Re-reading Fellowship

Our reading copies of The Lord of the Rings were aged paperbacks, flaking and tearing, so a few weeks ago I purchased a boxed set of hardcovers on Amazon. And since there's nothing better to do with new books than read them, I started in on The Fellowship of the Ring. The mood of the trilogy is elegaic -- not so much "We stand on the shoulders of giants" as "There once were giants, and we shall never see their like again." Part of that, I think, comes from the presence of the Elves in Middle-Earth. The Eldar, as a race, are far older than men, and have a much more direct connection to the Valar across the sea. That gives them a greatness of soul and stature that the men of Middle-Earth can never hope to achieve, except for the few that have become intertwined with Eldar lore. The trilogy is set late in Middle-Earth's history, and there's a sense that now that the Elves are passing away, the days of greatness are over; man can never hope to rival the glories of the halcyon days.

Tolkien formally detested allegory, and so I think it's telling that the scenario he created is one that really isn't applicable to our own history. Though the standards of culture may vary, depending on the level of education and spirituality in a given historical setting, I would contend that there's never been a "golden age" from which we retreat in inexorable decline. There's no other species, or for that matter any particular race, that is somehow closer to creation and to the eternal verities and therefore setting impossibly high standards for art, literature, music, and architecture.

Different ages have different styles and priorities, yet I don't think anyone would hold that Stonehenge is somehow superior to a Gothic cathedral. Both a Gothic cathedral and the Empire State Building are the monumental architecture of their respective ages, yet both were built by men -- men whom we can study, understand, and aspire to equal. The cathedral, to my mind, surpasses the Empire State Building in terms of architectural transcendance and also in terms of sheer usefulness -- if we ever enter another dark age, the cathedral can still be used for its intended purpose while the State Building will stand empty with no lights or air conditioning to make it useable -- but that's simply because they were build for different purposes, not because one culture was superior to the other.

I'm not a member of the cult of Progress, but I don't ascribe to the Glorious, Irretrievable Past. No one age has a lock on truth, beauty and goodness. Mankind remains mankind, and that's why we're able to come to grips with the great ideas and glorious creations of men throughout the ages -- because we're all capable of participating in the eternal Now of God.