Aragorn, like Christ, is “King of the Dead” who has the power to set the suffering souls free of the death-curse. Similarly, Aragorn is a Christ figure in his role as healer. As Ioreth, a wise-woman of Gondor, proclaimed: “The hands of the king are the hands of a healer, and so shall the rightful king be known.”
J. R. R. Tolkien was a devout Roman Catholic from boyhood, and he described The Lord of the Rings in particular as a "fundamentally religious and Catholic work; unconsciously so at first, but consciously in the revision". While he insisted it was not an allegory, it contains numerous themes from Christian theology.
The Force and the Jedi religion, Lucas stated, were thus based on all religions in the real-world, as he constructed Star Wars mainly from Methodism—or Christianity, Islam, and Judaism—and Buddhism.
However, Kreeft and Jean Chausse have identified reflections of the figure of Jesus Christ in three protagonists of The Lord of the Rings: Gandalf, Frodo and Aragorn.
While a number of Christian elements can be found in The Hobbit, three of the most important are its Christian sense of purpose, its Christian sense of Providence, and its Christian sense of morality.
In The Lord of the Rings, the Ring represents ultimate evil or sin, and Frodo, though himself innocent, bears it to its ultimate destruction. The parallels to Christ are clear, for He, though innocent, bore the sins of the world upon Himself and died for the salvation of mankind.
First of all, we can see that Tolkien has modelled his story on the basic plot of the Bible. The Lord of the Rings starts with an unspoiled paradise (the Shire / Garden of Eden), which is rudely disturbed by evil (Sauron / Satanic snake). Then there is a moral quest, which brings about moral and spiritual maturation.
Aragorn, like Christ, is “King of the Dead” who has the power to set the suffering souls free of the death-curse. Similarly, Aragorn is a Christ figure in his role as healer. As Ioreth, a wise-woman of Gondor, proclaimed: “The hands of the king are the hands of a healer, and so shall the rightful king be known.”
Tolkien opens the sacrificial role to all characters, particularly the most humble ones, the hobbits. Aragorn represents the eschatology of Christ—the belief that Christ will return to establish a kingdom on earth for his faithful.
Frodo, as the Ring-bearer, emerges as a Christ Figure, the one who bears the Cross, and with it the sins and hopes of humanity… Although Frodo emerges as the most obvious Christ Figure insofar as he is the Ring-bearer and insofar as the Ring can be seen to signify sin.
There's plenty about “Star Wars” that doesn't jibe with Buddhism, not least the fact that Darth Vader – the supreme personification of evil – is an avid meditator. Even the storylines that borrow from other religions teach Buddhist lessons.
A green-skinned figure in a medieval manuscript may look very familiar to Star Wars fans. The ink illustration appears to show the Jedi knight Yoda on the pages of a religious document. But in fact, the drawing is part of a bizarre representation of the Biblical story of Samson, one expert claims.
Their creator, the Star Wars writer and director George Lucas, seems to have been heavily influenced by real religions and philosophies such as Buddhism, Taoism, Kabbalah and the medieval code of chivalry. This gives verisimilitude to the Jedi religion in the films.
Legolas first appears during the Council of Elrond, where he is sent as a messenger by his father, Thranduil, to give the council the news of Gollum's escape with the Elves of Mirkwood. He is then selected by Elrond to represent the Elves in the Company that sets out with Frodo on his quest to destroy the Ring.
“The Lord of the Rings is of course a fundamentally religious and Catholic work,” J.R.R. Tolkien himself admitted.
The Hobbit is an intrinsically Catholic book in which Tolkien's narrator imposes his morally absolutist views on this world in opposition to some of Tolkien's own views.
Oswald was exiled as a young man before returning to his homeland in order to claim his birthright and become king - an adventure which apparently inspired J.R.R. Tolkien to create the character of Aragorn in Lord of the Rings.
However, in J.R.R. Tolkien's books, he does not have one representation of Jesus but rather three: Gandalf, Aragorn, and Samwise Gamgee (perhaps representative of the Holy Trinity, the concept of 'God in three persons'). Each of these characters symbolizes a different aspect of Jesus Christ.
The Sword of Elendil
When Aragorn has the sword reforged in Rivendell, renaming it Andúril, it becomes a symbol of Aragorn's greatness and a sign that Aragorn is officially setting out to claim his birthright in the House of Isildur. In a sense, the sword mirrors Aragorn himself.
I cordially dislike allegory in all its manifestations, and always have done so since I grew old and wary enough to detect its presence. I much prefer history – true or feigned– with its varied applicability to the thought and experience of readers.
Aragorn is described in the books as of Numenorean descent, a fictitious group of people who were fair-skinned. However, in a letter, Tolkien wrote that Numenoreans were "best pictured in (say) Egyptian terms," though it is debated whether he meant in cultural or ethnic terms.
Invented by J. R. R. Tolkien, Aragorn means "noble valour" in Sindarin, the language of the elves in Middle-earth. Viggo Mortensen played Aragorn in Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy.
In a 2001 interview, the right-wing polemicist Richard Abanes claimed that Tolkien's Lord of the Rings exemplifies so-called biblical values “like integrity, honesty, bravery, courage, forgiveness.” Which, hey, fair enough. Moreover, it takes place in a secondary world, distinct from our own.
Abraham's servant gave Rebekah a nose ring to claim her as Isaac's bride (Genesis 24:22). Joseph received a signet ring from Pharoah as a symbol of authority (Genesis 41:42). Historians generally agree that Egyptians started the custom of using wedding bands for the purpose of marriage.
God is the most powerful entity in Tolkien's Lord of the Rings universe. The Elvish name for him is actually Eru Ilúvatar, meaning “the one, father of all.” So the question becomes: Who is the second-most powerful being? Originally, it was Melkor, “he who arises in might,” the most powerful of the Ainur (or angels).