- Feb 5, 2002
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COMMENTARY: Literary giant’s deep faith, often overshadowed by his commercial success, imbued his work.
Lovers of literature the world over will commemorate the 50th anniversary of the death of J.R.R. Tolkien Sept. 2.
Although the anniversary will be an opportunity to celebrate the life and work of the author of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, many of Tolkien’s millions of admirers will be unaware that the most popular and successful author of the 20th century was a lifelong practicing Catholic. Tolkien was 8 years old when, in 1900, his widowed mother was received into the Catholic Church. In spite of intense opposition from both her own family and the family of her deceased husband, who were Anglican, Mabel Tolkien had both her sons instructed and received into the Church shortly afterwards. Henceforth, Tolkien never wavered in his faith, remaining a devout Catholic for the rest of his life. Mabel Tolkien died in November 1904. She was only 34 years old. Her orphaned son was 12 at the time of her death.
Tolkien remained convinced that his mother’s early death was a consequence of the ill treatment she suffered at the hands of her family following her conversion and the financial hardship that was its consequence. “My own dear mother was a martyr indeed,” he wrote nine years after her death, “and it was not to everybody that God grants so easy a way to his great gifts as he did to Hilary and myself, giving us a mother who killed herself with labour and trouble to ensure us keeping the faith.”
Sixty years after his mother’s death, he compared his mother’s sacrifices for her faith with the complacency of some of his own children towards the Catholic faith they had inherited from her:
Continued below.
www.ncregister.com
Lovers of literature the world over will commemorate the 50th anniversary of the death of J.R.R. Tolkien Sept. 2.
Although the anniversary will be an opportunity to celebrate the life and work of the author of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, many of Tolkien’s millions of admirers will be unaware that the most popular and successful author of the 20th century was a lifelong practicing Catholic. Tolkien was 8 years old when, in 1900, his widowed mother was received into the Catholic Church. In spite of intense opposition from both her own family and the family of her deceased husband, who were Anglican, Mabel Tolkien had both her sons instructed and received into the Church shortly afterwards. Henceforth, Tolkien never wavered in his faith, remaining a devout Catholic for the rest of his life. Mabel Tolkien died in November 1904. She was only 34 years old. Her orphaned son was 12 at the time of her death.
Tolkien remained convinced that his mother’s early death was a consequence of the ill treatment she suffered at the hands of her family following her conversion and the financial hardship that was its consequence. “My own dear mother was a martyr indeed,” he wrote nine years after her death, “and it was not to everybody that God grants so easy a way to his great gifts as he did to Hilary and myself, giving us a mother who killed herself with labour and trouble to ensure us keeping the faith.”
Sixty years after his mother’s death, he compared his mother’s sacrifices for her faith with the complacency of some of his own children towards the Catholic faith they had inherited from her:
Continued below.
Tolkien the Catholic
COMMENTARY: Literary giant’s deep faith, often overshadowed by his commercial success, imbued his work.
