| Understanding J.R.R. Tolkien's early fiction holds the key to understanding his later major works: The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. The legendarium, published as The Silmarillion, is a rich treasure of the history of men and elves, of the legends of mighty and tragic heroes and heroines, and of the centuries of struggle against the ceaseless onslaught of evil in Middle-earth. An examination of evil as it develops and manifests over the first three Ages of Tolkien's world is the focus of this project. Tolkien wrote the first three stories of his legendarium immediately after his experiences fighting in World War I and returned to work on them through the rest of his life. These three stories represent three different, increasingly complex depictions of evil, which are placed in juxtaposed historical context with the three biographical periods in Tolkien's life where new ideas about the nature of evil are likely to have developed. The three stories are critically analyzed to reveal what they communicate about Tolkien's understanding of the nature of evil, in conjunction with an examination of certain elements which may have influenced his understanding of evil, namely World War I, Beowulf, and the Book of Job. Utilizing critical tools, including Fisher's Narrative Paradigm, McFague's Parabolic Theology Model, and the Augustinian doctrine of evil, yields the conclusions that Tolkien's early stories indirectly communicate intricate, complex, and deeply spiritual ideas about evil. His ideas of evil then find their full fruition in his magnum opus -- The Lords of the Rings. |
