The Blessed Virgin is represented insofar as Tolkien said that he put all of his love for the Blessed Virgin into the characterization of Galadriel.One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them The priesthood is represented insofar as Aragorn acts in persona Christi. The Sacrament of Marriage is depicted beautifully in the marriages of Aragorn and Arwen, Faramir and Eowyn, and, last but not least, Sam and Rosie. The Sacrament of Penance and the Sacrament of Extreme Unction are represented in the manner of the final exchange of words between the dying Boromir and Aragorn, the latter of whom serves in persona Christi as the absolver of Boromir’s sins. As we have seen, the Eucharist is present symbolically in the depiction of the elvish life-bread or bread of life ( lembas). Many of the seven sacraments are represented in The Lord of the Rings. Gandalf, in his death, resurrection and transfiguration is also a Christ figure. Aragorn, insofar as he is the true king who descends into the kingdom of the dead, having the power to release the dead themselves from their curse, and insofar as he has, in his capacity as the true king, great and miraculous powers of healing, is clearly a Christ figure. Boromir, as the only man in the Fellowship, is the representative of humanity and is therefore an Everyman figure. Sam is, in consequence, a figure of the loyal disciple. Frodo, as the Ring-bearer, can be seen as the cross-bearer, and therefore as both a Christ figure and a figure of the Christian who takes up his cross. The date on which the Ring is destroyed is March 25, the date of both the Annunciation and the Crucifixion, connecting the destruction of the Ring (sin) with the Incarnation, and with the life, death and resurrection of Christ.Īlthough Tolkien did not write a formal allegory in which characters simply represent historical figures, it is true nonetheless that several members of the fellowship represent, albeit with subtlety, significant Christian typological figures. Like the Eucharist, lembas feeds the will. The elvish word for waybread, lembas, means life-bread, or bread of life, connecting it to the Eucharist. There is a connection symbolically between the One Ring and Original Sin and, therefore, between Mount Doom and Golgotha. The connections between The Lord of the Rings and Christianity are numerous. Tolkien described The Lord of the Rings as “a fundamentally religious and Catholic work.” Is it possible to summarize this dimension of Tolkien’s magnum opus in fewer than 600 words? You better believe it!

Tolkien lord of the rings