Into the West: Ascension and Assumption in Tolkien’s Middle-Earth

Forty days after His Resurrection, in the presence of His disciples, Our Blessed Lord ascended bodily into Heaven. All the Synoptic Gospels record this event, but the best known account comes from the beginning of the Acts of the Apostles:

“And when He had said this, as they were looking on, He was lifted up, and a cloud took Him out of their sight.”

Acts of the Apostles 1:9

In 1950, Pope Pius XII dogmatically defined the doctrine of the Assumption of Our Lady with the apostolic constitution Munificentissimus Deus:

“By the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ, of the Blessed Apostles Peter and Paul, and by our own authority, we pronounce, declare, and define it to be a divinely revealed dogma: that the Immaculate Mother of God, the ever Virgin Mary, having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory.”

Although the dogma was not defined until the middle of the twentieth century, Catholics have believed and celebrated the fact that Our Lady was assumed body and soul into Heaven since at least the fifth century. There is some debate whether or not Our Lady physically died before her Assumption or simply “fell asleep.” For this reason, the Assumption is referred to as the Dormition by Eastern Catholics. Either way, Our Blessed Lord and His Blessed Mother are the only humans who entered heaven body and soul.

Unlike his friend, and fellow Inkling, C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien did not like direct allegory. Nevertheless, parallels can be found between elements of Catholic theology and parts of Tolkien’s Legendarium. After all, Tolkien himself said,

“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.”

The best example of the contrast between Lewis and Tolkien is how they inserted Christ figures into their work. In The Chronicles of Narnia, Aslan IS Christ in the form of a lion. He even tells Lucy that she must know Him by “another name.” In The Lord of the Rings, on the other hand, Tolkien has three different characters each represent an aspect of Christ’s messianic mission. Moreover, these are not perfect representations of Christ. For example, Aragorn fathers a child and dies at the end of his long reign. Frodo actually fails at the very end of his quest. Tolkien does this to show that all representations of Christ are ultimately deficient and that the only perfect Christ figure is Christ Himself.

Tolkien did the same thing with Mary that he did with her Divine Son. Each of Our Lady’s three aspects (queen, sorrowful mother and woman who defeats the serpent) is represented by a different character. Galadriel, the Lady of Light and mistress of Lothlorien, represents Our Lady as queen. It is thus appropriate that she goes “into the West” bodily without dying. In Tolkien’s legendarium, elves are considered immortal but can still be killed by fire or blade while on Middle Earth.  It is only when they cross the sea to Valinor that they truly become immortal.

Such is the way of all elves. but one can see an allusion to the Assumption here, especially because of Galadriel’s regal role. On the Church calendar, the feast of the Queenship of Our Lady is the octave day of (eighth day after) the Solemnity of the Assumption. The Coronation of Our Lady is the fifth glorious mystery of the Rosary following immediately after the fourth: the Assumption. Her Assumption is intrinsically connected to her Queenship. She is assumed into Heaven in order to be crowned and rule as Queen of Heaven and Earth.

Accompanying Galadriel in her ship are her husband Celeborn and her son-in-law Elrond. Galadriel and Elrond are each keepers of one of the three rings of power “for the Elven Kings under the sky.” Galadriel has Nenya, the Ring of Water, and Elrond was given Vilya, the Ring of Air, after its original keeper Gil-galad was killed in the Siege of Barad-dûr. They are joined by Gandalf, who was given Narya, the Ring of Fire, by Círdan, the Elven ship wright who captains the ship that takes them all to Valinor.

The Elves and Wizard are joined by two Hobbits. With the destruction of the One Ring, the power of the Three Elven Rings is gone as well. However, the rings were still created by Sauron as part of his plan to dominate Middle-Earth, therefore they and their bearers must leave Middle-Earth now as well. Additionally, all surviving Ring Bearers (except Samwise, who only bore the Ring briefly) must leave. The means Frodo and Bilbo Baggins are also sailing on the ship to Valinor, leaving the mortal world while yet living.

Frodo and Gandalf are both Christ-figures. Frodo represents Christ as the Priest who offers sacrifice and Gandalf represents Christ as the Prophet. Both have completed their mission; therefore, both leave Middle-Earth bodily. This can be seen as an allusion to the Ascension.

What is even more interesting is Gandalf reflecting Christ as Prophet. In the Old Testament, two people were taken alive into Heaven: Enoch in the book of Genesis and the prophet Elijah in the Second Book of Kings. Because only the sinless Son of God and His Blessed Mother merited entering Heaven with body and soul, Catholic belief is that Elijah and Enoch are some place other than Heaven (perhaps the Limbo of the Just), awaiting the End Times, when they will serve as the Two Witnesses mentioned in the eleventh chapter of the Apocalypse of St. John. After prophesying against the Antichrist, they will be slain by him, then resurrected three days later and assumed into Heaven once again.

Few viewers of the films and even readers of the books are aware that Sauron is not the ultimate force of evil in Middle-Earth. Rather, Sauron is the principal lieutenant of Morgoth, one of the angelic Ainur, who was originally name Melkor. Melkor’s brother Manwë, the leader of the Ainur, stands against him and casts him into the Void following his defeat in the War of Wrath. Thus, Melkor/Morgoth is analogous to Lucifer/Satan and Sauron is analogous to the Antichrist, referred to as The Beast in the Apocalypse and described as receiving his power from The Dragon, who is explicitly referred to as “the Devil and Satan” (12:9) when he is cast out of Heaven by St. Michael the Archangel.