Tolkien’s Vision of Mammon
Sauron’s character is basically a fallen angel of the first tier, according to the author’s incipient Catholic world-view, second only to Satan himself (Melkor/Morgoth in Tolkien’s legendarium). I am convinced that Sauron is Tolkien’s version of Mammon, the first lieutenant of Lucifer in the late 16th-century demonology of Peter Binsfeld (German, Catholic bishop and theologian), a demonization of the second of the 7 Deadly Sins, that ‘sin’ being Greed. It was Sauron who forged the One Ring (“that ruled them all”) to incite the inherent greed and suborn the will of men, elves, dwarves and others to his war of domination, manipulating them like the greedy, competitive Royal first-cousins who, raised to dreams of power and domination, fought among themselves to the degree that they began WWI, which in turn begat WWII.
Tolkien himself fought in WWI, entering the fray as an officer due to his elevated social class, with a lesser ranking ‘batman’ from the rural peasant class (whom Tolkien described as being in every way — in terms of courage, goodwill, enduring optimism and dedication — superior to himself) very similar to Samwise Gamgee. The relationship he had with this sterling companion in wartime was also similar to that shared by Frodo and Sam in a similar, sweeping ‘War to End All Wars.’ (“Samwise the stouthearted” was Frodo’s honorific for Sam.)
After surviving WWI, Tolkien watched as his son entered WWII, counselling him in letters sent to him at the front to “keep his Hobbit-ness,” by which I assume he meant the peculiarly English-seeming (tea, tobacco, beer and comfort loving) ‘salt-of-the-earth’ incorruptibility and steadfastness with which he had endowed his Hobbits. This ‘Hobbit-ness’ essentially meant that they were the only ones who were equipped to act as ‘safe’ Ring Bearers, as they remained mostly impervious to the Ring’s seductions of power and mainly just wanted to go home to the Shire and make something tasty for tea.
