Tolkien's females and the defining of power.

Enright, Nancy

IN The Lord of the Rings, J. R. R. Tolkien's female characters, though few in number, are very important in the defining of power, a central thematic concern of the text. In fact, in The Lord of the Rings, power, when presented in the traditional male-oriented way, is undercut as often as it is asserted. Even typically "heroic" characters like Aragorn and Faramir use traditional masculine power in a manner tempered with an awareness of its limitations and a respect for another, deeper kind of power. Aragorn shows this recognition of an alternative kind of power in his reverence for the Elves, who though brave fighters, are not known for their physical prowess. The stereotypical and purely masculine kind of power, as represented by Boromir for instance, is shown to be weaker morally and spiritually than its non-traditional counterparts, thus allowing Boromir to fall, while less typically heroic characters, including all the major female characters, stand. In the context of these depictions of power, both asserted and subverted, the female characters interact with the males in a much more complex world than might at first be assumed when reading The Lord of the Rings. The general lack of a female presence in battle scenes (with the important exception of Eowyn's contest with the Nazgul) or even among the members of the Fellowship does not imply that female power and presence are unimportant. On the contrary, Tolkien's female characters epitomize his critique of traditional, masculine and worldly power, offering an alternative that can be summed up as the choice of love over pride, reflective of the Christ-like inversion of power rooted in Scripture, and ultimately more powerful than any domination by use of force.

Jane Chance, in her insightful study, The Lord of the Rings: the Mythology of Power, explores the development of the theme of power throughout The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, coming to the very accurate conclusion that "the ability to understand the necessity for locating a 'paradise' within" turns out to be "the greatest power of all" (138). She explores how Tolkien, whom she links with philosopher Michel Foucault and C. S. Lewis in this regard, "questioned the validity of the human sciences to represent the rationality of the age" (20), arguing that, for Tolkien, "true power emerges from wise and healing service to the community" (24). In another study concerned with the issue of power, Anne C. Petty argues that power, as depicted in The Lord of the Rings, can be divided into two varieties--internal (as in power, such as magic, intrinsic to someone, as in the case of the Elves) and external (power contained in a thing, such as the Ring)--but goes on to argue that this distinction is far less important than how power is used--or abused (138-39, and elsewhere). In light of these insights into Tolkien's depiction of power, it is important to consider how this thematic concern connects with Tolkien's Christian beliefs and his depiction of gender, linking them in a meaningful way.

J. R. R. Tolkien has been criticized for creating too few female characters in The Lord of the Rings and, of those few, having them fill supposedly traditionally feminine and, therefore, stereotypical roles. As a member of the Inklings, the famous group of writers and thinkers including C. S. Lewis and Charles Williams, Tolkien was included in an all-male community, and, according to Candice Fredrick and Sam McBride, this community was blatantly sexist. Specifically referring to Tolkien's works, they argue that the "males operate within a system that is overtly patriarchal. Men are the doers, workers, thinkers, and leaders. Women are homemakers, nurses, and distant love interests" (109). Fredrick's and McBride's book, Women Among the Inklings: Gender, C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, and Charles Williams, offers a chapter including a summary of other feminist critiques of the works of the Inklings with regard to lack of female characters and / or the way they are depicted (Chapter 5, "Mere Feminism: Gender, Reading, and the Inklings" 163-70). The range of these critical responses goes from some who feel there is no problem with gender in the Inklings' writings to Fredrick's and McBride's own suggestion that gender bias is a very serious failing in these works. In a collection of essays on Tolkien written by other writers of fantasy, Terri Windling, while crediting Tolkien for inspiring her own works of fantasy, remembers feeling as a child that "there was no place for me, a girl, on Frodo's quest" (226). And, though his article basically challenges the negative criticism of Tolkien for lack of female characters, William H. Green says that "there is certainly a bias here, an emotional charge pushing the women to margins of stories or deep into their symbolic cores" (190), referring not only to The Hobbit (though his article focuses on that text), but on what he calls "the marginalization" of women characters in Tolkien's other writings. (1) Along these same lines, Jes Battis claims, "... women are not given easy identities to inhabit within The Lord of the Rings, and many are stereotyped to the point of excess" (913). (2)

