Context

J. R. R. Tolkien was a devout Roman Catholic. He described The Lord of the Rings as rich in Christian symbolism.^{[T 1]} In the Old Testament, light is the first thing to be created: the Book of Genesis states "Let there be light" and "God saw the light, and it was good" (1:3–4). Light thus symbolises creation.^[1] Light is a symbol of God; in the New Testament, it is stated that "God is light" (1 John 1:5). Further, Christ described himself as "the light of the world" (John 8:12),^[2] and the book repeatedly equates "the light" with him.^[3] Finally, John 1 states that "In [God] was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not" (John 1:4–5). John Behr takes this to be a hymn expressing how the events of the New Testament occur in line with Christ's will.^[4]

Narrative

Years of the Lamps

Two Trees of Valinor

Silmarils

Eärendil's Star

Lothlórien: land of light

Phial of Galadriel

Theme

A theme that runs throughout The Lord of the Rings but is especially clear in The Silmarillion is of light. The scholar of mythology and medieval literature Verlyn Flieger explains that Tolkien equates light with God and the ability to create. She cites from Tolkien's poem Mythopoeia ("Creation of Myth"):^{[5][T 2]}

man, sub-creator, the refracted light
through whom is splintered from a single White
to many hues, and endlessly combined
in living shapes that move from mind to mind.
Though all the crannies of the world we filled
with elves and goblins, though we dared to build
gods and their houses out of dark and light,
and sow the seed of dragons, 'twas our right
(used or misused). The right has not decayed.
We make still by the law in which we're made.^{[T 2]}

Flieger writes that by this, Tolkien meant that an author's ability to create fantasy fiction, or in his terms "subcreation", was derived from and could be seen as a small splinter of the Divine Light, the "single White" of the poem. Further, the whole of The Silmarillion can be seen as a working-out of this theme of Man splintering the original white light of creation "to many hues, and endlessly combined in living shapes" in the forms of the sundering of the Elves into light and dark elves, men good and bad, and dragons and other monsters. This creative light, she states, was for Tolkien equated with the Christian Logos, the Divine Word.^[5]

The light begins in The Silmarillion as a unity, and in accordance with the splintering of creation is divided into more and more fragments as the myth progresses. Middle-earth is peopled by the angelic Valar and lit by two great lamps; when these are destroyed by the fallen Vala Melkor, the world is fragmented, and the Valar retreat to Valinor, which is lit by The Two Trees. When these too are destroyed, their last fragment of light is made into the Silmarils, and a sapling too is rescued, leading to the White Tree of Numenor, the living symbol of the Kingdom of Gondor. Wars are fought over the Silmarils, and they are lost to the Earth, the Sea, and the Sky, the last of these, carried by Eärendil the Mariner, becoming the Morning Star. Some of the star's light is captured in Galadriel's Mirror, the magic fountain that allows her to see past, present, and future; and some of that light is, finally, trapped in the Phial of Galadriel, her parting gift to Frodo, the counterbalance to Sauron's evil and powerful Ring that he also carries. At each stage, the fragmentation increases and the power decreases. Thus the theme of light as Divine power, fragmented and refracted through the works of created beings, is central to the whole mythology.^[6]

References

Primary

Secondary

Sources

• Carpenter, Humphrey, ed. (2023) [1981]. The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien Revised and Expanded Edition. New York: Harper Collins. ISBN 978-0-35-865298-4.
• Flieger, Verlyn (1983). Splintered Light: Logos and Language in Tolkien's World. Wm B. Eerdmans Publishing. ISBN 978-0-802-81955-0.
• Tolkien, J. R. R. (2001). Tree and Leaf. HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-007-10504-5.