The Lord of the Rings is one of the books that has sold the most copies in the last century,
some estimates speak of 150 million copies sold for the entire trilogy, other sources
speak of 500 million considering the individual books (Fellowship 0f The Ring, Two Towers and The Return
of the King).
What is certain is that Tolkien has had considerable international success and recognition publishing his ideas.
J.R.R. Tolkien is the author of this book, by the way
At the beginning of this 2024 I had set a goal to read it from beginning to end, completely in English:
one of the most challenging reads ever.
I am a just an Italian (not an English native), and coming across a text of this complexity wasn’t easy.
To quote some personal statistics, in total it took me about 3 months to finish all 1000+ pages, taking
breaks on weekends and proceeding with an average of 2 or 3 hours a day of reading for 20 pages (quite slow,
but I forced myself to finish reading in the original language while understanding the book).
I also recently read Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind and I found it very interesting, so why not try to apply some of its ideas to this fantasy world? I know I don’t know anything about Tolkien’s lore and I will say a lot of crap, so please do not take my words too seriously. Shut up and continue to read if you want: at least this isn’t yet another soulless review.
That said, we can begin!
LoR = Lord of the Rings
Before reading it, I jokingly said that LoR is a whole religion and this is its holy book.
After reading the book and thinking about it, this statement is not so strange… The story contains many of the
characteristics of a hypothetical religion and, in my opinion, this explains why it manages to fascinate so many readers
around the world.
I therefore decided to expand this theory and write this entire article.
The basis of everything from the very first pages, here we have the concept of dualism, and we must keep it well in mind:
the war between good and evil, or the Yin and Yang for the Chinese people.
2000 years ago, the dominant religions weren’t monotheistic like those of today (Christianity, Islam),
but for example there was Zoroastrianism created by the prophet Zarathustra,
a dualist religion popular among the Persians, in another alternative reality it could have taken Christianity’s place
as the official religion of the Romans. Instead, the emperor Constantine preferred Jesus in the III century,
we have to live with it….
So, what is a dualistic religion?
Uhmmmm, we can simplify it to a religion where we believe in the existence of a good God who protects us from the
forces commanded by the lord of the evil.
That sounds like Sauron, right? Or maybe, Satan in the Christianity?
Wait, I thought Christianity was a monotheistic religion…
Well, it is, the religion incorporated this little dualistic part as time went on, initially there was no devil,
however… you know… to increase its popularity among people it was necessary: after all, it’s easier and more popular
to blame a hypothetical devil that causes us to do evil actions than to admit that God enjoys to watch the misfortunes
that constantly happen to human beings (they say the Bible is a good fantasy book, maybe one day I will read it in its
entirety).
Let’s add some random animism as well, so that even the now defunct prehistoric people would be happy.
This is actually not a true religion but a set of beliefs that inanimate things possess an independent soul
and therefore should be respected.
For example, today researchers think that if an ancient hunter was able to catch an animal within a group, he most
likely believed that the animal had actually sacrificed itself so that humans could eat, and before killing it he
honored and respected the animal.
Perhaps if this mindset were there today, we would never have come to the problem of climate change.
In LoR this concept is elevated to something higher: we don’t just talk about thoughts, but inanimate objects become
alive and help the protagonist in his quest, showing themselves as good creatures.
We can, for example, mention the Ents, without them perhaps Isengard would have never been conquered.
Tom Bombadil was probably also a river spirit: the author never says who he is or where he came from, but in my mind
his presence seems related to this topic.
Reading what happens in the story concerning him, he seems almost like a supernatural creature, and his life in nature
reinforces this idea.
Three Rings for the Elven-kings under the sky,
Seven for the Dwarf-lords in their halls of stone,
Nine for Mortal Men doomed to die,
One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne
In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.
One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them,
One Ring to bring them all, and in the darkness bind them
In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.
Every religion has its own symbol: in LoR, the magic rings are the central part of the story, so much so that they even
gave the story its name.
However, this is an evil symbol, representing the original betrayal by Sauron, who convinced the other people by selling
the rings as a symbol of peace, but omitting the existence of the One.
Before creating the rings, Sauron was a nobody.
As we will see in the story, the 3 Elf Rings possess powers that can oppose his and protect them from his army, but it’s only an illusion because in the meantime the One Ring had been lost. As Gandalf repeats to us, if Sauron gets his ring, no one can stop him anymore.
The ring is the most powerful weapon history has seen, whoever has this supreme weapon can dominate all others, nothing
can achieve this power of destruction, can we compare it to the atomic bomb?
Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds
Another random citation to this ancient Chinese book, “The Art of the War”,
happy now? :/
Recently everyone is talking about it as the best book in the world, in my mind it just says random sentences about war in China.
By the way:
The best victory is when the opponent surrenders of its own accord before there are any actual hostilities… It is best to win without fighting.
~ Sun Tzu, The Art of the War
This is what the Fellowship of the Ring tries to do to win the War of the Ring, using violence only as a distraction to allow Frodo to destroy the One Ring in Mordor. In fact, he always tries to avoid direct conflict with Sauron’s army, knowing that it’s a force beyond his capabilities: for example, the hobbits always try to hide from the Nazgul (a.k.a. Black Riders).