Other critics have attempted to justify the small number of females in The Lord of the Rings by pointing out the powerful roles they play or the fact that these roles are important as archetypes or as mythologically resonant images. Jessica Yates argues that Tolkien's style of epic fantasy necessitates the placing of all major characters into archetypal roles, "[a]nd so we have Aragorn the Hero, Arwen the Princess, Eowyn the Amazon, Galadriel the Enchantress, and Gandalf the Wizard;" Yates claims that it renders them less "developed" than characters in a more typical twentieth-century novel. Another critic connecting Tolkien's female characters with myth is Leslie A. Donovan, who points out many symbolic associations from Norse legend apparently attached to Galadriel, Arwen, and Eowyn, as well as the evil spider Shelob (106-107 and elsewhere). However, I would disagree with Donovan when she argues that "applications of Christian typology [with the exception of the connection between Galadriel and the Virgin Mary] hold little promise for explaining the authority of other women in Tolkien's trilogy" (107). Furthermore, the view of Tolkien's depiction of females as being a mere reflection of traditional or archetypal gender roles does not account for the religious depth of these characters, nor does their scarcity in number lead to an explanation such as the overly simplified argument that Tolkien is, in fact, "sexist." On the contrary, I would argue that it is only through a careful examination of Tolkien's depiction of power that the role of his female characters can be fully understood. In The Lord of the Rings, the female characters, in their inversion of power, exhibit a virtue that, in Tolkien's view, is crucial to salvation--the choice of love over pride--a message central to the novel and one that transcends all gender roles.

The prototype for other, more significant female characters in The Lord of the Rings (such as Arwen, Eowyn, and Galadriel) is Goldberry, the wife of Tom Bombadil, in The Fellowship of the Ring. This character offers an interesting introduction to the kinds of female power important in the story. Prior to the forming of the "Fellowship of the Ring" at the Council of Elrond, the four hobbits travel through the Old Forest on their way to Bree, where they hope to meet Gandalf. In this chapter, the four previously sheltered hobbits, along with the reader, are being introduced to the world of danger and beauty outside the Shire. The Old Forest, evocatively linked with hobbits' lore but, for the most part, left unexplored by them, is a place of ancient beauty and grave dangers. One of these dangers is Old Man Willow, a humanized and wicked tree, who captures Merry and Pippin in its roots. As Frodo runs off, calling for help, he comes across an odd character, a personification of nature, called Tom Bombadil. Tom knows the proper song to calm Old Man Willow, causing him to release the two hobbits. At Tom's home, the hobbits are introduced to Bombadil's wife, Goldberry, the "River daughter." Physically resembling Galadriel, who appears later, Goldberry is golden-haired, slender, and exquisitely beautiful, but she is more "natural," less ethereal than her Elven counterpart. Goldberry is, in fact, mythologically similar to a water nymph or a dryad. Her clothing, like her husband's, suggests a link with nature, as Jane Chance points out (41); for instance, in one scene, Goldberry "was clothed all in silver with a white girdle, and her shoes were like fishes' mail" (FR, I, vii, 183). Seeing Goldberry, the hobbits experience a kind of awe, abashed at her beauty and appreciative of her kindness (188 and elsewhere). While Tom Bombadil is called "Master," it is clear that both husband and wife are equally in command of their little household, though their roles differ from each other. The hobbits watch the dance-like movements of Tom and Goldberry as they set the table, hers defined by grace and beauty, his both merry and whimsical. They respect each other most deeply, and, together, offer the hobbits what they need on this resting place of their journey. As the hobbits look at Goldberry upon their leaving, she stands "small and slender like a sunlit flower against the sky" (189). Despite her lack of overt physical strength, she represents the power of nature, ancient and renewing. However, more significant female representations of power follow, the first of these being Arwen, daughter of Elrond.

When the hobbits first meet Arwen, she has already met, fallen in love with, and pledged her troth to Aragorn, a love story told in the Appendix to The Return of the King. Arwen is descended from Luthien, another Elven princess (3) who falls in love with a mortal man (Silmarillion, XIX). In fact, when Aragorn meets Arwen in Lothlorien, where she is visiting her grandparents, Galadriel and Celeborn, he is "singing a part of the Lay of Luthien, which tells of the meeting of Luthien and Beren in the forest of Neldoreth. And behold! there Luthien walked before his eyes in Rivendell ..." (Appendix A, v, 421). Luthien was, according to the legend told by Aragorn to the hobbits on Weathertop, "the fairest maiden that has ever been among all the children of this world. As the stars above the Northern lands was her loveliness, and in her face was a shining light" (FR, II, i, 260). When Aragorn himself first sees Arwen, he is enchanted by her beauty just as Beren was by Luthien's, as Arwen appears to him "clad in a mantle of silver and blue, fair as the twilight in Elven-home; her dark hair strayed in a sudden wind, and her brows were bound with gems like stars" (Appendix A, v, 421). Her beauty is of a kind so high that the one viewing it is abashed, as Frodo feels when he first sees Arwen at the dinner preceding the Council of Elrond. A key component of Arwen's beauty, like Luthien's, is the fact that it is not simply physical; her intellectual and spiritual essence is conveyed through it: "Young she was and yet not so. The braids of her dark hair were touched by no frost; her white arms and clear face were flawless and smooth, and the light of stars was in her bright eyes, grey as a cloudless night; yet queenly she looked, and thought and knowledge were in her glance, as of one who has known many things that the years bring ... Such loveliness in living thing Frodo had never seen nor imagined in his mind" (298).

