UNIVERZITA KONŠTANTÍNA FILOZOFA V NITRE FILOZOFICKÁ FAKULTA

THE MYTH OF CREATION IN TOLKIEN’S THE SILMARILLION MÝTUS STVORENIA SVETA V TOLKIENOVOM SILMARILLIONE Juričková Martina

Školiace pracovisko: Katedra anglistiky a amerikanistiky Sekcia: literatúra Školiteľ: PhDr. Mária Kiššová, PhD.

Čestné vyhlásenie Čestne vyhlasujem, že túto prácu som písala samostatne na základe preštudovaného materiálu a použité zdroje som na príslušných miestach uviedla.

Declaration of Originality I, the undersigned, solemnly declare that this work is the result of my own independent research and was written solely by me using the literature and resources listed in the Resources.

Nitra 2015

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ABSTRAKT JURIČKOVÁ, Martina: Mýtus stvorenia sveta v Tolkienovom Silmarillione. Univerzita Konštantína Filozofa v Nitre. Filozofická fakulta. Školiteľ: PhDr. Mária Kiššová, PhD. Nitra: FF, 2015. 42 s. Cieľom tejto práce je analyzovať prvé dve časti Tolkienovej knihy Silmarillion, Ainulindalë a Valaquenta, ktoré opisujú stvorenie sveta v jeho fiktívnej mytológii, z pohľadu kresťanskej kritiky, a ktoré sú teda zjavne inšpirované viacerými motívmi z kresťanskej tradície. Naša práca sa pokúša tieto motívy identifikovať a analyzovať. Preskúmava, ako sú v Tolkienovom diele použité a modifikované a snaží sa o určenie zmyslu použitia náboženskej analógie vo vybranej časti diela. Táto práca obsahuje šesť kapitol. Prvá kapitola vysvetľuje jeho filozofiu tvorenia a sekundárneho tvorenia. Druhá kapitola sa venuje skúmaniu podobnosti medzi Eru Ilúvatarom a kresťanským Bohom a samotného aktu stvorenia. Tretia kapitola popisuje podobnosť medzi tajným plameňom a Duchom Svätým. Štvrtá kapitola sa zaoberá povahou bytostí Ainur, ktoré možno chápať ako analógiu anjelov. V ďalšej kapitole zanalyzovaná podobnosť medzi Melkorom a Satanom, ktorí predstavujú zosobnené Zlo. Posledná kapitola vysvetľuje chápanie dvoch druhov Ilúvatarových detí, Elfov a Ľudí, ako dvoch odlišných aspektov ľudskej osobnosti. Popritom ponúka ešte aj rozpravu o podobnosti medzi zobrazením Valinoru a Raja. Kľúčové slová: Tolkien. Kresťanstvo. Stvorenie sveta. Mytológia. Dobro. Zlo.

ABSTRACT JURIČKOVÁ, Martina: The Myth of Creation in Tolkien’s The Silmarillion. Constantine the Philosopher University in Nitra. Faculty of Arts. Supervisor: PhDr. Mária Kiššová, PhD. Nitra 2015. 42 pp. The aim of this work is to analyze the first two parts of Tolkien’s book The Silmarillion, Ainulindalë and Valaquenta, which describe the creation of the world in his fictional universe, in terms of their obvious inspiration by the motives of Christian tradition. I try to identify the motives, analyze them, examine how they are used and altered, and determine the purpose of this religious analogy in the chosen part of his book. This work consists of six chapters. The first chapter explains Tolkien’s philosophy of creation and sub-creation. The second chapter investigates the resemblance of Eru Ilúvatar to Christian God and the act of creation. The third chapter discussed the likeness between the Secret Fire and the Holy Spirit. The fourth chapter analyzes the nature of the Ainur and their interpretation as angelic beings. Next chapter deals with Melkor as a representation of the embodied Devil and the last chapter is dedicated to the explanation of understanding of the two races of the children of Ilúvatar, Elves and Men, as two different aspects of human nature. Apart from this, it also comments on the similarities in the depiction of Valinor and Paradise.

Keywords: Tolkien. Christianity. The Creation of the World. Mythology. Good. Evil.

TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................... 6 1

TOLKIEN’S PHILOSOPHY OF CREATION AND SUBCREATION ................ 8

2

THE CREATION OF THE WORLD ...................................................................... 11 2.1 THE CREATOR ........................................................................................................... 11 2.2 THE CREATION ......................................................................................................... 13

3

THE SECRET FIRE ................................................................................................. 16

4

THE AINUR ............................................................................................................... 18 4.1 THE MAIAR ............................................................................................................... 20 4.2 MANVË AND TULKAS ................................................................................................ 21 4.3 VARDA...................................................................................................................... 21

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THE EVIL .................................................................................................................. 24 5.1 EVIL VERSUS GOOD .................................................................................................. 25

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THE CHILDREN OF ILÚVATAR.......................................................................... 27 6.1 ELVES AND MEN ....................................................................................................... 27 6.2 THE CONCEPT OF PARADISE ...................................................................................... 29

CONCLUSION .................................................................................................................. 31 RESUMÉ ............................................................................................................................ 34 RESOURCES ..................................................................................................................... 40

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INTRODUCTION The books of the British writer John Ronald Reuel Tolkien are very popular, irrespective of age, gender, race and religion. Most readers enjoy his books because of the heroic events which bring them to the early-middle-age-like era, wonderful landscapes which none has ever seen and fantastic creatures beyond imagination of most of the ordinary people. However, the keen eye of an attentive reader acquainted with Tolkien’s life can easily observe that apart from the magic and enchantment his texts are interwoven with deeper philosophical and moral issues. One of the most essential layers of his books is the one that alludes to Christian faith. The word ‘essential’ is used appropriately here, because the Christian religion played an important role in Tolkien’s life as he often proudly admitted and much of his belief and values, naturally, penetrated into his writing. In this work I would like to focus on some of the Christian motives that are present in his work, particularly in the book The Silmarillion and especially its first chapters Ainulindalë and Valaquenta, in which the biblical allusions are, doubtlessly intentionally, the most explicit. These two chapters describe how Eä, the world from Tolkien’s fantasy universe was created at the beginning of time by Eru Ilúvatar, the greatest divine being who rules over everything, in a way very similar to the story of Creation as provided in the book Genesis in the Bible. While many readers explain this obvious analogy and re-fashioning of the biblical story as a manifestation of the author’s love and zeal for his religion and an attempt to introduce its beauty, as he perceived it, to a broader audience, including non-religious people, some of the extremely orthodox Christian scholars find this rather disturbing and consider it to be only a derision of the Holy Bible; the more for the fact, that Tolkien even dared to mingle it with elements of pagan mythologies. Thus, in my work I will identify which motives from the Christian tradition Tolkien implemented into his invented story of creation in particular, how much he altered them and in what way he used them, in order to examine how much his sub-created universe resembles the Christian doctrines or whether it does not actually mock them, as the orthodox critics think. Specifically, I focus on five key elements present in both stories: the person of the creator, the process of creation as such, the spiritual super-beings, the evil, and the created children of the god-figure. This careful analysis should in the end lead to justification of one of the two aforementioned opinions on the purpose of this analogy. This work consists of six chapters. The first chapter explains the importance of 6

Christianity for Tolkien and how it affected his writing, particularly his understanding of his duty as a believer writer to honour God’s creation via his work. Chapter two consists of two sub-chapters, the first discussing the resemblances between Eru Ilúvatar and the Christian God and the second the actions they performed to create the material world. Chapter three in a similar manner analyzes the likeliness of the Secret Fire from The Silmarillion to the Holy Spirit and their role as the providers of life. The fourth chapter is dedicated to the analysis of the spiritual beings, namely the Ainur and Maiar, as analogous to angels; however their representation being in the greatest manner influenced by pagan visions of gods as embodied natural powers. Chapter five then deals with the problem of evil represented by Melkor in Tolkien’s book and by Satan in Christianity. This chapter investigates the nature of the fight between the good and the evil and the position of the evil within the creator’s divine plan. Finally, the sixth chapter discusses the understanding of Elves and Men as the children of the god - Eru, and their analogy to the children of God - humans. This chapter also includes a sub-chapter on the concept of paradise, represented in Tolkien’s work by Valinor, the land of eternal beauty and the residence of the Valar; contemplating the first sin of the god’s children and their subsequent banishment from the paradise. The important findings and their relevance are summarized in the conclusion.

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1

TOLKIEN’S PHILOSOPHY OF CREATION AND SUBCREATION Christian religion played a very important role in Tolkien’s life. The basis of his

faith was founded in his early childhood by his mother Mabel who, grieved by the sudden death of her husband and John’s and his brother’s father, was seeking some spiritual help and support in religion. Although born and raised as an Anglican, Mabel found it in the Roman Catholicism, and soon she with both her sons converted to it. John’s faith strengthened even more after his mother’s death when he was only twelve years old. This was probably partially caused by the fact that he along with his brother were, according to Mabel’s last will, appointed into the guard of Father Francis Morgan, a priest from the Birmingham Oratory who used to help her a lot since she had entered the Church and who was a close friend of the Tolkien’s. At that time the Oratory became John’s second home and the Christian religion an everyday part of his life (Carpenter, 2002, pp. 40-51) Even as an adult he regularly attended the church masses and his faith was a source of his inner consolidation. And because, as Tolkien himself noted, “[a]n author cannot remain [...] wholly unaffected by his experience” (Tolkien, 2011, p. xxii), it is natural then that he, like many others, implemented his life beliefs into his writings. This he did maybe unconsciously at first, but soon it turned into fully conscious and purposeful process, possibly as a result of his self-assessed goal to use his books to better the world.1 In the later years of his life he concentrated still more and more on the spiritual aspects of his works and their interrelation with the religion. In his essay On Fairy Stories he not only established the basic principles of his work, but also explained his insights on the purpose of literature as a means of, and the role of writers as tools for revealing the divine truth. He stated that it is a right of every man as a “sub-creator” to contrive a secondary world that is “derived from Reality, or [...] flowing into it” and so “may actually assist in the effoliation and multiple enrichment of creation,” (Tolkien, 2001, pp. 37, 71, 73). In other words: “it may be said that the chief purpose of life, of any one of us, is to increase according to our capacity our knowledge of God by all the means we have, and to be moved by it to praise and thanks,” (Carpenter, 2006a, p. 400). He believed that man, being created in the image of God, is in his image summoned to create new things of his own, thus contributing to His overall plan of creation. And because “we make still by the law in which we’re made” (Tolkien, 2001, p. 55) we should 1

