Santa Claus attacked by bat-riding Goblins? With J.R.R. Tolkien, anything is possible. Recently my sixth grade daughter — a huge fan of “The Hobbit” and “The Lord of the Rings” — read a compilation of Christmas letters written by the great English fiction writer.
A loving and creative father, Tolkien wrote his children each Christmas about the on-goings and antics of Santa, or Father Christmas, as he is known in England.
Reading one account about Father Christmas’ battle with goblins and his rescue by an army of elves, I pictured him more like Gandalf the Red than old Saint Nick!
The greatest legacy Tolkien would leave his children, however, and all those he would inspire, were not his letters to Father Christmas but his deep faith in the One born on Christmas Day.
A professor of English language and literature at Oxford University, Tolkien articulated the idea of what it meant to write as an image-bearer of God in a fallen world:
“Dis-graced he may be, yet is not de-throned, And keeps the rags of lordship once he owned: Man, Sub-creator, the refracted light Through whom is splintered from a single White, To many hues. …”
Exploring Tolkien’s worldview in “Christian Mythmakers,” professor Rolland Hein shows how his imagery “resonates the thoughts of St. John: Christ the Logos, the Creator, is the ‘true light that enlightens’ everyone (cf John 1:1-9).”
Along these lines, Tolkien played a major role in C.S. Lewis’ conversion, which not only affected the literary world, but the Christian Church as well. But unlike the direct allegories to Jesus Christ that Lewis would place in “The Chronicles of Narnia,” Tolkien wove biblical truths more subtly through his mythic tales.
Ironically, and much to his dismay, Tolkien’s epic trilogy “The Lord of the Rings” gained an eclectic, drug culture following among protesting college students in the mid-1960s.
As Time magazine shared in a July 15, 1966, article, “The hobbit habit seems to be almost as catching as LSD. … To some, it is a poetic portrayal of the times, with Sauron and his destructive threat seen as an analogy to atomic war. For others, the Frodo saga represents a way to escape the mundane realities of life. ‘I’d like to live in the hobbit world because this world is so foul,’ says Marilyn Nulman, who works at the Harvard bookstore. Another enthusiast likes the Rings’ old-fashioned moral simplicity: “You cheer the hero and boo the villain.”
War? Escapism? Good vs. evil? Do these protest themes sound familiar?
Interestingly, Tolkien returned to his work on “The Silmarillion” during the same time period to clarify his Middle Earth theology — showing his parallels to God, creation, the fall, angels, demons, and divine redemption. (His son Christopher completed the work after his death.)
Comparing the 1960s campus protests with the Occupy Wall Street movement this Christmas season, today’s protesters might be inspired by Tolkien’s writings too, particularly a scene my pastor recently shared from “The Fellowship of the Ring” — shortly after Frodo leaves home and arrives at a foreboding tavern.
“Unbeknownst to Frodo, the king of the world sat in the back of the tavern, but he did not see him. The king was there in Frodo’s company, but he did not know it.” For like Frodo, many “are blind to what God has provided and done. And therefore, we are reminded to be careful to see what God has given us.”
For Tolkien and Lewis saw God’s gift — not only as the Christ child — but ultimately a Savior who occupies our world as Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer as well.
John A. Murray is the headmaster of Fourth Presbyterian School in Potomac.