The inner power of Arwen is subtly conveyed, but present throughout The Lord of the Rings. Arwen does not ride out "on errantry," as do her brothers; instead, like her father, she remains at Rivendell, inspiring events through her relationship with Aragorn from afar. It is the thought of Arwen that comes to Aragorn at moments offering him a release from the burdens he must carry and allowing him to seem to the eyes of Frodo "clothed in white, a young lord tall and fair," speaking words in Elvish to Arwen, though she is not physically present (FR, II, vi, 343). Lynnette R. Porter calls Arwen a "hero" for offering this kind of inspiration (118-25), and truly there is a heroic quality to the length and depth of her devotion to Aragorn. At a crucial moment, she sends him the banner she has woven for him, with the words, "The days now are short. Either our hope cometh, or all hopes end. Therefore I send thee what I have made for thee. Fare well, Elfstone" (RK, I, ii, 56). But what is most crucial about Arwen is her renunciation of Elven immortality for love. Like Luthien, she must become mortal if she marries a mortal, a choice she willingly makes when she and Aragorn plight their troth on Cerin Amroth (Appendix A,v 425). As Elrond sadly says to Aragorn, "Maybe it has been appointed so, that by my loss [i.e. of Arwen] the kingship of Men may be restored" (Appendix A, v 425).

Even more so than Elrond's, Arwen's loss is personal and profound. She herself must suffer separation from all her kindred and experience personal mortality. Of all the characters in The Lord of the Rings, Arwen is the one who makes the Christ-like choice of taking on mortality out of love. And her decision, though rooted in her love of Aragorn, becomes part of the "eucatastrophe," (4) as Tolkien calls it. the "good catastrophe" that saves Middle-earth. This paradoxical power through the abdication of power echoes the kenosis of Jesus, as described by St. Paul: Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. (Phil. 2: 5-8)

Arwen, while certainly never "in the form of God," does exist in a form higher than human, and her renunciation of her Elven immortality suggests the humility of Christ in laying aside the privileges of divinity (while retaining His divine nature), enjoined by St. Paul on all believers. Tolkien is not writing an allegory, so Arwen cannot be looked at as an allegorical representation of Jesus; no character in The Lord of the Rings has that role. However, Arwen's Christ-like renunciation of power leads to her role in the healing of Frodo from the results of his bearing of the Ring. Referring to the end of The Return of the King, where Arwen offers her jewel and her passage to the West to Frodo, Tolkien wrote in a letter: "Arwen was the first to observe the disquiet growing in him, and gave him her jewel for comfort, and thought of a way of healing him" (Letters, #246, 327). Therefore, her loss--freely chosen out of love for Aragorn--becomes yet another means of salvation for someone else, in fact, the very person (i.e. Frodo) who has helped to bring about the eucatastrophe which has saved Middle-earth and in which Arwen's and Aragorn's love has become entwined.

The Appendix of The Return of the King tells the end of her story. Though experiencing years of happiness with Aragorn, Arwen eventually has to face both the loss of her beloved husband, first, and then her own death. Dying, Aragorn acknowledges to Arwen the pain of death: "I speak no comfort to you, for there is no comfort for such pain within the circles of the world" (App. A, v, 427). Linda Greenwood argues that this story "involves an element of sacrifice, a sacrifice that does not belong solely to the lives of Aragorn and Arwen, but also to those who give their lives as a gift for the salvation of others" (187), her phrasing certainly connecting this story implicitly to the sacrificial death of Jesus. Greenwood approaches the entire text in terms of what she calls the "deconstruction" allowed by love, which literally turns evil into good, death into life (171); she uses the term "deconstruction" apparently to mean an overturning of a usual evil result, a kind of eucatastrophe. However, this transformation of evil into good does not take away the reality of suffering for those willing to undergo it for the sake of others. Greenwood says, "Instead of giving up mortality for immortality, Arwen does the exact opposite. As with Luthien, Arwen surrenders immortality and takes on mortality as a gift to Aragorn" (188). Watching Aragorn die, "[Arwen] tasted the bitterness of the mortality that she had taken upon her" (App. A, v, 427). After Aragorn's death, Arwen leaves Minas Tirith and faces her own death in the fading woods of Lothlorien, where her Elven relatives no longer live. Her story ends thus: "with the passing of Evenstar no more is said in this book of the days of old" (App. A, v, 428). As an Elf-Human, Arwen provides a bridge between the Third Age and the Fourth, and in renouncing her Elven heritage, she embodies in her loss the sacrifice the Elves, in general, willingly endure in accepting with the destruction of the Ring, the end not only of Sauron's evil, but of all that belongs to "the days of old," the world of Elves and Dwarves, as well as Orcs and Nazgul, a world that is being turned over to human beings.