see Garth, 2003, p. 105

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beware misusing our creativity for unholy purposes, but rather aim at promoting goodness and beauty via our work, each according to his capabilities and opportunities. However, Tolkien distinguishes between the terms creation and sub-creation, the first being exclusive competence of God, because he is the only one who can actually make things out of nothing, and what’s more, he can give them life. Man, on the contrary, is just a sub-creator for he himself is a product of God’s creativity; that means that he could not create anything if God had not created him first. Moreover, according to the Christian belief, man can only do what God wants him or allows him to do with respect to the man’s free will; much in the same way as characters in a literary work do only what the writer designs them to do.2 One of the most remarkable interpretations of our total dependence on God’s will is that we cannot actually invent anything new and unique, because everything has since ever been in God’s mind, so we are only re-inventing or re-discovering his ultimate knowledge.3 This would justify Tolkien’s feeling, that was rather “recording what was already ʻthereʼ, somewhere: not [...] ʻinventingʼ,” (Carpenter, 2006a, p. 145). Nonetheless, in the essay On Fairy Stories he explains his understanding of sub-creation in terms of literary art as an ability to make a Secondary World - some kind of alternative reality which, though often altering it and enriching it with fantastic elements, remains true to the laws of the Primary World in which we physically live and is thus believable. In other words, man is called sub-creator, because his creation is subordinate to God’s plans. Returning to the previously mentioned quote with which I began this discussion on sub-creation4, the most crucial term in the statement is “Reality” which Tolkien understood to be the principal Christian Truth – the story of Jesus Christ. He called this story “the true myth”, because it describes a real historical event, but at the same time it “embraces all the essence of fairy-stories” (Tolkien, 2001, p. 72) and qualities of written art as it is indeed a piece of literature. And all the other myths, religious and pagan as well, complement to it as in them “God express[ed] Himself through the minds of poets, using the images of their ‘mythopoeia’ to reveal the fragments of His eternal truth,” (Pierce, 1998, p. 59). This view is based exactly on the idea that man, created in God’s image, in his essence possesses the ultimate truth, which is, consequently, reflected in his making even though he might not be aware of it. So even the pagan myths are not entirely mistaken, but contain fragments of the true light (Carpenter, 2006b, p. 43). 2

see Kreeft, 2005, p. 61 This is, in fact, very similar to Plato’s philosophy of anamnesis. He believed that the process of learning is actually a process of remembering, re-discovering the universal knowledge within us. See Samet, 2008. 4 see Tolkien, 2001, p. 71 3

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The relation of myths and fairy-stories to the eternal Truth is, as its primary focus, thoroughly elaborated in the essay On Fairy Stories. Indisputably, myths aroused from the need to explain the world around. The most distinguishable feature of ancient myths is the enormous use of personification, which Tolkien says is a result of the fact, that the first primitive people were much closely linked to nature and more spiritual than the modern man is nowadays. They appreciated all living things of fauna and flora, often recognizing them as equally conscious beings, and embodied natural processes as gods. Yet, the main value of myths was rather in their function teaching and guiding tools on morals, goodness, and social appropriateness. So from the Christian point of view, under a close inspection we can notice that, although wrong in the execution, myths are often good in their philosophies as they comprise many truthful ideas. The only problem with the veracity of myths is the limited knowledge of their authors of science as well as the true God. Because often it so happened, that the ancient world-views and philosophies seemed somehow incomplete, but after the introduction of Christianity, when the pagan elements were confronted with it, they suddenly started making sense.5 Therefore, the pagan myths too complement to the glorification of God, as they reveal the ultimate truth in a way and manner corresponding to the level of knowledge of their creators and recipients. Consequently, the modern authorised stories should do it likewise. Therefore, in concordance with the formerly mentioned purpose of everyone’s life, for writers it is almost a must to use their gift of writing to supplement the God’s creation and so to glorify him. That is how Tolkien viewed his own task and the purpose of his invented mythology, which he privately called the Legendarium - to “[express] his love of God’s creation” (Fimi, 2009, p. 45) via his writing. And he chose for it the form of myth because in his opinion it is the form which best suits the human nature. Moreover, myths and fantasy have ever been used to present the truth and teach goodness and morality in an acceptable and unobtrusive way to people who otherwise restrain from any religious content.

5

Something similar can be observed with the ideas of many antique philosophers, for example Aristotle’s view that the purpose of life is to search for the ultimate wisdom and beauty, the source of which in Christian understanding is God. See his Nicomachean Ethics.

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2

THE CREATION OF THE WORLD “[I]n all literatures since the formation of the sacred books of humankind surely

there is hardly a creation myth to equal, in beauty and imaginative power, the one with which The Silmarillion begins,” (Murray, R. quoted in Pearce, 1998, p. 88). These were the words of Father Robert Murray, another priest friend of Tolkien with whom he consulted his visions of the alternative beginning of the World, and they refer to the opening chapter of The Silmarillion entitled Ainulindalë: The Music of the Ainur, which is the most significant part of all Tolkien’s work, in terms of relation to Christian teaching. This chapter describes how the World, in Elvish called Ëa, was created by Ilúvatar first in thoughts in the Great Music and then physically with the help of Valar. Its likeness to Genesis, the first book of the Old Testament, is evident.

2.1

The Creator Within Ainulindalë it is obvious that Eru, The One, also called Ilúvatar is identified

with the Christian God. The meaning of name Eru is “The One” or “he that is alone” (Tolkien, 1992, p. 396) and actually God in the Bible often refers to Himself as “the only One” and He is believed to be the truest one, and there exists no other god except Him (Katechizmus Katolíckej cirkvi, 1999, pp. 61-62). Both of them, Eru and God, reside above the “circles of the World”, not on the Earth, that cannot be reached by any creature alive. The Christians call the place “Heaven”, but in Tolkien’s version, this place has no distinct name. However, he mentions that the Ainur, the saint spirits, lived in Ilúvatar’s house with him (Tolkien, 1992, p. 3). Considering Eru Ilúvatar to be the same as God, it can be also said that they lived in “God’s house”, what is another term used for the Heaven. But before the creation of the Ainur, Eru lived there on his own as well as God lived all on his own before he created the angels. That is what the other meaning “he that is alone” was derived from. They both existed independently of everything, long before everything else was made. Although Tolkien does not mention what was before the creation, it can be deduced from the fact that the Ainulindalë starts when Eru made the Ainur. So logically, he must have lived alone before that. Also, the Genesis does not speak about it, but it is noted many times elsewhere in the Bible.

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As for the second name, Ilúvatar, its meaning is “Father of all” (ibid., p. 405), what is again similar to the perception of Christian God. In most of the Christian prayers God is called “our Father” according to Jesus’ teaching and He is the Creator, who gave existence to everything. Without his will nothing would exist (John 1, 3). The same it is with Tolkien’s Eru Ilúvatar, who is the primary creator in his mythology. Eru planned the creating of the World and all its inhabitants in his Music and then laid its foundations in the Void where there was nothing to make it of. Also, God made the World out of nothing, because He is the ultimate source of everything. Yet Eru is perceived as “father” mostly by the Ainur, who lived with him at the beginning of the World and not by all the other creatures. Speaking about the Ainur suggests another notable idea about the disposition of Eru. He has never been seen by anyone alive, except the Ainur. But they do not count at all, because they have a spiritual nature; they are not alive in the sense as humans are and therefore do not die. One possible explanation may be that he lives outside the World where no one can get to, because it is impossible. But when the matter is looked at from the religious point of view, it is just another similarity with God. Apostle John writes about Him that: “No man hath seen God at any time” (John 1, 18). So no one can say how He looks like and until the Medieval age any attempts to depict Him were forbidden and punished. Even though in Tolkien’s era this was no longer applicable, he does not describe his vision about the appearance of God in person of Eru. He leaves him without any particular look, transcendent as God is. The only difference between these two gods, the Christian one and that of Middleearth, is that Tolkien’s Eru seems to become rather a passive god, whereas the Christian God often intervenes in the happenings on the Earth and reveals Himself throughout the history. After the Great Music and the initial act of creation Eru somehow recedes from the doings on Arda, the Earth, and remains only a memory of the Ainur. Though the life on Earth is not easy, but just the opposite it is full of troubles, he never helps its inhabitants directly, nor via any advice. In the next chapters of Silmarillion he seems not to pay any attention to his creatures at all, even if he knew what was going on in there. He is a mere observer. And in the other Tolkien’s works, which describe later events from the point of view of Middle-earth’s history, like Akallabêth or The Lord of the Rings, he seems he totally vanished. He is not mentioned there at all. And that is in absolute contradiction with the image of God, who knows everything and always helps those who call Him.

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However, Tolkien’s Eru has not completely ceased from the later history of Middle-earth as it may seem on the first sight, or reading. After a closer inspection we may realize that he still intervenes in the happenings in the world, only not directly and visibly, but in the form of Providence – mystical coincidences and consequences which often cannot be explained by reason. It is because Tolkien purposefully withdraws all explicit religious references from his later works, as if to prove his point that even pagan (understand as not-the-One-God-believers’) mythology can reveal God’s existence. This issue is thoroughly advocated by Peter Kreeft in his book The Philosophy of Tolkien, where he explains that the reason why “Tolkien never brings God into [the later parts of his history] is that He is never out of it,” (Kreeft, 2005, p. 51). Eru needs to be explicitly present and actively involved at the beginning of The Silmarillion as there could be no creation without the god. But the more the history of Middle-earth becomes the history of his children, Elves and Men, the less evident his presence is. Similarly, the Christian God is very actively influencing the course of history during the time span captured in the Bible, if not directly by miracles, so at least by speaking through various prophets. Yet the same can no longer be said about the centuries to follow after the events described in the Bible. As Christians believe, he did not abandon his creation, only his existence is nowadays not manifested so explicitly. Thus Tolkien’s Eru in the second age and onwards is much like the Christian God in our millennia – acting discretely as the Providence.

