 The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001, 208 min (special extended edition)) screenplay by Frances Walsh & Philippa Boyens & Peter Jackson. directed by Peter Jackson. “May it be a light for you, in dark places, when all other lights go out.” -- Galadriel to Frodo
(essay #1) Joseph Pearce on Tolkien’s Mystical Passion Play  Although
not himself
a believer, Peter Jackson, the
director, and, along with Philippa Boyens and Frances Walsh, the writer
of the
screenplay, did his best to establish a trilogy that remained faithful
to
Tolkien’s story. Though not perfectly successful, their attempt is a
worthy
one. Two examples illustrate why. In
the first one, Frodo realizes that, should he fail in his quest, and
should the
Dark Lord regain the ring, all will be lost. Pained by the enormous
strain of
carrying it, poor Frodo laments that it had ever been entrusted to
him. Gandalf tells him, “So do all who live to
see such times… But we can’t choose our time. We can only decide what
to do
with the time given us.” In the second example, the Elf Queen says to a
reluctant hero, “Frodo, even the smallest person can change the course
of the
future.” These come right from the heart of J.R.R. Tolkien. Disclaimer: this is not a typical movie review. Since there is so much readily available about the film trilogy on the Internet, this essay is devoted to Tolkien himself, the man, his philosophy and his influence. His book has been read over the decades by millions. Now his story, through the medium of film, has been shared with tens of millions around the globe. First of all, the book itself warrants more than passing treatment as another “fairy tale” (a la “Harry Potter.”) Author Joseph Pearce has done some research on Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. He found that in recent years, several major polls have allowed The Lord of the Rings to earn a certain well-deserved distinction. In a poll of over 25,000 bibliophiles in the United Kingdom, surveyed jointly by a national television channel and a major book-selling chain, Tolkien’s magnum opus earned number one ranking. Another poll, conducted by London’s Daily Telegraph, also found Tolkien’s work outpacing all others. In the same year, a poll of the 50,000 members of the Folio Society ranked The Lord of the Rings the greatest book, not only of the twentieth century, but also of any age. Tolkien’s story received more votes than Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, which was second, and Charles Dickens’ David Copperfield, which was third. Joseph Pearce also speaks about the “profoundly Christian nature and super-nature of Tolkien’s work.” He says there are three dimensions to this epic. “First, by looking at Tolkien the Man we shall discover the soul of a Christian mystic; second, by studying Tolkien’s Philosophy of Myth we shall come to understand the theological basis of his own theological world; and third, by looking at the Myth itself…we shall see that Tolkien’s epic goes beyond mere “fantasy” to the deepest realms of metaphysics. Far from being an escapist fantasy, The Lord of the Rings will be revealed as a theological thriller.” Tolkien himself speaks of the influences upon his writing in an interview shortly before his death. Here again we find three levels of influence or “facts” as he calls them. There are insignificant facts, more important facts and finally the most important: “And there are a few
basic facts, which however dryly expressed, are
really significant. For instance I was born in 1892 and lived my early
years in
‘the Shire’ in a pre-mechanical age. Or more important, I am a
Christian {which
can be deduced from my stories}, and in fact a Roman Catholic.”
The Christian influence on Tolkien pervaded his upbringing. He was a child when his parents died and he and his brother went to live in a home directed by a Catholic priest. The great C.S. Lewis attributes some of his reversion to Christian faith directly to Tolkien. In 1931 they shared a meal with their mutual friend Hugo Dyson. By this time Lewis had come part way back to faith and considered himself a theist. Pearce says that the three men went for a walk after dinner and discussed the nature and purpose of myth. “Lewis explained that he felt the power of myth but that they were ultimately untrue. As he expressed it to Tolkien, myths were ‘lies and therefore worthless, even though breathed through silver.’” Tolkien held that they were just the reverse, whereas the assembling of facts seemed a practical way to discover the truth; in fact, the facts alone can stand in the way of getting at the whole truth. The facts simply reveal what the scientific method allows to be revealed about present material reality. A myth on the other hand draws one into the whole of reality, physical and metaphysical, natural and supernatural, material and spiritual. As Pearce describes it: “Building on this
philosophy of myth, Tolkien and Dyson went on to express their belief
that the
story of Christ was simply a true myth: a myth that works in the same
way as
the others, but a myth that really happened. Whereas pagan myths
revealed
fragments of eternal truth through the words of poets, the True Myth of
Christianity revealed the whole truth through the Word Himself. The
poets of
pagan antiquity told their story with words. But God, the omnipotent
Poet, told
the True Story with facts—weaving His tale with actions of real men in
actual
history.”
