Providence, Fate, and Chance: Boethian Philosophy in The Lord of the Rings

Abstract

All serious students of J. R. R. Tolkien's fictional writings recognize his scholarly background as a medievalist, and as a result have spent much time analyzing medieval influences on elements within his works.' What is curious, however, is that no critic (medievalist or modernist) has discussed the medieval influences on the larger concepts of providence, fate, chance, or free will-although critics have recognized the significance of these themes.2 No has suggested the possible value for Tolkien study of Boethius' Consolation of Philosophy, acknowledged by translator as one of the most popular and influential books in Western Europe from the time it was written, in 524, until the end of the Renaissance.3 Surely a medievalist as learned as J. R. R. Tolkien would have known the Consolation, if for no other reason than through his study of King Alfred, who translated it into Anglo-Saxon. The attraction for King Alfred was the same as for other thinkers of the Middle Ages-even of our own day: the problematic relationships between providence, fate, chance, and free will. Spacks, Helms, and others have noted these concepts in Tolkien's works, and they agree that the relationships among them are complex, perhaps even contradictory: Spacks discussing free will; Helms, providential control. But such oppositions are only apparent, and if we turn to Boethius' Consolation of Philosophy, we will see why. I suggest Boethius' work not simply because it had to be known to Tolkien. I offer it first because, as students of Tolkien readily admit, he deliberately eschewed any reference to Christianity in his works, unlike C. S. Lewis, for example, who insisted on Christian doctrine as a basis