Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel Volume 3 Number 3 Article 28 9-2-2002 The Moral Mythmaker: The Creative Theology of J. R. R. Tolkien Paul Nolan Hyde Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/re BYU ScholarsArchive Citation Hyde, Paul N. "The Moral Mythmaker: The Creative Theology of J. R. R. Tolkien." Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel 3, no. 3 (2002). https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/re/vol3/iss3/28 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals at BYU ScholarsArchive. It has been accepted for inclusion in Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel by an authorized editor of BYU ScholarsArchive. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected]. professor john ronald reuel tolkien 189219731892 1973 the author of the hobbit and the lord of the rings by getty images inc used by permission 151 the moral mythmaker the creative theology of J K RK tolkien paul nolan hyde paul nolan hyde is an institute instructor at the orem utah institute of religion shortly after the theatrical release othe lord of the rings the fellowship of the ring in december 2001 richard neitzel holzapfel encouraged me to write an article regarding the lord of the rings and its application to the latterlatterdayday saint classroom while I1 believe that the proper atmosphereatmospberefor for teaching literature is in the lit- erature classroom I1 am keenly aware of the popularity of the works of JJ R R tolkien and their potential applicability to the teaching of gospel principles I1 have observed however that most of my students are not clear as to why they enjoy the stories of middle earth and what draws them into this particular world of fantasy my remarks are intended to introduce teachers to some of the reasons behind the natu- ral gravitation of their students to tolkiensTolkiens works the youth of the church ofjesusof jesus christ of latterlatterdayday saints are sensitive to true prin- ciples and they willfindwillfondnellwill findsindssnd the truths of eternity in the writings osgoodofgoodof soofsoodgood people not every man who has written his mind or has hafhadbad his works published or has been lauded by the academics of the world has been a good man john ronald reuel tolkeinToltomkeinkein however is one of the best As to whether every teacher in the church educational system ought to read the hobbit and the lord of the rings I1 will say no more than to repeat my oftoftquotedquoted advice with a bit of a wry smile A man is not truly educated until hebe has v A personal introduction thirtythirtyfivefive years ago shortly after I1 returned home from a mission to southern mexico a friend introduced me to the writings ofofaofjJ R R tolkien I1 began with the nobbit the socalledso called prequelpremuel to the lord of the rings ten days later I1 put down the return ofthe king hungering 152 the religious educator vol 3 no 3 2002 for more and there was no more I1 scoured the bookstores for tolkiensTolkiens poetry and prose and joyfully found the tolkien reader smith ofofwootenwooten major farmer giles of ham the adventures of tom bombadilBom badil and the lovely leaf by niggle yet of hobbits and elves I1 could learn nothing more As a result of what I1 considered to be a lit- erary dearth I1 returned to the original four volumes and devoured them again and again each reading revealed aspects of the narrative that I1 had missed each reading increased the hunger for whatever it was that tolkiensTolkiens works had addicted me to I1 am not sure that I1 could have articulated what it was I1 desired I1 knew only that the desire within me was waiting impatiently to be satisfied in an act of desperation I1 began to do what I1 would now term a survey of literature I1 perused the periodical indices subsequently making copies of every news article I1 could find on tolkien and his cre- ations in the process I1 learned of tolkiensTolkiens affection for the writings of george macdonald william morris H rider haggard and other nineteenthcenturynineteenth century fantasists in short order I1 discovered for myself that my tastes ran in the same channel my personal library began to grow I1 learned of tolkiensTolkiens intimate friendships with C S lewis charles williams and the other oxford inklings as they styled themselves my reading of the chronicles of narnia and the pere landra trilogy began a lifelong love of lewiss narrative gift and led me ultimately to his outwardly theological writings at which I1 was awestruckawe struck williamss the place of the lion and the greater trumps eftcftaftleftleff me spellbound and I1 could not desist until I1 had acquired all of tolkiensTolkiens scant corpus of published works my bookshelves smiled more and more deeply at the discovery of each of these literary and personal companions that graced tolkiensTolkiens life As I1 probed into his history I1 became aware of his academic back ground I1 learned of his love of the english language in all of its permutations his native gift for language acquisition and his scholarly grasp of the historical development of language I1 had long been aware of and fascinated with the runic systems of the hobbit and the lord of the rings together with the elvish scripts in all their varieties I1 began to realize that these along with the various invented linguistic pieces of poetry and dialogue were not merely creative frosting but were part of a vast seamless panorama from which the stories had been taken the more I1 became aware of his professional pursuits the more I1 became intrigued by the obvious connection between the real world and the world of middle earth I1 sensed that no true appreciation of what tolkien had accomplished in his writings could ever materialize the moral mythmaker the creative theology of J R R tolkien 153 unless I1 understood the fountain from which their creation sprang so compellingly did this realization strike me that I1 changed majors at the time I1 began my masters program I1 had been a spanish major I1 would now delve into the mysteries of english language and linguis- tics A year after I1 completed this advanced degree I1 mourned the death of john ronald reuel tolkien a man whom I1 had never met but whom I1 had come to know intimately tolkien the scholarscholarsscholar11 tolkien was born 3 january 1892 in bloemfonteinBloemfontein south africa to arthur and mabel tolkien emigrants from birmingham england his father worked as the bank manager for the bank of africa in the orange free state by february 1896 however ronald tolkien and his younger brother hillary were fatherless their mother returned to england with her sons in the summer of 1896 but died of diabetes eight years later the two boys were raised by relatives under the guid ance of a local parish priest their mother having been received into the catholic church four years before her death john ronald followed a course of study at king edwards school where he clearly manifested an aptitude for languages first with latin and greek and later with welsh french and german although tolkiensTolkiens linguistic gift helped him learn ancient and foreign languages his mind gravitated toward the reasons why languages were as they were how and why they dif feredcered he studied philology and in due time discovered anglo saxon and the epic beowulf and from thence to middle english and sir gawain and the green knigbtknight he then turned to old norse and the elder and toungeryounger eddas the literary treasures of iceland in his final year at king edwards he discovered the Kakalapalalavala the principal depository of finnish mythology his love of language motivated him to create languages of his own sometimes in collaboration with cousins and friends using eng lish greek french spanish and latin elements as the building blocks for the phonetics and vocabulary his first serious language invention however evolved from his study of gothic the sole survivor of the east germanic family of languages he created words and phrases in the gothic manner and then proposed etymologies that would link them to extant vocabulary or to languages of more ancient date in 1912 he abandoned gothic as the catalyst and turned to finnish from which would develop the family of elvish languages with which most readers of tolkiensTolkiens works have become familiar quendaquenya in par- ticularti A variety of language permutations would develop as tolkien 154 the religious educator vol 3 no 3 2002 incorporated linguistic principles from welsh and other exotic languages producing sindarinSinsindayindarin laiquendi moriquendi and others nearly forty languages in all in december 1910 tolkien was awarded an open classical exhi- bition to exeter college at oxford university and matriculated there in the fall of 1911 by 1913 he was preparing for his degree in the honourshondours school of english language and literature at exeter As he progressed in his studies of anglo saxon he read cynewulfscynevrulfs cristgristgrest two lines of which struck him forcefully eala earendelEarendel engla beorbtastbeorhtast oferoner middangeard jonnummonnum sendedbended hail Earendel brightest of angels above the middleearthmiddle earth sent unto men from this meager beginning would derive a series of poems and stories that would serve as the foundation of the mythology of middle earth the book of lost tales tolkien graduated from exeter with first class honors in the sum- mer of 1915 and was immediately commissioned in the lancashire