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Tolkien and Chesterton: Some Analogies Volume 12 Number 1 Article 6 10-15-1985 Tolkien and Chesterton: Some Analogies Thomas Egan Follow this and additional works at: https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore Part of the Children's and Young Adult Literature Commons Recommended Citation Egan, Thomas (1985) "Tolkien and Chesterton: Some Analogies," Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature: Vol. 12 : No. 1 , Article 6. Available at: https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore/vol12/iss1/6 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Mythopoeic Society at SWOSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature by an authorized editor of SWOSU Digital Commons. An ADA compliant document is available upon request. For more information, please contact [email protected]. To join the Mythopoeic Society go to: http://www.mythsoc.org/join.htm Mythcon 51: A VIRTUAL “HALFLING” MYTHCON July 31 - August 1, 2021 (Saturday and Sunday) http://www.mythsoc.org/mythcon/mythcon-51.htm Mythcon 52: The Mythic, the Fantastic, and the Alien Albuquerque, New Mexico; July 29 - August 1, 2022 http://www.mythsoc.org/mythcon/mythcon-52.htm Abstract Examines links between Chesterton and Tolkien “developing from a mutually strong religious conviction as regards their Catholicism, especially in its medieval historical experience.” Sees a number of parallels between Chesterton’s poem “The Ballad of the White Horse” and the values and events of Tolkien’s major work. Additional Keywords Chesterton, G.K.—Influence on J.R.R. olkien;T Chesterton, G.K. The Ballad of the White Horse (poem); Tolkien, J.R.R.—Influence of G.K. Chesterton This article is available in Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature: https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore/vol12/iss1/6 Page 28 MYTHLORE 43: Autumn 1985 Tolkien and Chesterton: Some Analogies Thomas Egan The influence of Gilbert Keith Chesterton on shires, small towns, eccentric customs and laws; the modern writers has traversed some unusual corners: sense of propriety everywhere and lack of ideology, and Karel Capek (science fiction), Max Beerbohm (short finally, the loyalty/love for "hearth and home." Both story of quiet irony), George Bernard Shaw (plays of saw moral and religious values embedded deeply in the drama/comedy), C.S. Lewis (theological apologetics), above. (They rejected the political/social ideal of a and Evelyn Waugh (satirical novel) among others. So far Great Britain with its world-girdling empire where "the though, no one has gone into the relationship and/or Sun never sets" and a society of constant change due to sim ilarities between Chesterton's fantasy and that of Industrial Progress). Yet Tolkien could not bring J.R.R. Tolkien — the world of "M iddle-earth." himself to the kind of public apologetics Chesterton constantly indulged. [3] I hope to show the links as developing from a mutually strong religous conviction as regards their Like Chesterton, Tolkien held no opinion Catholicism, especially in its medieval historical half-heartedly, but his realization of the corruption experience. Then, Tolkien's philosophy of fantasy that lies about each aspect of God's creation, literature will be matched to Chesterton's fictional including human "free-w ill," made him attempt to avoid work, most particularly the epic poem, "The Ballad of in his fantasy fiction the clear-cut battle-cry of the White Horse". The latter bears not a little "Cross and Crusade" that Chesterton's fantasy novels resemblance to Middle-earth and its turbulent history and Father Brown short stories portray. The theme is and figures. A study of both should give us a better not so much Heaven versus Hell, but Purgatory — the understanding of how modern myth works. need to purge oneself through pain and sacrifice in this life and in the next. Pain here has a purpose, In terms of background influences both of these sorrow a transcendent meaning — and this Tolkien w ill men came to stress certain common themes and ideas for make his key to the developing Mythos of M iddle-earth. their fantasy fiction despite sharply contrasting [ 4 ] lifestyles. Chesterton (1874-1936) was always the fiercely combative journalist, quick to engage in To this Purgatory theme Tolkien added his public controversy (and bring it into his fantasy scholarship in medieval studies and linguistics: the works). He was the eternal optim ist, cheerful and witty religious ideals of medieval Catholicism brought forth to a fault. And an unashamed "medievalist" as a a rich tradition of Natural Law, "right reason" as it corrective to the public life of his day. [1] applied to the core workings of human life in both its practical and spiritual dimension. All the major