Tolkien Tuesday: The Power of Lothlorien
The following quotation describes Frodo's experience in the Elvish land of Lothlorien after Gandalf was lost in the Mines of Moria on the Bridge of Khazad-Dum. It not only illustrates the renewing power of the Gospel but also intensifies longings within me for the renewal of all creation (Romans 8:18-23).
The [other members of the fellowship] cast themselves down upon the fragrant grass, but Frodo stood awhile still lost in wonder. It seemed to him that he had stepped through a high window that looked on a vanished world. A light was upon it for which his language had no name. All that he saw was shapely, but the shapes seemed at once clear cut, as if they had been first conceived and drawn at the uncovering of his eyes, and ancient as if they had endured for ever. He saw no colour but those he knew, gold and white and blue and green, but they were fresh and poignant, as if he had at that moment first perceived them and made for them names new and wonderful. In winter here no heart could mourn for summer or for spring. No blemish or sickness or deformity could be seen in anything that grew upon the earth. On the land of Lorien there was no stain (The Fellowship of the Ring, 365).
Both Tolkien and Lewis have a way of writing that somehow evokes the eternal!
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I agree. There are few writers who have the ability to give you a glimpse of heaven, of the eternal. Tolkien and Lewis, along with MacDonald, are some of the few that have the gift. That's why we are LOTR nerds. : )
You are correct, as far as Christians go, when you say that Tolkien has the ability to evoke the eternal in us. But I first read LOTR before I was a believer, and my experience had nothing to do with the eternal or heaven. What he did elicit from me was a sense of the transcendant, what I now know was the stirring of the broken of image of God in me.
This transporting to the transcendant is a natural bridge to the gospel when discussing LOTR with unbelievers. Even the most devout atheist or agnostic cannot truly live as though there is "nothing more" to life.
Ah! for the day when there will be no stain and all of creation will be as it should be, glorying not only in the perfection of that consummated day and place, but also in the unfathomable "betterness" than 'twas before the Fall!!!
BTW, if you're interested in adding XHTML characters (accents, umlauts) to your posts (since a lot of Middle-earth names require them), you can find the code at:
www.digitalmediaminute.com/reference/entity/index.php
For example, "Lothlorien" becomes "Lothlórien" with the code added. A little trouble, but not much once you get used to it.
Excellent! Thanks, Finrod.