No Elf sees more clearly the nature of this loss than Galadriel, Lady of the Galadrim and of Lothlorien, and Arwen's grandmother. Galadriel is the most powerful female figure in The Lord of the Rings and, in fact, one of the most important characters of either gender in the story. One of the three Elven ring-bearers, Galadriel uses her power for healing, not domination. As Elrond explains to Gloin at the Council: The Three [rings] were not made by Sauron, nor did he ever touch them ... They are not idle. But they were not made as weapons of war or conquest: that is not their power. Those who made them did not desire strength or domination or hoarded wealth, but understanding, making, and healing, to preserve all things unstained. (FR, II, vii, 352).

The kind of power described here is the alternative to traditional, male-oriented power. Galadriel is a stronger embodiment of this power than her husband, Celeborn. It is she who is the wiser and more powerful, though both rule together, and he clearly has both wisdom and power. When the Fellowship enters Lothlorien, Haldir, the Elf, tells Frodo and Sam, "You feel the power of the Lady [not the Lord] of the Galadrim" (FR, II, vi, 342). It is Galadriel, not Celeborn, who realizes that Gandalf did, indeed, set out with the company, as planned, but did not come to Lorien with them (FR, II, vi, 346), and it is she who corrects Celeborn for his harsh words to Gimli (FR, II, vi, 347), exemplifying "forgiveness, hospitality, understanding" that "serve as a model for toleration of difference" (Chance 54). Galadriel also is the one who mentally tests each member of the Fellowship, offering him a choice between the danger that lies ahead and something else that he greatly desires (FR, II, vi, 348-49). And she tells the Fellowship that she is the one who first summoned the White Council and, "if my designs had not gone amiss, it would have been governed by Gandalf the Grey, and then mayhap things would have gone otherwise" (FR, II, vi, 348). Clearly, Galadriel is important, not only as a queen among Elves, but as a mover and planner of the great things in Middle-earth, affecting all its peoples.

Yet, despite her own power, or perhaps because of it, Galadriel knows the dangers of power used wrongly. She even knows the temptation toward the other kind of power, that of domination and pride. When Frodo offers her the Ring, she admits her desire for it: I do not deny that my heart has greatly desired to ask what you offer. For many long years I had pondered what I might do, should the Great Ring come into my hands, and behold! it was brought within my grasp ... And now at last it comes. You will give me the Ring freely! In place of the Dark Lord you will set up a Queen. And I shall not be dark, but beautiful and terrible as the Morning and the Night! Fair as the Sea and the Sun and the Snow upon the Mountain! Dreadful as the Storm and the Lightning! Stronger than the foundations of the earth. All shall love me and despair! (FR, II, vii, 356)

The characteristic Elven links with nature, in its beauty and healing, become in Galadriel's momentary fantasy and temptation part of the seductive quality of the Ring and potentially forces of domination, both powerful and destructive. Had she succumbed to this temptation, Galadriel herself would have become dominated by the pride linked to this kind of power, normally most tempting to males, but here, luring this most powerful female. However, Galadriel resists the temptation and rejects the Ring. After her temptation, successfully resisted, "she let her hand fall, and the light faded, and suddenly she laughed again, and lo! She was shrunken, a slender Elf-woman, clad in simple white, whose voice was soft and sad. 'I pass the test,' she said. 'I will diminish, and go into the West, and remain Galadriel'" (FR, II, vii, 357). Like her granddaughter, Arwen, Galadriel is willing to endure personal abdication of power out of love, and it is this renunciation that reveals her spiritual and moral strength.

