Scholars have identifiednumerous themes inJ. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth writings, among thempaganism. Despite Tolkien's assertion thatThe Lord of the Rings was a fundamentallyChristian work, paganism appears in that book and elsewhere in his fictional world ofMiddle-earth in multiple ways. These include apantheon of god-like beings, theValar, who function like the Norse gods, theÆsir; the person of the wizardGandalf, who Tolkien stated in a letter is an "Odinic wanderer";Elbereth, the Elves' "Queen of the Stars", associated withVenus;animism, the way that the natural world seems to be alive; and aBeowulf-like "northern courage" which is determined to press on, no matter how bleak the outlook.

Tolkien was aChristian interested in religion, and placed many hints of Christianity inThe Lord of the Rings, but given thatMiddle-earth is the Earth in the distant past, long before the time of Christ, he could not make his characters Christian, even the mostvirtuous pagans among them. He was in addition aphilologist, a scholar ofOld English language and literature, especially ofBeowulf, and he made extensive use ofthat poem in his Middle-earth writings.

Paganism covers an eclectic mix of religious beliefs and practices, often including many gods (polytheism) and a living nature imbued with spirit (animism). It was defined in early Christian times largely negatively, as non-Christian religion. Pagans may speak as if there was just one deity, often "the Goddess", while accepting multiple deities; they may speak of nature or the Earth as divine, suggesting a form ofpantheism, though this may shade into either animism ortranscendentalism. There is thus a wide spectrum of belief.^[4]

J. R. R. Tolkien was a devoutRoman Catholic. He describedThe Lord of the Rings as "fundamentally" Christian, and there aremany Christian themes in that work. He wrote in a letter to his close friend andJesuit priest,Robert Murray:^{[T 1]}

The Lord of the Rings is of course a fundamentally religious and Catholic work; unconsciously so at first, but consciously in the revision. That is why I have not put in, or have cut out, practically all references to anything like 'religion', to cults or practices, in the imaginary world. For the religious element is absorbed into the story and the symbolism.^{[T 1]}

The scholar Patrick Curry writes that Tolkien's statementelides the paganism that pervades the work, and indeed the whole ofhis Middle-earth Legendarium; it may befundamentally Christian, but on other levels it is another matter, with its paganpolytheism andanimism, and many other features.^[5] In other words, Middle-earth is both Christian and pagan.^[6] Pat Reynolds ofthe Tolkien Society writes that the Catholic Tolkien was familiar with multiple systems of belief, something that did not in his view imply that Tolkien was "a closet pagan".^[7] Reynolds adds that, on the contrary, Tolkien stated explicitly in a letter thatThe Lord of the Rings "is built on or out of certain 'religious' [Catholic] ideas, but is not an allegory of them ... and does not mention them overtly".^{[7][T 2]} TheEpiscopal priest and theologianFleming Rutledge adds that Middle-earth deliberately appears as "a curiously nonreligious world", since Tolkien wanted to avoid any hint ofpantheism, pagan worship of the natural world.^[8]

Professionally, Tolkien was a scholar of English literature, aphilologist andmedievalist interested in language and poetry from theMiddle Ages, especially that ofAnglo-Saxon England and Northern Europe.^[9] His professional knowledge ofBeowulf, telling of a pagan world but with a Christian narrator,^[3]helped to shape his fictional world of Middle-earth. His intention to create what has been called "a mythology for England"^{[T 3]} led him to construct not only stories but a fully-formed world withlanguages,peoples, cultures, andhistory, based on medieval materials.^[9]

Middle-earth is part ofthe created world, Eä, ruled by "the One" god,Eru Iluvatar, who in Tolkien's words "remains remote, outside the World",^{[5][T 4]} making it in principlemonotheistic and thus compatible with Christianity. In practice, Middle-earth is ruled by apantheon-like group of “angelic-beings”, theValar,^[5] who function, as Tolkien stated, with "the imaginative but not the theological place of 'gods'".^{[5][T 5]} They are, further, related to thefour ancient elements of fire, earth, air, and water in a characteristically pagan way.^[5] This makes Middle-earth appearpolytheistic.^[1] Among the resemblances are the strongOromë who fights the monsters ofMelkor, recalling the powerful Norse godThor.^[2]

The Tolkien scholarPatrick Curry writes thatThe Lord of the Rings "transcends any strictly monotheistic reading". Instead, he states, it displays "an extraordinary ethico-religious richness and complexity which derives from theblending (his emphasis) of Christian, pagan, and humanist ingredients".^[10]

• 
  Like thepantheon ofGreek gods, Tolkien'sValar behave as a group, making Middle-earth appearpolytheistic.^[1]

Gandalf theWizard constantly wanders Middle-earth, wearing a traveller's battered cloak and hat; and indeed, Tolkien stated in a 1946 letter that he thought of Gandalf as an "Odinic wanderer".^{[T 6]} Other commentators have similarly compared Gandalf to theNorse godOdin in his "Wanderer" guise—an old man with one eye, a long white beard, a wide brimmed hat, and a staff.^[12][11]

