Thank you for sharing this, I know it must've been really difficult to write about such a painful loss. This essay was especially meaningful to me since I recently watched my father grieve for his twin brother during Easter (as you know), which happened to be my uncle's favorite time of year precisely because of the message of hope and resurrection that it brings. Although we tried to feel that sense of renewal and hope to help us grieve and to remember him, we too found ourselves overwhelmed by the grief instead and it was a struggle to embrace that spring feeling of hope. But as Tolkien believes, I also believe that we will be reunited with our loved ones in the end--or as Tolkien would put it--the start of our journeys.
While I love his On Fairy Stories essay, especially his belief in happy endings and fantasy as a reflection of Truth, in reading your reflections I was reminded of his short story "Leaf by Niggle" which always moves me nearly to tears. At one point Niggle enters his "afterlife" and he realizes it is the painting he had worked on his whole life but now it was "real" and even the things he had only imagined were come to light. He notices that "the Tree, his Tree, [is] finished" and immediately proclaims it a "gift," a word he uses "referring to his art, and also to the result; but--he was using the word quite literally."
I love this line because it subtly refers to the idea in Middle-earth that the "death" reserved for mortal Men is different than that for the Elves, that it is actually a gift. The Elves are the only ones allowed back in the West in Valinor or the Blessed Realm (save a few exceptions) while Ilúvatar had a different fate for Men that not even the Elves understood fully. But while Men called Death a tragedy in their ignorance and fear, in the mythology preserved by the Elves it was considered The Gift of Ilúvatar, which allows them to go beyond the confines of Arda. This gift in the Silmarillion is described like this: "Death is their fate, the gift of Iluvatar, which as Time wears even the Powers shall envy." Tolkien always has a way with words, but something about this rings with a Truth that I hold onto in hard times like these.
I pray for you and your family as I do for mine, that each Easter brings us closer to truly appreciating this gift, even if it is still a mystery to us now, and that we trust in the hope that our loved ones are waiting for us to start our longer journey, just like Parish waits for his wife in Niggle's painting-come-to-life, and that in time all of us will ultimately be united in a higher peace and love.
You're welcome, Zoë! I completely empathize with with what you and your father went through this Easter and know how difficult it must have been. Though you couldn't feel that sense of renewal and hope this year (like I could not last year), I pray that we all will see it restored to us in increasing measure as the years go by.
I love "Leaf by Niggle" and really appreciate your reflections on it, especially the connection between Niggle's proclamation that the Tree being finished is a gift and the gift of Ilúvatar.
Thank you for the prayers: praying for yours as well. Thank you for reading and for this beautiful reflection as well.
Great work - an illuminating analysis of the merits of resurrection stories. I'm left with a lot of deep questions as I work through understanding the Bible... and for when I finally get around to reading the LOTR 😳 😁
Thank you, David! If you ever wanted to talk more about some of those questions I'd be more than happy to discuss them! Feel free to discuss here in the comments or email me (jrrjokien@jrrjokien.com) if you ever feel like it.
As a pastor I often had to comfort grieving loved ones after some other preacher had proclaimed, usually at Easter or at a funeral, that the sting of death was now gone forever. Song writers are even worse, all the way back to Charles Wesley. People would ask me, "Then why does it hurt so much?"
As you point out, there is no doubt about the final outcome, but the promise in 1 Corinthians 15 about the sting of death is clearly expected when the last dead human has been raised. I find myself quoting the professor in The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe. "What do they teach in school these days."
So I ask worship planners who put lyrics on the screen that announce "Death is a lie" or "Death was arrested" or "Death is the door to life," "Then explain to me why my wife is still dead."
Yes. As I’ve said when preaching on Revelation 21, God will wipe away every tear—Which means that even on the threshold of the New Jerusalem, whatever that turns out to be, there will still be tears.
To paraphrase Thomas Paine: the more difficult it is achieve to a victory, the sweeter the end triumph is. Tolkien's use of Resurrection is a way of showing his audience that there is still a chance for the forces of good to prevail over those of evil, in fiction and in life.
I've never read about Resurrection as this, and it brought me to tears. I truly feel G R Martin about death being the main character here, but I will always believe on a more joyful side of the story (beautiful things always seem to rise from the ugliest, as lotus or butterflies). It might be childish, but maybe that child like wonder of the world is what makes me go day after day, so I'm also on Tolkien's side 💖💖 thank you again for such beautiful words!! They made me pause and re read them like 3 times, as if the first and second weren't enough to squeeze the wisdom from them
Thank you for sharing this, May! So glad that my words had this impact on you and appreciate you passing it on and commenting as well. I will always believe on the more joyful side of the story too. Even if it is "childish" that may not be a bad thing! After all, faith like a child is what's needed to enter into the Kingdom. And I love the bit in Orthodoxy where G.K. Chesterton wonders whether God himself is not childlike in his delight in making the sun rise again and again each day, in creating flower after flower just the same, and that perhaps we have grown older than our Father. Returning to that childlike wonder and faith would then not be a bad thing at all!