Prior to the scene of temptation where Frodo offers her the Ring, Galadriel explains the nature of her struggle with the Dark Lord: " ... [D]o not think that only by singing amid the trees, nor even by the slender arrows of Elven-bows, is this land of Lothlorien maintained and defended against its Enemy. I say to you, Frodo, that even as I speak to you, I perceive the Dark Lord and know his mind, or all of his mind that concerns the Elves. And he gropes ever to see me and my thought. But the door is closed!" (FR, II, vii, 355). As if symbolic of her strength of will, Galadriel's Elven ring is of Adamant (356). Her gifts to the Fellowship reflect the nature of her strength, rooted in wisdom; each gift is perfectly suited to its recipient's character, from Aragorn's kingly scabbard, reflecting his lineage and destiny, to Sam's gardening soil and seed. As Aragorn says to Boromir, who has expressed skepticism about Galadriel's intentions: "Speak no evil of the Lady Galadriel! There is in her and in this land no evil, unless a man bring it hither himself. Then let him beware! ..." (FR, II, vi, 349). In fact, Tolkien has suggested that his depiction of Galadriel is linked to a Catholic image of Mary, the mother of Jesus. In a letter, written in 1958, Tolkien wrote: "... I am a Christian (which can be deduced from my stories), and in fact a Roman Catholic. The latter 'fact' perhaps cannot be deduced; though one critic (by letter) asserted that the invocations of Elbereth, and the character of Galadriel as directly described (or through the words of Gimli and Sam) were clearly related to Catholic devotion to Mary" (Letters, # 213,288). And, more specifically, in another letter, written in 1971, he says: "I was particularly interested in your remarks about Galadriel ... I think it is true that I owe much of this character to Christian and Catholic teaching and imagination about Mary, but actually Galadriel was a penitent ..." (# 320, 407). Tolkien is referring to Galadriel's participation in the rebellion under Feanor of the Noldor against the Valar, as told in The Silmarillion, where Galadriel, "the only woman of the Noldor to stand that day tall and valiant among the contending princes, was eager to be gone" (83-4). However, in the same letter, Tolkien says that Galadriel "was pardoned because of her resistance to the final and overwhelming temptation to take the Ring for herself" (# 320, 407). And, in a letter written very close to his death in 1973, to Lord Halsbury, Tolkien offers what may be a revised view of Galadriel: Galadriel was "unstained": she had committed no evil deeds. She was an enemy of Feanor. She did not reach Middle-earth with the other Noldor, but independently. Her reasons for wanting to go to Middle-earth were legitimate, and she would have been permitted to depart, but for the misfortune that before she set out the revolt of Feanor broke out, and she became involved in the desperate measures of Manwe, and the ban on all emigration. (# 353, 431).

This view of Galadriel would certainly seem to contradict her own words in The Silmarillion: "... we were not driven forth, but came of our own will, and against that of the Valar ..." (127). Stratford Caldecott, (5) in an essay exploring the Catholic influence on The Lord of the Rings, suggests that "the pressure of the Marian archetype in Tolkien's imagination on the development of the character of Galadriel" specifically caused his later revision of her as having ever been involved in a prior rebellion (6); certainly, his view of Galadriel, as revealed by these letters, developed over time. However, even if Galadriel remains a redeemed sinner, by grace a penitent can reflect the beauty of Mary and even of Christ, and Galadriel does this certainly.

As mentioned earlier, Tolkien was not creating allegorically exact parallels to any religious figure, but instead conveying an overall sense of "evangelium," as he refers to the gospel in his famous essay "On Fairy Stories" (see note 4). In this context, Galadriel suggests some of the power and beauty of Mary, the mother of Jesus. To Father Robert Murray, S.J., who had written that The Lord of the Rings had "a strong sense of the order of Grace" and noted a connection between the depiction of Galadriel and the image of Mary, Tolkien wrote: I think I know what you mean by the Order of Grace; and of course by your references to Our Lady, upon which all my own small perception of beauty both in majesty and simplicity is founded. 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. (# 142, 172)

Stratford Caldecott expounds on the reference to Mary in this letter by pointing out that "as Tolkien's Catholic faith was profound and instinctive, it would have been as hard for him to separate the Virgin Mary's presence from Christ's as to separate Our Lord from Scripture or the Church" (6). Since as a Catholic Tolkien would see Mary as a reflection of Christ, symbolism linked to her would be an important part of the religious resonance permeating The Lord of the Rings. Other symbolic associations connected with Mary, pointed out by Caldecott, include the phial of light given to Frodo, the overthrow of Sauron on March 25 (the Feast of the Annunciation to Mary of her conception of Jesus), and the overall theme of humility triumphing over power and evil pervading the entire story, specifically expressed in Mary's beautiful prayer, the Magnificat, in Luke 1 (Caldecott 6-8). In addition, closely analyzing the Loreto Litany, Fr. Michael W. Maher, S.J. links Galadriel and the land of Lorien with a large number of symbolic images of Mary, taken from this famous prayer, "Seat of Wisdom" and "Mother of Good Counsel" being two examples (230). All the Marian references serve to undergird the link between Tolkien's depiction of his female characters and power, since, as Caldecott observes, the humility of Mary is a central component of her character and, paradoxically, the one attribute that enables her, through her submission to God's will, to be instrumental in bringing about the most powerful overthrow of evil through the Incarnation. Mary's willingness to say "yes" to the Lord's request of her, through the Angel, her surrender of her own will to God, is the act that leads to her ultimate empowerment as a vehicle of grace (6).