2.2 The Creation Another similarity to the Bible can be noticed within the scene of the creation of the World. Eru gave existence to it saying: “Eä!” Let these things be!” (Tolkien, 1992, p. 9) This exclamation resembles God’s words: “Let there be light,” (Genesis 1, 3). These two statements are quite alike in the mood. Either in Ainulindalë and in Genesis the phrase “Let it happen!” was used within the creation, just with different modifications. While God has a specific object of that order, Eru meant it generally for the whole universe and all thing in it. Moreover, in both cases the Earth was made at the very beginning. It was exactly at this moment when Eru spoke. However, according to the Bible, the Earth itself came into existence without any directing words spoken, or at least the Genesis states none. It just reports that God created it, but He said nothing by now. He spoke only after that, 13

addressing Himself to the light which He decided to create next. In The Silmarillion the light already existed but only in Ilúvatar’s house, while the Earth was placed outside it in the Void and Dark. And in Dark it was until two lamps named Illuin and Ormal were built on the edges of Middle-earth. Actually, when Eru spoke the words of origination, it was the only time he spoke during the whole act of creation whereas God continued and spoke again ordering the firmament to appear, the waters to divide, the plants to grow, stars to rise, beasts to live and many more times, almost in every line of the first chapter of Genesis. As for Eru, from this spot on his role and importance within the development of the World diminishes and Tolkien implements in some attributes of pagan mythologies. And thinking about it scientifically, his story of creation becomes then more realistic or at least more acceptable, because he gives no clear span for the forming of the Earth, the time by what it gained its current shape. And so, even as a result of the labour of higher Powers, he allows in certain degree its natural geological evolution. Contrary, the Bible is highly symbolical regarding this. It says the World was created in seven days, more precisely in six days and the seventh day was a day of rest. It is known that the number seven had a great symbolic meaning for the Jews, who originally wrote the Old Testament including the Genesis. It represented Fullness; the fullness of time that had been preset for the shaping of the World. In other words, it means that the world was formed in the right time it required. Yet the theory of evolution does not fit into the biblical understanding of the World and Life. Anyway, in The Silmarillion Tolkien managed to interconnect all the three visions of the World’s beginning: the Christian, pagan and scientific. But now back to the initial exclamation. The word “Eä” means “to be” or “let it be” (Tolkien, 1992, p. 390). This word was later adopted by Elves as the name for the World. In this sense its meaning slightly altered to “It is” or “the World that Is”. Taking into account that God names Himself “HE that IS”6 and that the whole creation, including the World, exists only because of His will and thanks to it, it can be also said that “IT IS” as He is. Because He gave a part of Himself into everything what He created and therefore He is believed to be present in everything. Metaphorically, He is within everything and everything is within Him. So it can be also called the same: Eä – It Is, The World that Is. Furthermore, the Bible says: “the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep.” (Genesis 1, 2). Correspondingly, the world Eä did not have

6

see “I AM THAT I AM”, Exodus 3, 14

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its current looks when it was created. When the Ainur saw it for the first time, it was shapeless and dark, too (Tolkien, 1992, p. 10). Its surface was hard and cold, just a piece of stone engulfed in fire, like the scientists describe the appearance of Earth in its early years when it was being formed. The correspondence between Eä and the biblical vision of newly created Earth is plain. Both were “without form” and in “darkness”. In spite of the general likeness, the Ainulindalë is not simply a retelling of the Genesis’s story of creation with just substituted names and different environment. And especially, it does not follow the chronological order of the stages of development of the World as they are described in the Bible. For example according to the Genesis, the light was created next after the Earth and before everything else. Then the plants were created and on the other day the stars and Sun and Moon. The beasts came into existence; thereafter and lastly, as the top of the creation, Man - the God’s child was made. However, in The Silmarillion the light was given to the World only when plants were already seeded and the beasts walked on the Earth, and indeed it was in the form of two lamps, while the stars had existed very long before that. And when the lamps were later destroyed, the World laid in darkness again until two magical trees, Telperion and Laurelin grew up and they became the new source of light. Unfortunately, it was not so for long, because they were too destroyed and next darkness fell on the World. Therefore, the problem of light is much more complex within The Silmarillion than in the Bible. And that is not all, because the Sun and the Moon supply the World with light too. And these were created in a time when the Ilúvatar’s children, understood as the children of God, had already lived in the World for probably several centuries or even longer. Hence, Tolkien’s vision of the development of the World seems to be disordered and unsystematic either in the scientific terms and either in religious; and it gives sense only when read as a myth, in which such organization is possible.

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THE SECRET FIRE There is, however, a further point to be considered and that is how the world

actually came into existence according to Tolkien, or better said, what happened after the initial exclamation. It was already mentioned that all things firstly originated in Ilúvatar’s mind and only later were given substantial form. So the creation of Eä is described in the following quote: “Ilúvatar gave to [the] vision Being, and set it amid the Void, and the Secret Fire was sent to burn at the heart of the World.” (Tolkien, 1992, p. 15, my emphasis). Most important is especially the second part of it, accentuated by italics. One possible explanation of what the Secret Fire was may be that it just represents the earth core which is also some kind of fire, consisting of fiery magma and molten rocks. It is even placed in the middle of the Earth like a heart that is often considered to be a metaphor to symbolize the centre of whatever. That would be a scientific approach, but there is a rub in it. It would go, if there was not written that the Secret Fire “was sent”. Logically, this collocation then evokes that the Secret Fire is something alive when it can be sent. And consequently, this knowledge directs us to a spiritual and religious interpretation of the whole quote. Considering the Christian motives, the Secret Fire may then represent the Holy Spirit, the third person of God that often appears in the form of fire or flame. The best evidence for this claim is the scene in Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit was sent unto the apostles: “And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost.” (Acts 2, 3-4). The fire, as a symbol of the Holy Spirit, is still used in Christian churches to signify the presence of God in there. Even the epithet “secret” is appropriate, because the Holy Spirit is very mysterious and secret and does not reveal Himself, so we do not know much about Him (Katechizmus Katolíckej cirkvi, 1999, p. 183). Tolkien also uses another name for the Secret Fire; that is “The Fire Imperishable” to express his eternal nature. He existed from the very beginning, even before the universe was made, and he is permanent, as well as the Holy Spirit is. 7 Also the lamp, always turned on, that has to represent the flame of Holy Spirit in the church is familiarly called “the eternal light” what actually means the same as “the Fire Imperishable”, just in different words. For the fire is a source of light and therefore the word “fire” may be substituted by word “light” as a synecdoche.

7

see Hebrew 9, 14

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Indeed, all what we know about the Holy Spirit is that He is a primary source of life, apart from His blessings, and that He intervened in the process of creation. Likewise, elsewhere in The Silmarillion it is stated that the Secret Fire is needed to give life to the created things. It burns in them then and without it the things would die. That is exactly the same doctrine like the one that the Christian have about the Holy Spirit. Like when God created the man, He “breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul,” (Genesis 2, 7). The “breath of life” is here also a denomination of the Holy Spirit and in this scene it can be clearly seen how the man started living when the Holy Spirit entered his body. However, some dissimilarity occurs between these two versions of the story of creation and it concerns the location of the Holy Spirit that was in Tolkien’s case renamed to the Secret Fire. In The Silmarillion the Secret Fire was placed in “the heart of the World”, while the Bible says that “the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters,” (Genesis 1, 2). According to Augustinian theories, from which even Tolkien derived some of his ideas, the water is sacred ever since then, because the Holy Spirit moved so close to it (St. Augustine, Vyznania, 1997, p. 370). As a result of this it has some magical power – a power to purify, and it is therefore used at the Christian act of baptising as a mean through which a man is redeemed from the original sin. Why Tolkien chose to put his Secret Fire into the middle of the Earth, has been already explained when I discussed its understanding as an ultimate source of life. But he neither forgot about the special denotation of water. And he attributed it with mysterious attraction, because the sound of the waters is the last living echo of the Great Music in which the universe was pre-imagined and pre-created (Tolkien, 1992, p. 8). The miracle of creation is present in it as some audible memory and gives the water divine characteristics. In this manner it is then sacred, too.

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4

THE AINUR The Ainur were already mentioned several times, but yet I have not explained what

they really are, except that they have a spiritual nature. Actually, they have the most important role in the forming of the World after Ilúvatar. But their understanding is rather ambiguous. The Ainulindalë gives the first account of them already in its beginning lines: “There was Eru, the One, who in Arda is called Ilúvatar, and he made first the Ainur, the Holy Ones, that were the offspring of his thought, and they were with him before aught else was made. And he spoke to them themes of music; and they sang before him, and he was glad,” (Tolkien, 1992, p. 3). And in one of his letters Tolkien gives an exact explanation about what they were intended to be: “angelic powers, whose function is to exercise delegated authority in their spheres (of rule and government, not creation, making or re-making). They are ‘divine’, that is, were originally ‘outside’ and existed ‘before’ the making of the world. Their power and wisdom are derived from their Knowledge of the cosmogonical drama, which they perceived first as a drama (that is as in a fashion we perceive a story composed by some-one else), and later as a ‘reality’,” (Carpenter, 2006a, p. 146) From these excerpts it can be plainly seen that the Ainur were also created by Ilúvatar and that they accompanied him even before he decided to make the World. And Tolkien himself called them “the Holy Ones” by what he points out that they were saint or ‘divine’. This whole concept then very much resembles the Christian vision of angels. Although the Bible does not mention when the angels were created, they must had already existed before the events that are described in the Genesis. And doubtlessly they were created by God too and live with Him in His house just like the Ainur lived in Ilúvatar’s house. Angels are saint, spiritual creatures; immortals with great wisdom who “do always behold the face of [the] Father which is in heaven,” (Matthew 18, 10). Similarly, Tolkien writes about his Ainur that they were “rational spirits or minds without incarnation, created before the physical world,” (Carpenter, 2006a, p. 284) And as it was already mentioned when I discussed the problem of Eru, they are immortal too, what, naturally, results from the fact that they are spirits. The task of angels, apart from the celebration of God, is to be His messengers. They appear several times in the Bible when they have some important message to reveal to people. And since they do not have the human limitations, they can act in His name and 18

