If memory serves, I was about 10 years old when I first read J.R.R. Tolkien’s classic work, The Hobbit. Even as a boy I was caught up into the realm of Middle-earth; there was something about his description of a Hobbit hole that captured my imagination and set me off on that remarkable and memorable adventure with the Fellowship of the Ring.

As with all such tales, there is a great treasure to be discovered in the truths of reality hidden within Tolkien’s mythological framework. Perhaps the greatest gems to be mined within his great trilogy of The Lord of the Rings – together with The Hobbit, The Silmarillion and the histories of Middle-earth – are those concerning the Christian life and the Catholic worldview. In The Road Goes Ever On, Ann Frailey helps us discover these truths that lie, as it were, at the foundations of Middle-earth.

Author Frailey is a resident of Fillmore and a parishioner of Mother of Dolors Parish in Vandalia. The forward to her book was written by Father Kevin Laughery of the Springfield diocese and the book received and Imprimatur from Bishop Thomas John Paprocki in March.

The primary tools employed in her mining are the three theological virtues (faith, hope and charity) the four cardinal virtues (prudence, justice, fortitude and temperance) and the seven gifts of the Spirit (wisdom, understanding, council, fortitude, knowledge, piety and fear of the Lord). These virtues and gifts have, sadly, been much neglected in recent decades and her reflections serve as a clarion call to take them up again, to grow them and to use them each day of our lives.

Frailey sees each of these virtues reflected in the various characters of The Lord of the Rings and likewise finds their opposites, the seven capital sins (pride, covetousness, lust, anger, gluttony, envy and sloth) in these characters. Her considerations of these virtues and vices present in the heroes and villains of Middle-earth can help us increase these same virtues and decrease these same vices within us because as she says, “In each character of The Lord of the Rings it is as if we can see the various struggles each person on this earth must grapple with in order to advance to that state of perfection which our Lord calls us to be as his sons and daughters.”

Perhaps the most intriguing reflections are found in her final chapter in which she compares the lives of some of the heroes in the War of the Ring with the saints. In doing so, Frailey seeks to show the same virtues embodied in the characters of Middle-earth embodied also in the kingdom of God. It is an unfortunate reality that many people know more about the companions of the ring than they know about the saints of God. By contrasting these two sorts of heroes, Frailey points out the way of virtue and shows us how to become great, those about whom songs may be sung.

Those who accompany Frailey will follow Tolkien as he “leads the mind on a journey that rather beautifully reflects the journey of life in all its myriad turns and twists, and yet, through the nobility or corruption of his characters, sees not only the hand of God, but also the spirit of the communion of saints.”

This book will prove beneficial to those who are already intimately familiar with The Lord of the Rings and those who have perhaps only just recently glimpsed a map of Middle-earth. Its uses may be many, from individual prayer and reflection to a group study, to an aid in teaching PSR and in preparing candidates for the sacrament of Confirmation. ( )