Tolkien's real theme behind The Lord of the Rings

In a wood-paneled room that was probably a study, an old man sat on a chair in front of several stacks of books. Dressed in a tweed suit typical of the time, he narrowed his eyes briefly and put on his glasses before he began to read aloud. This man was not only a respected linguist and literary scholar, but also an author himself, whose works were still - or especially - very popular around the world today. 

When he had finished, he announced that regardless of whether you agreed or disagreed with what he had said, this was the overarching theme of his most successful work. The The Lord of the Rings. However, the words he read out did not come from his pen, but from a newspaper article he had read shortly before. And the newspaper had in turn attributed them to Simone de Beauvoir's Une mort très douce (in German as A gentle death available):

"There is no natural death: nothing that happens to a human being is ever natural, since his presence calls the world into question. All men must die: but for every man his death is an accident and, even if he knows it and consents to it, an unjustifiable injury."

Simone de Beauvoir

For Tolkien, these words reflected what concerns us all at some point in our lives: Objectively speaking, death may be something normal, even natural, in almost all cultures, but subjectively, for each and every one of us, it is unnatural as far as we ourselves are concerned. Somehow inappropriate, undeserved, or in de Beauvoir's words, unjustified, it befalls us. It is as if it is never quite the right time for it to finally overtake us.

Reading these lines, perhaps one or two cases came to mind in which people departed from this world in peace. Is that not sufficient proof that the view expressed in this quote is wrong, or at least not universally valid? From our point of view, it is by no means wrong, but we also share the opinion that it is not always true.

But it doesn't have to. It is enough that each of us has perceived or will perceive death as something unnatural at some point in our lives. Even if perhaps - or hopefully - not at the time of our own passing, but at least beforehand, in critical situations in which we have already felt the cold breath of death or as people who, from our point of view or that of others, passed away too soon.

The mere fact that people at some point shared the opinion of these words gives them relevance and shows us why Tolkien was able to recognize in them what he himself called the driving force. No story, he believed, would captivate people in the long term if it were not for the sake of death, or at least its omnipresence.  

In many Far Eastern philosophies, there is hardly any such attitude towards death. There it is even more natural and is typically perceived as such. Death is often portrayed as an inherent and organic aspect of the life cycle, emphasizing the transient and impermanent nature of existence. In contrast to some Western views that instill fear or see death as a final endpoint, Eastern philosophies such as Buddhism and Hinduism emphasize the idea of constant change and renewal. In Buddhism, for example, death is seen as a transition, a change from one state of being to another. This view is reflected in practices such as the contemplation of impermanence, where people are encouraged to acknowledge the transience of life. In Japanese culture, the fleeting beauty of cherry blossoms during the Hanami festival, among other things, symbolizes the ephemeral nature of existence and encourages people to appreciate the present moment. In Hinduism, the Bhagavad Gita emphasizes the transience of the physical body and urges people to focus on the present without delving into speculative ideas of an afterlife. Overall, Eastern philosophies advocate a natural acceptance of death and promote a mindful approach to living in harmony with the ever-changing flow of life.

After many years of studying the various philosophies of the Far East, we have become familiar with these approaches and they have inevitably rubbed off on our thinking. This means that death is something natural not only on a social but also on an individual level.

However, while we are writing this part of the book, I (Simon) am preparing for the funeral of a former schoolmate, which will take place the next day in a cemetery forest. He left us far too soon, we both agree, and yet on an objective, calmer level we don't find anything abnormal about it all. 

And so death is somehow both. Completely natural and the usual course of things and yet also an unjustified violation of life. But beyond that, it is one thing above all: it is the driving force, to return to Tolkien's apt description - and not just for stories, but for life itself. Nothing helps us to live more intensely than the prospect of death. If you have already read our articles on stoicism, you are probably already familiar with the stoic principle Memento Moriwhich translates as "remember death" and reminds us of our mortality. Not to live in fear of death, but rather to live in awareness of death and use it as motivation to live our best life.