Tolkien: Allegory or Epic?
On their down time Legolas and Gimli discuss what they
believe makes up their story....
Legolas: I do not believe the Lord of the Rings is an allegory. I believe it has some elements that can be found in allegories, but as a whole it is not designed as such. What say you, friend Gimli?
Gimli: For the sake of being of different mind than one of the fair-folk, I say that it is an allegory.
Legolas: And in saying that would prove, or try to prove that Tolkien was a liar?
Gimli: .....Yes.
Legolas: I say then, let the battle of wit and word commence!
Gimli: (Wit? Word? I'm dead meat already)
Legolas: What have you to argue this: "While there are some elements of an allegory in the Lord of the Rings, there would be more if it were an allegory?"
Gimli: What are you saying?
Legolas: I am saying simply that because Tolkien was a Christian, some of the patterns of his faith came through his work. But, being an author myself and having experienced this, that does not make my story an allegoy any more than spreading peanut butter on bread makes the bread a sandwich.
Gimli: Don't you mean peanut butter, not sandwich?
Legolas: Of course that's what I meant!
Gimli: HA! The Elf blundered! Score one for the Dwarf!
Legolas: Silence!
Gimli: Anyway, there is so much 'peanut butter' in Tolkien's work. I say that his bread is swimming in peanut butter, and that he is making and awfully messy sandwich.
Legolas: That's not the point.
Gimli: LET ME FINISH! Even back into the Silmarillion you see the elements of Creation, and the life, death, and resurrection of Christ, and the promise of the end of the world.
Legolas: I agree, but they are only elements not easily seen. I say that if Tolkien had written his work as an allegory, we would not be debating it due to its clarity.
Gimli: Then why do we argue? I say not only that Tolkien wrote an allegory, but that he also called himself Eru. "First there was Eru, the One," who do you think Tolkien saw himself as?
Legolas: First, it was "There was Eru, the One."
Gimli: Whatever.
Legolas: Sceond, I think he saw himself as one of two people. Mithrandir, or me.
Gimli: Hrumph. No one could come up with such a story without having first had the inspiration of Scripture.
Legolas: True, so because he had read Scriprture, some of its patterns appeared in his books. That still does not make it an allegory.
Gimli: So what?
Legolas: Do you have anything more to say?
Gimli: Mrph...grmph...mouf.
Legolas: What did you say?
Gimli: Peanut butter.
Legolas: Oh.
THE END
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Did Tolkien intend Gandalf's Death and Return to represent Christ and the Ressurection?
Heavens, no! :)
This would have represented a too literal embodiement of Christian ideal, which Tolkien thought undesirable in a story. He specifically stated this while commenting on the Arthurian tales:
"t is involved in, and explicitly contains the Christian religion. For reasons which I will not elaborate, that seems to me fatal. Myth and fairy- story must, as all art, reflect and contain in solution elements of moral and religious truth (or error), but not explicit, not in the known form of the primary `real' world."LETTER #131
This is not to say that he didn't like the Tales; he did, but his feeling was that such a direct connection between one of his characters and Christ was allegorical - which he utterly disliked.
Further, in one of his letters, he flatly denies this type of allegory (which he avoided in his stories and repeatedly denied):
"Thus Gandalf faced and suffered death; and came back or was sent back, as he says, with enhanced power. But though one may be in this reminded of the Gospels, it is not really the same thing at all. The Incarnation of God is an infinitely greater thing than anything I would dare to write. Here I am only concerned with Death as part of the nature, physical and spiritual, of Man, and with Hope without guarantees." LETTER #181
However, Tolkien's work is religious and consciously admitted by Tolkien to be so. While he disliked "allegory" he still embodied his religious ideals and beliefs into his work by making them "symbolical", if you will. Gandalf's death and return is meant to "symbolize" that the sacrifice of one's self for a worthy purpose can be changed and enlarged to another and higher purpose |
