History as The Long Defeat

Are things getting worse? One of Tolkien's famous phrases suggests as much.

A quote displayed at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial in Washington, D.C. Photo by Tim Evanson

Are things getting better or worse?

This is one of the basic questions of human existence, the source of no little consternation in the political sphere. Barack Obama ran for president with the slogans “Change We Can Believe In” and “Forward,” suggesting that he would move the nation into something progressively better, while Donald Trump runs with the slogan “Make America Great Again,” implying that the country’s golden age was sometime in the past.

It is a political truism that those on the Right think change is bad and those on the Left think change is good, though one can find plenty of historical exceptions. But step beyond the political sphere and into the lives of ordinary people on planet earth, and you will find that things are exceedingly murkier. In fact, most of us agree that things are going in the wrong direction, regardless of political affiliation.

A quick Google search for, “Is the world getting better or worse?”, returns a host of articles from leading publications lamenting that while plenty of indicators suggest human beings are making progress toward a higher standard of living and greater personal happiness, the majority of respondents in opinion surveys invariably say things are getting worse. A number of reasons for this disparity have been suggested: the tendency of human beings to focus on the negative, the potentially poisonous effects of social media, etc.

“Since 1990, poverty and hunger have declined dramatically while life spans have increased on every continent,” Derek Thompson wrote last year in The Atlantic, referring to data released by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. “The quality of data collection varies by category and country. But overall, it is hard to argue that human progress is some sort of sales pitch from the pathologically optimistic. Progress is simply a fact.”[1]

Despite the political and material uncertainties of our time, there are some who still have faith in the betterment of humanity. Their rallying cry is that of Martin Luther King Jr.: “We shall overcome because the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”[2] Barack Obama liked this quote so much that he had it included on his Oval Office rug.[3] The assumption of this group is that while there may be setbacks in the fight for justice, the truth will eventually win out.

This view became easier to hold with the ending of the Cold War and expansion of American-style liberal democracy around the globe, but now we sit in the year 2023, with the Cold War upon us again. We see countries like China and India growing in strength and influence while becoming simultaneously more repressive toward their own people. We have also seen the U.S. Capitol Building, a symbol of freedom and justice for many, invaded by rioters in what many concluded was an attack on American democracy itself. No wonder, then, that not everyone is feeling rosy about the potential for ever-expanding justice and a happy ending to history. The standard of living worldwide may be better than ever before, but material well-being is somewhat different from emotional or spiritual well-being.

J.R.R. Tolkien was keenly aware of the difference between technological progress and moral progress. At the heart of his most famous works—The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion—is a deep-rooted suspicion of many of the trends and assumptions that pervade the modern world. In a letter to Amy Ronald in 1956, he wrote, “Actually I am a Christian, and indeed a Roman Catholic, so that I do not expect ‘history’ to be anything but a ‘long defeat’—though it contains (and in a legend may contain more clearly and movingly) some samples or glimpses of final victory.”[4]

This language of the “long defeat” is used explicitly in The Fellowship of the Ring, the first volume of The Lord of the Rings. When the eponymous fellowship enters the land of Lothlórien and meets its rulers, the Lord Celeborn and Lady Galadriel, the lady says of her lord, “He has dwelt in the West since the days of dawn, and I have dwelt with him years uncounted; for ere the fall of Nargothrond or Gondolin I passed over the mountains, and together through ages of the world we have fought the long defeat.”[5]

Do not trouble yourself too much about the strange names contained in that quote: the point is that Galadriel and Celeborn have witnessed thousands of years of history, watched kingdoms rise and fall, and suffered the afflictions that are common to a world marred by evil. Through all of this, they have kept the faith, but they have concluded that history is actually a long defeat.

I recently had occasion to mention Tolkien’s idea of the “long defeat” to an uninitiated friend, who replied, “No wonder all the men cry.” No one wants to think of history—the totality of human efforts over thousands of years—as a long defeat, yet that is what Tolkien believed about our world, and he inserted it into his fictional world.

Yet, Tolkien’s view is not as grim as it may seem. Remember what he said to Amy Ronald? He spoke of “some samples or glimpses of final victory.” Indeed, if we look at the history sketched out in his legendarium, the picture is not wholly bleak. There are many occasions when evil is defeated, giving way to long periods of relative peace. But there are two things that Tolkien believed in his bones: 1) Evil will always return, although in a slightly different way. It must be put down again and again by successive generations. 2) Ultimately, the powers of good in the world cannot remove evil from their midst but must rely upon the intervention of a greater power from the outside.

Why should this be the case? Because once evil is introduced into a world, it spreads and grows, taking on new shapes and forms. In Tolkien’s legendarium, the original big bad was Morgoth. He had once been an angelic-type being named Melkor, but he rebelled against the one true God and entered the newly created world of Arda to sow discord and destruction. This closely mirrors the traditional Christian understanding of Satan.

