The Hidden Meaning of The Lord of the Rings

Christ figures and hidden symbols...

If you’re familiar with Tolkien’s work, you likely know he was good friends with C.S. Lewis. While the two Oxford professors had much in common, there’s one thing they disagreed about vehemently: allegory.

Lewis viewed allegory as a device that allowed an author to write a great story, but still ensure the message he wanted to convey was understood by the reader. Tolkien notoriously hated allegory, considering it a cheap, intellectually lazy way to convey ideas.

So while Lewis’s Narnia is rife with allegory (like Aslan representing Christ), no such obvious allegories are found in Tolkien’s work. However, The Lord of the Rings is packed with religious, specifically Christian symbolism.

The key difference between Lewis and Tolkien lies in how the latter forwent one-to-one allegory and instead chose to convey different aspects of symbols through varying characters. Whereas Aslan is a clear representation of Christ, Tolkien spreads his Messianic symbolism across three characters: Frodo, Gandalf, and Aragorn, all of whom embody different aspects of Christ’s persona.

Today, we reveal the main religious symbols in The Lord of the Rings, from Frodo’s sacrifice to Lembas bread. Remember though, this is no allegory — while characters or objects might embody aspects of a religious element, not everything they do is done in the spirit of what they represent. They are still their own characters, but when viewed in the context of the larger story, they reveal Tolkien’s spiritual vision…