Does anyone care about Lord of the Rings? Is something I ask myself as I begin to draft this post, but then remember the hundreds of blogs I came upon that analyze the plot and the setting and the characters and the journey and the deep deep realm of Middle Earth. I wanted to be apart of it. Here it is then, a nerd post:
Last week I finally watched all three Lord of the Rings movies.
I’d never been one for fantasy, I find that life itself here on Earth is quite fantastical, there is so much to explore in our present realm. I had the notion that fantasy is escapism, but see now it just gives us a new realm for discovery about our present space. Myth can help us refigure what we think about this world, how we place value on the things that are important to us.
The story of the fellowship of the ring captivated me, took me away with it. I felt emotionally attached to the characters in the story. By the last movie I was crying anytime one of the characters looked at the other—there was a true depth to their devotion and care, and so much duty to the cause.
There’s so much to talk about in the series (most importantly the strength of platonic love!!), that an essay on the architecture of the movie feels almost trite. But because this movie hit me right in the heart, (and also I write about the metaphor of architecture), I began to understand that the architecture of the film contributed to the way the film moved me. The background, although subtle in presence and the words used to describe it, the setting is always there. It is where, in rearranged words, a story is set. It is this critical yet quiet piece that often carries the story, and in fantasy is created specifically to tell the tale.
As writers use words to craft narrative, Tolkien uses myth. Like words in a story, myths become another way to point to the truth. Tolkien believed the composition of myth to be a “sub-creative act.” In writing these stories, Tolkien became a sub-creator of a new world, one in which he could reflect the values of his story into a new vessel: Middle Earth.
Tolkien was Catholic, which was not just expressed though the LOTR story and the characters’ development, but also in the architectural representation in the books, and later the films. Movie director Peter Jackson understood that the architecture was key to the story. In building the sets in New Zealand and with CGI, Jackson was sensitive to the “iconicity of the image” to indicate its meaning within the story, and was careful to include certain elements described in depth within the books.
Of the architecture in the film, there were two separate elements that specifically spoke to his Catholic beliefs and helped to progress the symbolism in the story: the throne room and the capital city of Minas Tirith.
The throne room in Minas Tirith closely resembles the Roman-influenced basilicas I encountered in Europe. The give-away was the structure of the interior, which was divided into aisles or naves, one central and two on each side, with barrel vaulted ceilings, long and narrow windows along the sides. These Catholic naves (which I describe in my April essays: Dome, Divine Design, and that month’s newsletter) are meant to connote a sense of power and exaltation, to connect the visitor with a sense of the divine. While that human to god connection is less explicit in the LOTR story, it still brings about a similar sense of awe and majesty, apt for a king’s throne room.
Zooming out, the city that holds this throne room is Minas Tirith, the capital city of Gondor, the main kingdom of men in Middle Earth. Being able to see the wide scope and large scale of this city as a full image differentiates fantasy from other forms of literature, allowing readers/watchers to completely envision a place that is entirely new to them. The city is complex yet contained to the viewer as the sum of its parts, an entire representation within the author’s hands. With Minas Tirith, Tolkien intended to portray medieval style architecture connoting power and beauty. Taken from the book:
“Turning south again [Frodo] beheld Minas Tirith. Far away it seemed, and beautiful: white-walled, many-towered, proud and fair upon its mountain-seat; its battlements glittered with steel, and its turrets were bright with many banners. Hope leaped in his heart.”
Minas Tirith is a self-contained city, built as a fortress in seven levels, each with a gate that faces a different direction. Several of the Middle Earth blogs remark that Tolkien was influenced by numerology, and were convinced that this architecture was intentional: seven represents the number of completeness and is a holy number in Catholicism (i.e. on the seventh day God rested, the seven cardinal virtues, the seven deadly sins). In the story of the fellowship, Minas Tirith is a vision of the safety and glory. It is where they fight for the future of men and more generally, protect the goodness of the world. It is where the largest battle of the series takes place. The lightness of Gondor’s capital is represented by familiar medieval monuments such as white marble, courtyards, and tall elevations. It is clear that psychology is mirrored in architecture, perhaps most of all in fantasy movies or books. In the words of scholars Steven Woodward and Kostis Kourelis, “Minas Tirith takes the logic of its form and deferences from the rocky pinnacle it encircles.” It is the light in the midst of a dark and encroaching evil.
The thing I couldn’t get over the most, after watching LOTR, was how much Tolkien had invented just to hold within it the story of the fellowship (also the Hobbit and other stories he’d written set in Middle Earth….) The power of a fantasy author is amazing to me; so much must be described and understood within the brain of the author. It is like simultaneously having to swim in two worlds, one of which is created by the author with deep history and a scale of description that all go to provide a setting created for the sole purposes of the story. In the LOTR, that that story is about a group of unlikely friends, bound together by duty and also by devotion, to save the world and defy evil—like, that’ll make anyone cry.
If you know any Lord of the Rings fans, please send them my little thoughts. Would love to engage.
big LOTR fan and very very much appreciate- especially your note on platonic love
Love this