Tolkien's reference to the "Order of Grace" in his letter to Fr. Murray is important with regard to the two kinds of power polarized in the story. While the conflict is, indeed, between good and evil on the largest scale, there exists even among those on the "good side" two kinds of power, with the spiritually based but physically "weaker" type of power invariably shown to be the stronger in the long run. Frodo, in his victory over Sauron, is a prime example of the power of moral and spiritual strength and courage overcoming physical strength. It is fitting that Arwen and Galadriel, being female and therefore (like the hobbits) outside the Man-dominated world of physical prowess, understand Frodo better than do many other characters. They empathize with his suffering and his sacrifice, offering help and consolation through the wisdom and power they possess.

The Christian roots of the victory of apparent weakness over physical strength are clearly outlined in Scripture. In John's gospel, Jesus graphically illustrates this concept when He takes a towel, ties it around His waist, and does the task of a slave, washing the disciples' feet (John 13: 5-11). Jesus' teaching about love of one's enemies and turning the other cheek (Luke 6:27-38 and Matt. 5:38-48) inverts traditional uses of power in a way that is truly radical. And, of course, Jesus' Passion and Death present the ultimate example of the laying down of power and of life itself, leading to triumph over evil and death.

The key thing to remember with regard to Jesus' renunciation of traditional power is that it is not equivalent to weakness or passivity; rather, it is a conquering of evil through spiritual rather than physical force, ultimately through love. The resurrection proved the validity of Jesus' non-traditional use of power. In the letter to the Hebrews, the early believers are reminded: "Since then the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil: and might deliver those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives" (Heb. 2:14-15). As Tolkien says, "The Birth of Christ is the eucastastrophe of Man's history. The Resurrection is the eucatastrophe of the story of the Incarnation. This story begins and ends in joy" ("On Fairy Stories" 89). Tolkien acknowledges in the same essay that his work is rooted in this ultimate eucatastrophe of Christ's birth, death, and resurrection: "if by grace what I say has in any respect any validity, it is, of course, only a facet of a truth incalculably rich, finite only because the capacity of man for whom this was done is finite" (88).

A key concept involved in eucatastrophe, in a fairy story or its gospel prototype, is the transformation of death. Linda Greenwood argues, "In Tolkien's work, love motivates faith to reach beyond the boundaries of the known, to rekindle hope in the midst of the uncertain. Love turns death into a gift and transforms defeat into victory" (171). In other words, characters who are ultimately most powerful are those, whether male or female, who willingly lay down their own power and even, in some cases, their lives for others. As mentioned with regard to Arwen, though no character in The Lord of the Rings perfectly represents Jesus, nor does any action perfectly convey the unequalled importance of His death and resurrection, some of the characters (including Galadriel and Arwen) do suggest aspects of His renunciation of physical power for the spiritual power of love.

This renunciation, experienced by both characters, involves giving up unending life in this world. Arwen, as we have seen, literally becomes mortal, but Galadriel also accepts the "fading" of the Elves and their quickened departure from Middle Earth. As Charles Huttar, in his discussion of Tolkien's story as an heir to the Golden Age myths of classical writers, says, Elves were "especially susceptible" to the temptation toward "the prevention or slowing of decay" (Letters 152, quoted by Huttar, emphasis in original). Both Arwen and Galadriel willingly choose to let go of the illusion of changelessness that the nearly (but not completely) immortal nature of the Elves enables them to enjoy. Huttar points out that all "Elves who remain in Middle-earth at the end of the Third Age have proved victorious over their natural 'clinging to Time' (Letters 267)" (Huttar 102). However, Tolkien uses two female characters to emphasize the refusal of the power of endless time in this world, as it moves toward a new age dominated by mortal human beings.

The female character depicted most complexly with regard to issues of power is the human woman Eowyn, niece of King Theoden of Rohan. As a part of a culture that highly values physical prowess and strength in arms, Eowyn has grown up feeling cramped and devalued. As Gandalf explains to her brother Eomer, during Aragorn's healing of Eowyn after her heroic victory over the leader of the Nazgul: "My friend ... you had horses, and deeds of arms, and the free fields; but she, born in the body of a maid, had a spirit and courage at least the match of yours. Yet she was doomed to wait upon an old man, whom she loved as a father, and watch him falling into a mean dishonoured dotage; and her part seemed to her more ignoble than that of the staff that he leaned on" (174). Through Gandalf, Tolkien is expressing a perspective on gender which, while it may not be called explicitly feminist, is certainly sensitive to the pain felt by a woman such as Eowyn living in a male-dominated world; as a woman, Eowyn has been patronizingly kept from activities that she proves herself to have been more than capable of performing. Her encounter with the Nazgul shows the strength of her spirit and her skill in battle. She will, as Jane Chance points out, "serve Rohan in battle better than any other Rider from the Mark" (72). The perfect irony of her reply, "No living man am I!" to the Nazgul's boast, "No living man may hinder me!" turns gender expectations on their head, as she drives her spear into the invisible skull (RK, 141-42).