Early in the history of Tolkien’s fictional world, the angelic beings (often called “The Valar”) on the side of good built twin lamps held on great pillars, which cast their light across the world. Of old, Morgoth attacked these towers and threw them down, hating the light and wishing to dwell in darkness. “In the overthrow of the mighty pillars lands were broken and seas arose in tumult; and when the lamps were spilled, destroying flame was poured out over the Earth. And the shape of Arda and the symmetry of its waters and its lands was marred in that time, so that the first designs of the Valar were never after restored.”[6]

This idea of the world being permanently marred, such that it cannot be restored without being completely remade, is an important part of Tolkien’s philosophy. Morgoth was eventually defeated by the Valar when the best efforts of Elves and Men could not overthrow him. Yet, it was not the end of the story.

But Morgoth himself the Valar thrust through the Door of Night beyond the Walls of the World, into the Timeless Void; and a guard is set for ever on those walls, and Eärendil keeps watch upon the ramparts of the sky. Yet the lies that Melkor, the mighty and accursed, Morgoth Bauglir, the Power of Terror and of Hate, sowed in the hearts of Elves and Men are a seed that does not die and cannot be destroyed; and ever and anon it sprouts anew, and will bear dark fruit even unto the latest days.[7]

As those who have read The Lord of the Rings or seen the films well know, a new chief baddy named Sauron arose. The most faithful of the Elves and Men managed to inflict a defeat upon him, but he managed to survive thanks to their failure to destroy the One Ring in which Sauron’s power was held. I know for the uninitiated, this must all sound like a bunch of gobbledygook, but the point is that by the time Galadriel made that comment about fighting the long defeat, she had seen history’s villains come and go. She had personally struggled against evil for thousands of years, and she surely believed on many occasions that it was the end: evil would not rise again. But always evil rises.

Tolkien was a soldier in the First World War, and he wrote his most famous works in the interwar period, during World War II, and as the Cold War was becoming decidedly hot. He had seen the world’s hope for an end to war utterly belied. He had witnessed horrors of historic proportion, all occurring in a century that was meant to be the most progressive ever. He knew that technological progress provided opportunities for evil as well as good, and he knew that there would always be another war, until God himself should remake the world.

This is why The Silmarillion includes this assessment of the world called Arda, in which the events of the legend chiefly take place: “If it has passed from the high and the beautiful to darkness and ruin, that was of old the fate of Arda Marred…”[8] From the first entrance of evil into the world and Morgoth’s initial efforts to destroy its goodness, Arda was marred from its innate perfection. Even so, planet earth has been marred by the curse of sin. The pure light of God is mixed with darkness, so that we struggle to tell one from the other. Always, we hear the lies, and often we believe them. Thus, the character Haldir, a resident of the Lady Galadriel’s dominion, says in The Fellowship of the Ring,

The world is indeed full of peril, and in it there are many dark places; but still there is much that is fair, and though in all lands love is now mingled with grief, it grows perhaps the greater. Some there are among us who sing that the Shadow will draw back, and peace shall come again. Yet I do not believe that the world about us will ever again be as it was of old, or the light of the Sun as it was aforetime.[9]

Tolkien did provide “glimpses of final victory” throughout his narrative: moments when the power of God himself broke into history. One occurred when a kingdom of evil Men tried to attack the Valar themselves, causing the Valar to lay down their rule of Arda and allow God to remake the world in such a way that Men would be prevented from ever entering those lands again.

Another seems to have occurred with the One Ring created by Sauron, which was taken first by Gollum, then by Bilbo Baggins, and finally by Frodo Baggins before being destroyed. Additionally, while Tolkien did not publish a narrative of the end of days in his created world, it is thought based on his notes that he intended for Morgoth to be defeated in a final battle, after which God himself would remake the world in glorious perfection.

Some Christians believe that God is gradually transforming planet earth into something ever better through the influence of the Church, while others believe the Church will not be triumphant until the end of time, when God himself intervenes. Tolkien was definitely in the latter category, though he did not deny the possibility for some moral improvement in the here and now. I too find myself in that place emotionally and intellectually. I place my hope in the final resurrection, reconciliation, and restoration of all things.

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, ‘Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them, and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away.’ (Revelation 21:1-4)[10]

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[1] Thompson, Derek. “The World Really is Getting Better,” The Atlantic, 13 September 2022. https://www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/archive/2022/09/bill-melinda-gates-foundation-goalkeepers-report-poverty/671415/. Accessed 28 May 2023.

[2] King, Martin Luther. Sermon at Washington National Cathedral. 31 March 1968. https://www.si.edu/spotlight/mlk?page=4&iframe=true

[3] “White House Defends King Quote on Oval Office Rug,” Associated Press, 8 September 2010. https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/white-house-defends-king-quote-on-oval-office-rug/1877758/

[4] Tolkien, J.R.R. “Number 195 – From a letter to Amy Ronald, 15 December 1956,” in The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, ed. Humphrey Carpenter (New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1981), 255.

[5] 347-8

[6] The Silmarillion, 36-7.

[7] Tolkien, J.R.R. The Silmarillion, Second Edition, ed. Christopher Tolkien (New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2001), 254-5.

[8] The Silmarillion, 255.

[9] 339-40

[10] Scripture quotation from The New American Standard Bible, copyright The Lockman Foundation.