Category: JRR Tolkien

Gandalf and Aragorn, Frodo and Sam, Merry and Pippin are household names now, thanks to the blockbuster film trilogy “The Lord of the Rings.” But in the 1960s, when J.R.R. Tolkien‘s masterful fantasy was first published in paperback in the United States, the books were more underground classic than mass market marvel. Ralph Wood stumbled upon them as a ’60s-era graduate student and was immediately taken by the richness of the world Tolkien created. But he saw more in the heroic struggle between good and evil than mere skilled storytelling. There was a profound Christian message in the text as

A Dutch church that held a Harry Potter mass last year is now planning to celebrate a Lord of the Rings mass. The Rev Jaap Ridderbos says the mass at the Gorechtchurch, in Haren, is meant to appeal to young people. Rev Ridderbos says he has spent more than a year trying to find Christian explanations for what happened in the Tolkien books. “Did you know Tolkien was a good Christian all his life?” he asked Groninger internet courant. He plans to show scenes from the film in church and point out comparisons between Tolkien’s books and the Bible.