mediate His will. Also, the Ainur mediate the will of Ilúvatar as a representative of God; or in Tolkien’s own words, they “exercise” his “delegated authority” in the World. However they do it in such a way that they are allowed to participate in the process of creation, what is a really extraordinary idea in comparison with the Christian doctrines about angels. This conception contradicts what the Bible says, as it does not mention the angels playing any role within the creation; it states that God made everything absolutely on His own. On the contrary, the Ainur were directly asked by Ilúvatar to join the Great Music and supplement it with their ideas. “[A]nd they perceived that they themselves in the labour of their music had been busy with preparation of this dwelling [the World], and yet knew not that it had any purpose beyond its own beauty,” (Tolkien, 1992, p. 6). For the Secret Fire was burning in them as well and it presented Ilúvatar’s will through their pseudo-inventions (ibid., p. 3). This thesis is further confirmed by the author when he claims that “they interpreted according to their powers, and completed in detail, the Design propounded to them by the One,” (Carpenter, 2006a, p. 284). Yet, several Church Fathers held an opinion, that God used his angels as instruments in creating the physical world, and even though this is not an official teaching of the Church, Tolkien might have been acquainted with it, thus intentionally making his Ainur directly involved in the creation. Nevertheless, the role and perception of the Ainur changed rapidly after they entered the physical world. Because not only that they took part in the creation while it was still just a thought. They also had the privilege to help it become real. For Ilúvatar made the Earth Eä shapeless and uninhabitable and it was their task to work on it in order to give it such form as it had in the vision in the Great Music. This was the major purpose of their lives; therefore, some of them descended from the Outer Circles onto Eä. Firstly thereafter they had to take on a visible form. They could appear in various shapes, but they mostly preferred a human-like body, what would not be any big contradiction to the concept of angels, who similarly, often showed themselves in a human-like shape when they had to deal with people. But the difference was in something else. The number of the Ainur who descended to Eä was fourteen; the Kings and Queens of the Earth which was consequently renamed to Arda, what means “the Realm” (Tolkien, 1992, p. 380) and signifies that it is now under their dominion. These fourteen Ainur are since then called Valar, “the Powers” (ibid., p. 427). And each of them had a special area of interest and power: Manwë rules the winds and sky, Ulmo governs the waters, Yavanna cares about plants, Tulkas is a fighter, Lórien is the lord of dreams, Nienna is the lady of grief, Mandos is the keeper of the death, Oromë 19

is a friend of beasts and a hunter of demons, Vairë records the history, Estë has healing power, Aulë is interested in ground and metals and Varda in stars. Such organisation reminds rather some chorus of pagan gods, like those from ancient Greek or Roman mythologies, than angels. Albeit, there do exist some Christian theories that claim that some angels may also be “specialized” and assigned only to a certain task, area or group of critters. This idea was supported by Saint John’s vision, which is described in the Book of Revelation, as he writes: “angel came out from the altar, which had power over fire,” (Revelation 14, 18). However, according to how the Valar act and function and how they are later perceived in Arda, they are closer to the ancient gods. Only that the ancient Greek and Roman gods often seem to be quite egoistic, malicious, lascivious and cruel, these all being rather negative and very human qualities. Peter Kreeft explains, that the European pagan gods are usually half-good and half-bad and their superiority over humankind is not due to their goodness “but only in power - in fact, in three powers: power over nature by a supernatural or “magical” technology, power over ignorance (cleverness, farsight and foresight), and power over death (immortality)” (Kreeft, 2005, p. 179). On the other hand, Tolkien’s Valar do not manifest their superiority by force and display predominantly positive qualities, such as countenance, mercy, and kindness - more of the kind as we would expect just yet strict gods to be. So possibly the Valar can be understood as an attempt to combine the Christian and pagan motives, giving the pagan gods a nicer and more humanistic face in the Christian image.

4.1 The Maiar The Maiar are another kind of Ainur that are present in The Silmarillion. They are described as being lower, less mighty and with smaller power that the Valar. And they interact with people much more easily. If we assent that the Ainur represent angels and use the Christian hierarchy to classify them, then the Maiar could be related to the ordinary angels while the Ainur would feature some higher degree, probably archangels. This comparison may be acceptable, because archangels, like the Ainur in The Silmarillion, are better known to us since most of the angelic creatures that appear in the Bible are exactly of this kind. Contrary, the ordinary angels, to whom the guardian angels belong, are not much discussed there. But they are believed that they often help people in their everyday lives and take care of them. Similar it is with the Maiar, who do not play any significant 20

role in The Silmarillion. However, they became more important in The Lord of the Rings where they appear in human bodies as the wizards. Tolkien says that they were sent to Middle-earth to help its peoples fight against the evil (Tolkien, 2006, p. 397). So the mission of both the Maiar and guardian angels is to help the mortals.

4.2 Manvë and Tulkas Two most outstanding of the Valar were Manvë and Varda. Manvë is the mightiest of all the Ainur and Ilúvatar’s dearest. He was chosen to administer Arda and is therefore called its King. This nickname would allude to Jesus Christ, who is the King of the Earth and Heaven. But having examined Manvë’s character more closely, we find out that he by no means represents Jesus. However, he has much in common with Saint Michael the archangel. In Roman Catholicism he is believed to be the mightiest of all angels what is analogous to Manvë’s position among the Ainur. He is the greatest enemy of Melkor, who in The Silmarillion represents the Devil as it will be discussed later. Likewise, Michael’s primary task is to fight the Devil and because of this he is called “the God’s warrior” and in Latin “Princeps militiae coelestis quem honorificant angelorum cives” – the leader of Heaven’s army whom all the angels venerate (http://www.zivotopisysvatych.sk/michalarchanjel/). Correspondingly, Manvë led the Ainur to a battle with Melkor. Nevertheless, Manvë is not the only Ainu who bears some characteristics of Saint Michael. As apostle John accounts, before the process of creation started “Michael and his angels fought against [...] the Devil, [ ] Satan, which deceiveth the whole world” (

Revelation 12, 7-9) and defeated him and cast him out from Heaven. But according to The

Silmarillion it was not Manvë who fought and defeated Melkor, but Tulkas (Tolkien, 1992, p. 48-49). Tulkas was the one whom Melkor feared the most like Satan fears Michael. And no less important evidence that supports the idea of Tulkas’s and Michael’s resemblance is that Tulkas is also called the Fighter or the Warrior.

4.3

Varda While the understanding of the greatest male Ainu as a personification of Saint

Michael is shared with another character, the image of Varda is clear. As Tolkien asserted her character was “clearly related to Catholic devotion to [Saint] Mary” (Carpenter, 2006a p. 288) who had a big significance for Tolkien. He called her Our Lady and his “perception 21

of beauty both in majesty and simplicity [was] founded” (ibid., p. 172) on her. So this must have reflected somewhere in his writing. In The Lord of the Rings the Saint Mary was visualized by the character of Galadriel and in The Silmarillion she is doubtlessly represented by Varda. This resemblance is obvious for several reasons. First, Saint Mary is called the Queen of the World and Heaven and Varda, the mightiest female Ainu, is similarly called the Queen of Arda. Saint Mary is often imagined as the most beautiful human being ever, because she was born without the original sin. And Varda is also said to be of such beauty that it can hardly be described by any words of any existing language. She is the prototype of beauty and Ilúvatar’s light lives in her face (Tolkien, 1992, p. 16). Likewise, Saint Mary’s beauty is founded by God Himself and she bears a symbol of His blessing that illuminates her whole body, what was assured by many saints. Because whenever she appeared in their visions she was surrounded with a big light that was coming out of her. In a like manner as Saint Mary is asked for help by Christians, the Elves invoke Varda when they are in struggle. They call for her help and care when they have problems, are afraid or going on a long, strenuous journey. An example of this is given in the song Elves sing in The Lord of the Rings where there are mentioned some other Varda’s names that also very much resemble those of Saint Mary. They call: “Snow-white! Snow-white! O Lady clear! O Queen beyond the Western Seas! O Light to us that wander here Amid the world of woven trees! Gilthoniel! O Elbereth!” (Tolkien, 2011, p. 79) And later address her “the Queen of the Stars, from Mount Everwhite” (ibid., p. 378). The names Elbereth and Gilthoniel mean “Star-queen” what in relation with the exclamation “Queen beyond the Western Seas” is similar to the name of Saint Mary, Stella Maris – “the Star of the Sea”, which is derived from her function as a guiding star that has to lead those who wander and are lost back to God and to enlighten their journey. As we can see, this is actually noted in the song too. “Lady clear” then refers to Mary’s purity and virginity. And name “Snow-white” is again related to one epithet Saint Mary got after one miracle in Italy. The legend says that in the middle of summer she appointed one hill in Rome, on which she wished to have a church built, by snow. Consequently, she was named 22

The Lady of the Snow, which was later changed to Santa Maria Maggiore. 8 In visualisations of this miracle, Saint Mary is always displayed in purely white clothes and pale skin. Similarly, Varda is said to be the fairest, in the meaning of colour, and therefore named “Snow-white.” Mount Everwhite is the name of the mountain on which Varda dwelled with Manvë and is based on the fact that is it still covered with snow. But thinking about it in connection with the legend, it may as well symbolize the miraculous hill in Rome. The only difference between Varda and Mary is that while Varda was married to Manvë, Mary surely was not a wife of Michael the archangel. And the whole concept of the Ainur getting married is generally dissimilar to Christian doctrines about spiritual creatures. The angels do not marry because they are totally devoted to God and his love. And they are, of course, genderless. Although Tolkien says that his Ainur were genderless while they lived in the “Outer Circles”, when they entered the Eä they could choose to appear either in male of female body. Their choice was principally only an expression of “a difference of nature in the ‘spirit’” (Carpenter, 2006a, p. 285); only an innate inclination of the spirit. And once they had human bodies, they could live as humans do, so they could even get married.

