Powrót do Shire… Baśń uświęcona Ewangelią? O walce dobra ze złem w świecie Tolkiena
A Return to the Shire… A Gospel-Hallowed Fairy-Tale? On the Struggle between Good and Evil in Tolkien’s World

Author(s): Dominik Chwolik
Subject(s): Language and Literature Studies
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego
Summary/Abstract: The article offers an attempt to find connections between The Lord of the Ringsand the Gospel, especially in the context of the struggle between good and evil. Thepoint of departure for the reflections presented in the text is Tolkien’s own qualificationof his work as “Christian,” which – in his opinion – becomes evident in subsequentre-readings. Such a return to the text is reflected in the metaphor of the returnto the Shire, which proves helpful in analyzing both The Lord of the Rings and otherstories from the Middle-Earth. Importantly, however, Tolkien does not transplant theBible into his text in a literal manner; he does not impose any preferred reading, thusallowing his audience to interpret his work in a variety of ways. In The Lord of theRings, the reader may find many universal truths, also those involving the creationof good and evil. Stories from the Middle-Earth also draw inspiration from sourcesother than the Gospel, which, albeit interesting, exceeds the scope of the presentstudy, which compares selected excerpts from Tolkien’s works with Biblical texts inlight of academic literature of the subject, as well as in the perspective of the author’sown interpretations.

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