1. Humphrey Carpenter, ed., The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien (New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2000), p. 172.
2. J. R. R. Tolkien, foreword to The Lord of the Rings, 2nd ed. (New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2004), pp. xxiii–xxiv.
3. Carpenter, ed., Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien, p. 246.
4. G. K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy, 5th ed. (London: The Bodley Head, 1915), p. 85.
5. Ibid., pp. 108–10.
6. Although written by Wilde, these words are actually spoken by the character Lord Darlington in act 3 of Lady Windermere’s Fan.
7. C. S. Lewis, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (New York: Harper Trophy, 2005), p. 226.
8. Tolkien, Lord of the Rings, p. 909.
9. J. R. R. Tolkien, Tree and Leaf (London: Unwin, 1988), p. 56.
10. Ibid., p. 28.
11. Ibid., p. 69.
12. Ibid., p. 28.
1. Carpenter, ed., Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien, p. 288.
2. Ibid.
3. Ibid., pp. 288–89.
4. Tolkien, Tree and Leaf, p. 69.
1. Martin C. D’Arcy, Laughter and the Love of Friends: Reminiscences of the Distinguished English Priest and Philosopher (Westminster, MD: Christian Classics, 1991), pp. 112–13.
2. It should, however, be noted that Tolkien was an expert on the Anglo-Saxon language and its literature and was not, as Father D’Arcy seemed to believe, a historian.
3. The Pelagians believed that men could forge their own eternal destiny, earning themselves a place in heaven by obeying the teachings of Christ through a triumph of the human will over temptation. Such a belief denied the need for grace and therefore denied the need for the Church and her sacraments.
4. There is much disagreement about the exact dating of Beowulf, its composition being shrouded in mystery. The present author agrees with those, including Tolkien, who believe it was written sometime between the mid-seventh and mid-eighth century.
5. All quotes from Beowulf are from Seamus Heaney’s translation, Beowulf (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2002)
6. For the sake of clarity, Chaucer’s original English has been modified. The purist, I hope, will forgive me.
1. Tolkien, Lord of the Rings, pp. 33–34.
2. Ibid., p. 46.
3. Mt 6:21.
4. Tolkien, Lord of the Rings, p. 47.
5. Ibid., p. 222.
1. Chesterton, Orthodoxy, p. 108.
2. Tolkien, Lord of the Rings, p. 56.
3. J. R. R. Tolkien, The Hobbit (London: HarperCollins, 1988), p. 285.
4. Tolkien, Lord of the Rings, p. 55.
5. Ibid.
6. Ibid., p. 56.
7. G. K. Chesterton, letter to Maurice Baring; quoted in Emma Letley, Maurice Baring: A Citizen of Europe (London: Constable, 1991), p. 217.
8. Tolkien, Lord of the Rings, p. 59.
9. Ibid.
1. Carpenter, ed., Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien, p. 174.
2. Ibid., p. 26.
3. Ibid., p. 192.
4. Tolkien, Lord of the Rings, p. 131.
5. Ibid., pp. 131–32.
6. Ibid., pp. 132–33.
7. Gn 2:19.
1. Carpenter, ed., Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien, p. 246.
2. Ibid., p. 255.
3. Tolkien, Lord of the Rings, p. 357.
4. Ibid., p. 87.
5. Ibid., p. 79.
6. Ibid., p. 80.
7. In the final line of his Eucharistic hymn Verbum supernum prodiens, the last two stanzas of which form the shorter and better-known Eucharistic hymn, O Salutaris Hostia.
8. Morgoth’s Ring, one of the volumes in Christopher Tolkien’s History of Middle-Earth, illustrates how Tolkien’s Christian cosmology inspired and informed the cosmology of Middle-earth.
9. Tolkien, Lord of the Rings, p. 357.
10. Ibid., p. 243.
11. Ibid., p. 244.
12. J. R. R. Tolkien, The Silmarillion (New York: Ballantine Books, 2002), p. 36.
1. Tolkien, Lord of the Rings, p. 398.
2. Ibid., p. 671.
3. Ibid., p. 613.
4. Ibid., pp. 258–89.
5. Sauron is described as the greatest of Melkor’s servants. Melkor is quite clearly and inescapably the name that the elves have ascribed in their own creation myth to Satan. Tolkien, Silmarillion, p. 23.
6. Tolkien, Lord of the Rings, pp. 399–400.
7. Ibid., p. 414.
8. Ibid., p. 671.
9. Ibid., p. 664.
10. Jn 8:34.
11. Rom 6:18–20.
1. Carpenter, ed., Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien, p. 288.
2. Ibid.
3. Ibid., pp. 274–75.
4. Tolkien, Lord of the Rings, p. 936.
5. Glenn Dallaire, “Miracle of the Eucharist,” Miracles of the Saints, accessed November 30, 2014, http://www.miraclesofthesaints.com/2010/10/miracle-of-eucharist-total-fast-from.html#sthash.KIYDQuqq.dpuf.
