投稿類別: 英文寫作 篇名: The Religious Elements in The Lord of the Rings 作者: 洪詠惠。國立師範大學附屬高級中學。高二 1318 班 指導老師: 余佳玟 老師 The Religious Elements in The Lord of The Ring I. Introduction Motivation and Purpose of the Study In 2001, when The Lord of The Rings was shot into a movie trilogy, I was fascinated. For more than forty times I’ve watched the trilogy, memorizing every quote and detail. After the story was rooted in my mind, I started to get interested in the ingredients that influenced the author while he built this epic fantasy. John Ronald Reuel Tolkien was an English writer, poet, philologist, and university professor, best known as the author of the classic high fantasy works The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion. (Biography,1977) The background of The Lord of the Rings was located in Middle-Earth, a world Tolkien created with fictive linguistics, geography, races, history and culture. In other words, Tolkien has originated an integrity world. (Biography,1977) The Lord of the Rings developed as a personal exploration by Tolkien of his interests in philology, religion, fairy tales, Norse and general Germanic mythology, and also Celtic, Slavic, Persian, Greek, and Finnish mythology, and the Anglo-Saxon poem Beowulf. (Letters, 1981)And also he put in his point of view towards industrialization and his personal experiences during his military service during World War One. (National Geographic.,2006) Above all those factors that influenced Tolkien, the religious and mythology elements interested me the most. Therefore, the thesis below explains how those elements were shown affecting The Lord of the Rings. Scope and Method of the Study In order in find out the religious and mythology elements that influenced The Lord of the Rings, I analyze the significant that are related with Catholicism, Celtic mythology and Druid, and Norse mythology. The significant comes from the three volumes of The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien’s own explanations, and researches about Tolkien’s Mythopoeia. 1 The Religious Elements in The Lord of The Ring II. Thesis 1. Definition 1-1. Mythopoeia 1-1-1.Definition of mythopoeia Mythopoeia is the act of making and creating mythologies in modern literature and film, where a fictional mythology is created by the writer of prose or other fiction. (New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary) Mythopoeia was used by J. R. R. Tolkien in the 1930s. The authors in this genre integrate traditional mythological themes and archetypes into fiction. Works of mythopoeia are often categorized as fantasy or science fiction but fill a niche for mythology in the modern world, according to Joseph Campbell, a famous student of world mythology. Different from mythologies that arise out of centuries of oral tradition, mythopoeia are penned over a short period of time by a single author or small group of collaborators. (The Power of Myth,1988). Critics about mythopoeia said that it is artificial mythology, which emphasizes that it did not evolve naturally and is an artifice comparable with artificial language, so should not be taken seriously as mythology. For example the noted folklorist Alan Dundes argued that "any novel cannot meet the cultural criteria of myth. A work of art, or artifice, cannot be said to be the narrative of a culture's sacred tradition...it is at most, artificial myth. Tolkien wrote a poem “Mythopoeia” to defend mythopoeia, referring that authors are “little makers” wielding his “own small gold scepter” ruling his sub creation. (Dundes, 2003) 1-1-2. Tolkien’s mythopoeia works Tolkien's now famous work of mythopoeia includes The Lord of the Rings 、The Hobbit、 The Silmarillion.、Unfinish tales、The Children of Hurin, and The History of Middle-Earth, edited by his son. (Biography,1997) J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth is perhaps the best-known of contemporary invented mythology. In his fictional works, Tolkien invented not only origin myths, creation myths and an epic poetry cycle, but also fictive linguistics, geology and geography. (Dundes, 2009) 1-2. Catholicism 2 The Religious Elements in The Lord of The Ring The Catholics esteem the Holy Bible as their highest authority and the source of their doctrine. They believe that the Holy Bible was written by those who were implied by God The Holy tradition is the tradition of the church, or could be viewed as the life throughout the church. Catholics believe that God’s revelation passes down to believers by the Holy tradition and oracles. Churches take charge of safekeeping, studying, experiencing and promoting further comprehension towards the Holy Bible and the Holy tradition to ensure that they become living oracles of God. (McBrien, Richard ,1994) Catholics