Religious Symbolism in LotR

[solicitr]

Christmas? Not so much. Originally the departure was pushed back for convenience one calendar month, Nov 24 to Dec 24. But when he introduced the Shire-reckoning (probably in early 1948), he found it easier to keep the January dates unchanged and shift the (lone)December date by one day.

Of course, he also wrote that the LR was a Catholic work "unconsciously in the writing, consciously in the revision."

He made a similar effort when doing his last 'synoptic' time-scheme, probably in 1949 or 50. He shifted the Battle of the Pelennor from March 14 to March 15 to give Aragorn more time- but then carefully removed a day from Frodo and Sam's journey through Mordor (they escaped the Tower the morning of the battle) so that the date of March 25 was preserved.


(In the earliest time-scheme I'm aware of, done before he wrote Books V or VI, the Fall of B-D was on Feb 23!)

[vison]

That was always obvious to me. The days of the equinoxes and the solstices have always been important. This is not an overlap between Christian and Celtic mythologies, this is a recognition that those days have been of the utmost importance for many, many thousands of years. Every culture North of the Equator has marked those days with ritual.

We tend to forget the importance in our day and age. The length of the days, the failing sun, its return, these were matters of life and death to our ancestors.

The mystery religions in particular - including Christianity - have never failed to mark them. The return of the dead son/sun at the winter solstice is common.

Tolkien used the dates that he thought were most significant, the ones we are familiar with. It made perfect sense to me that he would use them.

The New Year traditionally began at the Spring equinox throughout much of fairly recent Europe. Employment agreements, rents, etc., anything requiring a term, were often begun on Lady Day. The Lady became Mary, but Lady Day is older than that.

[Primula Baggins]

Images of light are all through Christmas scripture and music. "The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who lived in a land of deep darkness—on them light has shined." "Arise, shine, for your light has come."

The matching of ancient solstice tradition and the Christian story are perfect, which is why I don't care whether the timing is "real," whether Christ was or was not born "in the bleak midwinter." Celebrating it then is instructive and resonant and right.

As right as it is for LotR. The Nine Walkers set out in darkness on the darkest day of the year (and what a beautifully told, bleak, cold scene that departure is). And yet the idea that light unsuspected is coming—that somewhere, secretly, even if no one knows it yet, hope has been born—that is a very Christian, or at least a very Christmasy, idea.

[vison]

This is something I wonder: was Tolkien missing a digit? Not a joke question, btw. Many people lose a finger in this life, I know 2 little kids who have, and lots of adults.

In "Stranger in a Strange Land" (yes, THAT book) you might recall Michael dropping his own finger into the communal stew . . .

[MithLuin]

Except the solstice/equinox doesn't fall on the 25th. It falls on the 21st (sometimes the 20th, what with leap year). So, yes, the importance of the timing of the changing of the seasons is certainly there, but the date happens to fall precisely on the Christian feasts, not the astronomical dates. Not a coincidence. Tolkien obviously knew a lot about calendars, seeing as how he designed a few of his own. If he'd wanted the equinox, we'd have gotten it. I am not adept at converting between Middle Earth calendars and ours, but I'm pretty sure that March 25th TA corresponds to March 27th Gregorian - so, not the Equinox, even 'adjusted'.

Easter falls on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the vernal equinox. A couple of years ago, March 25th was Good Friday. It was like having my worlds collide . Usually, it's a bit later, though.
Here are the dates of Easter over the years that Tolkien was working on the story:

Code: Select all

1939    4/9             1940    3/24
1941    4/13            1942    4/5             1943    4/25
1944    4/9             1945    4/1             1946    4/21
1947    4/6             1948    3/28            1949    4/17
1950    4/9             1951    3/25            1952    4/13
1953    4/5             1954    4/18   

Good Friday never fell on March 25th in that time, though Easter was that date in 1951, and Holy Thursday was in 1948. But for the rest of the years: April. In the 250 years from 1875 to 2124, Good Friday falls on March 25th a total of 5 times: 1910, 1921, 1932, 2005 and 2016 (in case anyone needs something to look forward to ). So, fairly rare (2.9% of the time). SOURCE

Catholicism is hardly the only religion to have a liturgical calendar. But Middle Earth certainly has one, too. The importance of Bilbo and Frodo sharing a birthday, and Frodo setting out on his journey on that day. Aragorn dying on his birthday. The day the Ring was destroyed becoming New Year's Day in the new reckoning used in Gondor. Elanor's birthday. Dates are infused with meaning, particularly anniversaries (Frodo being stabbed by the Nazgûl and bitten by Shelob).

