The Seven Deadly Sins in Middle-earth

[The Squatter of Amon Rûdh]

The idea for this topic arose during a conversation with another member last week, in which I suggested that the many of the evils in the legends of Middle-earth can be attributed to one or more of the Seven Deadly Sins of medieval Christian thought. Although this was originally an idle, throw-away thought, we managed to come up with quite a few examples that appear to cover all of the sins; and as I’ve thought about it since it has seemed more likely that a Christian with a thorough grounding in medieval literature might well be influenced by that sort of thinking when constructing an artificial mythology.

My theory began, as could so many, with the Fall of Gondolin. Here we see a number of pivotal characters whose actions can be interpreted in terms of the deadly sins: Turgon’s pride causes him to reject Ulmo’s instructions and to trust in the impregnability of his powerful and hidden fortress; Aredhel’s wilfulness, which arises from pride, causes her to fall into the hands of Eöl, whose actions in forcing her to marry him can be attributed to lust. Finally, Maeglin’s treachery is made easier for him by his envy of Tuor and lust for Idril. Of course, pivotal in this downfall is Morgoth Bauglir, himself a being twisted by overweening pride and lust (note the description of his attitude towards Lúthien, particularly in the earlier forms of the story), until he has become, if you will, the fallen angel of Tolkien’s legends.

Casting my net further afield, Ungoliant is a glutton, “…desiring to be mistress of her lust, taking all things to herself to feed her emptiness.” (The Silmarillion Ch 8), and Melkor uses this to obtain her assistance in satiating his own greed for the jewels of the Elves. Therefore the Darkening of Valinor can be seen to result from two of the Deadly Sins, and the later flight of the Noldor is more or less attributable to the wrath of Fëanor, who spurns all reason in his quest for revenge.

Sloth was more difficult to pin down, but when it was pointed out to me it became rather obvious. Consider Saruman’s ruffians in The Scouring of the Shire, whose main occupation is lounging around, taking food from the hard-working Hobbits. They commit evil acts purely because they cannot be bothered to work for what they want (and eventually suffer beggary as a result, when they are driven out of the Shire).

Returning to the subject of pride: according to Thomas Aquinas "inordinate self-love is the cause of every sin” (Summa Theologica, 1,77), and it seems to me that much of the misery, particularly in the Silmarillion can be attributed to this. Consider the fate of Túrin and Nienor, so much of whose troubles seem to have resulted from Morwen’s excessive pride in not accompanying her son to his fostering with Thingol. When Melian invites her to seek refuge in Menegroth, deeming that this might avert the curse of Morgoth, she turns down the invitation, mainly due to her distaste for receiving charity:

But Morwen would not depart from her house, for her heart was yet unchanged and her pride still high; moreover Nienor was still a babe in arms.

(Unfinished Tales - Narn I Hîn Húrin)

Morwen’s decision is pivotal, since one of its results is that Túrin and Nienor have not met, which makes their eventual marriage possible. Also the presence of his family in Hithlum gives Glaurung the leverage he needs to make Túrin abandon Finduilas and go seeking his mother and sister after the fall of Nargothrond, an event without which, we are told, he might have escaped his doom. Although Nienor’s infancy is also presented as a motive for denying the summons, it seems almost an afterthought tacked onto the end of the sentence; and since Tolkien was never averse to altering word order to place the more significant concepts near the beginning of a sentence, pride would seem to be the major factor. Almost directly, Morwen’s pride brings about the downfall of her children (although Túrin’s own unwillingness to submit to Thingol’s justice prevents their meeting later).

Now obviously the presence of examples such as these is not in itself evidence that Tolkien had the Seven Deadly Sins (or, indeed, the Seven Cardinal Virtues) in mind while writing his stories. It could just as easily be the case that the sins are themselves universally applicable, and that it is thus only understandable that they should appear working their evil in Tolkien’s legends. However it does not seem unlikely that Tolkien, with his abiding interest in medieval literature and his own religious conviction, might think of the corruption of individuals and the fall of civilisations in terms of virtue and vice, and this seems to me a subject worthy of some discussion.

[ August 17, 2003: Message edited by: The Squatter of Amon Rûdh ]