LotR - Elves and Original Sin

Tolkien was a devout Catholic. He claimed that Middle Earth was compatible with Christianity but original sin is a huge part of Judaeo/Christian beliefs so where does that fit in? We never find out about men. They awoke in the East and refused to talk about where they came from. There were dark implications but nothing definite.

The elves are a different matter. We know what their sin was. Or sins because they did it twice.

The world was shaped by the Valar and the Maya but Iluvatar created the elves and men (and Valar and Maya) and he decided where and when they would awake.

When the elves first awoke they were innocent. The Valar were overjoyed to find them and invited them to live with the Valar in the Undying Lands in the West in their city of Tuna. Some elves decided to remain in Middle Earth. Some started to follow the Valar but lingered and were left behind. Some made it across the ocean but decided to live on the coast and become ship-builders and sailors. But a substantial number followed the Valar to Tuna.

Then Feanor was born. He was the greatest of the smiths. He created the palantir and other miraculous gems. His greatest creation were three stones called the Silmarils which captured the light from the two trees. That's where the trouble started. Feanor began worrying that someone would steal the stones. At the same time the Valinor felt that he was too possessive of the stones since the light they captured was someone else's creation.

There were also problems between Feanor and his half-brothers. Eventually Feanor was sentenced to life outside of Tuna for a period. It was during this period that Morgoth killed the two trees and stole the Silmarils with the help of a giant spider. They also killed Feanor's father.

Feanor swore to follow Morgoth, avenge his father and recover the Silmarils. He and his seven sons took an unbreakable oath on this, calling on powers to see that they would be tormented if they abandoned their quest. Feanor's brothers agreed to follow him as well as some others like Galadriel who wanted to rule a kingdom of her own.

First they had to get to Middle Earth. Feanor demanded the ships that the elves who lived along the shore had made. They refused and Feanor took them by force, killing some of the elves who resisted.

At this point the god of death who was acting as the messenger for the rest of the Valar appeared to them and told them to return and be forgiven. If they refused they would not be allowed back. Some of them did return, do penance and were accepted back. Most did not and carried on.

And that is the original sin for the elves - leaving the Valar. Nothing they had done until then was unforgivable but when they refused to return they were abandoned and unable to return. The Valar abandoned them with the exception of the sea god who gave them what help he could.

As it turned out, they were no match for Morgoth. They thrived for several centuries while Morgoth built up his forces but eventually he overran Middle Earth except for some scattered groups.

Eventually they were redeemed by the sacrifice of Earendil. His father was human and his mother was an elf. He married Elwing who also had mixed parentage (one of her grandfathers was human and one of her great-grandmothers was a maya who took the form of a female elf). Wearing a Silmaril that Elwing's grandparents had stolen from Morgoth, Earendil penetrated the storms and currents that had kept all other mariners from reaching the Undying Lands. He went before the Valar and asked for their mercy. They granted it and overthrew Morgoth but Earendil was not allowed to return to Middle Earth. Instead he was to sail the heavens with the Silmaril showing as a star.

After Morgoth was overthrown, the Valar told the elves that all was forgiven and they could return to Valinor, he Undying Lands. Here's the second sin. Many elves refused to return. They preferred to remain in Middle Earth. They were cursed that life in Middle Earth would grow tedious and they would eventually long to return to live with the Valar.

In both cases, the elves were punished for refusing to live with the Valar. That was the sin. The Valar were God's (Iluvatar's) instruments on earth and, by refusing to live under their rule, the elves were rejecting Iluvatar.

Here's where Sauron and the rings enter the picture. The elves didn't want to leave Middle Earth but they knew their power would fade and they would eventually be forced to. Enter a disguised Sauron who had a way of capturing some's power in a ring so it would be preserved. He convinced the elf-lord Celebrimbor to help him. Celebrimbor and some assistants forged the Three rings but then they learned that Sauron would be able to rule them through the rings so they hid them until Sauron was defeated and presumed dead.

After Sauron was gone the elves used the rings to preserve their power. The three great elf-kingdoms were Lothlorien, Rivendell and the Grey Havens were all protected and maintained by the rings.

That left the elves with a terrible problem when Sauron and the One Ring reappeared. By that point the elves (and later Gandalf had been using the rings for centuries. It was established that men who wore rings of power too long were under Sauron's control, even after the rings were taken from them. That might have been true for the elves, also.

