HEATHENISM AND PAGANISM
In The Return of the King, when Gandalf finds Denethor in the process of trying to burn alive both himself and his son Faramir, the wizard says: "Only the heathen kings, under the domination of the Dark Power, did thus, slaying themselves in pride and despair, murdering their kin to ease their own death" (RK,V,vii,129). Tolkien's use of the word "heathen" here is curious, in that it carries with it religious connotations. Tom Shippey, for example, calls the adjective "in a way illogical", for in "Gandalf calling someone else a heathen" the wizard is implying "that he himself is not one" — that is, Gandalf adheres to an established religious belief (177). Though Tolkien viewed The Lord of the Rings as deeply religious and fundamentally Christian, he made an effort to "cut out" of it "practically all references to anything like 'religion'", by which he meant religious practices as they are known in our world (Letters, 172). Some scholars have therefore supposed the use of the word "heathen" to be a mistake on Tolkien's part: an accidental usage the author must have overlooked in the revision. This leads to the question of how Tolkien used the word "heathen" and the related word "pagan" and what he thought of heathenism and paganism.
Though the Modern English "heathen" and "pagan" are closely related and sometimes used interchangeably, the words have distinct meanings. "Heathen" comes from OE hæwen and means one from the heath (hæw): that is, an uneducated rustic (See Beowulf, lines 852, 986, etc). More specifically, a "heathen" is one who does not know about God, and thus when used in Christian cultures refers to anyone who is not a Christian. Although the OE hæwen was used as a translation of the Latin paganus (a "country dweller"), the Modern English "pagan" has the more narrow meaning of one who follows the old gods, that is, a polytheist. While a pagan is also a heathen, heathens are not necessarily pagans. Thus, Tolkien could use the words with distinct meanings and yet not be inconsistent when in "The Monsters and the Critics" he refers to "heathen imagination", heathen days, and "heathen ancestors" while describing the myths of "pagan Englsh and Norse imagination" (MC, 22-23).
When Gandalf uses the adjective "heathen" to describe Denethor's actions, Tolkien may have had in mind its more literal, nonreligious, and certainly derogaroty meaning: Gandalf was simply associating Denethor — who was proud to be the steward of the most literate culture of Men in Middle-earth at that time — with the uneducated traditions of the heath. Yet at the same time, the internal use of the word is consistent — the author would have known the religious connotation that the word held with his readers. Tolkien had a high view of many aspects of pagan Norse heroism and saw them as complementing Christian virtue at many levels. He thus defends the pagan imagination, especially in "The Monsters and the Critics". As Birzer summarizes, "For Tolkien, the Beowulf poet beautifully intertwined pagan virtues with Christian theology". And "the Christian should embrace and sanctify the most noble virtues to come out of the northern pagan mind" (35). At the same time, however, Tolkien saw paganism itself as ultimately hopeless and futile: the rejection of Christ that defines heathenism will lead, as in the case of Denethor, to pride, despair, and death.
