August 7, 2024
In a 1968 BBC interview with JRR Tolkien, the author of “The Lord of the Rings”, Tolkien stated that “human stories are ultimately about one thing-death”. He read a quote from Simone de Beauvoir where she writes about her mother’s hanging on to life in the last few days before she died.
“There’s no such thing as a natural death,” she writes. “Nothing that happens to a man is ever natural, since his presence calls the 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.”
“Well, you may agree with the words or not,” Tolkien said, “but those are the key-spring of The Lord of the Rings.”
I’ve read TLR many times through and have watched Peter Jackson’s amazing movie adaptation several times as well. It doesn’t surprise me that as the new millennium approached 25 years ago, TLR was touted by literary experts as the greatest novel of the 20th century.
Tolkien’s comment that his blockbuster fantasy novel was predicated on the ultimate reality of death reminded me of the Apostle Paul’s words that “The last enemy to be destroyed is death” (1 Corinthians 15:26). But, Paul says, the resurrection of Christ has given mankind the profound hope that death ultimately has been defeated, “for as all die in Adam, so all will be made alive in Christ” (22).
Therefore, Paul states, there is no reason to believe that death wins the battle. “Death has been swallowed up in victory. Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” (vv.54c, 55).
Tolkien was adamant that TLR was not an allegory, so we must not suggest that it is. But, as a committed Christian, he was fully aware of the historic resurrection of Christ and the promise it has for all of us mortals. We must die, but in Christ “all will be made alive”.