Recovery of Freshness: A Celebration of Tolkien Fanart #3
Yulia Alekseeva, "Nazgul in the Bruinen"
For the third entry in this new series for Saint Tolkien, I have chosen an image entitled “Nazgul in the Bruinen,” by Russian artist Yulia Alekseeva. Based on her art profile and the style of this image, it appears to incorporate both traditional and digital art in its portrayal of this epic scene from the beginning of The Lord of the Rings. Everyone who has read the book or watched one of the film adaptations will be very familiar with it - Frodo, who in the original story rode Asfaloth, the steed of Glorfindel, alone while being chased by all nine Ringwraiths, is rescued from inevitable capture and corruption by Elrond and Gandalf, who used their Rings and words of Power to manipulate the river Bruinen which guarded this passage into Rivendell. The Nazgul, despite their fear of water, were so driven by Sauron that they risked their physical forms to recover the One Ring. If Frodo had not escaped, the story would have come to an abrupt and premature end.
This image uses many of my favorite elements of seascapes, though it is of course set in a river: the splash of white mist, the contrast of transluscent turquoise and dark blue to convey the depths of the water as it swirls around the Nazgul. Yulia even incorporated the forms of horses, an added touch by Gandalf, as the river charged back against its demonic trespassers. While this scene is straightforward enough, it has also led many people, myself included, to ask: why did water hurt the Nazgul? Even aside from the issue of drowning, which should not affect them since they are immortal, why were they afraid of mere water and why did it cause them to lose their bodies?
This is an important question and it touches on one of Tolkien’s favorite themes: the superiority of God’s Creation, what he called “primary creation” as opposed to the “secondary subcreation” of human artists. For Tolkien, no matter how great our works may be, they are only ever secondary, or “accidental” to use a Thomistic term, whereas God’s Creation alone is truly “substantial,” existing on its own and through itself, as a participation in His infinite being. As such, all things in nature have a transcendent beauty and power that no human artefact can ever share. This is what the Nazgul feared in the water and what, in The Silmarillion, is shepherded by the Vala Ulmo. It is also why the Nazgul similarly feared and were harmed by fire, including the torches wielded by Aragorn and the hobbits at Weathertop and across the river during this scene: it was not only Sauron’s urging but also their fear of fire that drove the Nazgul into the river and their doom.
Water, like fire, is primordial, an ancient symbol both of chaos and destructiveness as well as new life and growth. This is an important reminder for us that God, like Aslan in The Chronicles of Narnia, is “wild, you know. Not like a tame lion.”1 His Providence is always good, but not always predictable: He can allow even what appears to be evil to us for His own ends, without entailing the same corruption that comes when we justify evil means for good ends, and the natural world itself can be an instrument of His justice, as in the escape of the Israelites and punishment of the Egyptians in the Red Sea, the waters of Baptism by which we participate in the death and resurrection of Christ and the angels in the Apocalypse who usher in the remaking of the world. Like Gandalf, who “passed through fire and deep water” to return as Gandalf the White,2 Frodo, and all of us, must pass through suffering to attain the glory of Heaven.
Yet we are not alone: like Frodo with Aragorn, Glorfindel, the hobbits, Elrond and Gandalf watching over him, we have “so great a cloud of witnesses” (Heb 12:1 DRA) in the angels and saints watching over us and interceding for us with the Father through Christ our Mediator and the Holy Ghost our Advocate. Whenever we are pursued by the Nazgul in our own lives, may we always remember this and show the same courage as Frodo: ‘Go back to the Land of Mordor, and follow me no more!’3
C.S. Lewis, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (HarperCollins EPub, 2010), loc 1827. Kindle.
J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings (Mariner Books, 2004), 495. Kindle.
Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings, 214.
What a fantastic read, I throughly enjoyed it. Thank you for your insight and wonder-filled writing.