Beautiful and poignant essay, Josh. Martin and Tolkien had very different focuses for their books, which is not a bad thing; they just need to be approached differently. For my part, I obviously prefer Tolkien; his themes are timeless compared to Martin's, for many of the same reasons you mention in this article.
Thank you, Tiffany! Yes, completely agree that they need to be approached differently. I appreciate Martin for what he and his works are, but whenever he comes into conversation with Tolkien I find myself agreeing with or appreciating Tolkien more.
The older I get, the more I feel that my entire confession of faith is contained in the words, "I believe in the resurrection of the dead." For to believe in resurrection is to believe in a God who resurrects.
Excellent essay! Discussing Tolkien compared to Martin reminded me of The Wheel of Time. In a small way, Robert Jordan was closer to Tolkien (and the Bible’s) view on Resurrection than Martin was. The clearest is at the end of the last book, when Rand is resurrected and he is better than he was (old wounds are gone and can famously light a pipe with a thought). He is still himself, but also more than in some way. Jordan did play with a two interesting ideas, however. The first was that it isn’t by human power that Resurrection can happen. The One Power can only make puppets and not return the people from death, only the Creator could. The other is a massive “what if Satan could resurrect?” Now whether Turning is a form of it or not is up to the reader, but how I always took it was that it was a form of resurrection, but via possession. Granted, both the above mentioned examples are effects of that world’s law of reincarnation, but it is still intriguing.
Of course, Jordan’s biggest let down is that the Creator was very deistic in the series, despite setting things and prophecy in place.
Sorry for the ramble, thanks for writing such informative pieces!
This was really insightful. You truly brought the weight of death to the forefront, making the resurrection and our future hope even more beautiful. I pray you may know the gentleness of God in the pain of mourning.
This is great. Every time I read Martin’s commentary on LOTR I just feel like he’s missing the point entirely.
Thank you! And yeah, I get a similar feeling as you do when reading his commentary
Thank you for sharing this, I know it must've been really difficult to write about such a painful loss. This essay was especially meaningful to me since I recently watched my father grieve for his twin brother during Easter (as you know), which happened to be my uncle's favorite time of year precisely because of the message of hope and resurrection that it brings. Although we tried to feel that sense of renewal and hope to help us grieve and to remember him, we too found ourselves overwhelmed by the grief instead and it was a struggle to embrace that spring feeling of hope. But as Tolkien believes, I also believe that we will be reunited with our loved ones in the end--or as Tolkien would put it--the start of our journeys.
While I love his On Fairy Stories essay, especially his belief in happy endings and fantasy as a reflection of Truth, in reading your reflections I was reminded of his short story "Leaf by Niggle" which always moves me nearly to tears. At one point Niggle enters his "afterlife" and he realizes it is the painting he had worked on his whole life but now it was "real" and even the things he had only imagined were come to light. He notices that "the Tree, his Tree, [is] finished" and immediately proclaims it a "gift," a word he uses "referring to his art, and also to the result; but--he was using the word quite literally."
I love this line because it subtly refers to the idea in Middle-earth that the "death" reserved for mortal Men is different than that for the Elves, that it is actually a gift. The Elves are the only ones allowed back in the West in Valinor or the Blessed Realm (save a few exceptions) while Ilúvatar had a different fate for Men that not even the Elves understood fully. But while Men called Death a tragedy in their ignorance and fear, in the mythology preserved by the Elves it was considered The Gift of Ilúvatar, which allows them to go beyond the confines of Arda. This gift in the Silmarillion is described like this: "Death is their fate, the gift of Iluvatar, which as Time wears even the Powers shall envy." Tolkien always has a way with words, but something about this rings with a Truth that I hold onto in hard times like these.
I pray for you and your family as I do for mine, that each Easter brings us closer to truly appreciating this gift, even if it is still a mystery to us now, and that we trust in the hope that our loved ones are waiting for us to start our longer journey, just like Parish waits for his wife in Niggle's painting-come-to-life, and that in time all of us will ultimately be united in a higher peace and love.
You're welcome, Zoë! I completely empathize with with what you and your father went through this Easter and know how difficult it must have been. Though you couldn't feel that sense of renewal and hope this year (like I could not last year), I pray that we all will see it restored to us in increasing measure as the years go by.
