There's so many great fantasy books that it can be hard to know what to read, but everyone should tackle these all-time great ...

A new book explores how J.R.R. Tolkien’s Catholic faith — and especially the Mass — shaped his stories and sustained his soul ...

Is 'The Lord of the Rings' a Catholic epic? Some consider it a parable of the Gospels, much to the dismay of several scholars who believe Tolkien subtly incorporated various mythologies. On the ...

In an interview, Tolkien, while not specifically characterizing the Jews as warlike, nonetheless spoke to an explicit connection with biblical characterizations of the Jews, with the biblical ...

To some extent, that awareness hums throughout Tolkien’s epic. Among its themes of wartime valor, mercy, trauma and self-sacrifice, “The Lord of the Rings” is a study in memory and forgetting.

Tolkien once said that his poems in Quenya, his elvish language, were written for private pleasure, not the enjoyment of an audience. I am inclined to agree. If you are new to Tolkien’s poetry but ...

When J. R. R. Tolkien first set out to write The Lord of the Rings, he did so without intending for it to be seen in any way as a Catholic or religious book.As revealed in The Letters of J. R. R ...

But Tolkien’s influence isn’t just domestic. In 2022, The Times published a fascinating analysis by Jason Horowitz of how “The Lord of the Rings” shaped the Italian prime minister Giorgia ...

Vance himself has pointed to Tolkien’s high fantasy epics as a window into understanding his worldview. In an archived episode of the defunct “Grounded” podcast from 2021 that no longer ...

Tolkien’s own love story, thankfully, was even happier, though it was not short of drama, ... a Catholic priest at The Oratory in Birmingham. By the time Tolkien was 16, ...

A new book brilliantly captures what his Catholic faith meant to the author of The Lord of the Rings. ... Tolkien the Catholic. J. R. R. Tolkien sits in his study, December 2, 1955.

During this time, Mabel converted to Catholicism. Tolkien made the choice to follow his mother into her new faith, receiving the sacraments of holy Communion and Confirmation at the age of 12. ...