Mythology behind :Lord of the Rings"

The last week or so I have been involved with watching the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Entertaining movies, classic and pretty true to the book, at least from what I remember from when I read the book some twenty years ago. JRR. Tolkien seems to have borrowed from numerous sources and he also had a message to deliver.

I believe Tolkien said that he got his idea by recording his dreams. While that might be true I also recognized a fair bit of Druid and Norse mythology. The warriors looked a lot like Viking. The practice of cremation was a Norse practice as it was a Druid practice. The Rune alphabet which is read by Gandolf came from the Norse Alphabet. Elves and Dwarves were common in Norse mythology. Dwarves were the blacksmiths of the Gods and Elves were magical beings. In both Norse and Druid mythology the race of Elves left the world of men. In Irish mythology they were called the Sidhe and were driven into fairy mound by the Milesians. In Norse mythology they are supposed to inhabit another world.




The tree on Aragorn’s shield was the Tree of Ygdrassil. This tree is what held together the three worlds. The Gods lived in the upper three worlds while humans, elves and dwarves inhabited the three middle planets. The last three planets were the realms of the dead. Remember the elves sail off at the end of Return of the King. One can assume that they go off to another world. Another of the middle planets.

Aragorn is the long awaited king who will rule mankind and save them from the darkness. It should be noted that it is mentioned somewhere that JRR Tolkien did read up on the Kabballa.,Jewish mysticism. According to jewish mystical teaching and later carried over into Christian teaching is that the world will be turned to darkness and the Messiah will save everybody thus ushering in a world of peace. In Jewish mysticism there are two messiahs. Messiah Ben Joseph and Mesiah Ben David. Messiah ben Joseph has to die in battle. He serves sort of as a steward of the Israelite Nation. Recal that the steward of Gondor led things against Sauron and Aragorn could not take his rightfull position until the steward passed on.

Yet in Druidic legend the Holly King has die before the new king can be reborn and marry the Goddess thus repeating the cycle over again. In ancient mythology Gandalphs were known as gray wizards while Sarumans were noted for being white magicians. Gandalf meant “wand elf “

Next installment is the “Message of Lord of the Rings”