J.R.R. Tolkien, Guardian of Trees
Discovering Environmentalism in The Lord of the Rings (& Christianity)
J.R.R. Tolkien once said, “I am (obviously) much in love with plants and above all trees, and always have been; and I find human maltreatment of them as hard to bear as some find ill-treatment of animals.”1 In another letter, he writes, “In all my works I take the part of trees as against all their enemies. Lothlórien is beautiful because there the trees were loved.”2
In the world of politics, I rarely see elected officials articulate a meaningful vision of the Christian’s relationship to the environment. In the world of poetry, this isn’t the case, and I have found great inspiration in one of my favorites, J.R.R. Tolkien.
In Tolkien's mind, the responsibility of being a good steward of Creation and being a Christian were not at war with each other but complementary or even identical. He saw Creation itself as a type of cosmic cathedral, a sacred space where the trees functioned as living pillars holding up the world. Within this Temple of Creation, humans were neither a nuisance nor exploiters, but instead, functioned as priests who offered up worship and song to His Creator primarily by co-creating with Him.
The elves are a wonderful example of this. They build their dwelling places in harmony with the created order while guarding the ancient trees and forests of their world.
Saruman, the evil wizard, represents the opposite of this balance. Treebeard, a talking tree (an Ent) who was commissioned to shepherd and guard the trees, describes Saruman like this:
“I think that I now understand what he is up to. He is plotting to become a Power. He has a mind of metal and wheels; and he does not care for living things, except as far as they serve him for the moment.”3
Instead of seeing Creation as a Cathedral, Saruman only wants to use the natural world as a resource to further his own power and greed. He no longer views the world in the light of eternity but has embraced death and destruction so that he can thrive in the fleeting moment.
This doesn’t mean that Tolkien was completely against cutting down trees or industrial growth, but that there are moral limits to man’s actions in the created world. Just as God placed Adam in the primordial Garden to guard it and cultivate it, we are to also guard this Cosmic Cathedral as a sacred space set apart for the worship of God and cultivate it towards that end.
The dwarves of Middle Earth represent this tension. It is apart of their DNA to be craftsmen who dig tunnels and caverns deep in the mountains, and there is nothing wrong with this for Tolkien. But there are times when they would “dig too deep and too greedily.” In response to their destructive ways, “Yavanna, a Valar and queen of the Earth and all growing things,” created Treebeard and the Ents to protect the trees for other races and generations of Middle Earth.4
Lastly, Tolkien wrote a moving lament by one of the Ents, Bregalad, as he weeps over the Rowan trees that have been destroyed by the ax of the Orcs.
“There were rowan-trees in my home,’ said Bregalad, softly and sadly, ‘rowan-trees that took root when I was an Enting, many many years ago in the quiet of the world… There are no trees of all that race, the people of the Rose, that are so beautiful to me. And these trees grew and grew, till the shadow of each was like a green hall, and their red berries in the autumn were a burden, and a beauty and a wonder. Birds used to flock there. I like birds, even when they chatter; and the rowan has enough and to spare. But the birds became unfriendly and greedy and tore at the trees, and threw the fruit down and did not eat it. Then Orcs came with axes and cut down my trees. I came and called them by their long names, but they did not quiver, they did not hear or answer: they lay dead.
The Lament of the Rowan Tree
O Orofarnë, Lassemista, Carnimírië!
O rowan fair, upon your hair how white the blossom lay!
O rowan mine, I saw you shine upon a summer's day,
Your rind so bright, your leaves so light, your voice so cool and soft:
Upon your head how golden-red the crown you bore aloft!
O rowan dead, upon your head your hair is dry and grey;
Your crown is spilled, your voice is stilled for ever and a day.
O Orofarnë, Lassemista, Carnimírië!The hobbits fell asleep to the sound of the soft singing of Bregalad, that seemed to lament in many tongues the fall of trees that he had loved.”5
As we conclude, let us ask St. Rowan (St. Ruadán), one of the 12 Apostles of Ireland, to pray for us!
Letter #165 To the Houghton Mifflin Co. , 1955
#339 To the Editor of the Daily Telegraph
The Two Towers, Book 3, Chapter 4
Sophie Butler notes, “The creation of the Ents themselves points to Tolkien’s claims about nature. Yavanna, a Valar and queen of the Earth and all growing things, created the Ents. She requested the Ents be created in response to her husband Aulë’s children, the dwarves, who would cut down all the trees and nature needed by other races and peoples. (The Silmarillion, Valaquenta) https://epublications.marquette.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1030&context=english_4610jrrt
The Two Towers, pg. 87
Enjoyed this reflection on Tolkien and nature! We really do have a responsibility to steward well all that God has given us, and that includes the natural world!