[BOOK REVIEW] THE LORD OF THE RINGS
king, prophet, priest.
The Lord of the Rings(LOTR) is my current delightful obsession, and it has been the first book that made me skip nap and gym. Now with the part two being enjoyed, I tried to push it through to the end so that I start the last book. To begin with, I first would like to say that thanks to Tolkien: got bored in work only to come to a blank page, and scribe “In a hole under a ground there lived a hobbit…”, then The Hobbit was born and became the seedbed of the LOTR. Secondly, I would also, for the existence of the LOTR, like to thank C.S. Lewis who encouraged Tolkien to extend the world of Middle-earth. If it hadn’t been the support of Lewis, Tolkien wouldn’t have completed the LOTR. As Frodo needed Sam, Tolkien needed Lewis. Of course, it is because Lewis and Tolkien were close friends for much of their lives, and shared much of their common understanding of Christianity (despite of Tolkien’s years-long disappointment on Lewis’ conversion to Church of England rather than Roman Catholic and his dislike of Narnia series due to the rushed publication, 7 books in 7 years). When I was reading LOTR, I was so amazed by Tolkien’s way of writings through his faith, reason and imagination. But I wanted to be more surprised to know, before finishing the whole trilogy, how much dose of Lewis Tolkien had put into the last book.
While Lewis successfully wrote Jesus into a fictional character as a lion that no other authors could in the last century, Tolkien worked differently; while Lewis imaginatively supposed there was a world like Narnia and a lion like the Son of God, Tolkien went deliberately underground. Indeed, there is no obvious religion in the LOTR, God is not mentioned, not even temple and church. But it was exactly the most fundamentally Christian and Catholic work. I did not see Jesus walk there, but I did sense that there was a presence of God. I remembered that as the Company entered Lothlorien, the Golden Wood, they said everything was lit, but they couldn’t see the source of light. It is like when we’re surrounded by the presence of God, invisible and untouchable though, we have peace, joy and strength poured our within us. What’s more, when Aragorn, Gimli and Legolas came to the eaves of Fangorn, Gimli expressed his indifference and dislike to the forest, but Legolas didn’t sense it any evil and malice at all, but rather “old, full of memory, and once been light and delightful.”
Christ is the central theme that illumines the men, elf, hobbits, and wizards, and signals the enemies. Tolkien put Him underground but through all tales of young and old, Christ could be all the time sensed. Christ dose not live at the front door of the house, but inside, the kitchen, dinning room and the bedroom, all important rooms of one’s house.
Many of us may know that Christ was written into a fictional character by Lewis so beautifully and brilliantly that there were “good complaints” received from parents’ letters that their kids all fell in love with Aslan more than Jesus. But Aslan in Narnia is exactly Christ in our world, which is very easily understood by many readers. But when it comes to LOTR, is there Christ? Nah, but Yeah. There are Christ figures in the Middle-earth. They are all the symbols of Christ.
Some say that story is the oldest art. For every culture, western or eastern, human has stories and tells stories. If there are no stories told, there is no human. God likes to make puns, because His story is history. If there is no Christ, there is no us. Likewise, if there is no Christ, there is also no LOTR.
For any stories, great stories or great movies, particularly of adventure, there are always three main characters, three protagonists, three heroes. The first one must be a leader, a captain; one of them is an intellectual or a scientist that shares knowledge and wisdom; one of them is always small and humble but significant and indispensable. The Bible tells us there are three figures who are most glued to God: King, Prophet, Priest. Jesus played all. In the Middle-earth, there are also these three characters, all of them are Christ figures, because all of them suffered and died in different ways, and also were resurrected in different ways.
In the LOTR, Gandalf is the prophet, who had seen through both the Younger and Elder Days, possessed great superhuman power and wisdom; he fell with Balrog into the abyss in the Mine of Moria, gone through the dark and the fire, and returned as Gandalf the White from the Grey. Aragorn, a rightful king, son of Arathorn, heir of Isildur Elendil’s son of Gondor, whereas Boromir was not but from a line of a servant in spite of the blood of Numenor in him; a servant was never greater than his master (in Gondor ten thousand years would not suffice him to be a king); Aragorn received the Quest and set out a perilous journey from Rivendell and later rightfully claimed to take the Sword that was Broken. Frodo, well-known by many, like a priest in mysterious ways, lived and died in many different ways; he for the sake of Shire and Middle-earth, left from what he called home and comfort, carrying the Isildur’s Bane, and followed wherever the Doom takes; he was all the time pursued by the Black Riders, servant of the Dark Lord, deeply wounded in the Weathertop; in undertaking the Quest he died to everything that he loved about the comfort of homely Shire and the peaceful hobbit life; but it is his weakness, smallness and humility that win the world and save the Middle-earth.
Even in the Brothers Karamazov, there are also king, prophet and priest. And particularly, Alyosha was like the priest living a monastic life, with a pure heart and mind in dealing with the complex and broken relationships with his two brother Ivan and Dimitri; Alyosha was the most beloved of God, faithful ever to chase after God and practise faith, love and charity that no one else could.
Even in the Gospel, Jesus among the disciples, handpicked three who are closest to Jesus: John, Peter and James. The three accompanied Jesus up to the Mount of Transfiguration and into the Garden of Gethsemane. John is the prophet, Peter the rock, and James, playing a role of priest, giving practical advice to sacrifice to God. You see, there are many stories, movies, and plays that have this kind of three important characters. It is the three that is enough. When I write and make points, I used to write only 3 points (simply because I get tired of writing more than 3 points).
In the LOTR, it is quite natural to see that there are king, prophet and priest as symbols of Christ, but also to notice that they all died grimly in their ways and in hope rose again. Furthermore, it is significant to notice that there are three powers that permeate the whole world: the power to seek the truth, the power to freely choose the good, the power to restore the ruins. Christianity is centre of Tolkien’s faith, and that is why the Lord of the Rings is made the greatest fantasy literature in the 20th century.
As the half year passed, I found myself more drawn to say that in the following months of this year there will be more essays about the Lord of the Rings, and about what it means to us and our modern society. Tolkien built a world upon the rock of his faith, and he pointed to many things deep, meaningful and compelling. It is not because he simply wrote great details and presented fantastic things as any other fantasy writer did, but because the world he created was covered with the truest and greatest myth - Christianity, and he wrote this myth into a fact.