The Fellowship of The Ring

A spiritual comment and prayer to start the day with the Reverend Doctor Stephen Wigley.

Good morning,

I remember reading the Lord of the Rings for the first time as a teenager and being gripped by it.
The sense of danger and excitement, the grand vision of a world in crisis and the role of little people like Hobbits alongside Princes and Warriors. I read it again as a student, ironically while living in north Oxford not far from the Pub where Tolkien and the Inklings used to meet up, and found it much less impressive, full of portentous dialogue and unrealized characters.
Perhaps the change was as much to do with me, but I felt I had lost the excitement of that earlier encounter.

The first Volume of the Lord of the Rings, the Fellowship of the Ring, was published 72 years ago today and proved to be an unexpected literary phenomenon. There are various influences upon its creation, not least Tolkien’s deep knowledge of Anglo-Saxon and Norse mythology and the impact of the Second World War. All these combined to give the sense of an epic battle between good and evil, the heroism of some quite ordinary characters and an underlying determination that in the end, good should prevail.

Since that literary success, the Lord of the Rings has gone on to become a cinematic event, with Director Peter Jackson’s 6 film series of the Lord of the Rings and its prequel, the Hobbit.
These have entertained a whole new generation of followers and gone on to influence other books and films; it is not difficult to see their influence upon Star Wars or even Game of Thrones. But in all these productions a similar challenge remains; in the struggle between good and evil, who will take a stand and enter the fray?

Almighty God,
You know the struggle between good and evil which touches our hearts and impacts your world; strengthen us to hold out for what is good and to carry that hope forward in our lives, Amen.