasn't tempted at all. A scene from The Return of the King that's always stuck in my mind is the bit where Sam wears the Ring and feels the mantle of it about him... and then knows, intrinsically, that it's not for him, and that doesn't bother him too much. Whereas Frodo, on the other hand...
I'm not sure which school of thought Tolkien would have believed, so I find it difficult to comment further. Nevertheless, their sacrifices are very different, but both sacrifices, you're right.
Thank you for writing this post, by the way! Very good read.
I do think that it is certainly possible to find a racist overtone in Tolkien's works, though it wasn't my first impression. I don't have that much knowledge about the sociopolitical climate in Britain when Tolkien was growing up and, later, doing his writing (should have taken AP Euro!), but I think that any such symbolism would have been mostly unintentional. One does not create such a detailed universe for the purpose of spreading racism, after all, but perhaps it suffices to say that at the time the books were written, racist attitudes were not uncommon, and were likely not seen as being nearly as offensive as they are today.
DeleteI like your thought here on the two different ideas of Jesus; I also do not have any information on Tolkien's personal beliefs, though. Perhaps Frodo and Sam simply represent the two different possibilities of belief in Tolkien's mind? We can't really do more than conjecture, though.
I'm glad that you liked the post-- thank you!
Is there an unfinished ending to the Gandolf aspect? I'm just kinda curious, because where I it seemed to be going is contrary to where it was going going earlier with no Christ-like figure.
ReplyDeleteYou are indeed correct-- thanks for letting me know! I must have published an unfinished draft or something, haha.
DeleteThis makes one wonder, on what level has all the literature we read been influenced unconsciously by the authors most basic beliefs and perceptions? For that matter, how much is everything we make, write or do influenced by the basic and core principles and beliefs we hold? These blogs for example, are they (or can they even be) influenced by the basic archetypes of our beliefs created by our perception of the world? And would that be to the same degree as The Lord of the Rings and the religious symbolism you wrote about? The idea that the author and the work can be tied together on such a level reinforces the idea of a work as a window into the very essence of the creator.
ReplyDeleteI think that it is actually impossible to write something that is not influenced by our most basic ideas. Everything that we write, think, and do is an expression of these principles. My blog posts no doubt give you an idea of how I think and what my principles are; likewise, Tolkien's works seem to reflect his ideas, both religious and not.
DeleteI believe that the same could be said for any literature. As a general rule, authors write about the things that they are (at least somewhat) familiar with, and mostly write about ideas that they agree with on some level. Reading an author's novels gives us significant insight into the psyche of the writer.
Valerie, I loved your post! As a big Tolkien fan, I've always been fascinated by the underlying symbolism of his famous LotR story. It's interesting to look at the story and try to decipher what character represents what Biblical figure. However, I've never thought about the idea that the story was perhaps not written as direct symbolism, but instead, shared some "thematic elements" just because Tolkien was Christian. I'm inclined to maybe agree with you on that idea.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your post!