John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (1892-1973) on the other studies of Tolkien to date stress this influence of hand was the eternal scholar, a quiet introspective Catholicism and its view of Natural Law in the workings teacher of ancient languages and medieval culture. His of M iddle-earth. [5] beliefs stressed a sense of loss, the tragic quality in life that so many critcs have noted in his Middle-earth The result, though, has an unusual twist for fiction. [2] Of course, Tolkien was never a readers and critics alike: Tolkien's decision to philosophical pessimist, nor was Chesterton ever so deliberately avoid overt religion in his Middle-earth foolish as to believe transcendent evil could be saga. There are no references to Christ or Catholicism laughed away with clever w it. in his pages, and only one reference to God directly ("The One") in his The Lord of the Rings (in an The central link between the two men was their appendix). Yet Middle-earth's social structure of religion. Both were converts to Catholicism. Chesterton varied beings, its arguments over power, authority and converted only after a long internal intellectual free-choice, the assumption of a basic moral code of struggle as an adult in his 30s (formally only in 1922 absolute values to be accepted or rejected are things at age 48). Tolkien, though, converted as a child along deeply linked to traditional Catholic views of with his mother in 1900 at age eight. Both felt the metaphysics and Natural Law. Tolkien adapts to his sharp loneliness of their religious situation in a tales the "dress" of life-styles of medieval northern non-Catholic, often hostile, English culture. But both Europe. The life style of the modern and even the were fervent believers — without" lapsing, into the mire ancient city are alien to Middle-earth — as it is to of fanaticism, they both felt that their Catholicism Chesterton's fantasy works. [6] should form the basis of one's total life. Chesterton's works all testify to this, and his Autobiography lets The religious coherence between Chesterton's his deepest religious convictions shine forth in fantasy and that of Tolkien is dependent on this shared d e t a i l . assumption of the medieval Schoolmen's use of Natural Law. Tolkien's fear that his Christian ideals could be Tolkien's position is more complex withall than turned into allegory and a form of clever propaganda Chesterton's. He believed in a common assumption with against the unwary (one of his criticism s against C.S. GKC that the enemies of ordinary decent life were the Lewis' Narnia tales — as reported by Humphrey enemies of the Faith, that England and the Western Carpenter in The Inklings) made him grasp this theme of nations in general were threatened by a series of a Natural Law "environment" for his Mythos. Medieval growing errors and conceits we can call "secular philosophers accepted the unity of all aspects of humanism." Both saw the West as a marred and hidden Truth, assuming a hierarchy of pre-Christian values Christendom of independent nations; religious which embodied im plicitly Christian beliefs. Thus, most enthusiasm here mixed for both writers with a fierce of the prominent pagan philosophers like Socrates, local patriotism, a pride in ethnic heritage or Plato, Aristotle, Seneca, the Stoics, etc. were "roots." Both loved the "little England" of rustic considered pre-figurements of teachings of the Church; MYTHLORE 43: Autumn 1985 Page 29 most pagan cultures were assumed to have a greater or above all else to regain a clear view: — the need for lesser degree of Natural Law truth within them but recovery of the wonder-of-life: clouded by men's sins and passions. Within this understanding medieval w riters could create works full Of course, fairy-stories are not the of im plicit acceptance of orthodox doctrine but without only means of recovery, or prophylactic overt references to the Church of revealed doctrine: against loss. Humility is not enough. And works ranging from Boethius' On the Consolation of there is (especially for the humble) Philosophy (A.D. 524) to St. Thomas More' s A Dialogue Mooreeffoc, or Chestertonian Fantasy. of Comfort (1534); from St. Thomas Aquinas' solemn Mooreeffoc is a fantastic word, but it could Summa Contra Gentiles (pure Aristotlean reason) to the be seen written up in every town in this raucous animal fables and fabliaux of 1300-1500. As a land. It is Coffee-room, viewed from the living culture, medieval Christendom absorbed large inside through a glass door, as it was seen elements of pagan culture without serious complaint. by Dickens on a dark London day; and it was Ancient mythic figures and heroes were recast into used by Chesterton to denote the queerness of Christianized literary uses (e.g.
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