Analysis
The events of the first three chapters of The
Return of the King follow each other in parallel, tracing
the separate paths of Gandalf, Aragorn, and Théoden, with their
respective parties, in the moments leading up to the day the Darkness
settles. These synchronized chapters convey the experience of parallax—the
observation of the same cosmic or heavenly event from different
locations. Merry and Pippin watch the Darkness arrive from opposite
ends of Middle-earth. Their different vantage points further emphasize
the vast effect of Sauron’s evil on the natural world. While each
chapter is narrated in the third person, the narration is typically
limited to the perspective of each group’s most diminutive member:
Pippin at Minas Tirith, Gimli in the Paths of the Dead, and Merry
with the Riders of Rohan. Tolkien’s narrative voice implies that
the most important aspect of the quest and the war against Mordor
is not the outcome of these cataclysmic events, but each character’s
personal, subjective experience of the events—even that of the smallest
or most frightened character.
This chapter also highlights the importance of song and
myth, a motif that surfaces frequently throughout the novel. We
may tend to think of songs and stories as entertainment to help
pass the time, separate from the urgent and practical matters of
everyday life. But in the early cultures Tolkien studied and upon
which he modeled Middle-earth—cultures dominated by the spoken rather
than the written word, before the advent of widespread literacy—songs
and stories were vital and indispensable tools. They conveyed information
that was not recorded anywhere else, keeping that legacy alive for
future generations. We see the importance of song here when Aragorn
cites an ancient song to teach his companions about the Paths of
the Dead and the menacing Oathbreakers. When Aragorn emerges from
the Paths, one could can say that he literally owes his success
to his memory of the songs and the information conveyed in them.
Tolkien often insisted that The Lord of the Rings was
not an allegory—a symbolic or contemporary rendering of established
tales and archetypes. Nevertheless, the mystical trip through the
Paths of the Dead depicts Aragorn as a Christ figure, and the events
of Chapter 2 as a whole reflect the Passion
of Jesus Christ as portrayed in the Gospels. Traditionally, the
early Christian church affirmed that Christ, after his death on
the cross, descended into hell to redeem those believers who had
already died and to preach to the lost souls held captive there.
After doing so, Christ rose again on earth, eventually to ascend
into heaven. Similarly, Aragorn descends into the underground Paths
of the Dead, where he speaks to the animated spirits of the Dead.
He leads the Dead out into the waking world, where they affirm their
devotion to Aragorn, renouncing their broken promise to Isildur
at the altar-like Stone of Erech. Like the Bible’s foreshadowing
of Christ in the Old Testament, Elrohir’s secret message and the
legendary song about the Paths of the Dead act as prophetic underpinnings
for Aragorn’s deed; Aragorn himself has a keen sense of the ominous
task that he “must” do. Moreover, Aragorn repeatedly affirms that
his feats are accomplished not by heroic skill, but by divine right
and by the strength of his will.
The presence of these biblical parallels does not mean
that Tolkien misrepresented his intentions for The Lord
of the Rings. The comparisons to Christ are far from a
systematic allegory, and more than one character fits the role of
a Christ figure in the trilogy. Gandalf also recalls Christ’s sacrifice
and resurrection when he dies in Book II and returns in Book III
as Gandalf the White, purified and godlike. Frodo and Sam perform
additional sacrificial duties in their quest to save and redeem
Middle-earth. Rather than create Christian parallels, Tolkien wanted
to create in The Lord of the Rings an ancient mythology
for contemporary England. The history of Middle-earth in the novel
and in the tales of The Silmarillion depicts a pre-Christian
world before the flowering of humankind’s dominance. As mythology, The
Lord of the Rings promotes a specific moral and religious
understanding, implying that the Christian principles of sacrifice,
redemption, and forgiveness are central to the way the world is
and has always worked—even before the appearance of Christianity
as a religion.
