Channels, Spring 2019

Channels • 2019 • Volume 3 • Number 2 Page 19 Churchill, Tolkien managed to survive its onslaughts while emerging from the cultural wasteland that followed without succumbing to the despair and moral disillusionment that came to characterize the post-WWI society. As Joseph Loconte and other authors have argued, it was Tolkien’s faith that sustained him through the difficult circumstances of war. Along with his faith, Tolkien was in large part influenced by his wartime service causing him to implement ideas of both heroism and otherworldly intervention into his many fantasy stories. Similarly, Churchill always held to a heroic ideal of chivalric honor that influenced him throughout his career and public life. But more to the point, Churchill’s view of history was quite similar to Tolkien’s. Much like Tolkien’s sober outlook on history as being a “long defeat,” Churchill once wrote that “the story of the human race is War.”5 While Tolkien and Churchill were no enthusiasts for war, they recognized it as a tragic necessity that was unavoidable in a world marked by evil. Nonetheless, they each believed that there was some cosmic power shaping the fortunes of humanity, imbuing the world and each individual’s life with meaning and moral purpose while allowing for the dimmest of hopes to be realized. As Tolkien sought to rescue society from its cynicism and hopelessly ignorant trend toward pacifism through his literary works, the same view of history he fused into his works could be seen playing out prior to WWII—a struggle of tumultuous economic and political upheaval which proved to be decades-long. Moreover, the same dynamic of Tolkien’s “long defeat” and “final victory” was reflected through the life of one of its greatest leaders, Winston Churchill, whose many failures, flaws, and basic unpopularity, made his rise completely unexpected. Accordingly, from studying the prelude to WWII and the life of Churchill, one is reminded that Tolkien’s view of history, which he incidentally embeds into his fantasy works, is extraordinarily true to life. It is what Tolkien referred to as “hope without guarantees” that his heroes confront time and again.6 And it is not all unlike the fateful circumstances in May of 1940, when, in a matter of days, the shroud of Nazi darkness covered the Continent of Europe, leaving only one Island and one unwavering leader to free her from the awful “menace of tyranny” and the tightening “grip of the Gestapo.”7 At this, the darkest of hours, one lonely man stepped forth to put his words to war, for, besides words, there was not much left with which to fight. Winston Churchill, a man of incredible gifts and oratory flair, would give to his countrymen what they already had: hope. Yet, in giving voice to their rugged hope, he would renew the true spirit with which it ought to be carried, a spirit of hope that would stand firm regardless of the chances for success, regardless of how bad things got. This spirit of hope would fight to the end, even if that end meant death. For, like Tolkien’s hero Samwise Gamgee in the film adaptation of The Two Towers, Britons would come to realize that “There’s some good in this world . . . and it’s worth fighting for.” And like Churchill, they and the rest of the world would, in the end, fully understand that defending Britain and the ideals she stood for against the wave of Nazi evil was indeed worth fighting for – “whatever the cost.” “The war to end all wars” ending only through armistice, then a treaty tending only towards treachery; failure upon failure to enforce key provisions and redress grievances; the demands of global depression; the illusion of disarmament; the follies of appeasement; defeat after defeat; misery unto anguish; life into death; freedom questioned then vanquished; and fascism declared: 5 Winston S. Churchill, “Shall We All Commit Suicide?” (New York: Eilert Publishing Company, 1924), 1. 6 “Tolkien and the Long Defeat,” The Gospel Coalition, December 10, 2013, accessed March 10, 2018, https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/tolkien-and-the-long-defeat/ . 7 Winston Churchill, “Winston Churchill: We Shall Fight on the Beaches – edited,” The Guardian , April 20, 2007, accessed March 10, 2018, https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2007/apr/20/greatspeeches3 .