Guest Post: Ruth Lewis, "Whose Splintered Light?"

The following essay was kindly submitted by contributor Ruth Lewis, a British zoologist, writer, and illustrator with a strong interest in Tolkien. It is presented below with only minimal editorial adjustment. 

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𝔙erlyn Fleiger’s Splintered Light is widely regarded as one of the best critical books on J.R.R. Tolkien [1]. Flieger referred the concept in her title to Owen Barfield’s Poetic Diction of 1928, cited by Flieger from the third edition of 1973.
As an artist with an interest in the history of art theory, however, I have long been aware that the mythos of Light has deep roots in ancient philosophy and Christian theology. As the art-historian W. Swaan explains:

Plato’s metaphorical association of sunlight with goodness and knowledge was greatly elaborated by the pagan Neo-Platonists who identified light with Ultimate Reality and the generating principle of the universe. Light, they argued, was also the means by which the intellect perceived truth. This concept found confirmation in the magnificent passage in the Gospel of St John where the Word is compared ‘to a light that shineth in darkness, by which all things were made, and which enlighteneth every man. . .’. On this dual basis of pagan and Christian thought, a fifth-century Syrian mystic, Dionysius the Areopagite, built a highly complex philosophy which constituted no less than a theology of light. [2]

It should be noted that the Syrian was accidentally or deliberately confused with the first-century Athenian Dionysius who was a disciple of St Paul and is properly called ‘the Areopagite’; the fifth century mystic is often referred to as the pseudo-Areopagite or pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite. The Biblical reference seems to be a paraphrase of John chapter 1, verses 1-9 [3].
Coming forward to the twelfth century, the theology of light had a great practical influence on the emerging Gothic style of architecture, primarily though one man, Abbot Suger of St-Denis near Paris. As the American art-historian W.S. Stoddard explained: ‘As Erwin Panofsky has so clearly stated in his book on Abbot Suger, the writings in these texts present a theology which combines the Christian doctrine with “fundamental and illuminous aliveness of the world”. As Panofsky states:

According to the Pseudo-Areopagite, the universe is created, animated and unified by the perpetual self realization of what Plotinus had called “the One”, what the Bible had called “the Lord”, and what he calls “the super essential Light” or even the “visible son” – with God the father designated as “the Father of lights” and Christ as the “first radiance” . . . which “has revealed the Father to the world.”

This emphasis on the metaphysical qualities of colored light certainly must have had a profound effect on Suger and is clearly evident in the design of the choir of his new abbey church.’ [4]
Abbot Suger had a particular interest because the patron saint of his abbey was a triple compound of the Athenian disciple of St Paul, the Syrian mystic and the 3rd century AD martyr and Apostle of Gaul, all named Dionysius or Denis. He was not however alone in his interest in the theology of light at this time. As Swaan goes on to point out:

Suger’s infatuation with light which had so decisive an influence in formulating the Gothic style was but an extreme manifestation of a view widely supported by the Scholastics which received expression from men as different as Hugh of St Victor, Gilbert de la Porrée, St Thomas Aquinas and Robert Grosseteste, who hailed light as the most direct corporeal manifestation of the Divine, ‘the mediator between bodiless and bodily substance, at the same time spiritual body and embodied spirit’. [5]

The first problem with all this was the question of how such ideas might – or might not – have reached J.R.R. Tolkien, who is not known to have taken any interest in the relevant medieval and Classical writers. CS Lewis was working on material from the relevant period at various times from the writing of The Allegory of Love (published 1936) to that of The Discarded Image (published 1964). Yet that seemed too late for the appearance of the idea of ‘splintered light’ in Tolkien’s writing. Linked with this was the question of whether or not the same material had been part of Barfield’s inspiration, whether at first or second hand. Owen Barfield was an Anthroposophist, a member of an organisation whose founder, Rudolf Steiner, split from Madame Blavatsky and her Theosophists over the question of the worth of Oriental mystical traditions versus those of Europe [6]. This could easily mean that Steiner’s thought, and following him that of Barfield, also drew on the mythos of Light as it was developed by Neo-Platonist philosophers in the Classical era. This problem remains to be explored.
However, I have only just discovered, by sheer chance, a reference to exactly this set of ideas about Light, from an author whom we can be fairly certain J.R.R. Tolkien knew well, someone obviously important to him and much ‘closer to home’ than the medieval and ancient authors which I referred to above. The passage in question reads as follows:

Break a ray of light into its constituent colours, each is beautiful, each may be enjoyed; attempt to unite them, and perhaps you produce only dirty white. The pure and indivisible Light is seen only by the blessed inhabitants of Heaven; here we have but such faint reflections of it as its diffraction supplies.

That is a quote from the writings of Cardinal John Henry Newman, founder of the Birmingham Oratory, cited in the chapter on him in A.N. Wilson’s Eminent Victorians [7]. Wilson most unfortunately saw no need to give a proper reference for his quote in a book which was a tie-in to a television series, intended for a ‘popular’ rather than an academic audience. Having previous acquaintance with the difficulties involved in researching anything in connection to Newman’s writings (to be honest, I gave up on it), I hesitate to contemplate the work required to locate that quote. Yet I do believe that it would be a good idea for somebody to chase this quote down – and to look at its full context with reference to JRR Tolkien’s thought and writing.
Newman’s diffracted, broken, reflected light is very close indeed to Tolkien’s words in his poem Mythopoeia:

… the refracted light
Through whom is splintered from a single White
To many hues …[8].

