Surprised by Middle-earth
Hillsdale professor Brad Birzer helps
de-mystify Tolkien's creative process

By Peter Krupa
Senior Collegian Reporter

Once in 1972, Oxford don and author J.R.R. Tolkien explained in an interview how he discovered hobbits: “I was doing the dull work of correcting exam papers when I came upon a blank page someone had turned in—a boon to all exam markers. I turned it over and wrote on the back, ‘In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.’ I’d never heard or used the word before.”

Quite simply, this is the way Tolkien approached his myth. He believed the mythical world with all its complexities was complete, created by God in Tolkien’s mythic imagination. Wizards and Ringwraiths would wander into his Middle-earth and Tolkien—surprised as anyone else at these appearances—was left to explain.

It is in somewhat the same way that Hillsdale history professor Bradley Birzer approaches Tolkien in his new book J.R.R. Tolkien’s Sanctifying Myth: Understanding Middle-earth. Rather than act as a literary critic who creates his own ideas about Tolkien, Birzer simply chronicles the history and thought behind the creation. He depends heavily on primary sources as he deals with Tolkien’s portrayals of myth, heroism, the created order, the nature of evil, and modernity, making for a fascinating and reliable narrative.

Though rather short, the book is dense with poignant insight essential for a deeper understanding and appreciation of Tolkien. The first chapter lays the biographical groundwork for the rest of the book, relating Tolkien’s life at Oxford and introducing some of the characters that became major influences in his writing. The chapter is filled with interesting anecdotes and quotes that biography aficionados will surely love. For instance, we learn that the land of Mordor in The Lord of the Rings grew out of Tolkien’s experience with trench warfare in World War I.

Then in the following chapters, Birzer delves into the vast topic of Tolkien’s myth. In the tradition of Blake, T.S. Eliot, and James Joyce, Tolkien wanted to re-mythologize the Western world. He disliked the modern era and embraced the imagination as a redemptive thing that ultimately points to the Christian God.

Throughout the book, Birzer emphasizes that Tolkien’s Catholicism more thoroughly influenced his myth than anything else.

“Tolkien was careful to make his own mythology as Christian as possible,” writes Birzer. “He specifically wanted to affirm his own devoutly Catholic worldview, especially its emphasis on the salvific efficacy of free will in response to God’s grace.”

From the mystical lembas of the elves to the various hero figures to the manifestation of grace, the Catholic faith was Tolkien’s inspiration. The very concept of a sanctifying myth is Catholic in itself.

Despite this close relationship with Catholicism, Birzer flatly denies Middle-earth an explicit allegorical interpretation.

“Tolkien adamantly rejected the notion that his mythology served as an allegory,” he writes.
Though Tolkien admitted some limited allegorical relationships (like the semblance of the heroic figures to church officials), he denied he did this intentionally.

Other particularly interesting chapters present Tolkien’s views on the nature of evil and modernity. Birzer goes a long way toward explaining why Tolkien made the choices he did as far as his evil characters and their methods of mischief.

It’s difficult to find a central focus in Birzer’s book. As an obvious fan of Tolkien, Birzer addresses the topic so broadly and enthusiastically that he sometimes loses sight of his point.

Coupled with that, if there is one flaw in the book it is Birzer’s tendency to approach Tolkien’s writing from the angle of historical narrative. This method limits the depth of his examination while often times broadening his chapters with tangents of interesting but irrelevant Tolkien trivia. For example, Birzer spends several pages in the middle of his chapter on Middle-earth’s created order discussing C.S. Lewis’s anti-Catholicism.

Despite this shortcoming, J.R.R. Tolkien’s Sanctifying Myth is good for what it is: an explanation of Tolkien’s myth as he himself saw it. Perhaps the book is only a forerunner of Birzer’s deeper, critical thoughts on Tolkien and perhaps there is more to come.

Birzer's book comes out November 1st from ISI books.