“Lewis understood evil as ‘an
objective power in the world, waging a war for individual souls. It seeks to
create a society of slaves, ruled by despots, and ‘held together entirely by
fear and greed.’” – Joseph Loconte*
I
first read Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings
in January of 1971, a time of incredible disillusionment, especially among
young people. Vietnam was a debacle; the “All you need is love” crowd was still
reeling with the news that at a Rolling Stones concert (1969), the security
team (Hells Angels: who could have ever guessed that something would go wrong?)
had killed four people; at Kent State (1970) National guardsmen had fired 67
rounds in 13 seconds, killing four unarmed students, wounding 10 others, leaving
one with permanent paralysis; and let’s just say things were soon to go from
bad to worse for President Nixon.
O.
And let us not forget the book authored by Hal Lindsey, The Late Great Planet Earth (pub. 1970), pronouncing that God was
about to call the game due to darkness, and was instructing millions of readers
that the world going down the toilet was awesome because it meant Christians
were about to escape (via the
rapture) to heaven. “Glory be!”
Is
it any wonder that despair, disillusionment, and cynicism, were the default
mindsets of the day? Granted, the “rapture” crowd would take a little longer to
become disillusioned when, after some years later, they woke up and realized,
Dammit, we’re still here and have to deal with this mess.
For
me, reading Tolkien’s epic story was nothing short of an elixir. Over the
previous decades, such had been the experience of those reading Lewis and
Tolkien. There is a Great War raging around the world, presenting each and
every person with a choice: join the Dark Lord Sauron or follow The Men of Aragorn,
son of Arathorn, into battle; submit to the wicked White Witch who had placed a
curse upon Narnia, whereby it was always winter but never Christmas, or follow
Aslan.
“The
most influential Christian authors of the twentieth century believed that every
human soul was caught up in a very great story: a fearsome war against a Shadow
of Evil that has invaded the world to enslave the sons and daughters of Adam.
Yet those who resist the Shadow are assured that they will not be left alone,
they will be given the gift of friendship amid their struggles and grief. Even
more, they will find the grace and strength to persevere, to play their part in
the story, however long it endures and wherever it may lead them.” (Loconte)
Many
of those who had survived WWI saw nothing heroic about the “folly of war” and,
as was my generation, were drowning in disillusionment. But, as veterans who
had seen the same horrors and sorrows, Lewis and Tolkien set out to “recall the
courage, sacrifice, and the friendships that made it endurable.” (Loconte) In
their stories, each author shows the reader that there is a war that is always
upon us, a war where, if we so choose, we can engage in Heroic Quests where we exhibit
courage, sacrifice, and nobility.
“Retrieving
the medieval concept of the heroic quest – reinventing it for the modern mind –
is one of the signal achievements of their work. Whether in epics such as Beowulf or romances like Malory’s Morte d’Arthur, Tolkien and Lewis both
found in medieval literature a set of motifs and ideals worth recalling. More
than that, they believed the genre offered a tonic for the spiritual malaise of
the modern age.” (Loconte)
Do
we choose to go on a Heroic Quest with our Band of Brothers, fighting against
injustice, cruelty, and tyranny, or do we fall in with Sauron and the White
Witch? A war is upon us that cannot be avoided. All that is left us is
answering the question: To whom and what do we pledge our lives, our fortunes,
and our sacred honor?
* “A Hobbit, A Wardrobe,
and a Great War: How J.R.R Tolkien and C.S. Lewis Rediscovered Faith,
Friendship, and Heroism in the Cataclysm of 1914-1918,” Nelson Books, 2015
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Post: A Hobbit, A Wardrobe, and a Great War: The Significance of Insignificant
Hobbits and Children
Copyright,
Monte E Wilson, 2015
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