Matt Page- The Lord of the Rings

Well in high school I took a class on the Lord of the Rings trilogy which related the book to movie. Also, going to a private Catholic school, we tended to point out many of the religious symbols in the movie. One of the main symbols throughout the movie was how Christ was portrayed in the characters. There is no one complete, concrete, visible Christ figure in The Lord of the Rings. He is more clearly present in Gandalf, Frodo, and Aragorn, the three Christ figures. First of all, all three undergo different forms of death and resurrection. Second, all three are saviors: through their self-sacrifice they help save all of Middle-earth from the demonic sway of Sauron. Third, they exemplify the Old Testament threefold Messianic symbolism of prophet, seen in Gandalf, priest, seen in Frodo, and king, as seen in Aragorn. The most fundamental Christian symbol is the Cross. This also is perfectly opposite to the Ring. The Cross gives life while the Ring takes it. The Cross gives you death and not power while the Ring gives you power even over death. The Ring squeezes everything into its inner emptiness while the Cross expands in all four directions, gives itself to the emptiness, filling it with its blood.