8

see http://www.frantiskani.sk/kazatel/marianske/0805.htm

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5

THE EVIL The concept of evil is in The Silmarillion represented by Melkor, whose similarity

to Satan is even greater than that between Eru and God. Melkor was the greatest of the Ainur with a share in the powers of all the others of his kind. Originally, he was a brother of Manvë in Ilúvatar’s mind (Tolkien, 1992, p. 16). Likewise, Satan was the greatest and cleverest Angel with power equal to Michael until he was cast out of Heaven because of his rebellion against God. And that is another similarity of these two. As it is generally believed, Satan was so proud of his big power that he soon became jealous of God. He did not want to serve Him anymore; instead, he wanted to usurp the whole World for himself. He did not want to worship God, but he desired to be worshipped himself. So he revolted against God. The account for this is given in the Book of Isaiah: “How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God,” (Isaiah 14, 12-13). And he was joined by many lesser angels, whom he was able to persuade. For this reason Michael the archangel had to fight him and expelled him and all his followers from Heaven. Similarly, Melkor revolted against Ilúvatar. When he saw that the things preimagined in the Great Music were wonderful, they attracted him so much, that he desired to own them all, to govern them and be the king of the whole World instead of Ilúvatar. Like Satan, he did not want to participate in Ilúvatar’s plan only as his mediator, but he was anxious to use his great power to create things of his own that were not in correspondence with Ilúvatar’s will. Tolkien perfectly depicted his revolt in the scene when Ilúvatar and the Ainur sang the music of creation. Melkor did not follow Ilúvatar’s melody; instead he sang differently to his own tune. And many of those who heard him were distracted and charmed by his ideas and joined him (Tolkien, 1992, p. 5). And the following excerpt exactly expresses the general perception of Satan’s fall, even though it is applied to Melkor: “From splendour he fell through arrogance to contempt for all things save himself, a spirit wasteful and pitiless. Understanding he turned to subtlety in perverting to his own will all that he would use, until he became a liar without shame. He began with the desire of Light, but when he could not possess it for himself alone, he descended through fire and wrath into a great burning, down into Darkness,” (ibid., p. 23). So the concept of fallen Ainu is identical with fallen angel, for they both refused to subordinate to a higher authority of the Creator, but wished to replace it by themselves. 24

Also their names are very similar in the meaning. According to Tolkien, Melkor means “he who arises in Might” (ibid., p.410) what symbolizes his position among the Ainur at the very beginning, before the creation started. On the other hand, one of Satan’s else names, Lucifer, refers to his original purpose, too. Because in Latin Lucifer means “light-bringing” or, as it was already alluded in the quote from Isaiah above, “the morning star”

(http://catholic.archives.nd.edu/cgi-bin/lookup.pl?stem=luc&ending=). This name

signifies Satan’s primary function, for as the greatest angel he had to be the one most engaged in bringing people to God or vice versa to bring the God’s light and Love to people. But after his fall he has been named mostly Satan. Its meaning can be derived from various stems, but it is usually translated as “the opposer” or “the adversary” or simply “the enemy”9. And Melkor was in the Eä renamed to Morgoth which has again similar meaning and that is “the Dark Enemy of the World,” (Tolkien, 1992, p. 23). Even Devil, which is probably the most common name of Satan, is in concordance with the abovementioned idea of a liar. Because it was derived from Greek name Diabolos which means “slanderer” (see http://biblesuite.com/greek/1228.htm) what is actually a synonym of liar. And no less important is the fact that Melkor refers to himself as “the Eldest King” (Tolkien, 2006, p. 77, translated by the author of this work) too, for he was created as the first of all the Ainur, like Satan, who is said to be the first of all angels. Consequently to the fall, as soon as he was driven out of Heaven, Satan inhabited the Earth and claimed it to be his property, his kingdom. And in the Bible he is therefore called “the prince of this world” (John 12, 31). Same it is with Melkor, even though he was not forced to leave the “Outer Circles” by anyone and it was his own decision to move to Eä. But in his pride and selfishness he called himself “the Lord of the World” too, as it is several times noted in The Silmarillion. And he cannot be destroyed while the World lasts, same as Satan cannot be destroyed until the Apocalypse.

5.1 Evil versus Good But despite all his attempts and desires, Melkor cannot create anything of his own, no matter how big his power was. This again relates him to Satan who “has no ability to create”10 as well. They can only make, that is only transform and disfigure things that were created by the Creator. Tolkien explained this disability to create in one letter to his reader, 9

see http://www.abarim-publications.com/Meaning/satan.html#.UWBUiZPvjeE see http://www.abarim-publications.com/Meaning/satan.html#.UWBUiZPvjeE

10

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in which he distinguished between creating and making. He notes that creating is “the act of Will of Eru the One that gives Reality to conceptions” (Carpenter, 2006a, p. 190) while making is understood as permissive manufacturing. Only God can create in the true sense of the word, because he is the only one who can give life to non-living things. The Evil simply cannot give life for he has not been given the power. In this way both Melkor’s and Satan’s abilities were limited. And the last point that should be considered is the consequences of Evil’s doings. In The Silmarillion, Melkor, like Satan, often misuses many good qualities in a bad manner; for example, he pretends to be merciful and kind only in order to fool people and to force them to do what he wants. But everything he does always results in misery and torments. However, even all the action of Evil does, after all, contribute to the Creator’s plan. The Christian doctrines say that “God works in all actions of His critters” and that He, “in His almighty Providence, can derive Good from the aftermaths of Evil.” And the Evil cannot in any way thwart God’s plans (Katechizmus Katolíckej cirkvi, 1999, pp. 8687, 104, translated by the author of this work). Everything what Satan does has rather opposite effect and it only multiplies God’s glory. Because in order to heal, what Satan damaged, God again and again shows His prevailing power. And even suffering will be soon or later rewarded by blessing. Tolkien understood this very well and he implemented this theory into his writing. In the scene when Melkor revolted against Ilúvatar by singing to a different tune, Ilúvatar successfully managed to integrate it into his primary melody, so it sounded harmonious. And then he said: “Mighty are the Ainur, and mightiest among them is Melkor; but that he may know, and all the Ainur, that I am Ilúvatar, those things that ye have sung, I will show them forth, that ye may see what ye have done. And thou, Melkor, shalt see that no theme may be played that hath not its uttermost source in me, nor can any alter the music in my despite. For he that attempteth this shall prove but mine instrument in the devising of things more wonderful, which he himself hath not imagined,” (Tolkien, 1992, p. 4-5). And later the allusion to Christian doctrines is even more explicit in Ilúvatar’s words: “These [all critters] too in their time shall find that all that they do redounds at the end only to the glory of my work,” (ibid., p. 36). By this statements Tolkien conveyed the principal belief of Christianity that Evil can do only as much as it has been allowed by God and even then it contributes to His intentions.

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6

THE CHILDREN OF ILÚVATAR The last thing to discuss about the Christian motives within The Silmarillion and

probably the most controversial is the understanding of so-called Ilúvatar’s children, the Elves and Men. The likeness of the term “the children of Ilúvatar” to the term “the children of God”, which is used in Christianity, is obvious. It is generally known, that the children of God are we, the people, and explanation for this is given in the Genesis, which says: “God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him,” (Genesis 1, 27). Because we are like Him in appearance, made in His image, we have the privilege to be called His children. And Tolkien had very similar vision about his children of the Creator. He noted that Elves and Men were called Ilúvatar’s children because they were “his private addition to the Design, by the Creator, and one in which the Valar had no part,” (Carpenter, 2006a, p. 285). In both cases the children originated from their Creator: they inherited his image or arouse from his very own thought.

6.1 Elves and Men However, the most contradictory part of this concept is that in Tolkien’s mythology there were two kinds of the god’s children while Christianity recognizes only one. In The Silmarillion the first children were Elves, the Firstborns, several centuries later followed by Men, therefore called the Followers. The understanding of Men is simple; they represent the same race as we are. Although when the Elves met them for the first time they considered them to be wilder, a little bit more savage than they were and with dark past. But soon the Men’s behaviour developed in the presence of Elves and they are doubtlessly our imaginary ancestors. But a problem appears in the understanding of Elves. Although they are physically the same as Men, something in their nature is different. They are described as beautiful, noble and wise beings with big love to nature and some hidden power. Kreeft says they are semi-angelic creatures (Kreeft, 2005, p. 78). For their immortality, they could seem to readers as angels. But because the angels were already related to the Ainur, such comparison is not relevant. The Elves can by no means represent angels, not even the lowest degree of angels, also because of the fact that they can marry and bear children, what the angels cannot.

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Nevertheless, as Dimitra Fimi noticed and noted in her book Tolkien, Race and Cultural History: “Even if the Elves are not angels or overtly religious [...], they are at least associated with a more spiritual and mystic religious experience,” (Fimi, 2009, p. 207). So another possible interpretation is that the Elves may resemble Men in the Paradise before the Fall. This idea is supported by the fact that they are akin to Men. The purest and innocent Elves may be a good image of us, people, what we would look and be like if the first people did not disobey God by eating fruit from the forbidden tree in the Garden of Eden. Even the mightiest Elves are often depicted as almost unearthly, supernatural beings who can also communicate through minds without speaking aloud. So they could be probably understood as the prototype of people created in God’s image without any deformation by the sin. Only if there were not individuals who prove that even the Elves can be influenced by Evil and consequently do bad things, hate and even kill members of their own race. Therefore, the only solution to this problem must be sought in Tolkien’s own explanation of the understanding of Elves. And that is that Elves and Men just represent two sides of human nature (Carpenter, 2006a, p. 149). This idea is derived from the Christian concept of human being consisting of two parts: the mortal physical body and immortal spiritual soul. So the Men in Tolkien’s mythology should represent the physical side of human, while Elves represent the spiritual side. That is the reason why Elves are depicted as higher and nobler and can better perceive the organisation of creation. For some time they dwelled with the Valar, what the Men never did, and gained most of their knowledge from them. And because they are immortal as the soul is, they live for ages, so their understanding of the world is much deeper than that of Men. They do not bother about unimportant things, because they know that the essential things depend on something else. On the other side, Men are more temperament, easily driven by their desires and less steadfast regarding their opinions. But the most distinguishing characteristic is the mortality of Men. The Bible says that Men became mortal after their Fall. It was a punishment for them. Contrary, Tolkien states that mortality was a gift from Ilúvatar given specially to Men. It is the only thing the Elves envy them, because they cannot depart from this world so easily and go to places beyond it. They are bound to the Earth and its doom. But Men, influenced by Melkor’s lies, stopped believing it to be a gift and started to fear death. Melkor said them that after death there is nothing, what was in contradiction with the truth, which Elves were told by Valar. And the truth was that Ilúvatar intended a great fate for Men after their death. And 28

that is that in the future, what even the wisest cannot foretell, Men will join the Second Music of the Ainur (Tolkien, 1992, p. 36). The idea that there is nothing after death which they were introduces by Melkor is identical with the atheistic view of death. And the idea of Men joining the Second Music is very similar to the Christian doctrine that describes the creation of new Earth after the Apocalypse. Because as it was formerly explained, the Music of the Ainur is the music of creation, so it can be suspected that in the Second Music something new will be created, probably a new world for the Men to dwell in. Similarly, the Bible says that a new world will be created for all those who will be saved, that is, all those who will get to Heaven (Revelation 1, 1-3).