Again, Newman’s ‘dirty white’ blended of many colours is markedly close to the supposedly ‘white’ but actually many-coloured robe which Gandalf sees Saruman wearing, as reported to the Council of Elrond in The Lord of the Rings [9]. As the teacher of Tolkien’s own guardian, Father Morgan, and the founder of the Birmingham Oratory which was such an important influence on Tolkien, Cardinal Newman has long merited a closer look than he seems to have received from scholars interested in J.R.R. Tolkien.
It is a testament to the quality of Verlyn Flieger’s insight into the writing and thought of J.R.R. Tolkien that her thesis in Splintered Light remains wholly valid even if she was partly wrong about the source from which Tolkien drew those ideas. On Tolkien’s own testimony, Owen Barfield’s book Poetic Diction did have an impact on him [10]. However, Tolkien may well already have been aware of the concept of ‘splintered light’ from Cardinal J.H. Newman’s writings, a source likely to have been much more important to him and carrying markedly different implications. I hope that bringing the attention of the Tolkien scholarly community to this apparently close relationship between Newman and Tolkien in a particularly key area may inspire someone with the right skills, knowledge and library access to take a much closer look at the links between Newman’s thought and that of J.R.R. Tolkien.

Written 14/03/2020, last revised 26/07/2020.
Ruth Lewis, pen name Elizabeth Currie, brush name Ruth Lacon.

Notes:

1. Flieger, V., 1983; Splintered Light; William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., revised edition 2002 Kent State University Press.
2. Swaan, W., 1969, The Gothic Cathedral, Paul Elek Productions Ltd., cited from the 1984 Omega Books edition, p.48.
3. It could of course also be from a different translation. In the Authorized Version the relevant text reads in full as; ‘1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 The same was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made by him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4 In him was life and the life was the light of men. 5 And the light shineth in darkness and the darkness comprehendeth it not. 6 There was a man sent from God whose name was John. 7 The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe. 8 He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light. 9 That was the true Light which lighteth every man which cometh into the world.’ Gospel of St John, ch.1, in The Holy Bible containing the Old and New Testaments, to which are appended notes, etc, Oxford University Press, n.d. but before 1880.
4. Stoddard, W.S., 1966; The Art and Architecture of Medieval France; Wesleyan University Press, cited from the 1972 ICON edition by Harper & Row, Publishers, Inc., p.101. The citations from Panofsky come from Panofsky, E., 1946; Abbot Suger on the Art Treasures of Saint-Denis; Princeton University Press; no page numbers are given.
5. Swaan, W., 1969, The Gothic Cathedral, Paul Elek Productions Ltd., cited from the 1984 Omega Books edition, p.48.
6. Carpenter, H., 1978, The Inklings, George Allen & Unwin (Publishers) Ltd, p.36: and Ahern, G., 1984/2009; Sun at Midnight: The Rudolf Steiner Movement and Gnosis in the West, James Clark & Co., p.43.
7. Wilson, A.N., 1989; Eminent Victorians; BBC Books, pp.156-7.
8. Tolkien, J.R.R., 1984, Tree and Leaf, with Mythopoeia, George Allen & Unwin (Publishers) Ltd, cited from the 2001 HarperCollinsPublishers edition, p.87
9. The Lord of the Rings/The Fellowship of the Ring, bk.II, ch.2. References not given to page level as editions numerous and variable.
10. Tolkien, J.R.R. ed. Carpenter, H., & Tolkien, C.J.R., 1981; The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien; George Allen and Unwin (Publishers) Ltd, cited from the 1990 Unwin Paperbacks edition; letter no.15, p.22, and n.3 to commentary on jacket-flap, p.435: and Flieger 1983/2002 p.39.

Bibliography:

• Ahern, G., 1984/2009; Sun at Midnight: The Rudolf Steiner Movement and Gnosis in the West, James Clark & Co.
• Bible, The: The Holy Bible containing the Old and New Testaments, to which are appended notes, etc, Oxford University Press, n.d. but before 1880.
• Carpenter, H., 1978, The Inklings, George Allen & Unwin (Publishers) Ltd.
• Flieger, V., 1983; Splintered Light; William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., revised edition 2002 Kent State University Press.
• Stoddard, W.S., 1966; The Art and Architecture of Medieval France; Wesleyan University Press, cited from the 1972 ICON edition by Harper & Row.
• Swaan, W., 1969, The Gothic Cathedral, Paul Elek Productions Ltd., cited from the 1984 Omega Books edition.
• Tolkien, J.R.R., 1954; The Lord of the Rings; The Fellowship of the Ring; George Allen and Unwin Ltd.
• Tolkien, J.R.R. ed. Carpenter, H., & Tolkien, C.J.R., 1981; The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien; George Allen and Unwin (Publishers) Ltd, cited from the 1990 Unwin Paperbacks edition.
• Tolkien, J.R.R., 1984, Tree and Leaf, with Mythopoeia, George Allen & Unwin (Publishers) Ltd, cited from the 2001 HarperCollinsPublishers edition.
• Wilson, A.N., 1989; Eminent Victorians; BBC Books.

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