The Meaning behind the Myth
One of the qualities that shines from LOTR is the evidence of it's lengthy crafting. This was no tale spun out during a summer sabbatical! Tolkien pieced together his myth in slow years of fits and starts, with ponderous devotion to detail and many rewrites. It is clear this is not a sloppy, half-painted fantasy world with inconsistencies gaping through the plot lines.
Certainly this attention to detail adds to the appeal, as does the richness of heroic vocabulary employed by Tolkien. The twenty-first century reader encounters an educating wealth of archaisms.
Much more importantly, LOTR is grounded firmly within the parameters of Tolkien's own world-view. The trilogy reflects his deeply held convictions about myth making and truth.
His ideas were well developed, if a bit distant from many of his readers. However, understanding Tolkien's thinking can help explain the great popular appeal of the work.
The professor's views on myth making are found in his essay On Fairy-Stories. The essay is a rambling discussion of the history, appeal, and significance of fantasy writing. Tolkien wrote On Fairy-Stories at about the same time as his first strides into creating LOTR, and so reveals his "mid-creation" thinking.
While some quickly dismiss fantasy or "fairy-stories" as juvenile, Tolkien vigorously argues that
".. fairy stories offer also, in a peculiar degree or mode, these things: Fantasy, Recovery, Escape, Consolation, all things of which children have, as a rule, less need than older people." 3
He believed fantasy stories have a powerful purpose for adults. It is especially insightful to read Tolkien's explanation of the last of these elements, the "Consolation of the Happy Ending". Ever the philologist, Tolkien actually coined the word "eucatastrophe" to define the "joy" of a happy ending:
"The consolation of fairy-stories, the joy of the happy ending: or more correctly of the good catastrophe, the sudden joyous 'turn' (for there is no true end to any fairy-tale): this joy, which is one of the things which fairy-stories can produce supremely well, is not essentially 'escapist', or 'fugitive'. In it's fairy-tale - or otherworld - setting, it is a sudden and miraculous grace: never to be counted on to recur. 4
Tolkien was writing from the heart, as an author, a lover of literature, and a man of deep faith. He later revealed that he wept as he wrote of the hobbits being honored on the Field of Cormallen" in LOTR. It was a moment of eucatastrope, a moment, indeed, of a sudden joyous turn after a long struggle with a dreaded evil power.
It cannot be doubted that Tolkien's myth making was anchored in his Christian faith. He asserted that his Middle Earth writings were not allegorical, such as is found in Lewis' Narnia books. He generally disliked the thin veils of allegory. His approach was more subtle; he meant his myth-making ("sub-creation", as he put it) to reflect a deeper reality so that
".. the 'joy' in successful Fantasy can thus be explained as a sudden glimpse of the underlying reality of truth. It is not only a 'consolation' for the sorrow of this world, but a satisfaction, and an answer to that question, 'Is it true?' …But in the 'eucatastrophe' we see in a brief vision that the answer may be greater - it may be a far-off gleam or echo of evangelium in the real world." (5)
Tolkien viewed the New Testament Gospels as containing a sort of (true) fairy-story, embracing "all the essence of fairy-stories". (6) He saw the Birth of Christ as the eucatastrophe of Man's history, and the Resurrection of Christ from the dead as the eucatastrophe within the Incarnation. These are the "sudden joyous turns" he celebrated and embraced as a Christian. Tolkien wrote,
"This story begins and ends in joy. It has pre-eminently the 'inner consistency of reality'. There is no tale ever told that men would rather find was true, and none which so many sceptical men have accepted as true on its
own merits. For the Art of it has the supremely convincing tone of Primary Art, that is, of Creation. To reject it leads either to sadness or to wrath." (7)
Tolkien discussed these convictions with other scholars. In Surprised by Joy, C.S. Lewis gives a fascinating account of Tolkien's influence in his own conversion to Christianity: Lewis describes a long evening of discussion with Tolkien and another colleague, Hugo Dyson. Tolkien patiently explained his view of the story of Christ as a true myth.
Soon thereafter, Lewis embraced the Christian faith and became its staunch defender, eventually penning well-known books such as Mere Christianity and The Screwtape Letters.
Embracing the Joy
Many readers will not debate the high-minded discourse of On Fairy-Stories, nor wish ever to attempt to spell 'eucatastrophe'! Still, for them the reading of LOTR is more than simply a great entertainment; it is also a great comfort and a repeatable pleasure. Why?
Good ought to oppose Evil. The small and overlooked, if determined, really can make a noble difference in a world beset by many terrors.
Courage and self-sacrifice may inspire devotion and heroism otherwise inconceivable. Readers weep, not only at the Field of Cormallen, but also at the lone return of Samwise from the Gray Havens.
Sudden turns of joy do not eliminate life's pangs of sadness. Tolkien's Middle Earth experiences a defeat of Evil, the end of an Age, at very great cost. The Elves depart, and much that is fair and beautiful is lost.
Tolkien's faith beckons to the reader of his fiction. This world, too, is imperfect, stained and threatened by Evil. There is much of Mordor in the news, in any generation. The Elves have left, perhaps, and will not return; Man has been evicted from the Garden.
But Tolkien did not believe we were left alone, without hope or help. Victory had been achieved, he believed, at great cost, through as rugged cross and an empty tomb. The result of this eucatastrophe: a possibility of joy, of relationship and rest. How then, shall we live? Tolkien would have us seek, as he sought, not only mere myths that bring moments of happy-ending. He has pointed the way to the True Myth that brings a deeper joy.
Perhaps, just perhaps, he would smile in seeing the film version of The Lord of the Rings recently released!
Jim Layman is a Regional Director within the Campus Ministry of Campus Crusade for Christ He resides in Medford, Massachusetts. Email him at jim.layman@uscm.org Copyright WSN Press, Campus Crusade for Christ, Inc., 1997-2001Used by permission of WSN Press and Campus Crusade for Christ. All rights reserved. WSN Press, Campus Crusade for Christ--2500, 100 Lake Hart Dr., Orlando, FL 32832 USA.
Related reading:
Footnotes
- As quoted by Carpenter, Tolkien: a Biography, p. 148
- the space trilogy by C.s.Lewis: Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra, and That Hideous Strength
- From "On Fairy Stories", p.46, The Tolkien Reader
- On Fairy Stories, p. 68
- Ibid, p. 71
- Ibid, p. 71
- Ibid, p. 72
Select Bibliography:
- Tolkien, Humphrey Carpenter, (the authorized biography)
- The Tolkien Reader, J.R.R. Tolkien, see essay "On Fairy- Stories"
- Surprised by Joy, C.S.Lewis
- England and Always, Jared Lobdell
- The Inklings, Humphrey Carpenter
- Mere Christianity, C. S. Lewis
