The White Council

Praise the Lord and pass the Athelas (was Re: Religious Wars in Middle-earth?)

Tolkien and Inklings Discussion

: Well, it was Sauron attacking the Dunedain, not the other way around. That sort of precludes a crusades type argument, since the Crusades were a Christian offensive. And of course, if Dunedain=Franks (Christians) and Sauron=Saracens (Moslems), then who's the Byzantine Empire? And there's no real religious worship to speak of. I'd need more time, but the argument doesn't seem very valid, to me at least.

The answer, of course, is that this is where the analogy breaks down.

As Tolkien indicated in the Letters, he did indeed draw on the Roman Empire as one (but not the only) of his primary models for the Numenorean Realms in Exile - to wit, that Arnor is loosely equivalent with the Western Empire, and Gondor Byzantium. But the analogy starts to break down when you examine religious or even cultural aspects of either case.

Tolkien didn't allow much in the way of overt or institutionalized religion in Middle Earth. The Free Peoples of the West generally revered Iluvatar, sometimes through his servants, the Valar. But there isn't anything in the way of structures, formal doctrine, liturgy, or worship rituals. The only temple of worship ever mentioned, in fact, is that constructed at Sauron's behest in Armenelos before the Fall. A few hallowed places, such as the Meneltarma and Amon Anwar, exist, but even these are free from any regular human presence or even structures. In this respect, religious veneration in Middle Earth takes more after the simple pre-Christian Odinic faith of the Scandinavian and Germanic peoples than it does of Christianity or any of the Mediterranean pagan faiths. Considering Tolkien's proferssional interests, this isn't, perhaps, so surprising.

The Crusades analogy certainly doesn't fit. The Crusades were launched for a number of reasons, many unspoken, but they were ostensibly about reasserting Christian temporal control of territory with special religious significance - the Holy Land. The only such location in Middle Earth even approaching the significance of the Holy Land might be the Meneltarma. Even assuming that Sauron's forces had somehow gained control of it without entailing their own destruction at the hands of Iluvatar or the Valar, it's difficult to conceive of the Dunedain whipping themselves into a religious frenzy just to liberate it.

The religious dimension simply doesn't animate Middle Earth like it does our own Middle Ages, which is probably one of Michael's strongest arguments against the whole Medieval analogy. In Middle Earth, wars weren't launched to wipe out or convert infidels, Kings weren't deposed or assassinated over doctrinal quibbles, and Arnor and Gondor didn't break apart over a pinch of yeast and an extra word in liturgy. If nothing else, consider this: that while those under the sway of Sauron worshipped (or at least feared) Morgoth and those of the West Iluvatar, both Christians and Muslims worship a monotheistic God, largely shaped by the same Jewish tradition - though most on both sides, of course, would have been loathe to admit to much in the way of commonalities.

I think that too much emphasis on formalized religion would have gotten in the way of the story Tolkien wanted to tell - and brought his creation's potential non-Christian elements into too sharp a relief for his own comfort.