Frodo receives a priceless treasure from Bilbo after he begins his journey to save the world. A Mithril armor that will protect him from the dangers, worth more than the whole Shire where he has lived for his entire life.
When he received the ring, Frodo metaphorically became Jesus, who must lead humanity to salvation.
This treasure given as a gift is a representation of the gold that Jesus received as a gift from the Magi.
Frankincense and myrrh (we all know it was beer) were stolen by Bilbo, I suppose.
The Fellowship of The Ring is the company of Frodo’s apostles.
Jesus Frodo is not alone, but he can count on trusted people to help him in his quest.
Together they move forward toward the common goal of restoring peace to the world by destroying the symbol of evil:
THE ring.
There is no shortage of angels in the story to watch over and protect the protagonist: immortal creatures, descended
from heaven and holders of great powers.
Of course, I’m talking about the wizards, and our beloved Gandalf (a.k.a. Mithrandir, he has tens of names) is the
best known.
Please don’t destroy this idea, it’s the perfect quote to Lucifer (a.k.a. Satan).
Saruman is the angel who turns to the side of the enemy to satisfy his reputation for power, like him.
As I have read LoR, I became more and more convinced that it contains some messages passed to the reader about the author’s ideas that would later be absorbed by the followers of this religion.
Let’s start with the references to drugs, the famous pipe-weed (which is literally weed).
Nowadays, the mention of drugs makes at least half of the boomer population angry, and they say they are against any
drug (and then they get drunk on wine and drink gallons of coffee, claiming those are not drugs).
This point is important because it gives us a better understanding of the historical period in which this book was
written: 1950s - 1960s.
Before the 1970s, cannabis was viewed positively by people in the Western world and basically no one cared if
occasionally someone used it.
Then Richard Nixon’s government came to power in the United States, which promoted the
“War on Drugs” (1971), making heavy propaganda to convince
the population not to use them, until today (and still goes on).
Another point to not underestimate is Sam’s great focus on Frodo throughout the story.
They are practically inseparable friends, Sam would give his life to save his friend’s, maybe this point could be a bit
controversial, but… isn’t he a little too attached?
If we continue with the biblical interpretation of the story, we find that there are some theories about Jesus being gay
and in love with one of his apostles (1,
2), maybe Tolkien was inspired by that?
In the 1960s, homosexuality was still taboo and there were plenty of men who arranged marriages with girls they didn’t
love in order to hide their true nature, even giving birth to children…. Sam gets married and goes to live with his
family and Frodo in Bag End, no one ever told what happened when his wife Rosie left the house to go shopping :)
Gollum joins Jesus Frodo on his journey as an apostle and helps him in his adventure, gaining his trust. The hobbits have the last dinner with Faramir without knowing what would happen next, and then they are betrayed by the creature when they continue their journey.
Any similarities with the story of Jesus? Maybe, but here it ends differently… :D By the way, the part about Shelob made me sad, I really thought Gollum wanted to help them, and it took me by surprise.
Aragorn II son of Arathorn (a.k.a. Strider), Tokien calls him like this so many times that now I remember it well.
As an apostle I would say we can compare him to an alternate version of Saint Peter, the first pope according to legend.
Once the war is over, he becomes the king of a kingdom that brings back the ideals of the Fellowship, the kingdom
of the Church.
He is shown as the perfect knight, and I cannot find any criticism of him anywhere.
Personally, I have come to have a controversial idea about him, and he absolutely not a pure person, in my
imagination he has joined the Fellowship only to steal the kingdom of Gondor from Denethor.
In my opinion he is the most Machiavellian of the characters, hiding his intentions so well that no one suspects
him at all.
When Denethor commits suicide, we are told that he secretly communicated with Sauron using the Palantir and went mad after the last conversation. However, this is never confirmed to us. My guess is that he just had a crisis given by the stress of the siege that drove him crazy.
Instead, we know that Aragorn had the Palantir stolen from Saruman with him and used it to challenge Sauron and initiate a massive attack by the enemy toward Gondor. What prevents me from thinking that he was the one who put that same Palantir in Denethor’s house to blame him for being in contact with the enemy? It’s the perfect plan, he ruined memories about the previous king in order to take power and convince the people to follow him.
In the Christian religion much importance is assigned to the figure of the martyr: a person who sacrificed his or her
life to spread the ideas he/she loved and was killed for this.
Very important, for example, is the figure of Saint Paul, considered by Christians almost as an apostle of Jesus,
despite never having met him in person, he was killed by the Romans.
Considering Boromir as one of the apostles who wanted to destroy Sauron, we can see his death as a sacrifice for the
cause, a real martyr.
It doesn’t matter that before he died, he wanted to steal the ring from Frodo’s hands, this shows that he was human too.
Despite his action was discovered by the Fellowship of the Ring, they decide to remember him as a good person and
forgive him, since he didn’t harm anyone.
Is this religion fair enough for you?