Mar 25

Mar 25 The One Ring and the Cross: a Reflection on March 25th in Tolkien’s Legendarium and the Christian Tradition (Tolkien Reading Day)

“The realm of Sauron is ended!” said Gandalf, “The Ringbearer has fulfilled his Quest.”
And as the Captains gazed south to the Land of Mordor, it seemed to them that, black against the pall of cloud, there rose a huge shape of shadow, impenetrable, lightning crowned, filling all the sky. Enormous it reared above the world, and stretched out towards them a vast threatening hand, terrible but impotent; for even as it leaned over them, a great wind took it, and it was all blown away, and passed; and then a hush fell.
JRR Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings, The Return of the King

Third Age 3019, 25 March: Downfall of Barad-dûr and passing of Sauron.

The Twenty-Fifth of March is a date steeped in religious and literary significance.

For those familiar with Tolkien’s legendarium, March 25th is commonly referred to as “Tolkien Reading Day”. Established by the Tolkien Society in 2003, Tolkien Reading Day invites readers across the world to spend time with their favorite Tolkien passages, to share Middle-earth with those they hold dear, and to host or attend Tolkien-inspired community events online or locally.

This yearly celebration occurs on the 25th of March due to two events that occur in Tolkien’s legendarium: primarily, the downfall of Sauron with the destruction of the One Ring in T.A. 3019; but also, the birth of Elanor the Fair, daughter of Samwise Gamgee, in T.A. 3021. On this day, we celebrate the passing of the Shadow and the returning of new life to Middle-earth.

Tolkien’s works are not allegorical, allowing them to stand on their own as powerful works of literature; the themes of The Lord of the Rings are universal, speaking to the heart of any reader regardless of their faith or creed.

However, when approached with a Catholic perspective, The Lord of the Rings can begin to take on a new depth of meaning that both pierces the heart and edifies the soul.

“The Lord of the Rings is of course a fundamentally religious and Catholic work; unconsciously so at first, but consciously in the revision. That is why I have not put in, or have cut out, practically all references to anything like ‘religion’, to cults or practices, in the imaginary world. For the religious element is absorbed into the story and the symbolism.” - JRR Tolkien, Letter 142

As Tolkien himself was a devoted Christian who called The Lord of the Rings a ‘fundamentally religious and Catholic work’, he would have been aware of this date’s symbolic weight (not allegory). For within the Christian Myth and Tradition, the events attributed to March 25th are manifold: from Adam’s Creation, to Abraham’s Sacrifice, to Christ’s Conception, and ultimately to the Crucifixion.

In The Spirit of Liturgy, then Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger (later Pope Benedict XVI) explained,

“Jewish tradition gave the date of March 25 to Abraham’s sacrifice... This day was also regarded as the day of creation, the day when God’s word decreed: ‘Let there be light.’ It was also considered, very early on, as the day of Christ’s death and eventually as the day of his conception.."

According to The Catholic Encyclopedia,

“All Christian antiquity (against all astronomical possibility) recognized the 25th of March as the actual day of Our Lord’s death. The opinion that the Incarnation also took place on that date is found in the pseudo-Cyprianic work “De Pascha Computus”, c. 240.
It argues that the coming of Our Lord and His death must have coincided with the creation and fall of Adam. And since the world was created in spring, the Saviour was also conceived and died shortly after the equinox of spring…the ancient martyrologies assign to the 25th of March the creation of Adam and the crucifixion of Our Lord; also, the fall of Lucifer, the passing of Israel through the Red Sea and the immolation of Isaac.” (Source)

This date also marks the Solemnity of the Annunciation for the Catholic Church, the celebration of the Incarnation, Mary's fiat.

Readers should be cautious against interpreting any one character in The Lord of the Rings as a Christ-figure in a literal sense, as Tolkien himself wrote, “the Incarnation of God is an infinitely greater thing than anything I would dare to write.” Rather, there are many characters or moments in which the reader may catch glimpses or fragments, reminders, of Tolkien’s Christian influence and this creates so much more depth and applicability than any use of allegory could.

And it’s within Frodo’s journey that Tolkien is able to present to his readers a subtle mirroring of Christian history: a piercing juxtaposition of life and death, light against darkness, Eucatastrophe. Through Adam, death is brought into the world, and through Christ, life is restored; through Christ’s own submission to death is death itself defeated. Through Frodo’s willingness to lose the Shire for the sake of saving it, the great evil of Middle-earth is unmade. The darkness is defeated by itself, and in the end it is no more than a passing shadow.