Lord of the Rings: Apocalyptic Prophecies

[Elizabeth]

     Tolkien was without doubt dismayed when these changes occurred aslanguages were very important to him. Not only was he knowledgeable in existent ancient languages, he invented his own, devoting a considerable number of pages on the history, letters, spelling and pronunciation of his various fantasy languages  of Middle Earth in his text, the symbolic use of which plays a considerable role in Lord of the Rings. We recall that the rebellious Númenoreans who separated from the Faithful and challenged the Angelic Valar abandon the ancient High Elven language, one of the most esteemed in Middle Earth, and embrace their own common tongue as a sign of defiance. Language is also symbolic of creating an identity: the Dwarves keep their language secret and use it only among themselves as a sacred tongue, while Lord Sauron invents a Black Speech to be used by his evil minions and inscribes the famous lines of the One Ring on the magical gold band in the same black speech. Tolkien, recognising the abandonment of the Church’s official sacred language as something reeking of rebellion adhered to the original teachings of the Old Faith and refused to submit, adamantly answering in the ancient Latin like a ‘Faithful Elendil’ during the new vernacular services to the mortification of all around him as his grandson relates:

“I vividly remember going to church with him in

Bournemouth. He was a devout Roman Catholic and it was soon

after the Church had changed the liturgy from Latin to English.

My grandfather obviously didn’t agree with this and made all the

responses very loudly in Latin while the rest of the congregation

answered in English. I found the whole experience quite

excruciating, but my grandfather was oblivious. He simply had to

do what he believed to be right.”105

     Obviously Tolkien was aware of the prophecies concerning the rebels who would try to infiltrate the Church long before this occurred, hence his public demonstration of fidelity to the ancient Latin ways. Curiously, we find he slipped in notable references into Lord of the Rings that seems to refer to the dreaded ‘infiltration’ that would take place: first is the battering ram of Mordor hammering the City of Kings, which is named after the ‘hammer of Hell’ and is fashioned in the shape of a ‘ravening wolf’, a symbol of demonic infiltrators used by St. Paul to the Ephesians: “I know that after my departure, ravening wolves will enter in among you, not sparing the flock. And of your own selves shall arise men speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them.” (Acts 20: 29-30) Obviously, this analogy was inspired by Christ’s warning “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in the clothing of sheep, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.” (Matt. 7:15) We discover Bl. Catherine Emmerich was shown that Christ used a similar term to warn his disciples how to detect certain followers of a secret political society that was in league with the Pharisees and Sadducees# and caused considerable trouble during His own ministry and that of St. John the Baptist, spying on them and setting subtle traps to ensnare them. They were called the ‘Herodians’:

“(The Herodians) lived very privately and had some kind of

mysterious organization by which they secretly helped one

another. Many poor people applied to them, and received

immediate relief. These Herodians were outwardly great sticklers

for the prescriptions of the Pharisees, in secret they aimed at

freeing Judea from the Roman yoke, and consequently were

closely attached to Herod. They were something like modern

freemasons. I understood from Jesus’ words that they feigned to

be very holy and magnanimous, but in reality they were

hypocrites. (...)”106

“The people complained of their spying into everything.

(...) the feeling of being constantly watched was very distasteful to

them. (...) Then Jesus painted the ordinary manner of acting

among Herodians, applying to them the passage from the Prophet

Isaias (...) which treats of dumb dogs that do not bark, that do not

turn from evil, and that tear men in secret.”107

105 Simon Tolkien, February 23, 2003. "My Grandfather", The Mail on Sunday. See also: http://web.archive.org/web/2008042207223...lkien.html

# “The people hurriedly gathered in crowds, and the Doctors of the Law and the Herodians were all expectancy to ensnare Him in His doctrine.” The Life of Jesus Christ, Vol. 2, p. 273.
106 The Life of Jesus Christ, Vol. 2, p. 243.
107 Ibid. p. 278. The full passage in Isaias: “His watchmen are all blind, they are all ignorant: dumb dogs not able to bark, seeing vain things, sleeping and loving dreams. And most impudent dogs, they never had enough: the shepherds themselves knew no understanding: all have turned aside into their own way, every one after his own gain, from the first, even to the last.” (Isaias 56: 10-11)