C.S. Lewis touches on the idea of events passing into liturgy in Til We Have Faces, when a priest tells Orual the story of her sister, using language about the seasons. The priest doesn't understand why she won't accept the way he is telling the story, but the problem is that for her, it is real events, and he's getting it wrong. It's one of the few attempts I can recall of an author turning their own story into legend in the process of telling it - but it is a retelling of a myth, so it works. It's kinda like the 'Mad Baggins' legend in the beginning of LotR, I suppose.

[solicitr]

No, it's only approximate- but the connection nonetheless is there: Christmas picked up the date of the Roman Saturnalia, which was supposed to be a solstice festival, but the Roman calendar (having no internal correction mechanism) drifted around relative to the Sun until Julius Caesar pegged it down, slightly out-of-place.

When Pope Gregory promulgated his reformed calendar in 1582, it was because the calendar dating of Easter had shifted by ten days relative to the solstice- which indicates that the Church considered the solar year and the equinoctial season to be significant to the Passion.

As vison observed, many traditional legal obligations were dated to Lady Day or March 25- but that was because the New Year began on that day in the (post-Roman) Julian calendar (the fact that e.g. January 1489 came *after* December 1489 drives historians and genealogists nuts). Medieval France was even more insane, since for quite a while the New Year began on Easter!

[MithLuin]

Of course it's significant - the Passion occurs during Passover. The Paschal full moon has to occur after the vernal equinox, not before it.

The dates of Christmas and Easter are strongly tied to the solstice and equinox dates, but not identical to them. That's all I was pointing out. Whether Tolkien's interest in the date of March 25th was historical/traditional or religious I leave up to you to figure out, but he certainly knew it wasn't the equinox.

[Frelga]

Of course it's significant - the Passion occurs during Passover. The Paschal full moon has to occur after the vernal equinox, not before it.

Except it couldn't be Passover, because they were eating bread at the Last Supper. It sounds a lot more like Rosh Ha Shana, where we do dip bread in honey.

[solicitr]

Sightly OT, but the Xian assumption is that the Last Supper involved the matzo and wine of the Passover seder. The Gospels are all in agreement that the Passion occurred at Passover. This is consistent with the 'political' details: neither Pilate nor Herod Antipas would have been in Jerusalem except for a major festival.

1. After two days was the feast of the passover, and of unleavened bread...

14 And wheresoever he shall go in, say ye to the goodman of the house, The Master saith, Where is the guestchamber, where I shall eat the passover with my disciples?

15 And he will shew you a large upper room furnished and prepared: there make ready for us.

16 And his disciples went forth, and came into the city, and found as he had said unto them: and they made ready the passover.

John 13:1
Now before the feast of the passover, when Jesus knew that his hour was come that he should depart out of this world

John 18:28
Then led they Jesus from Caiaphas unto the hall of judgment: and it was early; and they themselves went not into the judgment hall, lest they should be defiled; but that they might eat the passover.

John 18:39
But ye have a custom, that I should release unto you one at the passover: will ye therefore that I release unto you the King of the Jews?

John 19:14
And it was the preparation of the passover, and about the sixth hour: and [Pilate] saith unto the Jews, Behold your King!

[vison]

I didn't mean that Tolkien had things happening ON the solstices or equinoxes, as solictr mentions. I meant that the dates of the Christian calendar are recent adjustments to those old dates - it cannot be coincidence or unrelated that the early Christian church co-opted pagan festivals or even Jewish festivals. As with Passover.

I always assumed that the "bread" eaten at the last supper was not "bread" but the unleavened bread of the Jews. It's still bread, by the definition of the word bread, it's just not leavened.

[Frelga]

Sightly OT, but the Xian assumption is that the Last Supper involved the matzo and wine of the Passover seder.

Sorry to sidetrack, but this got me curious. I can see how all the translations would lose matzot and use bread, although it must have been a pretty important point to the contemporaries. Still, you don't dip matzo into wine. Or honey, which I thought was specifically mentioned. And of course Rosh Ha Shanah is a major festival, too, so the VIPs would still be there.

All right, all right, I'll shuddup now.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Frelga, did you see the quotes from the Gospels that soli had edited into his post? They are pretty explicitly referring to Passover. Or is your point that the Gospels are wrong? (Edit: Or maybe that the translation of the Gospels is inaccurate? I'm not sure what you are saying. )

[Frelga]

Just something I've been curious about, V, because I keep reading that Last Supper = Passover, and keep thinking, no, that isn't right.

[solicitr]

There's nothing in the Gospels (or Paul) about dipping- that was a much later element of Catholic ritual. The NT only says that Jesus broke bread and gave it out, took the cup and passed it around. No honey, either.

