A reader writes

I recently read *The Hobbit*, and I’m half-way through the trilogy of LOTR. I’m having a great time with it! Is there a Catholic commentary on this? I’ve looked on Amazon and in a local bookstore, but didn’t quite find what I was looking for. Do you have any suggestions?

I wouldn’t rush off to read a commentary, Catholic or otherwise, too fast. First, I think it’s important to *receive* a story, especially a great story, like a good meal. There’s time enough to analyze the recipe later. But first, enjoy the taste. One of the myths of our culture is that you only find out what a thing is by taking it apart: that surfaces do not matter. But in fact, in some forms of art, the surface is *all* that matters. You don’t get closer to experiencing Hamlet by going behind the scenes and watching the actors get in costume and the stage manager running the set changes. Hamlet is *meant* to be watched from the front where only the surface is seen. That’s how the enchantment works. Stories, likewise, should enchant first.

That said, far be it from this lit major to discourage analysis in its proper place. I’m not an expert in Tolkien scholarship, still less, Catholic Tolkien scholarship. If you want to understand Tolkien’s approach I would recommend two things first: his “On Fairy Stories” and his great poem “Mythopoiea“. The poem, by the way, is significant for two reason. First, it summarizes Tolkien’s understanding of man as “sub-creator” who stands in relationship to God the Creator. And it summarizes the argument he made to C.S. Lewis which removed Lewis’ last hurdle in becoming a Christian. It was written after Lewis, Tolkien and Barfield took their famous stroll on Addison’s Walk and discussed the notion of Christ as a “true myth” (something the “Jesus is really just Osiris and never existed” crowd really need to catch up with if they are ever to get out of the 19th century and into the early 20th).

As far as commentaries go, I am aware of Brad Birzer’s Sanctifying Myth and I know Joseph Pearce as written a couple of books on Tolkien. Also, Tom Shippey (who inherited Tolkien’s chair at Oxford), though not Catholic, has done some very good work on Tolkien (I’m hoping we can get him to come address the Seattle Chesterton Society one of these days.) But, as I say, I’m not an expert. Maybe readers can think of others. Personally, I’d be cautious about trying to put *too* much weight on the novel as a specifically Catholic novel. To be sure, Tolkien’s Catholic faith suffuses the light that pours through it and it is clearly a tale that could not have been told by anyone other than a Catholic. But the Catholic influence on the story is quicksilver and difficult to quantify in easy categories. Caveat lector.