195 - Eschatology in Arda: Did Middle-earth Know Its Ending?

Did the people of Middle-earth know how their story ends? Rev. Jeffrey Wade joins Andrew Snyder and Josh to discuss his master's thesis on eschatology in Arda. His question is not only what Tolkien believed, but whether the inhabitants of Arda themselves know their telos: the promise of resurrection, reunion, and the setting right of all things. Letting the text stand on its own rather than reading it through a scholar's agenda, he argues that this hope is woven into the story from the Ainulindalë onward.

One striking thread is water. The music of Ilúvatar lingers in the waters of Arda, and Rev. Wade traces moments of grace and eucatastrophe that happen near water, from Bilbo's riddle game and Lake-town to the Ford of Bruinen, Nimrodel, and Mirrormere. He also shows how hope is handed down through song and story among Men, hobbits, Dwarves, and Ents, and points to the Athrabeth Finrod ah Andreth in Morgoth's Ring as one of its clearest statements.

The conversation then asks how much of this hope survives in Peter Jackson's films and why Hollywood struggles with virtuous characters. It closes with Rev. Wade's story of how the films led him to the books, and why he calls The Lord of the Rings a love letter to creation. Rev. Jeffrey Wade is a Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod pastor in Iowa, with an MDiv from Concordia Seminary (2014) and an MA in Language and Literature from Signum University (2025).

Chapters

00:00 Introducing Rev. Jeffrey Wade

01:12 The thesis: do the inhabitants of Arda know their eschatology?

03:21 Reading theologically and letting the text stand

05:24 Water and the music of Ilúvatar

07:28 What is Arda?

11:12 What makes this approach unique in Tolkien scholarship

15:50 Best sources: the Ainulindalë and the Athrabeth

19:57 The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings: hope at the water's edge