ACADEMIC ARTICLE: A

Pithy TLDR:
to claim Tolkien is antiwoman because of a lack of fighting female characters is to misunderstand how Catholicism colored his view of all characters male and female

Strong Female Characters: Tolkien’s Catholicism and The Lord of the Rings

The fantasy genre is one of the most popular genres of fiction in the world today. It is a  genre that stretches back to roots in the early twentieth century. However, even before this, fairy  tales, mythology, and other crafted mythopoeia dotted the literary landscape. One of the most  popular fantasy authors is J.R.R. Tolkien, most well-known for The Lord of the Rings, The  Hobbit, and The Silmarillion. Born in South Africa and raised after the deaths of both his parents  by a Catholic priest in England, Tolkien grew up a devout Catholic, an ardent enemy of  Industrialization, and a product of World War One in which he served as an officer. However, of  all the influences in his work, his Catholic faith remains one of the strongest. Without an  understanding of Tolkien’s life, and especially his faith, a full understanding of the messages in  The Lord of the Rings cannot be reached. 

Known as the Father of Modern Fantasy, Tolkien is considered one of the giants of the  genre. He gets this title not just from his status as one of the earliest and most popular authors of  fantasy, but because he quite literally defined the genre in scholarship through an essay from  1939 called “On Fairy-Stories” (Kurtz 571). In this essay, several requirements for the fantasy  genre are laid out including a word Tolkien, renowned philologist, created himself:  eucatastrophe. Eucatastrophe is a word that stands opposite of “peripeteia” in Greek Tragedies. It  is “the good catastrophe, the sudden, joyous ‘turn’,” that gives fairy-stories, Fantasy, their happy  endings (Tolkien, “Tales” 282). This joyous turn is modeled, from Tolkien’s own words, off the  greatest eucatastrophe: the story of Christ. “The Birth of Christ is the eucatastrophe of Man’s history. The Resurrection is the eucatastrophe of the Incarnation. This story begins and ends in  joy” (Tolkien, “Tales” 286). Even in this foundational essay for the fantasy genre, Tolkien  outlined the importance of drawing connections between his Catholic faith and fantasy. 

To look at The Lord of the Rings without biographical context for its author, as a New  Criticism literary theorist such as T.S. Eliot promoted, is to miss several key themes. Feminist  literary scholar Anika Jensen touches on the influence of war in Tolkien’s work, specifically on  his female characters. She discusses how feminist theorists between the 70s and early 2000s  tended to label Tolkien’s women, or lack thereof, as symptomatic of his sexism (Jensen 60-62).  Her argument, however, is that taken within context of the roles women in Great Britain held  during World War One, the female characters were held in high esteem and active, progressive  participants in The Lord of the Rings. She set out to use Eowyn as an example (Jensen 63). Most  importantly, she highlighted three woman “archetypes” that appeared both in The Lord of the  Rings and in Britain during World War One: “the warrior, the healer, and the companion”  (Jensen 63). For this essay, the roles of healer and companion are most relevant. 

Jensen points out that woman healers during World War One came in the form of  “nurses, surgeons, and ambulance drivers” which were roles that required proximity to the front  lines, thus in grave danger (Jensen 66). In The Lord of the Rings, Eowyn’s decision to move from  soldier to healer has been seen by some feminist scholars and fans alike as “confinement or oppression” which Jensen refutes (66). If one were to use Eliot’s theory that a poet or writer  should seek to carry on the traditions of his or her form and genre, and remove all manner of bias  from the equation, then Tolkien could indeed come across as portraying sexist, antiwoman  female characters. But by using historical context of the war, it becomes clear that Tolkien was  influenced by outside factors. Even more so than by war, Tolkien’s female characters of Galadriel and Arwen in The Lord of the Rings are each given strength through the lens of  Catholicism. 

In The Lord of the Rings, one of the most powerful female characters is the Lady  Galadriel, queen of the Galadhrim elves of Lothlorien. She is the only remaining granddaughter of the first high king of the Noldorin elves, Finwë. During the events of Tolkien’s book The  Silmarillion, Galadriel participates in a great rebellion against godlike beings known as the  Valar. For her part in the bloody rebellion, though she did not kill anyone herself, she is banished  to Middle Earth for nearly 600 hundred years. After many battles which saw the deaths of her  brothers and cousins, the Valar rescue the peoples of Middle Earth. Galadriel, the only  grandchild still alive, is offered a pardon if she will ask for their forgiveness. She refuses out of  pride and remains under exile. 