6.2 The concept of Paradise Speaking about the Christian motives, there is one of lesser importance, even though worth mentioning. It is the allusion to Paradise which is in The Silmarillion represented by Valinor, a holy land where the Valar lived. It was actually a continent that lay westward from the Middle-earth. Likewise the biblical Paradise, Eden, it is described as a beautiful and peaceful place full of happiness. The Firstborn lived there for some time, too, and they learnt many things from the Valar and they were content. Compared with Christian teaching, it is quite likely, that the first people could have been learning from angels while they lived in the Paradise. But when they listened to Devil’s suggestion and ate fruit from the forbidden tree, they were cast out from the Paradise and banned to return there. And it is said that at that time the Paradise was removed from the Earth and hidden from people, who cannot reach it during their life since then. Similarly, when Tolkien’s Elves started to listen to Melkor, their evil qualities started to grow. This finally resulted in murdering members of their own race, which may, by the way, remind the biblical fratricide of Abel by Cain. And although the decision to leave Valinor was originally their own will, as a punishment for this killing, they were banned from returning there. However, Valinor was not removed from Arda immediately after this accident, like the Paradise was. It happened so only many ages later because of disobedience of the second children of Ilúvatar. The whole story is really complicated, but in short it was like this: After the greatest war with Melkor, Men were awarded for their help and bravery by a piece of land, an island named Númenor, in sight of the shores of Valinor. But they too 29

were forbidden to enter it, same as the Elves. And long time they did not mind it, until Sauron, Melkor’s follower, came to live with them. He, in the same fashion as Melkor, told them many lies and they listened to him. They stopped believing in Eru, but instead they glorified Sauron and tried to break the ban. The Valar got angry at them for this and only afterwards removed Valinor from the earth, what caused a big flood which buried whole Númenor deep under the water. And ever since then none of Men was able to reach the holy land, because it was no longer placed in this world. Apart from the general likeness of this scene to the story of Paradise, there can also be noticed one allusion to a different event from Bible in it. For the idea of big flood very much resembles the story of Noah and the global flood as a punishment all people’s misbehaviour, when nearly the whole humankind except Noah and his family stopped believing in God’s existence and turned to evil doings. Likewise, the Númenorians, except for Elendil and his family, stopped believing in the might of Valar.

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CONCLUSION The aim of this work was to identify the Christian motives that Tolkien implemented into his book The Silmarillion, and to discuss how much do his visions of the creation of the world correspond with the Christian doctrines. The most important of them were the conceptions of God, Holy Spirit, angels, the Evil, the children of God and Paradise. In my interpretation I used the knowledge of Tolkien’s understanding of the aim of art as he described it in his essay On Fairy Stories. The two most crucial terms in this essay are creation and sub-creation. In Tolkien’s opinion, creation represented the process of making things out of nothing, an ability which only God possesses. Sub-creation then refers to the making of things by man, which is subordinated to God’s will. A specific implication on artists and writers in particular is that with their art they should complement to God’s creation and reveal the ultimate truth, which is innate to every human being irrespective of whether one is a believer or not. In the same manner even pagan mythologies contributed to the celebration of God, as their purpose was to teach people on goodness and morality. In the main part of my work I discussed five key conceptions which are common to both the Christian and Tolkien’s account of the creation of the world, trying to find out their similarities and dissimilarities. Firstly, I focused on Eru, the creator figure from Tolkien’s mythology. It is evident that Eru is the representation of God, because they both are transcendent and almighty. The principle of One God and the only Creator is maintained, too. They are both the only being who can give life to non-living things and they live in a special place above the world. Tolkien even chose the meaning of the Elvish names in such a way that they are very close to the meaning of real God’s names. Then there is the process of Creation. In both cases, the Creation was initiated by god’s exclamation in which he called the thing to existence. Moreover, Eru’s and God’s exclamation sound very similar. They both created first the angelic beings and then the Earth, which was made shapeless and dark. But while the Earth was according to the Bible shaped by God himself, in The Silmarillion it was further formed by the Ainur. The Ainur represent angels: the mightiest of them resemble archangels, and the lower Ainur, called Maiar, resemble the guardian angels. They are spirits like the angels, and non-dying, too. Similarly, they are both used as mediators of god’s will and as tools to fulfil his plans. Like the angels, the Ainur formerly lived above this world. But then they descended to Earth and worked on it and since then they more resemble the ancient Greek 31

or Roman gods, but with more human, or say Christian, face. Out of all the Ainur, three are most outstanding. They are Manvë and Tulkas who impersonate Michael the archangel, the leader of divine army and fighter against the Evil. And female Ainu Varda is an image of Saint Mary, the most beautiful and purest being. Another important motive is the perception of the Holy Spirit. In Tolkien’s work this is represented by the Secret Fire, because the fire is one of the symbols of the Holy Spirit, too. In both cases it is the ultimate source of life and blessing and it was present at the process of creation. Although the Holy Spirit was, according to the Bible, floating above the waters, Tolkien placed his Secret Fire into the middle of the Earth. The Evil is here represented by Melkor who is a personification of Satan. Their names are again very alike in meaning and they have doubtlessly identical nature. They both present the Fallen angel who revolted against God and wanted to replace Him by himself. Melkor as well as Satan enjoys tormenting people, but despite this their doing complements the Creator’s plan and they cannot overcome Him. They cannot create in the sense that they cannot give life; they can only transform and fool. Moreover, the children of Ilúvatar exactly present the idea of the children of God, with only the difference that in Tolkien’s mythology there were two kinds of them. The immortal Elves are understood as the spiritual side of human nature, while the mortal Men represent the physical side. So the Elves are depicted as very intelligent beings interested in higher ideals, while the Men are more easily tempted and driven by their desires. But they were both the private invention of the Creator. And while the Bible states that mortality was a punishment for Men, Tolkien called it a gift because for him death is a way how to get closer to God not only spiritually but also physically. The last idea I discussed was the conception of Paradise, which is in The Silmarillion represented by Valinor, a land where the Ainur lived on this Earth. But same as the Paradise, the children of god were cast out of Valinor because of their disobedience of God and forbidden to enter it again. And similarly like the biblical Paradise, Valinor was removed from the Earth then and cannot be reached by any human during his life. So from all these motives it can be seen that Tolkien’s work has much to give to the readers and as Joseph Pearce noted, “there is a wealth of spiritual meaning to be found in its pages,” (Pearce, 1998, p. 111). In it Tolkien successfully managed to combine the Christian, pagan and partially even scientific theories about the origin of the World, so it can satisfy a wide range of readers. Based on his own theory of how even fiction and mythology can contribute to the revelation of God’s grace, this thesis can confirm Father 32

Murray’s words that Tolkien’s writings are in “a positive compatibility with the order of Grace,” (Carpenter, 2006a, p. 171-172), and showed they do not disturb the traditional Christian perception very much. For, although it is an alternative vision of the creation of the World, it is not retelling of the Biblical story, neither a parody of it. All the alternations which can be observed in Tolkien’s fictive account of the creation of the world have are induced by two major factors. The first is that in The Silmarillion Tolkien consciously attempted to merge two of his most beloved things, religion and old mythology, to show that they do not discredit each other, but rather the contrary - they can well complement each other. The second factor is the fact that Tolkien did not derive his conception solely from the biblical story; which is not an actual historical description and thus not accurate, it is only a metaphorical tale, in which the timing is relative and the events are condensed; but also found much inspiration in the theories of some of the influential Christian philosophers whose ideas, though not canonical, are generally respected in the Church as a divine truth revealed to them in special visions. Indeed, the analyzed part of this book rather shows Tolkien’s devotion to his religion. It can be viewed as an attempt to fulfil his duty of a Christian to spread the good news of Evangelion according to his capability and skills, thus using his gift of art for the benefit of other people. Tolkien’s story of creation is a finely devised way of how to introduce the basics of his faith to a broad audience in a manner acceptable even for non-believers and present them with the artistic value of in his opinion most beautiful part of the True Myth.

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RESUMÉ Tolkienove diela sa už vyše polstoročia tešia nesmiernej čitateľskej obľube, nielen vďaka tomu, že ponúka možnosť úniku z reality do fantastického sveta s nádychom stredoveku plného hrdinských činov, nádherných scenérií a neobyčajných bytostí. Vo veľkej miere sa o ich popularitu nepochybne zaslúžila aj hodnotová náplň kníh. Tolkien nám vo svojich dielach výnimočným umeleckým spôsobom predostiera jeho vlastné hodnoty a životnú filozofiu. Tá bola ovplyvnená predovšetkým jeho vierou a náboženskou príslušnosťou. Tolkien sa vždy hrdo hlásil k Rímsko-katolícemu náboženstvu a viera v Boha zohrávala v jeho živote dôležitú úlohu. Hodnoty, ktorým veril, prirodzene, či už vedome alebo menej uvedomelo, premietal aj do svojich príbehov. Vo svojej práci sme sa preto rozhodli zamerať práve na tento aspekt jeho tvorby. Naším cieľom v nej bolo zmapovať najvýznamnejšie kresťanské motívy, ktorými sa Tolkien inšpiroval v úvodných kapitolách jeho knihy Silmarillion, konkrétne v kapitolách Ainulindalë a Valaquenta. Túto časť sme si zvolili z dôvodu, že inšpirácia kresťanskou doktrínou je v nich najvýraznejšia. Opisuje v nich totiž stvorenie sveta Eä v mytológii Stredozeme, ktoré je v jeho podaní v mnohom podobné biblickému príbehu Stvorenia, ako ho prezentuje prvá kniha Starého Zákona, Genezis. Našou snahou v tejto práci je identifikovať a analyzovať tie motívy, ktoré prevzal z kresťanstva, preskúmať, ako ich modifikoval a akým spôsobom použil vo svojej knihe, a na základe Tolkienovho vlastného chápania významu umeleckej a najmä spisovateľskej činnosti nakoniec určiť, aký zmysel vlastne má využitie tejto analógie. Názory nábožensky založených kritikov zaoberajúcich sa Tolkienovou tvorbou sa totiž v tejto oblasti líšia: zatiaľ, čo jedni to pokladajú za prejav jeho zapálenia pre vieru a snahu priblížiť jej krásu širšiemu okruhu ľudí, tí ortodoxnejší považujú takúto „fantastizáciu“ biblického príbehu za poburujúcu a dehonestujúcu. Aby sme dokázali lepšie pochopiť Tolkienov zámer v tejto veci, musíme sa najskôr pozrieť na to, ako on sám chápal podstatu tvorenia a zmysel literárnej fikcie ako takej, čomu sa venujeme v prvej kapitole tejto práce. Tolkien vo svojej eseji On Fairy Stories podrobne vysvetľuje význam fikcie, mytológie a rozprávok v poznávaní sveta a ich vzťah k tvorivosti, na základe čoho zároveň definuje princípy svojej vlastnej práce. Opierajúc sa aj o svoju vieru, Tolkien rozlišuje dva významy tvorenia: creation - tvorenie v pravom slova zmysle, a sub-creation - sekundárne tvorenie. Tvoriť v pravom zmysle slova dokáže podľa neho jedine Boh, lebo iba on jediný dokáže vytvárať niečo z ničoho a iba on dokáže dať veciam život. Sekundárne tvorenie je tvorenie uskutočňované človekom, ktoré je však 34

