A Talk I Gave on Tolkien
Ancient Tales & Fresh Wonder
Here below are the notes from a short talk I gave on Tolkien and Wonder on March 29, 2025 in Texas. (Context: It was given to a room filled with many Christians). Enjoy the thoughts and share your own reflections in the comments.
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What a privilege to be here with you as a fellow nerd of Middle-earth.
I want to share my own journey into Tolkien:
For years I believed: “Fiction is a waste of time, not real…” (make fun of my wife)
I was reading theological books and ministry books..
I popped on The Hobbit on Audible during Covid -> A whole new world opened up
That was a little over 4 years go and now this is my bookshelf (picture)
Suffice it to say my wife rubs it in every now and then: “I told you so...”
I am not a scholar of Middle-earth, but an enjoyer of it…
I want to share with you how one of the major ways LOTR has impacted my life Disclaimer: it’s going to get nerdy, but I feel like I am in the right place.
The Christian Influence of LOTR
As many of you may know. Tolkien’s works are deeply influenced by the Christian story. One of the clearest statements he made about this is found in Letter 142
“The Lord of The Rings is of course a fundamentally religious and Catholic work; unconsciously so at first, but consciously in the revision.”
There it is - Tolkien said it. There is a Christian thread through the story.
But this quote is often misunderstood – and can be taken to the extreme.
This does not mean that there are Aslan type characters in LOTR.
Tolkien rejected one-to-one allegory (unlike Lewis) and did not write like this.
Tolkien was a philologist (study of language), and he labored over every word he wrote.
Q: So what did he mean by the word “fundamentally”?
It’s derived from the latin word meaning = foundation.
It’s the base by which everything is established, but is not always visible.
Tolkien goes on to say: “That is why I have not put in, or have cut out, practically all references to anything like ‘religion’, to cults or practices, in the imaginary world. For the religious element is absorbed into the story and the symbolism.”
The word “absorbed” is a major clue – it means it's subtle and yet saturated.
The Christian elements are not intended to be easily observable& yet like a fabric dipped in liquid, every page is soaked in the story of God. This was because Tolkien was absorbed in the Christian imagination himself.
If you are familiar with LOTR you may have noticed:
The theme of Pity:
Gandalf talking to Frodo about Bilbo and Gollum: “It was Pity that stayed his hand. Pity, and Mercy: not to strike without need…The pity of Bilbo may rule the fate of many—yours not least.”
The theme of Providence:
Gandalf says to Frodo: “I can put it no plainer than by saying that Bilbo was meant to find the Ring, and not by its maker. In which case you also were meant to have it. And that may be an encouraging thought.”
The thread of Weakness: (Foolish Things Confounding the Wise)
Elrond says: “Such is oft the course of deeds that move the wheels of the world: small hands do them because they must, while the eyes of the great are elsewhere.”
While these are beautiful, they tend to be the ones most easily noticed.
So instead of showing you direct themes in the story, I want to show you an effect of the story. I want to show you what the story does to us if we sit with it long enough And how this leads us back to the greater Christian story we find ourselves in.
Impact: On Fairy Stories – Recovery
I want to come back to the statement I made to my wife about fiction:
“It is a waste of time because it’s not real” — I want to read something practical”
I thought only non-fiction; real, practical stories could affect my life.
But Tolkien showed me that myth may be the most potent form of writing of all.
Myth doesn’t just tell you to do something, it does something to you.
Its power is not through instruction but impact.
Tolkien gave a lecture in 1939 entitled “On Fairy-Stories” which is now an essay… In it he defends the genre of fantasy and unpacks three main purposes of it.
Escape: Not cowardly flight, but a rightful longing for freedom from brokenness.
Consolation: The joy of the unexpected happy ending (eucatastrophe).
When all seems lost, grace breaks in: Gollum destroying the ring.
Recovery: The regaining of clear sight.
It’s this last purpose of “Recovery” that I want to unpack with you…
Tolkien writes: “Recovery (which includes return and renewal of health) is a re-gaining—regaining of a clear view. I do not say “seeing things as they are” and involve myself with the philosophers, though I might venture to say “seeing things as we are (or were) meant to see them”.
To Tolkien, good fantasy helps us regain a proper vision of reality and the world.
It is the process of seeing the things around us as we were always meant to see them!
The word “regain” is insightful as it assumes we have lost something.
This assumes that we do not see the world around us in the right way...
We have to ask the question: Q:What is the problem in how we see the world?
Q: What have we lost that we need to regain? -> OUR WONDER!
The Problem of Familiarity
I’m going to read through a stunning quote - if you get anything from tonight, take this home and sit with it – it might just change the way you go through life!
Tolkien gives us more insight into this from his lecture (OFS):
“We need, in any case, to clean our windows; so that the things seen clearly may be freed from the drab blur of triteness or familiarity—from possessiveness… This triteness is really the penalty of “appropriation” (taking something for one’s own use without permission): the things that are trite, or (in a bad sense) familiar, are the things that we have appropriated, legally or mentally. We say we know them. They have become like the things which once attracted us by their glitter, or their colour, or their shape, and we laid hands on them, and then locked them in our hoard, acquired them, and acquiring, ceased to look at them…”
WOW! What a thought – the triteness (the dullness) is a penalty of our appropriation.
