Tolkien’s Rangers as Pastors

Reading The Return of the King (third volume of The Lord of the Rings) to my boys a comment from Halbarad, a Ranger and kin of Aragorn, struck me as paralleling pastoral ministry. Speaking of the Shire, the peaceful land of the Hobbits, he said:

“Little do they know of our long labour for the safekeeping of their borders, and yet I grudge it not” (971).

One of the words for pastors in the New Testament is episkopos, typically translated as “overseer.” This word also has the connotation of “guardian.” This is part of what is in view in Hebrews 13:17 when pastors are described as those who keep watch over the souls of their people.

If we do our task well, our people will often not know the labor that has gone into their safekeeping. But the true shepherd will not begrudge this. He will be satisfied to see his flock make it safely home to the celestial city.

Tolkien, Reconciliation

This scene between elves and dwarves in The Fellowship of the Ring is a powerful description of reconciliation:

“And the Dwarf, hearing the names given in his own ancient tongue, looked up and met her eyes; and it seemed to him that he looked suddenly into the heart of an enemy and saw there love and understanding. Wonder came into his face, and then he smiled in answer.” (Book 2, Chapter 7)

This should be happening regularly among believers, and then the watching world will see the reality of the gospel.

The Emptiness of Sin

“All the ‘great secrets’ under the mountains had turned out to be just empty night: there was nothing more to find out, nothing worth doing, only nasty furtive eating and resentful remembering. He was altogether wretched. He hated the dark, and he hated light more: he hated everything, and the Ring most of all.”
(The Fellowship of the Ring, chapter 2)

This description of Gollum’s condition is a compelling description of the emptiness of sin. Doesn’t this resonate, in a terrible way, in your own soul? This is a helpful picture for me to keep in my mind to fight temptation.

Friendship (Tolkien)

“You can trust us to stick to you through thick and thin- to the bitter end. And you can trust us to keep any secret of yours- closer than you keep it yourself. But you cannot trust us to let you face trouble alone, and go off without a word. We are your friends, Frodo. Anyway, there it is. We know most of what Gandalf has told you. We know a good deal about the Ring. We are horribly afraid- but we are coming with you; or following you like hounds.’
(The Fellowship of the Ring, chapter 5)

What a wonderful portrait of true friendship. This should be the sort of thing heard often in the church.

Tolkien Thoughts

My older boys are beginning to read The Lord of the Rings for school so I am going to read along with them. Yes, it is true. I confess. I have never before read The Lord of the Rings. This could be held up to doubt the reality of my conversion, of course, but I am out to rectify this. :)

Reading the introductory matter has reminded me of the value for pastors of reading good literature (and value for others of course).

In this first quote Tolkien is making clear that World War II is not the backdrop for his trilogy in spite of the many who thought so. This misunderstanding is a good warning to us not to rest too firmly on supposed reconstructions of the background of biblical texts. A reconstruction might seem entirely plausible (such as Tolkien having WWII in mind in these books) but still be wholly wrong. C. S. Lewis makes the same point powerfully in his essay “Modern Theology and Biblical Criticism”. Tolkien writes:

“An author cannot of course remain wholly unaffected by his experience, but the way in which a story-germ uses the soil of experience are extremely complex, and attempts to define the process are at best guesses from evidence that is inadequate and ambiguous. It is also false, though naturally attractive, when the lives of an author and critic have overlapped, to suppose that the movements of thought or the events of time common to both were necessarily the most powerful influences.” (xxvi)

We must think through possible reconstructions and possibilities, but, when it comes to preaching and applying the Bible to people’s lives, we are engaged in too serious a business to rest on such guesses. We must stand on what is clear in the text.

Then, in this quote Tolkien is describing the setting of the Hobbits.

“… and there in that pleasant corner of the world they plied their well-ordered business of living, and they heeded less and less the world outside where dark things moved, until they came to think that peace and plenty were the rule in Middle-earth and the right of all sensible folk. They forgot or ignored what little they had ever known of the Guardians, and of the labours of those that made possible the long peace of the Shire. They were, in fact, sheltered, but they had ceased to remember it.” (6-7)

Reading this I can’t help but think of my own social setting where it is so easy to think that “peace and plenty” are “the right of all sensible folk” and where it is easy to forget all that has gone before to create the peaceful and prosperous society I know. Though Tolkien was not aiming at us, we do well to remember we are not “owed” peace and prosperity.

(Quotes taken from J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring: Being the First Part of The Lord of the Rings. Boston, New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2004)