6. Tolkien, Lord of the Rings, pp. 369–70.
7. Carpenter, ed., Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien, p. 288.
1. Tolkien, Lord of the Rings, p. 306.
2. Ibid., p. 308.
3. Mt 18: 3–4.
4. Tolkien, Lord of the Rings, p. 330.
5. Tolkien, Silmarillion, p. 15.
6. Ibid., p. 9.
7. Gn 1:1–3.
8. Clyde S. Kilby, Tolkien & The Silmarillion (Chicago: Harold Shaw, 1976), p. 59.
9. Carpenter, ed., Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien, p. 201.
10. Ibid., p. 202.
11. Strictly speaking, this is a theological flaw because angels, having made the once-and-for-all decision to serve God or Satan, do not change sides. Angels are always angelic (i.e., good); demons are always demonic (i.e., evil).
12. Carpenter, ed., Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien, p. 202.
13. Gn 22:2.
14. Carpenter, ed., Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien, p. 383.
15. Tolkien, Lord of the Rings, p. 495.
16. Ibid.
17. G. K. Chesterton, The Ballad of the White Horse (London: Methuen, 1928), p. 140.
18. Tolkien, Tree and Leaf, p. 62.
19. Carpenter, ed., Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien, p. 100.
1. Tolkien, Lord of the Rings, pp. 496–97.
2. Ibid., p. 595.
3. Ibid., p. 585.
4. Ibid., p. 729.
5. Ibid., p. 520.
6. Gn 3:14.
7. Tolkien, Lord of the Rings, p. 520.
8. Tolkien, Silmarillion, p. 8.
9. Ibid., p. 10.
10. Ibid., p. 23.
11. Isa 14:11–12.
12. Tolkien, Silmarillion, p. 23.
13. Ibid., pp. 23–24.
14. Carpenter, ed., Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien, p. 380.
15. J. R. R. Tolkien, Morgoth’s Ring (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1993), pp. viii–ix.
16. Ibid., p. ix.
17. Tolkien, Lord of the Rings, p. 909.
18. Tolkien, Silmarillion, p. 6.
19. Ibid.
20. Tolkien, Lord of the Rings, p. 702.
1. Tolkien, Lord of the Rings, p. 370.
2. Ibid., p. 1.
3. Ibid., p. 259.
4. Ibid., p. 501.
5. Carpenter, ed., Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien, p. 246.
6. Concise Oxford Dictionary, 5th ed., 1963.
7. Tolkien, Hobbit, p. 69.
8. Tolkien, Lord of the Rings, p. 555.
9. Ibid., p. 583.
10. Ibid., p. 853.
11. Ibid.
12. Carpenter, ed., Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien, p. 93.
13. Tolkien, Lord of the Rings, p. 702.
14. Ibid.
15. Tolkien, Tree and Leaf, p. 62.
16. Tolkien, Lord of the Rings, p. 909.
1. Tolkien, Lord of the Rings, p. 247.
2. Ibid., p. 501.
3. Ibid., p. 583.
4. Carpenter, ed., Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien, p. 255.
5. Tolkien, Lord of the Rings, p. 862.
6. Carpenter, ed., Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien, p. 288.
7. Tolkien, Lord of the Rings, p. 79.
8. Ibid., p. 729.
9. Ibid., p. 730.
10. Ibid., p. 723.
11. Ibid., p. 730.
12. Carpenter, ed., Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien, pp. 171–72.
13. Ibid., p. 407.
14. Tolkien, Lord of the Rings, p. 841.
15. Ibid.
16. Gn 3:15.
17. Benedict XVI, Angelus Address, December 8, 2009.
1. Tolkien, Lord of the Rings, p. 941.
2. Mt 11:28–30.
3. Tolkien, Lord of the Rings, p. 945.
4. Ibid.
5. Tolkien, Hobbit, p. 90.
6. Tolkien, Lord of the Rings, p. 59.
7. Ibid.
8. Ibid., p. 615.
9. Ibid.
10. Ibid., pp. 684–86.
11. Ibid., p. 944.
12. Ibid., p. 946.
13. Ibid., p. 947.
1. Tolkien, Lord of the Rings, p. 952.
2. Ibid., p. 1092.
3. Ibid., pp. 967–68.
4. Ibid., p. 968.
5. G. K. Chesterton, The New Jerusalem (New York: George H. Doran, 1921), p. 50.
6. In the final words of his hymn, O Salutaris Hostia.
7. Tolkien, Lord of the Rings, p. 1030.
8. In the final stanza of Hopkins, “The Wreck of the Deutschland.”
9. Tolkien, Lord of the Rings, p. 1031.
10. Carpenter, ed., Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien, p. 255.