The elves had spent an age defying the wishes of the Valar that they return to the West. A sacrifice was needed to redeem them. And this sacrifice turned out to be Frodo.

There are several character arcs in LotR but the main one is the sacrifice of Frodo. He starts the story content in his life until Gandalf tells him what the ring really is. From there it's one trial after another for Frodo. The journey starts pleasantly enough with nothing worse than a marsh and tiny bugs to worry them but Frodo is wounded before they get to Rivendell and his journey after that is excruciating (in the book it takes days and Frodo's only escape from the constant pain is when he passes out).

As the journey progresses Frodo realizes that he can no longer trust his companions nor can he lead them into certain death (except Sam who refuses to leave). The RIng becomes heavier the closer they get to Mordor and it dominates Frodo's dreams. By the time they reach Mordor proper, Frodo has been wounded again and can barely drag himself along. He's given up all hope of return and only hopes to live long enough to accomplish his mission.

And then, after all that, he fails. Frodo claims the ring for himself and it is only destroyed by an accident.

Frodo's mission is accomplished and he's saved. But he wasn't really. Frodo took the sins of Middle Earth on himself and could not stay. Like the elves, there was no comfort for him in the world and he had to go with them to the Undying Lands.

And, after Frodo's sacrifice, the elves finally submitted to the Valar and returned to Valinor.

Some Meditations on Lord of the Rings - Part 1

It's been almost exactly 49 years since I first read the Lord of the Rings. I've reread it several times since then including last year. I've lost track of how many times I've seen all or part of the movies. I recently watched a couple of Youtube videos examining the LotR movies and the Hobbit. And I saw the last part of The Return of the King. I also saw an exhibition of Tolkien's art and I've reread the Silmarilian, Beren and Luthian and The Fall of Gondolin in the last couple of years. All of that left me in the mood to write some thoughts about the books.

The book started as a sequel to The Hobbit but it morphed into a sequel to the Silmarilian. That gave it a lot of texture. Characters were constantly referring to events in the Silmarilian. This made Middle Earth seem like a real place with an established history that everyone knew.

For those who never read the Silmarilian, here's a thumbnail version:

When the world was created there was a division between the Valar. Morgoth, the most powerful of them, wanted to rule them all but the Valar followed Illuvitar, the being who created them all plus elves, men and dwarves. Both sides were assisted by the Maya, supernatural creatures of great power but not as powerful as the Valar. The wizards were maya as were Sauron and the balrogs.

The Valar lived in the undying lands - a continent to the west. Morgoth lived in Angband, a fortress in the northern part of Middle Earth.

The world was dark when the elves first woke in Middle Earth. The only light was starlight and they continue to sing praises for the Valar who created the stars (Elbereth).

The Valar invited the elves to live with them in the undying lands. They also took Morgoth prisoner for years until he convinced them that he had reformed.

One of the Valar created two glowing trees to light the world. The White Tree of Gondor is descended from these.

Feanor, the greatest of the elf craftsmen was born in the undying lands. He created the palantir and several other things before his greatest creation: the silmarils. These were three stones that captured the mingled light of the glowing trees.

With the help of a giant spider (the mother of all the giant spiders in the Hobbit and LotR) Morgoth killed the trees, stole the silmarils and returned to his fortress of Angband.

Feanor and his seven sone swore a powerful oath to follow Morgoth and recover the stones. They were accompanied by his two half-brothers and thousands of followers including Galadrial.

The Valar could not save the glowing trees but they managed to coax a single leaf from each of them. These became the sun and the moon and are pulled across the sky by a pair of maya.

Feanor was killed soon after the elves returned to Middle Earth. The elves found that Angband was too powerful then to conquer but the elves joined with the ones who had remained in Middle Earth and kept Morgoth's forces contained in Angband for centuries. During this time the first men migrated from the east. Many took service under elf kings.

After hundreds of years Morgoth's forces attacked in the Battle of Unnumbered Tears. The forces of elves and men suffered huge losses and most of Middle Earth was overrun.

