Tolkien on Allegory

For years we have heard the story that J.R.R. Tolkien, creator of Middle Earth, never intended for any of his books to be allegory at all even though the Christian community rallies around him as a writer of Christian fiction.  It is true that we can see many images of Christ in the characters of

Tolkien on Tolkien: Frodo’s Other Option

For those of us who have read The Lord of the Rings, we all thrill when Frodo finally throws the One Ring into the crack of Mount Doom, but according to Tolkien’s own letters Frodo had one other option once he possessed the Dark One’s Ring. In a letter to a fan, one Eileen Elgar, who

Tolkien on Inspiration

Today’s post is fortuitous in that Tolkien is again in the news.  Yesterday NPR ran a story about an ancient Roman ring that may have been the inspiration for The One Ring in Tolkien’s Middle Earth epic.  You can find “The Vyne” here, but the summary of the story is that Tolkien was brought in