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J. R. R. Tolkien was a devout Roman Catholic from boyhood, and he described The Lord of the Rings in particular as a "fundamentally religious and Catholic work; unconsciously so at first, but consciously in the revision". [1] [T 1] While he insisted it was not an allegory, it contains numerous themes from Christian theology. These include the ...
He described The Lord of the Rings as "fundamentally" Christian, and there are many Christian themes in that work. He wrote in a letter to his close friend and Jesuit priest, Robert Murray: [T 1] The Lord of the Rings is of course a fundamentally religious and Catholic work; unconsciously so at first, but consciously in the revision. That is ...
Scholars and critics have identified many themes of The Lord of the Rings, a major fantasy novel by J. R. R. Tolkien, including a reversed quest, the struggle of good and evil, death and immortality, fate and free will, the danger of power, and various aspects of Christianity such as the presence of three Christ figures, for prophet, priest, and king, as well as elements such as hope and ...
J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy books on Middle-earth, especially The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion, drew on a wide array of influences including language, Christianity, mythology, archaeology, ancient and modern literature, and personal experience.
The Lord of the Rings became immensely popular in the 1960s and has remained so ever since, ranking as one of the most popular works of fiction of the 20th century, judged by both sales and reader surveys. [141] In the 2003 "Big Read" survey conducted by the BBC, The Lord of the Rings was found to be the UK's "Best-loved Novel". [142]
The Lord of the Rings is an epic [1] high fantasy novel [a] written by English author and scholar J. R. R. Tolkien. Set in Middle-earth , the story began as a sequel to Tolkien's 1937 children's book The Hobbit but eventually developed into a much larger work.
The Lord of the Rings is interlaced in medieval style. The Silmarillion has a medieval cosmology. The Lord of the Rings makes use of many borrowings from Beowulf, especially in the culture of the Riders of Rohan, as well as medieval weapons and armour, feudal allegiance, heraldry, languages including Old English and Old Norse, and magic.
A quality of literature that Tolkien particularly prized, and sought to achieve in The Lord of the Rings, was the impression of depth, of hidden vistas into ancient history. He found this especially in Beowulf , but also in other works that he admired, such as Virgil 's Aeneid , Shakespeare 's Macbeth , Sir Orfeo , and Grimms' Fairy Tales . [ 31 ]