Beren was the son of one of the leaders of men. He, his father and a small band escaped the battle but were hunted down and eventually Beren was the only survivor. Beren made his way into the realm of Thingol, the High Kind of Middle Earth and fell in love with Thingol's daughter, Luthian. Thingol did not want his daughter to marry a human so he gave him an impossible task - to steal a silmaril from Morgoth's crown.

Beren accepted the task and left for Angband. Luthien followed after him and, after several obstacles, they used stealth and magic to cut one of the stones from Morgoth's crown. During their escape a giant wolf attacked them. Weaponless, Beren held the silmaril in front of him, hoping the wolf would shy away from the light. Instead the wolf bit off Beren's hand and swallowed it and the silmaril.

Luthian and Beren returned to Thingol and Beren proclaimed that he had a silmaril in his hand and held up his arm to prove it. Thingol accepted Beren but shortly afterwards the wolf began ravaging Thingol's kingdom. They led a party to kill it but Beren was wounded and died shortly after the wolf did.

Luthian died of sorrow and convinced the god of death to return Beren to her. The Valor agreed provided Luthian become mortal. They were restored to life and lived separately for a few decades. Before they died they had a son named Dior.

With the death of Beren and Luthian, Thingol received the silmaril. He had it set in a jeweled necklace but the dwarves who did the work killed him and stole the necklace. Dior slew them and ruled as king for a while but the kingdom was overrun by Morgoth's forces and he was killed. His daughter, Elwing was taken to the coast by the survivors along with the silmaril.

The last elf kingdom to fall was Gondolin. It was hidden and the inhabitants thought that even if Morgoth discovered them, he could never conquer them.

The sea god sent a messenger, a man named Tuor, to tell the people of Gondolin to march from their city, gather the other elves and attack Morgoth . They refused but allowed Tuor to live with them and to marry Idril, the king's daughter. They had a child named Earendil.

While Earendil was still a child, Morgoth learned of Gondolin's existence and attacked it with overwhelming forces. Tuor led the survivors to the coast where the joined the other survivors.

Tuor and built a ship and sailed to the west with Idril. No one knows what happened to them but it's rumored that he was allowed to join the elves.

Their son Earendil became a great mariner. He married Elwing and they had two sons, Elrond and Elros. After many attempts to reach the west, Earendil finally succeeded with Elwing accompanying him and the silmaril tied to his brow. He reached the undying lands and convinced the Valar to help he people of Middle Earth.

There was a great battle Morgoth was captured and expelled from the world. Angband was destroyed but some of Morgoth's creatures were overlooked. The remaining two silmarils were lost.

It was ruled that Earendil would not be allowed to return to Middle Earth. Instead his ship could sail the heavens. The "star" that is mentioned several times in LotR is actually the silmaril he still wore. His sons Elrond and Elros were given the choice to live as elf or man. Elrond chose to be elf and Elros to be a man.

The humans who had been faithful to the elves were given a large island named Numenor to live on. On a clear day the undying lands could be seen from it. Elros was their king. Aragorn was distantly descended from Elros. The Numenorians were given a descendant of one of the glowing trees and it became the symbol of the kingdom.

As the centuries passed, the Numenorians became obsessed with death and convinced that the elves and Valar were keeping the secret of immortality from them.

Sauron gathered the remnants of Morgoth's forces and made his own fortress in Mordor. Eventually he tried to conquer Middle Earth but the Numenorians opposed him. Surprised by how strong they were, he surrendered and offered himself as hostage. He appeared to have reformed but actually he was corrupting them. Eventually he convinced them that they were powerful enough to conquer the Undying Lands and take the secret of immortality.

The Valor didn't take kindly to the invasion. Not only did they destroy the fleet, they also destroyed Numenor. Sauron was crushed when the island sank and could never again take a pleasing shape.

A few faithful escaped the destruction of Numernor. This is referred to in LotR in a poem recited by Gandolf:

Tall ships and tall kings
Three times three,
What brought they from the foundered land
Over the flowing sea?
Seven stars and seven stones
And one white tree.

The seven stars were the constellation of the Sickle - a constellation meant as a warning to Morgoth.

The Numernoreans had already established their rule over a large portion of Middle Earth. This group took control of that. They were led by Elendil, and his sons Isildur and Anárion.

That's enough for now. In my next installment I'll talk about how all of this relates to LotR.