August 9, 2002

Tolkien and Christianity
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J.R.R Tolkien as a devout Catholic would in no way wish to portray Gandalf as a Jesus character. While he may have drawn certain parallels with his life, death and resurection; he would in no way say Gandalf was the Jesus of Middle-earth, such a thing would have been blasphemous in his eyes (and mine). Jesus preached a non-violence solution to ALL situations, Gandalf was violent. Ignoring Orcs etc, he did attack and inspire attacks on men (men from Dunland and Harad etc). Such a way of dealing with evil is at total odds to Christ. Love conquers all, turn the other cheek. To say Gandalf is a Jesus character is to infer that Jesus is like Gandalf, which would be at total odds to the beliefs of a devout Catholic (or any Christian) like Tolkien. Core ideals of the Bible, self sacrifice etc, are imbedded in his stories. I am not saying that Christianity did not influence is writings, just that he did not consciously make Gandalf (Or any other character) an alias for Jesus. Besides Gandalf's victory was over an external evil entity, whereas Jesus' victory was over evil in each individual. Others in Middle-earth have defeated evil and returned from the dead as well, Beren and Luthien, yet no one is saying Tolkien had a duo of Jesus' in mind when he created them (He saw himself and his wife in those characters). Sometimes we can look too far into things, see patterns or shapes where there are none. As Freud would say "sometimes a dream is just a dream". See you all later :)