However, Eowyn's victory is not complete with this triumph over the Nazgul, for her understanding of power remains the male-dominated, physically oriented kind. Though her action is truly heroic and self-sacrificial, as pointed out by Lynnette Porter (99), her experience of power must deepen through renunciation of it. One of the most touching chapters in the The Lord of the Rings, entitled "The Steward and the King," tells of the beginning of the love relationship between Eowyn and Faramir. Both wounded in the battle with the Nazgul, they have also been wounded by a culture that has devalued them, Eowyn (as we have seen) because she is a woman and Faramir because he is not the "typical" warrior his brother Boromir was. Both need to understand that skill in battle, though they have it to a high degree, is not enough for peace and wholeness. Together, they must find healing, which at first seems particularly far from Eowyn. Eowyn tells Faramir early in their friendship: "Look not to me for healing! I am a shieldmaiden and my hand is ungentle ..." (294). As Faramir discerns, part of Eowyn's hurt involves a mistaken "love" for Aragorn: "You desired to have the love of the Lord Aragorn. Because he was high and puissant, and you wished to have renown and glory and to be lifted far above the mean things that crawl on the earth. And as a great captain may to a young soldier he seemed to you admirable" (297). However, Aragorn, who is in love with Arwen, has not returned Eowyn's love, a rejection that is most painful to her and part of what has led her into battle, as well as part of what still needs to be healed after the battle is over. When Faramir declares his love for her, "the heart of Eowyn changed, or else at least she understood it. And suddenly her winter passed, and the sun shone on her" (299).

What exactly has happened to Eowyn? A superficial reading might render her transformation no more than a return to a traditional female role; she is marrying the man she loves and giving up her attempts to be a fighter; as she says, "I will be a shieldmaiden no longer, nor vie with the great Riders, nor take joy only in the songs of slaying" (300). Fredrick and McBride sum up her transformation as a triumph of patriarchy: "an unruly impulse to transcend prescribed gender roles has been successfully thwarted" (113). However, her healing is not so easily defined. Her love relationship with Faramir is intimately linked with the healing of Middle-earth because of the destruction of the Ring. Though news of the overthrow of Sauron has not yet reached Minas Tirith, Faramir and others in the city somehow sense it. In a passage that evokes a sense of the joy of "eucatastrophe," Tolkien describes the commingling of these two lives with the great event of their time: And so they stood on the walls of the City of Gondor, and a great wind rose and blew, and their hair, raven and golden, streamed out mingling in the air. And the Shadow departed, and the Sun was unveiled, and the light leaped forth; and the waters of Anduin shone like silver, and in all the houses of the City men sang for the joy that welled up in their hearts from what source they could not tell. (297)

Her personal healing involves, not only being open to love, but a movement from a desire for power and domination (i.e. as a queen) to the desire to heal and to help things grow. She says, "I will be a healer and will love all things that grow and are not barren ... No longer do I desire to be a queen" (300). Now like Faramir, who always valued the other, gentler sort of power to the dismay of his father, Eowyn seeks only the power of healing and of peace, the power enjoyed for many years by the Elves, and now being brought into the Age of Men, through the conquering of Sauron and through Aragorn's and Arwen's incipient reign. As she and Faramir come down from the high walls, people see "the light that shone about them" (300). Eowyn has begun to enjoy the kind of high beauty linked to the spiritual powers of love and forgiveness.