And appropriation is = taking something for our own use without permission.
When we try to acquire things – we cease to see them for what they really are.
Why? Because we only see them in relation to ourselves.. We shrink them down.
When we say “Oh, I know what a tree is,” we often mean, “I’ve categorized it. I’ve filed it away. I’ve stopped really seeing it.”
This is true for me: When I think I understand something, I stop being intrigued.
When we stop really seeing things - we lose touch with reality, we lose our wonder.
Tolkien is not just saying we are bored with things – He is saying we are blind to things!
Q: What have you stopped seeing because you think you know it?
Tolkien goes onto say:“Creative fantasy, because it is mainly trying to do something else (make something new), may open your hoard and let all the locked things fly away like cage-birds. The gems all turn into flowers or flames, and you will be warned that all you had (or knew) was dangerous and potent, not really effectively chained, free and wild; no more yours than they were you.”
What fantasy does is remind us that this world is not able to be put in a box.
When we read stories our gems (static possessions) get set free to be alive again.
It helps us feel again the mystery of a sunrise, a song, a river, a Chic-fil-a sandwich.
The effect? It helps us see this God-soaked world with eyes of wonder
Q: How does the story of The Lord of the Rings do this?
Tolkien doesn’t have to lecture us on the wonder of the world… Instead, he shows us how beautiful our world is by dipping it in fantasy!
The Shire – a peaceful land unmarred by industrialization
It creates in us a longing and appreciation for peace & home.
Rivendell - A sanctuary that cures weariness, fear, and sadness
It stirs up a desire for a refuge away from the dark storms of life
The Ents – an ancient group of trees that live, move and talk
It reminds us that nature is indeed alive and interconnected
Lembas Bread – a magical elven bread made to nourish travelers with the smallest bite
It points us to the supernatural sustaining grace that enables us to endure
The Nazgûl – corrupted beings that operate in the shadow world (a spiritual world)
It reminds us that there is another dimension we cannot see around us
Minas Tirith – an ancient city that echoes the tales of epic battles and lost Kings
It points us forward to a greater city with a returning King that will defeat evil
The Grey Havens – an outpost where the Elves leave this world to go to Valinor
It points us to the grief of death and our joyous ache for Heaven
These weren’t intended as allegorical elements - but they are richly symbolic. They echo something of our primary world.Whether it’s courage, mortality, loyalty, power or love for the natural world, when we immerse ourselves in a story like LOTR, these things return fresh to us!
It sets the cold, static gems in our hoard free and into wild flowers and flames!
C.S. Lewis explains how this happens:
“The value of the myth is that it takes all the things we know and restores to them the rich significance which has been hidden by ‘the veil of familiarity.The child enjoys his cold meat, otherwise dull to him, by pretending it is buffalo, just killed with his own bow and arrow. And the child is wise. The real meat comes back to him more savoury for having been dipped in a story; you might say that only then is it real meat. If you are tired of the real landscape, look at it in a mirror. By putting bread, gold, horse, apple, or the very roads into a myth, we do not retreat from reality: we rediscover it.”
This is how I’ve experienced LOTR – not a retreat from reality - but a rediscovery of it!
Q: “Anyone else here ever read Tolkien and then saw a tree differently?”
I felt like I rediscovered the mystery of forests, the rush of rivers, the song of birds.
I was re-awakened to the joy of returning to the peace of home.
I re-imagined the potency of mercy passed on to the undeserving.
I felt a renewed sense of adventure, even as I walked out of my doorstep.
I used to be focused on the destination but now I enjoy the journey as an adventure.
The Point: Good stories fantasize what has become familiar in order to re-enchant us!
The Closing: A Greater Tale!
We began this evening talking about wonder—how we lose it, and how stories like The Lord of the Rings help us find it again. And now as we close - I want to ask one final question:
Q: What does this all point to?
I think it's this: This life that we live, filled with bills and chores, traffic jams and spreadsheets, duty and disappointments – is part of a much larger story!
Like Frodo and Sam on the stairs of Cirith Ungol we realize:“We’re in the same tale still! It’s going on. Don’t the great tales never end?’ ‘No, they never end as tales,’ said Frodo. ‘But the people in them come, and go when their part’s ended. Our part will end later – or sooner.’”
If you find your life a bit drab and boring, stale and monotonous – you may need to open up a story of Middle-earth and be re-awakened to the wild and wondrous adventure around you:
You and I find ourselves as small characters in a great tale spanning ages. We live in a world filled with high beauty and great peril. We walk in lands where joy is now mingled with grief. We are but humble Hobbits traveling through a world filled with dragons and orcs. This great tale has a King that will return one day to make all the sad things come untrue. And until then, we have been given a unique task to accomplish with our lives.
The Lord of the Rings is a myth – a fictional story set in a fictional world.
But it points to, as Tolkien would say, the truest myth that really happened: the Gospel!
You have been placed here in this beautiful world by the providence of a loving God
You have been saved from sin from the sacrifice of a spotless lamb, Jesus
You have been given courage from the presence of the indwelling Spirit
You have been placed in a fellowship, surrounded by the saints across all ages.
You are inside a great tale – in a world filled with mystery and wonder!May you rediscover the glory of this God-soaked life and live boldly on your adventure.