podriadené Božiemu plánu. Človek má právo, ba priam povinnosť tvoriť, pretože sám bol stvorený na obraz Boha - prvotného tvorcu, a svojou tvorivou činnosťou má teda prispievať k šíreniu poznania Boha a jeho oslave, v čom Tolkien vidí skutočný zmysel života. Obzvlášť sú k tomu povolaní najmä umelci a spisovatelia. Pri definovaní sekundárneho stvorenia však čiastočne vychádza z náboženskej premisy, ktorú vyznávali niektorí z cirkevných otcov, že človek nie je schopný sám od seba vytvoriť nič unikátne, pretože všetky jeho nápady sú už od počiatku súčasťou Božieho plánu stvorenia, a teda ľudské tvorenie je iba objavovaním univerzálneho Božieho poznania v samom sebe. Toto univerzálne poznanie je prístupné každému človeku, keďže všetci sme Božie deti, v závislosti od jeho individuálnych schopností a vyspelosti. V súvislosti s tým sa dostáva aj k problematike pohanských mytológií. Tie, hoci zbožšťujú bežné objekty a prírodné sily v dôsledku vlastnej nevedomosti, nepovažuje z náboženského hľadiska za celkom pomýlené a zavrhnutia hodné. Práve naopak, tvrdí, že kvôli tomu, že hlavnou úlohou mýtov bolo najmä učiť starovekých ľudí rozlišovať medzi dobrom a zlom a poúčať ich o hodnotách a tom, čo je morálne správne, vlastne aj pohanské mýty do istej miery odhaľujú to isté univerzálne Božie poznanie a prispievajú tak k oslave Boha. Aj preto Tolkien považuje mýtus za najvhodnejšiu literárnu formu na prezentovanie pravdy a dôležitých hodnôt aj v súčasnosti, lebo je najprirodzenejšou a človeku najbližšou formou literatúry. Veď napokon aj biblické príbehu sú v podstate mytológia, ibaže ako vraví Tolkien, „pravdivá mytológia“, ktorá sa naozaj historicky odohrala. V zvyšnej časti našej práce sa už venujeme analýze jednotlivých kľúčových prvkov zo Silmarillionu, ktoré sú založené na kresťanských motívoch. Celkovo sme identifikovali päť hlavných oblastí analógie: osoba stvoriteľa, akt stvorenia, duchovné nad-bytosti, zosobnenie Zla a stvoriteľove deti. Kapitola dva za zameriava na identifikáciu znakov spoločných bohu Stredozeme - Eru Ilúvatarovi a kresťanskému Bohu. Analógia medzi nimi je nespochybniteľná. Eru, rovnako ako Boh, je bytosť transcendentná a všemohúca a rovnako jedine on je schopný vdýchnuť stvoreným veciam život. V Silmarillione nikde nie je popísaná jeho konkrétna podoba podobne, ako ani Starý Zákon nikdy neposkytuje zobrazenie Boha. V Biblii je to v dôsledku toho, že Boha nikdy nikto nevidela, a teda nikto nevie ako vyzerá, čo je aj dôvodom, že starozákonní Židia akýkoľvek pokus o jeho zobrazenie považovali za rúhanie a trestali. V Silmarillione môže byť nevyjadrenie výzoru boha dôsledkom toho, že príbeh je vnímaný ako by bol podávaný z pohľadu Elfov, ktorí však tiež do kontaktu s Erum nikdy priamo neprišli. Tolkien zachováva aj princíp jediného boha a jediného stvoriteľa, ktorý existoval sám od seba už pred počiatkom času a sídli 35

mimo stvoreného sveta. Dokonca aj význam mien Eru Ilúvatar, „Jeden/Ten ktorý je sám“ a „Otec všehomíra“, sa zhoduje s titulmi, aké sa v Biblii používajú na označenie Boha. Jedinú výraznú odlišnosť môžeme vidieť v tom, že zatiaľ čo kresťanský Boh je v Biblii zobrazený ako aktívne zasahujúci a ovplyvňujúci dianie na Zemi, Tolkienov Eru je po stvorení vnímaný skôr pasívne, keďže v neskoršej histórii Stredozeme sa prakticky vôbec neobjavuje. Toto môže byť chápané sčasti aj ako deistický pohľad na úlohu boha, ale aj ako obraz Boha, aký je v skutočnosti mimo udalostí opísaných v Biblii, a teda že priamymi zásahom alebo zázrakmi vstupuje do bežného života iba minimálne, ale ovplyvňuje ho skôr ako Prozreteľnosť. Druhá kapitola zahŕňa aj podkapitolu, ktorá sa zaoberá samotným aktom stvorenia. V oboch prípadoch, pri biblickom stvorení ako aj v Silmarillione, stvoriteľ povolal veci k životu veľmi podobnou výzvou, ba priam až príkazom. V oboch prípadoch taktiež boli najskôr stvorené anjelské bytosti, až potom samotný hmotný svet. Tolkienova chronológia stvorenia sa však značne odlišuje od tej biblickej, keďže v jeho diele môžeme napríklad vidieť, že živé bytosti, vrátane „božích detí“ boli stvorené skôr než svetlo a hviezdy. ďalšou významnou odlišnosťou je aj to, že v Tolkienovom mýte sa na tvorení sveta priamo podieľali aj anjelské bytosti Ainur, pričom podľa Biblie bolo dielo stvorenia výlučne v kompetencii Boha. Tolkien však mohol pri svojej interpretácii opäť vychádzať skôr z názorov niektorých veľkých cirkevných mysliteľov, ktorí zastávali názor, že aj anjeli boli účastní na procese stvorenia a pomáhali pritom Bohu. Nemenej dôležitým činiteľom Stvorenia je, samozrejme, Duch Svätý. Analógii tajného plameňa (inde preloženého ako Oheň) s ním sa venuje tretia kapitola. Oheň, respektíve plameň je v Biblii symbolom Ducha Svätého, takže v tomto prípade je symbolika Tolkienovho tajného plameňa zrejmá. Navyše, je rovnako zdrojom života a požehnania a zohrával významnú úlohu pri stvorení sveta. Rozdiel je iba v jeho lokalizácii vo svete - o Duchu Svätom sa v Biblii píše, že sa pri Stvorení vznášal nad vodami; Tolkien však uvádza, že tajný plameň bol najskôr s Erum a keď bola stvorená Zem bol od jej počiatku umiestnený v jej strede. Takto teda spája predstavu plameňa ako božského zdroja života s vedeckým chápaním stavby zemegule, v ktorej strede sa nachádza žeravé lávové jadro. Interpretáciou bytostí Ainur sa zaoberá štvrtá kapitola. Ako už bolo spomenuté, Ainur sú chápaní ako anjelské bytosti. Rôzne stupne Ainur reprezentujú rôzne stupne anjelov: hierarchicky vyšší a mocnejší Valar sú analógiou archanjelov, keďže oni sú hlavnými mediátormi Eruho vôle na zemi, a nižší a slabší Maiar môžu byť interpretovaní 36

ako anjeli strážni, lebo ich úlohou je ochraňovať Eruho deti, Elfov a Ľudí, a pomáhať im v boji proti zlu. Rovnako ako anjeli, aj Ainur sú duchovné a nesmrteľné bytosti, ktoré žili na počiatku so stvoriteľom mimo stvoreného sveta. Keď však zostúpili na zem, aby ju pomohli vybudovať, prevzali na seba fyzické telo. Odvtedy svojou funkciou pripomínajú skôr pohanských bohov z antických Rímskych či Gréckych mýtov. Každý z najvyšších Valarov má v kompetencii nejaké prírodné sily, ktorým vládne. na rozdiel od tradičných pohanských bohov, ktorí sú často zobrazovaní aj s veľmi negatívnymi vlastnosťami ako prchkosť, chamtivosť či krutosť. Tolkienovi Valari sa vyznačujú i vlastnosťami síce prísnych no láskavých bohov, ako milosrdenstvo, čo sú typické vlastnosti kresťanského Boha. Sú teda akousi snahou o zjednotenie pohanských a kresťanských motívov. Špeciálne sa v tejto kapitole spomínajú ešte traja Valari - Manvë, Tulkas a Varda, u ktorých môžeme pozorovať mimoriadnu náboženskú analógiu. Manvë a Tulkas sú vnímaní ako impersonalizácia archanjela Michaela ako vodcu Božieho vojska a hlavného bojovníka proti zosobneniu Zla, Satanovi. Podobne Manvë a Tulkas stáli v čele armády, ktorá bojovala proti zosobneniu zla v mytológii Stredozeme, Melkorovi. Varda ako najvyššia z Valier, Ainur ženskej podstaty, je zase obrazom Panny Márie. Rovnako ako Mária, Varda je v Stredozemi považovaná za najkrajšiu a najčistejšiu bytosť, kráľovnú hviezd a snehobielu pani, ku ktorej sa utiekajú všetci sužovaní nejakými ťažkosťami. Ako už bolo zmienené, hlavným predstaviteľom Zla je v Silmarillione Melkor, ktorý je analógiou Satana. V piatej kapitole ako ich hlavné spoločné znaky uvádzame, že obaja predstavujú padlé anjelské bytosti, ktoré sa na počiatku vzbúrili proti svojmu stvoriteľovi, odmietli spolupracovať na jeho pláne a chceli sami vládnuť stvorenému svetu, za čo boli uvrhnutí do vyhnanstva na Zemi. Podobnosť si môžeme všimnúť aj vo význame mena Melkor, „ten, ktorý rastie v moci“. Melkor bol najmocnejší spomedzi všetkých Ainur, rovnako ako o Satanovi sa tvrdí, že bol najmocnejším anjelom. Melkor, ako aj Satan, rád trápi a mučí ľudí. Navyše, v oboch prípadoch Zlo túži byť pánom stvorenstva, samo však nedokáže tvoriť nič vlastné, nedokáže dať život, dokáže iba napodobňovať, ničiť, zohavovať a klamať. Ďalším motívom prevzatým z kresťanstva, čo sa týka chápania zla, je jeho neustály súboj s dobrom. Zlo sa síce vzpiera stvoriteľovmu plánu, nikdy ho však nemôže premôcť a v konečnom dôsledku vlastne slúži k jeho naplneniu. Tolkien tento princíp pekne vykreslil na príklade Eruho stvoriteľskej melódie, ktorú sa Melkor snažil narušiť, Eru však jeho nesúladnú melódiu vždy dokázal zakomponovať do svojej tak, aby vytvorila harmóniu. Poslednými motívmi, ktorými sme sa v našej práci venovali, sú koncept 37

