12-11-2020, 12:42 AM
The Angelic Pontiff
Is there a ‘pope’ in Lord of the Rings? To answer this, we would first have to determine if Tolkien found some way to represent the Catholic priesthood and its
hierarchy in his mythical world of elves, dragons, hobbits and semi-mortals without blatantly crossing the line into heresy, or stray too far into fantasy for that matter to where the links between fact and fiction are blurred beyond recognition. He would need to depict a ‘priesthood’ of sorts in his narrative, or how could any of his characters represent a Great Pope, the highest priest in the hierarchy of the Church after Christ?
We detect Tolkien found a solution by keeping the ‘religious’ aspect of his narrative centred on the absolute concepts of Good inevitably triumphing over Evil, and avoided many thorny issues by interpreting the priesthood itself in very general mystical terms, portraying it in a manner without delving too deep into the details of Catholic ritual and doctrine. In fact, we hardly see an organized religion per se in Lord of the Rings, but we do find clues that an ‘idolatrous’ belief was replaced by a ‘true faith’, for there is evidence that the ‘lesser men’ of Middle Earth were pagans once under the Dark Lord before the ‘Greater Races’ converted them to the ‘One’ God at some point in their history as Lord Denethor remarks as he lights a funeral pyre: “We will burn like heathen kings before ever a ship sailed hither from the West.”44 Of interest, we see Gandalf attempts to reason with the despairing Denethor and prevent him from burning his son while he is yet alive, reminding him he is a descendant of the Faithful Númenoreans and must not fall into the errors of the ancient heathens:
“Authority is not given to you, Steward of Gondor, to order the hour of your death, and only the heathen kings,
under the dominion of the Dark Power, did thus, slaying themselves in pride and despair, murdering their kin to ease their own death.” 45
Hence, if there is a general Judeo-Christian ‘religion’ hinted at in Lord of the Rings, where is its priesthood? No doubt the reader may already be asking; surely, you are not suggesting Gandalf? A wizard? How can a wizard represent a Catholic priest let alone a pope? Is not magic condemned by the Church? However, if we consider how Tolkien used the word ‘wizard’, the answer becomes clear. In the Index provided in Lord of the Rings we discover that the term ‘wizard’ is used in two very different contexts; the first is when the ignorant, the vulgar, or the simple-minded confuse Gandalf’s powers and abilities with sorcery. The second context is discerned when Gandalf is properly referred to as a high-ranking member of the Istari, and consequently, as a member of the White Council. Together with the leaders of the immortal High Elves and Half-Elven, the members of the White Council are also called ‘the Wise’, hence we discover Tolkien was inferring the original significance of the word ‘wizard’, which according to the New Oxford Dictionary originates from the Middle English ‘wise’ + ‘ard’ meaning ‘philosopher’ or ‘sage’. It is a similar misconception with the Three Kings of the New Testament who followed the Star to Bethlehem. In history they have been called the three ‘Wise Men’, and also ‘Magi’, inferring that the kings belonged to a priestly-caste in ancient Persia. Their wisdom, arts and skills were called 'magica' in Latin, derived from the Greek ‘magike’, ‘art of a magus’, which obviously was confused over time with the term ‘magic’ applied to sorcery and supernatural powers. Hence, it is the second context of Tolkien’s Istari we find the semblance of a ‘mystical priesthood’ and not necessarily ‘magic sorcerers’, their skills andknowledge misconstrued by the ignorant.
Yet, what are the Istari? Tolkien weaves great mystery around them. Frodo describes them as: “... of a noble kind that we should not dare to raise our hands against.”46 They appear on Middle-Earth from the West across the sea about two thousand years before the action of the Lord of the Rings takes place during the ‘Great Years’ of 3018-3019 in the Third Age.♦ The Istari are great ‘blessed’ beings that obviously originate from the Undying Lands, however, they are not Elves or Men eventhough they take the shape of men. They were not ‘young-looking’ when they arrived, yet are not exactly immortal like the Eldar races of Elves and Halfelves, for the Istari age albeit very slowly. In fact, they have been granted powers and wisdom that seem even greater than that granted to the Elves. They are special ‘messengers’ sent to battle evil, to instruct and encourage the ‘good’ races. Tolkien writes very little about the origins of this mysterious ‘race’ of messenger-guardians:
“When maybe a thousand years had passed, (...) the Istari or Wizards appeared in Middle-Earth. It is afterwards said that
they came out of the Far West and were messengers sent to contest the power of Sauron, and to unite all those who had the will to
resist him; but they were forbidden to match his power with power, or to seek to dominate Elves or Men by force and fear.
They came therefore in the shape of Men, though they were never young and aged only slowly, and they had many powers of mind
and hand. They revealed their true names to few, but used such names as were given to them. The two highest of this order (of
whom it is said there were five) were called by the Eldar Curunír, ‘the Man of Skill’, and Mithrandir, ‘the Grey Pilgrim’, but by Men
in the North Saruman and Gandalf (respectively).”47
they came out of the Far West and were messengers sent to contest the power of Sauron, and to unite all those who had the will to
resist him; but they were forbidden to match his power with power, or to seek to dominate Elves or Men by force and fear.
They came therefore in the shape of Men, though they were never young and aged only slowly, and they had many powers of mind
and hand. They revealed their true names to few, but used such names as were given to them. The two highest of this order (of
whom it is said there were five) were called by the Eldar Curunír, ‘the Man of Skill’, and Mithrandir, ‘the Grey Pilgrim’, but by Men
in the North Saruman and Gandalf (respectively).”47
Hence, through the narrative and the appendixes in Lord of the Rings, we discover that the Istari do have a hierarchy that in later years form the White Council ruled by Saruman the White, which resembles a symbolical image of[size=medium] ‘church’ entrusted with the mission to teach and guide the ‘elect’ peoples of Middleearth when times begin to grow dark. In the beginning of Lord of the Rings, Gandalf appears to be second in command of the five highest ranking members of their order, his position marked by the colour grey. Of interest, we recall that the[size=medium] bishops of the Seven Churches of the Apocalypse were referred to as ‘angels’, or ‘messengers’, an apropos connection with Tolkien’s idea of a blessed group of messenger-guardians originating from the mystic Undying Lands of the angelic like Valar far across the sea.
44 Lord of the Rings, The Return of the King, pp. 856-857.
45 Ibid. p. 887.
46 Ibid. p. 1056.
♦ The Third Age of Middle-Earth began with the defeat of Sauron by Elendil and Gil-galad, and ended with the death of King Aragorn and the departure of Legolas to the Undying Lands in the year 3141. Lord of the Rings, Appendix B, pp. 1121-1134.
47 Ibid. Appendix B, p. 1121.