![]() ![]() And they usually entail a denial of the interdependence that the all-Father has made intrinsic to his universe. These evils are prompted by pride, the deadliest of the sins. ![]() Fellowship and friendship, companionship and mutuality, lie at the heart of Tolkien’s Christian vision.ĭisobedience and rebellion-whether among valar or hobbits-are the main motives for sin in Tolkien’s world. Everywhere in Tolkien’s work, authentic existence is always communal. All the creatures of Ilúvatar are meant to dwell in lasting regard for each other. So are the higher beings meant to care for the lower, yet without condescension or contempt. The lower creatures are meant to serve the higher, yet without being demeaned or diminished. Within every rank, there is immense room for movement-either up or down, toward life or toward death, toward good or toward evil. Yet this descending chain of being is neither static nor imprisoning: it is wondrously free and life-giving. Lower still are the elves and perhaps the ents, then men and hobbits, and finally dwarves. Yet they assume shape and gender, both masculine and feminine, in order that the Children of Ilúvatar might know and love them.īeneath the valar are somewhat less powerful beings called the maiar. The valar are not polytheistic divinities but subordinate beings that Ilúvatar has created with the Flame Imperishable of his own Spirit.Īs patrons over the various creative qualities and natural powers resident in the cosmos, the valar are pure spirits, having no natural bodily existence and thus no mortal limits. Just as in Genesis, Yahweh creates in concert with his heavenly court ("Let us make man in our image"), so does Ilúvatar employ his 15 valar in making the music of the cosmos. There is nothing that does not bear Ilúvatar’s creative imprint. In The Silmarillion, he is called Ilúvatar, the all-Father, and he has imbued the entire cosmos with his Spirit. The inhabitants of Middle-earth do not know God as triune, but they do know him as the One. Rather than fleeing oppressive evil, Tolkien enables his readers to escape into the freeing reality of Good. He also confronts evils altogether as great as the horrors of our own time. Like the anonymous seventh-century author of Beowulf whose work he had mastered, Tolkien infuses his pre-Christian epic fantasy with Christian convictions and concerns. ![]() TOLKIEN’S The Lord of the Rings is a profoundly Christian book. ![]()
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