Although never described as a god, it is evident that Gandalf has power; Tolkien explains that the Wizards areMaiar, lesser spirits who serve the Valar, and who may take human form when in Middle-earth. In several ways he thus resemblesOdin the wanderer.^[13][2]

Elbereth, the Elves' "Queen of the Stars", Varda the "Lofty", is linked withEärendil's star, which Tolkien makes clear is the Morning and Evening Star, in other words,Venus. Curry notes that the planet has since ancient times been associated with the goddess, calledAphrodite by the Greeks,Venus by the Romans.^[14] This does not necessarily imply pagan origins; Elbereth has been likened to theVirgin Mary; for instance, the Tolkien scholarsMarjorie Burns andStratford Caldecott see in theSindarin hymn "A Elbereth Gilthoniel" an echo ofJohn Lingard'sMarian hymn,Hail Queen of Heaven, the Ocean Star, alluding to Mary as theQueen of Heaven.^[15][16] Curry argues on the other hand that Mary and Elbereth share antecedents in Venus, the pagan Queen of the Heavens. He writes that any Elf would find the Roman poetLucretius's words of praise for Venus entirely suitable as praise for Elbereth: "Thou alone, O goddess, rulest over the totality of nature; without thee nothing comes to the heavenly shores of light, nothing is joyful, nothing lovable."^[14]

In Tolkien's legendarium, the Elven-smithCelebrimbor forgesRings of Power, with consequences told inThe Lord of the Rings. Tolkien had been asked to investigate a Latin inscription excavated at a 4th-century temple of the pagan godNodens with a curse upon a ring. He concluded that Nodens was probably the origin of the Irish heroNuada Airgetlám, "Nuada of the Silver-Hand". In the Elvish language ofSindarin, Celebrimbor similarly means "Silver-Hand". Paganism, lightly disguised, thus extends to central plot elements of Middle-earth.^{[18][17][19][20]}

Along with polytheism,animism, the belief that animals, plants and other objects are imbued with spirit,^[21] is a clear marker of paganism. The natural world is in many places shown to be alive, with trees that have "feet", mountains that can show their anger with snowstorms,^[22] the herbathelas that creates a sparkling joy, or the cockerel that crows to welcome the morning as the wind and weather indicate the changing tide of theBattle of the Pelennor Fields. Or again, after the battle "a great rain came out of the Sea, and it seemed that all things wept" for those killed.^[5]

Tolkien illustrates animism in a far more domestic context, too, back in the Hobbits' homeland. Afterthe Scouring of the Shire, there was "wonderful sunshine and delicious rain ... but there seemed something more: an air of richness and growth, and a gleam of a beauty beyond that of mortal summers that flicker and pass upon this Middle-earth".^[5] Curry writes that the cosmology of Middle-earth is "polytheist-cum-animist ... natural magic",^[23] while its cultures are pre-modern and pre-Christian, and "their religions and mythologies are animist, polytheist andshamanist".^[24] The WizardRadagast shares his name witha pagan god inSlavic mythology,^[25] and he has a shaman-like affinity for wild animals, skill with herbs, and ability to change his hue and shape.^[26]

Middle-earth is strongly influenced by the Old English poemBeowulf. Tolkien made extensive use of the poem in his Middle-earth writings, not least for his boldly Anglo-SaxonRiders of Rohan. One aspect of paganism, theNorthern courage so prominent inBeowulf,^{[T 7]} appears as a central virtue inThe Lord of the Rings. The Tolkien scholarTom Shippey takes the wildly blowing battle-horns of the Riders of Rohan, storming into battle, to mean "bravado and recklessness", that "he who fears for his life shall lose it, but that dying undaunted is no defeat; furthermore that this was true before the Christian myth that came to explain why".^[28] The medievalistElizabeth Solopova contraststhe hero and future kingAragorn with the oldSteward of Gondor,Denethor, who is incapable of such Northern courage.^[29] Shippey observes thatDenethor's other opposite, KingThéoden of Rohan, lives by Northern courage, and dies through Denethor's despair.^[30] Tolkien stated in his 1936 lectureThe Monsters and the Critics that he was inspired by the apocalyptic Norse legend ofRagnarök, where the gods know that they are doomed in their final battle for the world, but go to fight anyway. Even the home-loving HobbitsFrodo andSam share this courage, knowing they have little prospect of returning home from their desperate mission toMount Doom.^[29]

Since theThird Age of Middle-earth was long before the time of Christ, its inhabitants were necessarily pagan; the Tolkien scholarPaul H. Kocher comments that "having made the times pre-Christian, [Tolkien] has freed himself from the need to deal with them in a Christian context, which would be awkward if applied to elves, ents, dwarves, and the rest."^[32][33] For a Christian like Tolkien, this raised the question of whether at least its most virtuous characters could be saved. The concept ofvirtuous paganism became relevant toRomanticism with its interest inNorth European mythology or enthusiasm for the rediscoveredpagan ethos of theIcelandic sagas. Shippey argues that the fiction ofJ. R. R. Tolkien is significantly based on this concept:^[34]