And C. S. Lewis was never the same. He admits that not long following this famous after -dinner stroll he confessed his belief not only in the Living God but in Jesus Christ. In the ensuing years he became an Anglican and has nourished the faith of millions with his Chronicles of Narnia, The Screwtape Letters, Mere Christianity, Surprised by Joy, etc. Tolkien’s philosophy also includes an understanding of human creativity as sharing in the divine vocation to be an artist. Like Pope John Paul in his Letter to Artists, Tolkien sees the essential nexus between the work of God the Creator and the work of the creature formed in God’s image. The Creator pours forth the gift of creativity on men and women and they respond to that gift as artists. The One who created, out of nothing, gives to creatures the power to co-create using imagination and the material universe. This sublime understanding of the human vocation is profoundly Christian. Finally Joseph Pearce offers an analysis of The Lord of the Rings in these words:  “The
sheer
magnificence of
Tolkien’s mythological vision precludes any adequate appraisal, in an
essay of
this length, of the Christian mysticism and theology that gives it
life. In the
impenetrable blackness of the Dark Lord and his abysmal servants, the
ring-wraiths, we feel the objective reality of evil. Sauron and all his
servants confront and affront us with the nauseous presence of the Real
Absence
of Evil. In his depiction of the potency of evil, Tolkien presents the
reader
with a metaphysical black hole far more unsettling than Milton’s proud
vision
of Satan as “darkness visible.” “Tolkien is, however, equally powerful in his depiction of goodness. In the unassuming humility of the Hobbits we see the exaltation of the humble. In their reluctant heroism we see a courage ennobled by modesty. In the immortality of the elves, and the sadness and melancholic wisdom it evokes in them, we receive an inkling that man’s mortality is a gift of God, a gift that ends his exile in mortal life’s “vale of tears” and enables him, in death, to achieve a mystical union with the divine beyond the reach of time.” “In Gandalf we see the archetypal prefiguration of a powerful Prophet or Patriarch, a seer who beholds a vision of the Kingdom beyond the understanding of men. At times he is almost Christ-like. He lays down his life for his friends and his mysterious ‘Resurrection’ results in his transfiguration. Before his self-sacrificial “death” he is Gandalf the Grey; after his ‘Resurrection’ he reappears as Gandalf the White, armed with greater powers and deeper wisdom… “Ultimately, The Lord of the Rings is a sublimely mystical Passion Play. The carrying of the Ring—the emblem of Sin—is the Carrying of the Cross. The mythological Quest is a veritable Via Dolorosa…. In straying too deeply into Tolkien’s world he will be straying into the world of truths that he had not previously perceived. If he continues to follow the Fellowship of the Ring into the depths of Mordor and Beyond he might even come to see that the exciting truths point to the most exciting Truth of all. At its deepest he might finally understand that the Quest is, in fact, a pilgrimage.” Essay #1 © Fr. Willy Raymond (essay #2) A fragment of a Splinter of the True Light  Greetings
gentle reader. A star truly does shine on the hour of our meeting.
Unfortunately if you are reading this article hoping for or expecting a
glowing, high praise view of Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings: The
Fellowship of the Ring – Extended Version,
I highly recommend that you skip reading this and move onto something
else. For
you see, I have been asked to write this article based on what one dear
friend
calls my skills as a “Tolkien Miester”. Basically what that means is I
am an
aficionado of all things Tolkien and my dream vacation would be to
travel to
Oxford and pay my respects at the graves of “Ronald” and Edith. A
little know
fact among casual Tolkien fans is that he had the names of the two
greatest heroes
in Middle Earth, Beren and Luthien, inscribed under his name and his
wife’s. If
these names are unfamiliar you have most likely never read the books.