I love "Leaf by Niggle" and really appreciate your reflections on it, especially the connection between Niggle's proclamation that the Tree being finished is a gift and the gift of Ilúvatar.
Thank you for the prayers: praying for yours as well. Thank you for reading and for this beautiful reflection as well.
Great work - an illuminating analysis of the merits of resurrection stories. I'm left with a lot of deep questions as I work through understanding the Bible... and for when I finally get around to reading the LOTR 😳 😁
Thank you, David! If you ever wanted to talk more about some of those questions I'd be more than happy to discuss them! Feel free to discuss here in the comments or email me (jrrjokien@jrrjokien.com) if you ever feel like it.
As a pastor I often had to comfort grieving loved ones after some other preacher had proclaimed, usually at Easter or at a funeral, that the sting of death was now gone forever. Song writers are even worse, all the way back to Charles Wesley. People would ask me, "Then why does it hurt so much?"
As you point out, there is no doubt about the final outcome, but the promise in 1 Corinthians 15 about the sting of death is clearly expected when the last dead human has been raised. I find myself quoting the professor in The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe. "What do they teach in school these days."
So I ask worship planners who put lyrics on the screen that announce "Death is a lie" or "Death was arrested" or "Death is the door to life," "Then explain to me why my wife is still dead."
Yes. As I’ve said when preaching on Revelation 21, God will wipe away every tear—Which means that even on the threshold of the New Jerusalem, whatever that turns out to be, there will still be tears.
To paraphrase Thomas Paine: the more difficult it is achieve to a victory, the sweeter the end triumph is. Tolkien's use of Resurrection is a way of showing his audience that there is still a chance for the forces of good to prevail over those of evil, in fiction and in life.
Yes, completely agree! Resurrection is at least in part there in the story to point to hope, both in the story and in life
I've never read about Resurrection as this, and it brought me to tears. I truly feel G R Martin about death being the main character here, but I will always believe on a more joyful side of the story (beautiful things always seem to rise from the ugliest, as lotus or butterflies). It might be childish, but maybe that child like wonder of the world is what makes me go day after day, so I'm also on Tolkien's side 💖💖 thank you again for such beautiful words!! They made me pause and re read them like 3 times, as if the first and second weren't enough to squeeze the wisdom from them
Thank you for sharing this, May! So glad that my words had this impact on you and appreciate you passing it on and commenting as well. I will always believe on the more joyful side of the story too. Even if it is "childish" that may not be a bad thing! After all, faith like a child is what's needed to enter into the Kingdom. And I love the bit in Orthodoxy where G.K. Chesterton wonders whether God himself is not childlike in his delight in making the sun rise again and again each day, in creating flower after flower just the same, and that perhaps we have grown older than our Father. Returning to that childlike wonder and faith would then not be a bad thing at all!
Beautiful and poignant essay, Josh. Martin and Tolkien had very different focuses for their books, which is not a bad thing; they just need to be approached differently. For my part, I obviously prefer Tolkien; his themes are timeless compared to Martin's, for many of the same reasons you mention in this article.
Thank you, Tiffany! Yes, completely agree that they need to be approached differently. I appreciate Martin for what he and his works are, but whenever he comes into conversation with Tolkien I find myself agreeing with or appreciating Tolkien more.
Exceptional. Bravo!
The older I get, the more I feel that my entire confession of faith is contained in the words, "I believe in the resurrection of the dead." For to believe in resurrection is to believe in a God who resurrects.
Excellent essay! Discussing Tolkien compared to Martin reminded me of The Wheel of Time. In a small way, Robert Jordan was closer to Tolkien (and the Bible’s) view on Resurrection than Martin was. The clearest is at the end of the last book, when Rand is resurrected and he is better than he was (old wounds are gone and can famously light a pipe with a thought). He is still himself, but also more than in some way. Jordan did play with a two interesting ideas, however. The first was that it isn’t by human power that Resurrection can happen. The One Power can only make puppets and not return the people from death, only the Creator could. The other is a massive “what if Satan could resurrect?” Now whether Turning is a form of it or not is up to the reader, but how I always took it was that it was a form of resurrection, but via possession. Granted, both the above mentioned examples are effects of that world’s law of reincarnation, but it is still intriguing.
Of course, Jordan’s biggest let down is that the Creator was very deistic in the series, despite setting things and prophecy in place.
Sorry for the ramble, thanks for writing such informative pieces!
This was really insightful. You truly brought the weight of death to the forefront, making the resurrection and our future hope even more beautiful. I pray you may know the gentleness of God in the pain of mourning.