Eowyn and the other female characters in The Lord of the Rings are crucial to the meaning of the tale. The Lord of the Rings is far more than a story of battle and adventure in the external sense, where those with the greatest physical prowess prove to be the victors. It is also more than a tale of the spiritual battle between Good and Evil, though, of course, it is at least that. The Lord of the Rings is an illustration of various choices regarding the use of power, but with only one of them shown to be the best, the ultimately good choice. Arwen, Galadriel, and Eowyn (by the end of the tale) all make this good choice by opting for the Christ-like power of love, healing, and gentleness. The fact that they are female (and thus among the less valued members of the society Tolkien is depicting) emphasizes a larger theme, as clarified by Jane Chance: "Humility in Tolkien is always ultimately successful," as we see in case after case of the triumph of a "marginalized protagonist," whether Hobbit, or female, or other member of a less dominant group (Chance 79). Is this kind of power only for females (and others perceived as weaker), somehow relegated to them? Definitely not. In fact, if The Lord of the Rings shows anything about power, it makes clear the fact that true power for anyone comes from renouncing earthly dominance and from giving of oneself for the healing and love of others. Aragorn, Gandalf, Faramir--to name just a few key male characters--all exhibit this renunciation and enjoy a greater power because of it (as contrasted with Denethor, Saruman, and Boromir, for instance). However, the fact that Tolkien shows female characters exhibiting this kind of power better and more significantly than many of the males undercuts much of the supposed male dominance perceived by some readers of the novel, a perception largely based on the low number of female characters (which is less significant than the roles they play) and the supposed stereotypes these female characters fulfill (stereotypes undercut by an accurate analysis of gender in connection with the definition of power in the text). In The Lord of the Rings the kind of power associated with masculine strength and physical prowess is subverted through female characters who lay down their own power in Christ-like renunciation, part of the eucatastrophe that overturns the strongest evils in the world.

Works Cited

Battis, Jes. "Gazing upon Sauron: Hobbits, Elves, and the Queering of Post-Colonial Optic." MFS Modern Fiction Studies 50.4 (2004) 908-26.

Chance, Jane. The Lord of the Rings: the Mythology of Power. Lexington, KY: UP of Kentucky, 2001.

Donovan, Leslie A. "The valkyrie reflex in J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings: Galadriel, Shelob, Eowyn, and Arwen." Tolkien the Medievalist. Ed. Jane Chance. London and New York: Routledge, 2003 (106-32).

Fredrick, Candice and Sam McBride. Women Among the Inklings Gender, C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, and Charles Williams. Contributions in Women's Studies, Number 191. Westport, Ct. and London: Greenwood Press, 2001.

Green, William H. "Where's Mama?' The Construction of the Feminine in The Hobbit." The Lion and the Unicorn 22.2 (1998) 188-95.

Greenwood, Linda. "Love: the Gift of Death." Tolkien Studies 2.1 (2005) 171-95.

Huttar, Charles A. "Tolkien: Epic Traditions and Golden Age Myths." Twentieth Century Fantasists: Essays on Culture, Society and Belief in Twentieth-Century Methopoeic Literature. Ed. Kath Filmer. NY: St. Martin's Press, 1992.

Maher, Michael W., S.J. "'A land without stain': medieval images of Mary and their use in the characterization of Galadriel." Tolkien the Medievalist. Ed. Jane Chance. London and New York: Routledge, 2003 (225-36).

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Petty, Anne C. Tolkien in the Land of Heroes, Discovering the Human Spirit. Cold Spring Harbor, NY: Cold Spring Press, 2003.

Porter, Lynnette R. Unsung Heroes of The Lord of the Rings From the Page to the Screen. Westport, Ct. and London: Praeger, 2005.

Stimpson, Catherine. J. R. R. Tolkien. New York: Columbia UP, 1969.

Tolkien, J. R. R. The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien. Humphrey Carpenter, ed. with the assistance of Christopher Tolkien. London: George Allen & Unwin; Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1981.

--. The Lord of the Rings, The Fellowship of the Ring. 1954. Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1994.

--. The Lord of the Rings, The Return of the King. 1955. New York: Ballantine, 1989.

--. The Lord of the Rings. The Two Towers. 1954. Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1994.

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Windling, Terri. "On Tolkien and Fairy-Stories." Meditations on Middle-Earth. Ed. Karen Haber. New York: St. Martin's Press, 2001.

Notes

(1) Green qualifies his remarks, saying that he is not going so far as Catherine Stimpson, whom he quotes as referring to Tolkien's "subtle contempt and hostility toward women" (Stimpson 19; quoted by Green 190).

(2) Green and Battis go on to argue that Tolkien's apparent limitation with regard to female characters is at least somewhat redeemed through a certain "feminization" (in Battis' article, the homosexual resonance) attached to key male characters. Green attributes the absence of women characters to Tolkien's supposed "fear of sex."

(3) Arwen lives the life of an Elf, and I refer to her as "Elven" here, but strictly speaking she is one of the Half-Elven. Her father, Elrond, child of a mortal and an Elf and given the choice of Elven immortality or human mortality, chose the former. His brother, Elros, chose the latter.

(4) See Tolkien's essay "On Fairy Stories" in A Tolkien Reader for a detailed definition of this term.

(5) Stratford Caldecott's article gives a detailed analysis of the Marian symbolism attached not only to Galadriel, but also to Elbereth.