Tolkien was "rather disturbed by [anArmageddon which the wrong side wins (Ragnarök)]: he saw that the ethos it represented could be used by either side, as indeed it was in the deliberate cultivation ofGötterdämmerung by theNazi leadership a few years later. Nevertheless it did provide an image of heroic virtue which could exist, and could be admired, outside the Christian framework. In some respects (as you can see in his 1936Beowulf lecture...) the Old Norse 'theory of courage' might even be regarded as ethically superior to the Classical if not to the Christian world-view, in that it demanded commitment to virtue without any offer of lasting reward. ... He also felt that Old Norse mythology provided a model for what one might call 'virtuous paganism,' which was heathen; conscious of its own inadequacy, and so ripe for conversion; but not yet sunk into despair and disillusionment like so much of 20th-century post-Christian literature; a mythology which was in its way light-hearted."^[34]

Shippey analyses "The Tale of Aragorn and Arwen", an appendix toThe Lord of the Rings, for what it says about Tolkien's delicate balance between open Christianity and his treatment of his characters as heathens, a word that Shippey observes Tolkien uses very sparingly. Shippey notes that bothAragorn andArwen are pagan, though Aragorn is "remarkably virtuous .. without even the faults of Theoden, and he foreknows his death like a [Christian] saint".^[31] Shippey notes that Arwen is inconsolable, seeing nothing after death, rejecting Aragorn's "we are not bound for ever to the circles of the world, and beyond them is more than memory. Farewell!"; as Shippey says, "Arwen is not comforted" by this;^[31] none of the traditional consolations of religion are present.^[31]

The salvation of a pagan who had done wrong is discussed inThe Lord of the Rings in connection with the death ofBoromir, one of the nine members of theFellowship of the Ring. In Christian terms, Boromir atones for his assault on theRing-bearer Frodo by single-handedly but vainly defendingMerry andPippin fromOrcs, illustrating the Catholic theme of the importance of good intention, especially at the point of death. This is clear from Gandalf's statement:^[35][36] "But he [Boromir] escaped in the end.... It was not in vain that the young hobbits came with us, if only for Boromir's sake."^{[T 8]}

The scholar George Clark writes that Tolkien resembled theBeowulf poet in being^[37]

a learned Christian who re-created a heroic world and story in an implicitly Christian universe governed by a God whose existence and nature the poem's wiser characters intuit without the benefit of revelation. Tolkien'sBeowulf poet was a version of himself, and his authorial persona in creating [The Lord of the Rings] was a version of thatBeowulf poet.^[37]

The historianRonald Hutton writes that in depicting a pagan Middle-earth, the Christian Tolkien was setting up an interesting relationship between his own religion and his invented world. He notes that Tolkien made this hard to investigate: he avoided biography, disliked critics, and distrusted analysis of literature based on the author rather than the work; and further, apart from hisLetters, he left no memoirs and few clues in his diaries. Hutton suggests that the many unsent drafts of letters indicate that Tolkien was embarrassed by the question, as he wanted to be clear about his Christianity, and was pleased if people could glimpse that through his writings, but his remarks about the presence of Catholicism inThe Lord of the Rings were brief and difficult to interpret, as he had been stung by criticism of the absence of religion in the work. Hutton citesVerlyn Flieger's statement that Tolkien's faith was "subject to doubt and losses of confidence", and even in later life he wrote to his son Michael that he was constantly tempted to unbelief.^[38]

Hutton sees three, sometimes "discordant", elements in Middle-earth's (religious) cosmos. There is a single male supreme being, Eru Iluvatar, "in personality much like a Christian God". A heavenly choir of beings, the Ainur, serve him, while one, Melko/Morgoth, rebels against him, likeSatan among theangels. Hutton calls this Christianity with aNeoplatonic twist. However, secondly, the Ainur are not pure and virginal, but live in the world (Arda), have sex and quarrels, and make mistakes. This, he writes, is like the pagan Norse gods, or the classical era gods ofMount Olympus: "a full-blownpagan Neoplatonism". Thirdly, unlike the ancient gods, his gods are at best only sporadically interested in the affairs of Middle-earth; instead, they defend their own "fairyland",Valinor, and the rest of the world is like a fairy-tale in that it is seen through the eyes of elves or hobbits, not of humans. This, he writes, is "utterly un-Christian", and he finds it striking how badly they fit together. Thus, questions like what happens to humans after they die are handled differently in the early and later phases of his writing. The goddess Fui acts likePersephone, the Greek goddess of the underworld, judging the dead and sending them to "a dim plain", or to be tortured by the evil Melko, while a few are brought to the enchanted realm. Hutton notes that while Christopher Tolkien tried "gamely" to fit this to the Catholic scheme ofpurgatory,hell, andheaven, it "obviously" fits better with the Homeric or Virgilian accounts of the afterlife. If this was Christianity, Hutton writes, it would be a heretical form; he prefers to call it pagan.^[39]

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