Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

The Theological Meaning of Tolkien’s “Death as a Gift”

2022; University of St. Thomas; Volume: 25; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1353/log.2022.0002

1533-791X

Jon Mentxakatorre Odriozola,

Violence, Religion, and Philosophy

The Theological Meaning of Tolkien’s “Death as a Gift” Jon Mentxakatorre Odriozola (bio) There is a place called ‘heaven’where the good here unfinished is completed;and where the stories unwritten,and the hopes unfulfilled,are continued.We may laugh together yet . . . j. r. r. tolkien I. Introduction Tolkien’s legendarium, as a corpus of interrelated texts that sustain a complete mythology, has an immense semantic potential that throws light over the problem of evil, ancient heroism, or sacramentalism within the created world. But the theme on which it is all based is human mortality, which Tolkien described as a gift. In fact, the author stated several times, when referring to The Lord of the Rings, that death is the cornerstone of his literary work,1 and his words quoting from a passage of Simone de Beauvoir’s autobiographical A Very Easy Death in a 1968 BBC interview entitled “Tolkien in Oxford”2 are now famous: [End Page 37] If you really come down to any large story that interests people, holding their attention for a considerable time, or make them . . . the stories are practically always . . . are human stories, but they are always about one thing, aren’t they? Death. The inevitability of death [ . . . ] “There is no such thing as a natural death: nothing that happens to a man is ever natural, since his presence calls the whole world into question. All men must die: but for every man his death is an accident and, even if he knows it and consents to it, an unjustifiable violation.”3 Well, you may agree with the words or not, but those are the key spring of The Lord of the Rings. In other words, Tolkien’s literary masterpiece is not an allegory about the struggle for power, but a profound investigation of the human condition, a literary reflection on human earthly existence. Nonetheless, mortality does not concern just The Lord of the Rings, but Tolkien’s whole legendarium, as the former is rooted in the latter. Human mortality in Tolkien’s Middle-earth, therefore, has been the focus of many researchers, among which Amendt-Raduege, Ferré, Helen, and Sarti stand out for their contributions in relation to mortal Men and heroism, and Devaux, Fornet-Ponse, and Seeman for their study of Tolkien’s philosophy of death.4 Nevertheless, the meaning of “death as a gift” has not been clarified satisfactorily. The aim of this article is, in consequence, to try to explain the theological background of such a metaphor or description of Men’s mortality, focusing on the mythical (Elven) perspective as expressed by Tolkien. First, the nature of Elves and Men will be analyzed in depth, in order to attend to their particular characteristics and their place in the legendarium, and, second, some elements concerning human mortality and Christian theology will be discussed. Finally, the various strands will come together in order to address the theological meaning of Tolkien’s gift of death. [End Page 38] II. Beyond the Music of the Ainur The Ainulindalë, the opening narration of The Silmarillion, talks of the origin of the universe, depicting it as a work of art made by some beings, the Ainur, according to God’s design. These sacred beings interpreted the divine proposal, and they were encouraged to make the Great Music, both harmonious and delightful. But at some point, Melkor, the most gifted of the Ainur, started to introduce his own perspective, which was not in accord with the themes of God, who is named Ilúvatar in Tolkien’s text. Consequently, the music suffered some imbalances that influenced some other Ainur for the worse, and Ilúvatar himself took part in reconducting the music through the addition of new themes. Three times he confronted and redirected the disharmonies, and in the final one Elves and Men were revealed as the Children of Ilúvatar. Thus, the Ainulindalë illustrates that there is a Creator and lesser beings that cannot create but only sub create, on the basis of what has been disclosed to them. Furthermore, the Creator shows concern over the development of his design, voluntarily given to all beings with free will, to which he aggregates humankind...