Tolkien’s Christian Symbolism

I think you need to be willfully blind not to acknowledge the Christian symbolism Tolkien sprinkles throughout The Lord of the Rings. Indeed, he wrote in a letter admitting that he was quite conscious of this fact, particularly writing the second draft of the work.

Here’s a list of over twenty instances of Christian (and especially Catholic) symbols and metaphors one can find in Tolkien’s legendarium. Some are obvious, some are, admittedly, a stretch. None are exact one-to-one representations. To the best of my knowledge Tolkien has not specifically endorsed any of these interpretations.

So take this list for what it’s worth. It may enhance your reading or understanding of Tolkien, but it is far from being essential to the enjoyment of The Lord of the Rings or The Silmarillion. If you like, you can read the equal signs below as “may symbolize”.


Ilúvatar = God

The Ainur / Valar = the choirs of Angels

The Flame Imperishable = the Holy Spirit

Manwë, Lord of the Valar = St. Michael the Archangel

Galadriel, Varda / Elbereth = the Blessed Virgin Mary

A Elbereth Gilthoniel = Prayer akin to the Hail Mary or the St. Michael Prayer

Melkor / Morgoth = Lucifer / Satan

Mordor = Hell

The Ring = Sin

The carrying of the Ring = the carrying of the Cross

Lembas = the Eucharist

The way through Mordor to Mt. Doom = the Via Dolorosa

The Fellowship of the Ring = the Church

Christ as Prophet, Priest, and King = Gandalf (Prophet), Frodo (Priest), Aragorn (King)

Christ as healer = Aragorn, healing the wounded at Minas Tirith

Christ descending into Hell = Aragorn traveling the Paths of the Dead

The self-sacrificial death and resurrection of Christ is mirrored with that of Gandalf.

Sam = St. John, seen especially in his loyalty to Frodo / Christ

Radagast the Brown = St. Francis of Assisi

Faramir turning to the West in a moment of silence before dinner = the saying of Grace before a meal

Gondor and Arnor reunited = the Holy Roman Empire

The Shire functions economically and politically as a system very close to Chesterton’s distributism

Aulë stayed from destroying the Dwarves, his creation, by Ilúvatar = Abraham called and halted from sacrificing Isaac


Most, but by far not all, of these symbols were taken from Bradley J. Birzer’s excellent J. R. R. Tolkien’s Sanctifying Myth. Birzer’s book is a thoroughly researched and extraordinarily footnoted thesis on Christian symbolism in Tolkien’s work. I completely recommend it as essential for anyone interested in this subject.