Catholicism anchored Tolkien’s life and suffused his writings. “I’ve read the trilogy and The Silmarillion ten times, and I never saw anything Catholic in it.” Or, “How can he say that? The characters ...

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.