Rosh Hoshana wasn't actually a major festival until after the Temple Era, being simply the New Year feast, without the Talmudic Day of Judgment associations. The three major festivals in Roman Judea were Passover, Shavuot and Sukkot, which required (in theory) the attendance of all Jews.

[Frelga]

Thanks, soli, that makes much better sense, and you are correct that New Year was not a Pilgrimage festival. I think.

[MithLuin]

I am not aware of any reference to honey with the Last Supper. There is a reference to dipping, though. In Matthew 26 and Mark 14, Jesus identifies the man who will betray him in this way:

When evening came, Jesus was reclining at the table with the Twelve. And while they were eating, he said, "I tell you the truth, one of you will betray me."

They were very sad and began to say to him one after the other, "Surely not I, Lord?"

Jesus replied, "The one who has dipped his hand into the bowl with me will betray me. The Son of Man will go just as it is written about him. But woe to that man who betrays the Son of Man! It would be better for him if he had not been born."

Then Judas, the one who would betray him, said, "Surely not I, Rabbi?"
Jesus answered, "Yes, it is you."

Not sure precisely what is being dipped in what, there. There are some bitter herbs at a Seder, right? Would that involve dipping? Mark specifically says "one who dips bread into the bowl with me," though this is all in English, so would mean unleavened bread in the context of Passover.

John elaborates a bit more:

It was just before the Passover Feast. Jesus knew that the time had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he now showed them the full extent of his love. [Footwashing ensues]
"I am not referring to all of you; I know those I have chosen. But this is to fulfill the scripture: 'He who shares my bread has lifted up his heel against me.'
"I am telling you now before it happens, so that when it does happen you will believe that I am He. I tell you the truth, whoever accepts anyone I send accepts me; and whoever accepts me accepts the one who sent me."

After he had said this, Jesus was troubled in spirit and testified, "I tell you the truth, one of you is going to betray me."

His disciples stared at one another, at a loss to know which of them he meant. One of them, the disciple whom Jesus loved, was reclining next to him. Simon Peter motioned to this disciple and said, "Ask him which one he means."

Leaning back against Jesus, he asked him, "Lord, who is it?"

Jesus answered, "It is the one to whom I will give this piece of bread when I have dipped it in the dish." Then, dipping the piece of bread, he gave it to Judas Iscariot, son of Simon. As soon as Judas took the bread, Satan entered into him.

"What you are about to do, do quickly," Jesus told him, but no one at the meal understood why Jesus said this to him. Since Judas had charge of the money, some thought Jesus was telling him to buy what was needed for the Feast, or to give something to the poor. As soon as Judas had taken the bread, he went out. And it was night.

The reference is to Psalm 41:9.


This dipping all occurs before the important part of the Last Supper - when Jesus breaks the bread and shares the wine with his Apostles, there is no reference to dipping. Don't know if that helps. I have heard that the cup used for communion was the Elijah cup (or maybe the fourth cup?) since that part happens after the meal. But I am a bit vague on how that was determined. Communion hosts are always made from unleavened bread (well, okay, that 'always' is a generalization and reveals some biases on my part, but just go with it for now?) because the Last Supper is meant to tie in to Passover.

[Frelga]

I'll just be over there, trying to figure out where I got the honey from, shall I? Anyway, thanks for the response, and sorry for the sidetrack.

[MithLuin]

No problem! Personally, if I am going to dip my bread in something, I'd go with honey.... And my knowledge of what goes on at an actual Seder comes from reading, not experience, so I'm sure I'm way off in what I 'think' happens.

[solicitr]

To reinforce- the "Institution" occurred after the main meal and the associated conversation. Since in those pre-silverware days most dining involved dipping one's hand, or a piece of bread, into bowls(been to an Ethiopian restaurant?), it doesn't I think have any significance. The part that turned into the Sacrament apparently followed the actual eating of the lamb and bitter herbs.

In John, the Last Supper was the night *before* passover- but then there is no Eucharist in John at all; instead there is a long sermon or "Farewell Discourse" which shows considerable Neoplatonic influence* and (to some) casts doubt on the authenticity of this part of the Fourth Gospel (which wasn't universally accepted until rather late).

On the flipside, it's generally considered significant (by Xians) that the language used by Paul in 1 Corinthians, written many years before the Synoptics, uses almost the identical language.

*To me, John reads like the work of a Greek who is familiar with but rather hostile to Judaism generally. The author knows the geography of Jerusalem and its environs well (but not Galilee), and strikes me perhaps as a Gentile resident in the city, probably well after Jesus' time, who disdained the local religious practices.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Interesting, soli. I wonder if it would be worth trying to extract the religious discussion that is largely unrelated to Tolkien into a separate thread in TE? It would be worth exploring further, I think.