And this
brings me to the main point of my article. Specifically this is an
examination
of the concept of myth, how it works both in the larger sense and in
the
writings of Tolkien, and how it transcends its adaptation into film. In its most basic form, myth is a story or a set of connected stories that build a world view. Also, most dictionary definitions relegate myth to the ancient world, although I do not think that this is a necessary factor. A myth cannot be defined as something either true or false since in the building up of any worldview, even an individual one, the core of the myth, must speak to the essence of a person or a people. Examine any of the better known ancient mythologies, such as the Greeks, Roman, or Vikings, and you will see that their stories of gods, heroes, and daily people are an attempt on the part of the culture that built the myths to bring order to the world and gain control over experience by story; to touch, if you will, the transcendent. Perhaps I have always had a natural inclination to enjoying myth. As a young boy when most other boys my age were into dinosaurs, football, or cars, I spent many happy hours immersing myself in the stories of ancient mythology. The stories spoke to me. I somehow knew in my young mind that there was something out there greater than me, greater than the experiential world. I was equally fascinated by and loved the stories of the Roman Catholic faith in which I was raised. There were many hours spent reading about the lives of the Saints and children’s versions of the great stories of the Bible. In my adult life I have come to firmly believe that what we are about as persons is defined by the telling of our own stories. Tolkien also recognized the value of myth in our lives and often commented on England’s lack of a mythology all its own. This is, in part, the driving purpose behind the writing of The Lord of the Rings. Yet this story of a Hobbit’s quest and a battle between the forces of good and the forces of evil is, on the timeline of Middle Earth, only one small moment in time in a mythology that reaches back to the creation of the universe and looks forward to the final and proper ordering of all things in a great symphony. It is no secret that Tolkien was one of the greatest scholars of all the ancient forms of story from Ireland to Finland. It is precisely because of this that he wished to preserve the old myth and literary forms, including swords of magic and stirring battle cries, for what he saw as an increasingly hapless present. And herein lays the wonder of the world that Tolkien created. Any one, from the most wide-eyed child looking for adventures of imagination to the adult capable of apprehending the subtle nuances of linguistics, may find the stories of Middle Earth accessible without real knowledge of its sources or allusions. We can wander through Middle Earth (which the adept reader will in time discover is really our world) in blissful ignorance of all the author is tying to convey. I have read the Trilogy at least once every year (somewhat over 20 times to date and I am currently reading it again) since I first discovered Middle Earth through a calendar given to me by my brother for Christmas at age 15 because he thought I would like pictures. What really captured my imagination was the listing of “events in Shire Reckoning.” And thus began my journey into a world from which I have no desire to escape. This journey has most recently brought me the privilege of teaching a course on faith and theological elements in the writings of J.R. R. Tolkien. It is arguably due in part to the immense popularity of the film adaptation of The Lord of the Rings that my summer offering of the course at the University of Dayton was so popular. This was true even though I warned potential students that the course was not intended as an examination of the films, but of the real story as presented by Tolkien. I say “real story” because Jackson’s adaptation of The Lord of the Rings fails miserably to tell the real story.  I
cannot say that this was unexpected, but it was disappointing. Of the
three
films (or should I say six?) my favorite is the extended version of The
Fellowship Ring. Many of the added
pieces bring back to the story important elements that should never
have been
lost. There are those who will accuse me of being a purist, and so be
it.
Perhaps I am, actually I pride myself on this fact, and I have with
ease
defended my view that what Jackson presents and what Tolkien wrote are
not, at
their core, the same no matter how adamantly Jackson contends that he
stayed
“true to the heart” of Tolkien’s story. I used to think that the fault
lay
mostly with Jackson himself, but I have come to understand that any
attempt at
having Tolkien’s myth transcend film was an exercise in futility.
Tolkien’s
writings were an attempt to “re-mythologize” a world rapidly becoming
overly
dependent on rationalization. And it is truer today than it was in the
first
half of the 20th century. There is a growing desire within the
collective conscience to see moral force take precedence over
individual or
“pop” psychology, and to foment symbolic quest over cold
rationalization. We
find in the narratives of Tolkien, characters that embody deeply held
insights
and values that are worked out in quests and battles with far greater
alacrity
than can be found in the psychologizing so evident in conventional
fiction and
film. The greatest mistake made by Jackson was in thinking that it was
more
important to make an action-adventure movie than to “speak” the greater
truths.
And the truth is that Tolkien exercises an imaginative approach that is
lost on
an overtly technological age. If Jackson’s film has any claim on its
success
being do to the master storyteller’s magnum
opus it is simply because it could not avoid being embedded with a
fragment
of the splinter of the true light. It is Tolkien who, by bringing us
back to
elemental heroism, shows us the potential of the ordinary and the
commonplace
so, that by allowing the reader to build a world-view, there can be
found a
sharing in the experience of transcendence. I thank Jackson for opening up an awareness of the existence of Middle Earth to scores of people that had no idea that they lived at its borders. It can only be hoped that those who looked across Nimrodel into Caras Galadhon will find in their hearts a desire to journey deeper into as wondrously familiar a place as has never before been seen. Essay #2 © Richard R. Drabik. Drabik earned his M.A. in Theological Studies at the University of Dayton. He works as the Multimedia Coordinator for the Institute for Pastoral Initiatives at the University of Dayton. Aside from a number of other articles on J.R.R. Tolkien he teaches a course entitled: Faith Meets Fantacy: Theology in the World of J.R.R. Tolkien. He is also currently working on a book examining specific scriptural elements in The Lord of the Rings. |
The
2004 City of Angels Film Festival will screen
the extended version of