When met during The Lord of the Rings, Galadriel has been ruling a kingdom in Middle  Earth for many thousands of years. She has cultivated the land of Lothlorien alongside her  husband, the most beautiful realm in all Middle Earth. “No blemish or sickness or deformity  could be seen in anything that grew upon the earth… ‘You feel the power of the Lady of the  Galadhrim’” (Tolkien, “Lord of the Rings” 351). Of the two rulers, it is Galadriel directly tied to  the power that keeps the land safe. This ties directly into Jensen’s look at the case study of  Eowyn in which she finds, “[the] decision to move to the more feminine realm of healing can be  attributed in part to her experience on the battlefield and her disenchantment with the realities of  combat” (67). Galadriel saw nearly six centuries of battle. However, Tolkien’s Catholicism  provides an even more thorough explanation for Galadriel and her demonstration of what he saw  as the virtue crucial to salvation, “the choice of love over power” (Enright 95).

One of the first feminist scholars to propose a view of Tolkien’s female characters not as  sexist but as examples of alternate feminine power is Nancy Enright. In her article, “Tolkien’s  Females and the Defining of Power,” Enright examined Galadriel, Arwen, and Eowyn from the  context of Tolkien’s Catholic faith. She highlights that Galadriel bears a Ring of Power, Nenya, that she uses for healing and not domination or warfare. “The kind of power described here is the  alternative to traditional, male oriented power. Galadriel is a stronger embodiment of this power  than her husband, Celeborn” (Enright 99). This power of healing and forgiveness is directly tied  into the Christian view of power, as seen in the “eucatastrophe” of the Resurrection and  Incarnation. Sacrifice, humility, and kindness are what Catholics such as Tolkien are supposed to  exemplify.  

It is humility that Galadriel portrays as much as she portrays beauty and healing. In the  chapter The Mirror of Galadriel, Frodo Baggins, bearer of the One Ring, offers it freely to  Galadriel. She responds, “I do not deny that my heart has greatly desired to ask what you offer … In place of the Dark Lord you will set up a Queen. And I shall not be dark, but beautiful and  terrible as the Morning and the Night! Fair as the Sea and the Sun and the Snow upon the  Mountain! … All shall love me and despair!” (Tolkien, “Lord of the Rings” 366). Galadriel’s  initial rebellion against the Valar was because of her desire to rule a kingdom of her own. With  the offer of the Ring, she not only would get to do this, but also heal. But, in the end, Galadriel  resists the temptation to accept the ring. “’I pass the test,’ she said. ‘I will diminish, and go into  the West, and remain Galadriel’” (Tolkien, “Lord of the Rings” 366). By sacrificing a claim to  the One Ring, she accepts her responsibility in the rebellion against the Valar, and is allowed to  return to Paradise once more.

Another female character who exemplifies Catholic virtue in the power of sacrifice and  comfort is Arwen, Galadriel’s granddaughter through her daughter Celebrian. Where Galadriel  sacrifices power to regain paradise, Arwen sacrifices her right to that very paradise itself. Arwen is a half elf. As a half elf, she is given the right to choose between the fate of Men, mortality and  then something beyond, or the fate of the elves, immortal life bound to the earth itself. For the  elves in Tolkien’s world, the mortality of man is referred to as the “Gift of Men” because it  allows them an escape from the grief in the physical world. For men, however, death is a  terrifying prospect. Literary scholar Magne Bergland frames this praise of death as potentially  heretical to Tolkien’s Catholicism. “As we have seen, the idea of humans as strangers or guests  in the world is in line with Christian theology. The idea of death as a gift, however, is not. Christianity teaches that Death, a punishment for the Fall, is unnatural, an enemy to be resisted,  and, in the end, annihilated” (Bergland 138). I find this interpretation incorrect.  

If Tolkien were one to write allegory, then perhaps the interpretation that death for  mankind in his world is equivalent to death in the real world would hold more credence.  However, death for mankind in Tolkien, though scary because there is an unknown for them, was  since its beginning good, because it offered a release from “Arda Marred,” the earth that was  damaged irreparably by the Valar in their war against their fallen kinsmen. In this way it is like achieving salvation for Christians. In Arwen’s choice of mortality, it is not so much giving up  immortality itself that is the great sacrifice, but that in giving up her immortality, she gives up  eternally the chance of seeing her family in the elven version of paradise. 

