Book Review: A Hobbit, a Wardrobe, and a Great War

I cannot express enough how much I loved this book. I have been a fan of JRR Tolkien’s LOTR books for many years and have read a few of C.S. Lewis’s great works. I knew they were friends and Tolkien was instrumental in Lewis’s conversation to Christianity. What I didn’t know was their military service during WW1. I knew very little of that war until a recent visit to the Imperial War Museum in London. What I learned astounded me. It was the most brutal war the world had ever known at that point. 

A Hobbit, A Wardrobe and A Great War (HWGW)added another layer of insight how all three (Tolkien, Lewis and WW1) produced the most beloved and timeless books like The Chronicles of Narnia and the Lord of the Rings series. HWGW is part history, part philosophy, and part biography, interwoven with excerpts from these famous authors’ works. Understanding the temper of the times made me appreciate more how remarkable these books were and are. 

Before WW1, there was a general sense of optimism, fueled by the new discoveries in science that led to progress and advancement people had never seen before. The myth of progress declared science as the new religion and man, the new god. Even people of faith were deceived by the “virtues” of man-centered science that propagated eugenics and the evolving man. There grew a crisis of faith, but optimism in humanity. 

Believing the advancement in science had to lead to peace, nations naively entered into war unprepared for the devastating consequences of the use of their modern weapons. The war that was supposed to end all wars went on for years without a clear winner, but left almost 40 million casualties, a third of which were killed.

WW1 was a turning point in world history, not just in military, but socially, politically and spiritually. It led to worldwide disillusionment that made people cling to modernism further. Rejecting the old systems (democracy and religion) and empires (Ottoman, AUSTRIAN-Hungarian, German monarchy, and Tsarist Russia) that failed them, society then embraced the new (fascism, communism, atheism). Darwin, Nietzsche and Freud were the new prophets that would lead the way to the salvation of man. Society had no more need of God since science could explain everything better than religion.

Astonishingly, it was in this state of gloomy social landscape did the works of Tolkien and Lewis’s works begin. This is due to these great writers’ counter-cultural view of reality. They saw progress as an assault to human dignity and hated the machine. Tolkien and Lewis viewed the degradation of society and faith, but they had a more optimistic outlook. They responded by embracing the value of friendship, the power of storytelling, and by “reclaiming some of the older beliefs and virtues. (p. 180)” 

Their experience in the war did not make them lose hope. They saw the sometimes necessity of war in order to preserve freedom, to save the oppressed, and to protect what made life good. “As veterans of this conflict, Tolkien and Lewis chose to remember not only its horrors and sorrows: they wanted to recall the courage, sacrifice, and the friendships that made it endurable” (p. 170). This was made evident in the beloved books they authored. They created characters that exemplified both fierceness and gentleness. They brought back the old-fashioned ideals of chivalry, nobility, courage humility and perseverance in the face of evil.

Tolkien and Lewis saw the worth of the everyday, seemingly insignificant hero, as we see in Lucy in Narnia and the Hobbits in LOTR. They exalted the virtues of loyal friendships, as exemplified by Sam, Pippin and Merry as they courageously faced what seemed like defeat for the sake of their friend Frodo. They brought hope in the form of a returning king, Aragorn in LOTR and Aslan in Narnia. 

Through their mythological and magical stories, they communicated biblical truths. Man is corrupt and cannot save himself. He cannot face evil alone, but can defeat it in community. Good will win in the end. These were truths that society needed to hear, but was blind to accept. Tolkien and Lewis offered an alternative answer to the plight of man and it wasn’t found in science. Rather, it was found in the myth because it gave way to the supernatural, destroyed the lie of the autonomous man, and pointed to a God who is good and just.

I always knew Tolkien and Lewis did humanity a great kindness through their writing. But HWGW explained why that is and how it came about, and for that reason I highly recommend HWGW to everyone, not to just Tolkien and Lewis fans. It’s a compelling, eye-opening and heartwarming read that I will cherish all my life.