The Universal Tolkien

Paper Summary:

JRR Tolkien has sold millions of copies of his "Lord of the Rings trilogy". It is certainly the most popular fantasy novel of all time and quite possibly one of the best received novels in the last hundred years. The paper examines the question why a series of books so far removed from what most people would consider "real life" would have such a phenomenal following. Is it, as critics have suggested, a mere penchant for escapism? The paper argues that "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy is so successful because it is a true story and humans naturally gravitate towards truth. Of course, it is a fictional tale and a highly imaginative one at that. But fiction does not mean falsehood. The paper shows that the story is true, not to external but to internal realities and by truthfully recording the internal story of the way in which the universe and human consciousness function, it transcends mere nonfiction.

From the Paper:

"The psychological and spiritual archetypes in these novels are both plentiful and important. Of course there are the obvious ones. The format of the trilogy as the narrative of a grand journey, setting out from one place and eventually returning to it, buys into archetypes regarding voyages. Life as a journey is a commonly repeated metaphor, but nonetheless valid. The archetypical evil versus the archetypical good is also obvious. Everything which one expects to be associated with evil is associated with evil, and the same is true of the good. There are no surprises here because there could be no surprises while maintaining archtypal consistency. If one is to believe reports of a sort of collective unconsciousness, then many of these images are drawn directly from its source. The symbols generally used by Tolkien are not unlike symbols used in dream interpretation, and in many ways they carry the same meanings. Take, for example, the way in which elves leave Middle Earth by passing over the sea. In archetypical terms, such bodies of water can represent both death and sexuality, suggesting a relationship between departure from this realm and death/reincarnation. Various other archetypes also persist."

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