stvoriteľových detí a raja. Ilúvatarove deti, Elfi a Ľudia, viac-menej zodpovedajú konceptu Božích detí. Jediný rozdiel je v tom, že Tolkien uvádza až dva rôzne druhy božích detí. To, že Ľudia ako rasa v Stredozemi predstavujú obyčajných ľudí, teda nás, je samozrejmé. Problém nastáva s chápaním Elfov. Nesmrteľní Elfi by sa na prvý pohľad síce dali interpretovať ako anjeli, keďže sme už ale vysvetlili, že analógiou anjelov sú v Tolkienovom svete Ainur, musíme zvážiť Tolkienovo vlastné chápanie týchto dvoch rás. Podľa neho Elfi predstavujú duchovnú stránku človeka, a Ľudia fyzickú. Z toho dôvodu sú Elfi vykreslení ako veľmi inteligentné bytosti zaujímajúce sa o vyššie ideály, zatiaľ čo Ľudia sú ľahšie ovplyvniteľní, ovládaní svojimi túžbami a menej odolní voči nástrahám zla. Obe rasy sú však osobným výtvorom Eru stvoriteľa, na ktorom sa nepodieľali žiadni Ainur. Podobne aj človek je vlastným výtvorom Boha, stvorený na jeho obraz. Čo sa Ľudí samotných týka, najdôležitejší rozdiel nachádzame v ponímaní smrti a smrteľnosti. Zatiaľ čo Biblia uvádza, že smrteľnosť je trestom človeka za jeho prvotný hriech v Raji, Tolkien ju vníma skôr ako dar, chápajúc smrť ako spôsob ako sa dostať bližšie k Bohu, nielen duchovne ale aj fyzicky. Posledná kapitola sa okrem toho zaoberá ešte konceptom raja. Ten v Silmarillione reprezentuje Valinor, kraj, v ktorom na Zemi prebývali Ainur. Rovnako ako aj Božie deti Adam a Eva boli vyhnané z Rajskej záhrady, tak aj v Tolkienovej mytológii boli Ilúvatarove deti vyhnané z Valinoru v dôsledku ich neposlušnosti a nedôvere voči bohu. V Tolkienovej verzii síce dochádza k výraznej modifikácii celého príbehu vyhnania z Raja, čo je spôsobené faktom, že v jeho verzii stvorenia sveta existujú dva druhy Ilúvatarových detí, hlavná myšlienka, že ľudia sa už nikdy nemôžu vrátiť do tejto blaženej zeme, zostáva zachovaná. Analogicky k biblickému príbehu, aj v mytológii Stredozeme bola táto rajská zem po uvalení zákazu vstúpenia do nej na ľudí odstránená z povrchu zemského a počas života ju žiaden smrteľník nemôže nájsť. Na záver môžeme povedať, že Tolkienovi sa v úvodných kapitolách Silmarillionu mimoriadnym spôsobom podarilo skombinovať kresťanské motívy s pohanskými, a v niektorých prípadoch dokonca aj s vedeckými poznatkami o vzniku sveta. Na základe jeho vlastnej teórie o tom, ako aj fikcia či mytológia môže prispievať k odhaľovaniu univerzálneho Božieho poznania, môžeme teda tvrdiť, že jeho využitie elementov kresťanskej tradície a ich modifikácia a implementácia do fiktívnej mytológie nie je znevažovaním tohto náboženstva. Práve naopak, sa nám skôr potvrdila myšlienka tej skupiny kritikov spomínaných v úvode, ktorí Tolkienovo poňatie mýtu o stvorení sveta považujú za prejav jeho náboženskej oddanosti. Nie je to iba jednoduché alegorické 38

prerozprávanie biblického príbehu, ale ani paródia naň. Odlišnosti, ktoré môžeme detektovať v tomto diele sú spôsobené jednak autorovým zámerným prepájaním náboženských a mytologických motívov s cieľom ukázať, že sa navzájom nevylučujú, ale práve naopak, sa môžu celkom dobre dopĺňať; a jednak tým, že pri písaní sa vo veľkej miere inšpiroval aj nekanonickými, no cirkvou rešpektovanými teóriami niektorých veľkých cirkevných mysliteľov, ktoré nám na základe svojich vízií poskytujú v niektorých ohľadoch detailnejší popis stvorenia sveta ako je ten uvedený v knihe Genezis. Tolkien nám v Silmarillione ponúka pohľad na krásu stvorenia v novom umeleckom šate a vo forme, ktorá je prijateľná a nijako nepohoršujúca dokonca aj pre neveriacich ľudí. Môžeme ho teda vnímať ako snahu o naplnenie autorovej kresťanskej povinnosti jednak podeliť sa o svoj dar - spisovateľský talent - ktorý dostal od Boha pre obohatenie iných ľudí, a jednak šíriť správne hodnoty a evanjelizovať v rámci jeho schopností a možností.

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RESOURCES Books Katechizmus Katolíckej cirkvi, 1999, Trnava: Spolok svätého Vojtecha, 1999. 918 pp. ISBN 80-7162-259-1 King James Bible, [online], 2000, London: Thomas Nelson, 2000. ISBN 0-8407-2684-8, online available at: http://www.kingjamesbibleonline.org/ Sväté Písmo, 2001, Trnava: Spolok svätého Vojtecha, 2001. 2623 pp. ISBN 80-7162-281-8 CARPENTER, H. (ed.), The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, 2006a, London: HarperCollins, 1981. 502 pp. ISBN 978-0-261-10265-1 CARPENTER, H., J.R.R Tolkien: A Biography, 2002, London: HarperCollins, 2002. 384 pp. ISBN 978-0-261-10245-3 CARPENTER, H., The Inklings, 2006b, London: HarperCollins, 1978, 287 pp. ISBN 9780-00-774869-3 FIMI, D., Tolkien, Race and Cultural History, 2009, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009. 240 pp. ISBN 978-0-230-21951-9 GARTH, J., Tolkien and the Great War, 2003, New York: Houghton Miffin Company, 2003. 398 pp. ISBN 978-0-618-57481-0 KREEFT, P., The Philosophy of Tolkien: The Worldview Behind the Lord of the Rings, 2005, Ignatius Press, 2005. 237 pp. ISBN 1-58617-025-2 MERTLÍK, R., Staroveké báje a povesti, 1988, Bratislava: Tatran, 1988. 399 pp. PEARCE, J., Tolkien: Man and Myth, 1998, London: HarperCollins, 1998. 424 pp. ISBN 0-00-274018-4 SAMET, J., 2008. The Historical Controversies Surrounding Innateness. In The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. [online]. Fall 2008, online available at: http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2008/entries/innateness-history/ SHIPPEY, T., J.R.R. Tolkien: Author of the Century, 2000, New York: Houghton Miffin Company, 2000. 347 pp. ISBN 978-0-618-25759-1 40

SHIPPEY, T., The Road to Middle-earth, 2003, New York: Houghton Miffin Company, 2003. 398 pp. ISBN 978-0-618-25760-7 SV. AUGUSTÍN, Vyznania, 1997, Bratislava: LÚČ, 1997. 453 pp. ISBN 80-7114-185-2 TOLKIEN, J.R.R., Nedokončené príbehy, 2006, Bratislava: Slovart, 2006. 477 pp. ISBN 80-8085-113-1 TOLKIEN, J.R.R., The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, 2011, London: HarperCollins, 2011. 424 pp. ISBN 978-0-261-10357-3 TOLKIEN, J.R.R., The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, 2011, London: HarperCollins, 2011. 464 pp. ISBN 978-0-261-10359-7 TOLKIEN, J.R.R., The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, 2011, London: HarperCollins, 2011. 352 pp. ISBN 978-0-261-10358-0 TOLKIEN, J.R.R., The Silmarillion, 1992, London: HarperCollins, 1992. 480 pp. ISBN 978-0-261-10273-6 TOLKIEN, J.R.R., Tree and Leaf, 1988, London: HarperCollins, 2001. 150 pp. ISBN 978-0-00-710504-5 WHITE, M., Tolkien: A Biography, 2001, New York: New American Library, 2001. 292 pp. ISBN 978-0-451-21242-9 Online sources http://www.abarim-publications.com/Meaning/satan.html#.UWLeRZPvjeF http://biblesuite.com/greek/1228.htm http://catholic.archives.nd.edu/cgi-bin/lookup.pl?stem=luc&ending= http://www.frantiskani.sk/kazatel/marianske/0805.htm www.tolkiengateway.net www.tolkiensociety.org http://www.zivotopisysvatych.sk/michal-archanjel/ 41

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