Arwen is a relatively passive character in The Lord of the Rings, especially in comparison  to Galadriel, a ruler in her own right who guides the fellowship on their journey. Instead,  Arwen’s contributions come in the form of comfort, hope, and encouragement for Aragorn as he strives to regain kingship of Gondor. Enright links Arwen’s choice to accept death out of love for  Aragorn to that of Christ’s love to die for the salvation of humanity. “Of all the characters in The  Lord of the Rings, Arwen is the one who makes the Christ-like choice of mortality out of love.  And her decision, though rooted in her love of Aragorn, becomes part of “the eucatastrophe” …  that saves Middle Earth” (Enright 97).  

Once queen of the Reunited Kingdom as Aragorn’s wife, she gives her right to passage to  paradise to Frodo, one of the key players in the eucatastrophe. “A gift I will give you. For I am  the daughter of Elrond … in my stead you shall go, Ring-bearer, when the time comes, and if  you then desire it … you may pass into the West, until all your wounds and weariness are  healed” (Tolkien, “Lord of the Rings” 974-975). Her sacrifice allows for Frodo to achieve  paradise. No greater power in Christianity was there than in the power of sacrifice for paradise. 

If one were to look at Arwen and Galadriel’s character arcs across not only The Lord of  the Rings, but Tolkien’s Legendarium as a whole, it is no surprise that some fans interpret  Tolkien’s female character portrayals as sexist. For though in the mind of Eliot, the work should  be held above all else, ignoring the author’s life in favor of just the word on the page, it does a  disservice to the characters. Sexism of Western society in Tolkien’s time no doubt influenced the  emphasis placed on male warrior roles. Foucault, a literary theorist who emphasized the subtle,  manipulative ways power influences literature, would no doubt agree that the historical context  of Tolkien’s life contributed to this and informed his works.  

However, Tolkien’s Catholicism also played a large role. Tolkien did not write allegory  and was very clear on this point. But he was influenced by the world around him. The Ents and  emphasis on the value of nature in The Lord of the Rings did not spring from nowhere. Tolkien  was an outspoken opponent of technology and industrialization. His praise of Sam Gamgee as the true hero of The Lord of the Rings came directly from his time as an officer during World  War Two where he served alongside enlisted men and saw them as the true heroes of the war.  But perhaps most influential across the board for Tolkien was his Catholic faith. 

The characters of The Lord of the Rings show the Christian view of true power as one of  gentleness, humility, and healing. The female characters of Galadriel and Arwen are prime  examples. However, feminist theorist Nancy Enright shows that its more than just the women in  this role. “Even typically “heroic” characters like Aragorn and Faramir use traditional masculine  power in a manner tempered with an awareness of its limitations and a respect for another,  deeper kind of power” (Enright 93). This deeper power is what the women in the book display so  well. It is the kind of power that the Virgin Mary as well as Jesus Christ portrays in Catholicism.  To study Tolkien without an understanding of his faith is to miss the very eucatastrophe he  taught was so vital to his genre.

Works Cited 

Bergland, Magne. “’This Gift of Freedom’: The Gift of Iluvatar, from Mythological Solution to  Theological Problem.” Tolkien Studies: An Annual Scholarly Review, vol. 18, 2021, pp.  131-144. MLA International Bibliography via EBSCO, doi:10.1353/tks.2021.0008. 

Enright, Nancy. “Tolkien’s Females and the Defining of Power.” Renascence: Essays on Values  in Literature, vol. 59, no. 2, 2007, pp. 93–108. MLA International Bibliography via  EBSCO, doi:10.5840/renascence200759213. 

Jensen, Anika. “Flowers and Steel: The Necessity of War in Feminist Tolkien Scholarship.”  Tolkien Studies: An Annual Scholarly Review, vol. 16, 2019, pp. 59–72. MLA  International Bibliography via EBSCO, doi:10.1353/tks.2019.0006. 

Kurtz, Patti J. "Understanding and Appreciating Fantasy Literature." Choice, vol. 45, no. 4,  2007, pp. 571-572, 574-576, 578-580. ProQuest, https://0-search-proquest com.read.cnu.edu/docview/225727408?accountid=10100. 

Tolkien, J. R. R. Tales from the Perilous Realm. Harper Collins Publishers, 2008. 

Tolkien, J. R. R. The Lord of the Rings: 50th Anniversary Edition. Houghton Mifflin, 2005.