believe that in the end of their lifetime, they will face the Four Last Things: Death, Judgment, Heaven and Hell. Death is a not the end; instead, it is crossing the border of this life to the afterlife. After Death, the spirits will face the Judgment. Those who were kind in life will go to Heaven, while the evil ones go to Hell. The Four Last Things alert Catholics of being good in life. (McBrien, Richard ,1994) 1-3. Celtic mythology Celtic mythology was a belief in the Iron Age. Their religion is Druidism, which is polytheism, like most Iron Age Europeans. Celtic mythology and Druidism faded after contacting with the Roman Empire, who viewed it as paganism. Part of it was absorbed by Catholicism during the Middle Age. (Hutton Ronald, 1991) Druids are the clergies of Druidism. In Celtic mythologies, Druids are capable of communicating with the Gods. Despite taking charge of sacrificial ceremony and religious festivals, Druids are doctors, sorceries, deviators, poets and historians. Druidism believes in the form of reincarnation and animism, which made them close and friendly with nature. (Hutton, Ronald,2007) In Celtic mythology, the Otherworld is the realm where deities and other spirits dwell. Some tales refer to the Otherworld as "The Fortunate Isles" in the western sea, but invisible to most humans. In Irish poetry, Otherworld has often been described as a land of paradise, happiness, and nice weather. The Otherworld is also called the Land of the Living, Delightful Plain, and Land of the Young It is believed to be a country where there is no sickness, old age, or death, where happiness lasts forever. (James MacKillop, 1998) 1-4. Norse mythology Norse mythology is a specific mythology system in Scandinavia. There isn’t much information to be found, it was mostly passed on by the songs of Bards. The heyday of Norse mythology was in 8～11 century, when the Vikings threatened Europe the most. After the 13th 3 The Religious Elements in The Lord of The Ring century, the Vikings gradually withered and Europe churches sprang up, the Vikings were forced to devout to Christian religion. (Abram, Christopher,2011).. While most mythologies portray the glory of the creation and Gods, Norse mythology portrays the destruction of the world. Gods in Norse mythology will die, and they are not perfect. In Norse mythology, they believe that all things circulate, when the old pass away, new life comes forth. (Abram, Christopher,2011) Norse mythology is a polytheistic system that could be sorted into five columns: Giants, Aesir, Vanir, Elves and Dwarves. Giants are the first born, they give birth to the Gods Aesir and Vanir, but are also their biggest enemy. The Gods separate into two tribes: Aesir led by Odin and Vanir led by Njord. Elves and Dwarves are semi-gods that pay service to the Gods. (Abram, Christopher,2011) One of the most unique characteristic of Norse mythology is that their world will collapse in the end, which is known as the Ragnarök, the end of the Gods. The Gods have a prophecy that this war is meant to fail and the Gods will die, no matter what. Even so, the Gods face the end straightforwardly. They cannot change what is meant to happen, but they try to protect it. The Ragnarök forms a tragicl atmosphere in the Norse mythology, making it one of the most pessimistic mythologies. (Abram, Christopher,2011) 2. Introduction of The Lord of the Rings The Lord of the Rings is an epic fantasy novel written by English author J. R. R. Tolkien. This story began as a sequel to The Hobbit, and eventually developed into a much larger work with the volumes: The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers and The Return of the King. The title of the novel refers to the story's main antagonist, Dark Lord Sauron, who created the One Ring to rule conquer Middle-Earth. After the last alliance of Men and Elves towards the Dark Lord, Sauron was defeated. The One Ring passed to Isildur, King of Numenors, then to Gollum who gained twisted and crooked life because of the power of the Ring, and then to Bilbo Baggins a Hobbit of Shire, then to his nephew Frodo Baggins, and it was how the story begins. 2500years after the last alliance, Dark Lord Sauron had regained his dark force, if only he retake his One Ring, the fate of Middle-Earth will be in grave danger. The Ring must be destroyed, but that can only be done by casting it into Mount Doom of Mordor, where it was forged. Frodo, the Ring bearer, volunteered to take on this task, followed by his loyal friend and gardener Sam, the Hobbits Merry and Pippin, a ranger but also the crownless king Aragorn, 4 The Religious Elements in The Lord of The Ring captain of Gondor Boromir, a Dwarf warrior Gimli; an Elven prince Legolas, and the wizard Gandalf.