Sublime Dread: A Close Comparison of Lovecraft's Cthulhu and Tolkien's Balrog of Morgoth

In literature, any concept or creature that conveys a sense of grandeur might be considered sublime – capable of inspiring both dread and excitement in equal measure. This essay will specifically discuss the sublime aesthetic in terms of Edmund Burke, who defined it as any concept that “excite[s] the ideas of pain, and danger, that is to say, whatever is in any sort terrible … it is productive of the strongest emotion which the mind is capable of feeling” (Burke). In the case of J.R.R. Tokien’s The Fellowship of the Ring, and H.P. Lovecraft’s The Call of Cthulhu, the sublime manifests itself in two creatures of immense size and power, both capable of evoking the sort of terror that Burke describes. However, this sublime dread is employed by the authors for two very different reasons. Through his monster Cthulhu, Lovecraft is attempting to evoke horror at a vast and unfeeling universe in which humans are insignificant. Tolkien, alternatively, is not interested in horror for its own sake: he elevates the Balrog of Moria as a sublime creature specifically to contrast it with the good people of Middle-Earth. His goal is to demonstrate the wonder of his imagined world, and set the meek in opposition to the vast forces of darkness. This essay will demonstrate how these differing priorities are reflected in the sublime language of the text. It will examine in detail each author’s attempts to evoke dread through the settings that their creatures inhabit, and through the terror and power of the creatures themselves.
To begin, both authors complement the incredible nature of their creatures by creating for them a sublime setting. Tolkien and Lovecraft are keenly aware that their creatures are intrinsically linked to the places that they inhabit, and thus the language used to describe these places evokes an extremely similar sense of wonder and dread. However, the finer details of these settings differ in accordance with the thematic priorities of each author. This is first seen in Lovecraft’s description of R’lyeh: the island beneath which Cthulhu sleeps. The sailors who happen upon it are stupefied, describing the muddy, oozing coastline as “the tangible substance of earth's supreme terror … built in measureless aeons behind history” (Lovecraft). They find themselves in awe at the “unbelievable size of the greenish stone blocks,” specifically emphasising the island’s strange geometry, being “abnormal, non-Euclidean, and loathsomely redolent of spheres and dimensions apart from ours” (Lovecraft). Through the use of careful diction, Lovecraft is able to take the terror of the sublime to it’s absolute end. By characterizing the island as an overwhelming place – home to oozing shores and dizzying Cyclopean architecture – he is able to evoke a sense of incredible danger and horror. The sublime is also seen in the strange alien quality of the island, and the fact that its geometry does not conform to Earthly physics or reality. R’lyeh is essentially described as a “nightmare corpse-city” existing outside of both time and three-dimensions (Lovecraft). This is illustrative of Lovecraft’s belief in the trivial nature of humanity within the cosmos. The sublime aspects of the island speak to the idea that if the human race were to ever face their insignificance and confront the vistas of other realities, they would fumble in awed terror just as the sailors do.
By contrast, Tolkien’s use of the sublime is far less overt. While he does attempt to evoke a sense of dread at the Mines of Moria (and by extension build fear for the Balrog itself), his focus is more on the physical vastness of the setting. When describing the Fellowship’s passage through the mines, Tolkien says: “All about them as they lay hung the darkness, hollow and immense, and they were oppressed by the loneliness and vastness of the dolven halls … the wildest imaginings that dark rumour had ever suggested to the hobbits fell altogether short of the actual dread and wonder of Moria” (Tolkien 411). While Lovecraft used the sublime to elicit mostly horror in his characters, Tolkien uses it in a much more multifaceted way. In this initial description of the mines, he calls attention to its dreadful vastness, characterizing it as being oppressive and hollow and stricken with loneliness. In the mind of the reader, such a labyrinthian place no doubt inspires anxiety and fear - but the most important sublime element is that of wonder. Moria is distinct from R’lyeh in that it is not an inhuman, alien place: it is actually a creation of the dwarves – one that has simply fallen into darkness due to the Balrog. Immediately following the previous passage, Gimli reveals the true heart of Moria: “‘This is the great realm and city of the Dwarrowdelf. And of old it was not darksome, but full of light and splendour, as is still remembered in our songs.’ He rose and standing in the dark he began to chant in a deep voice, while the echoes ran away into the roof” (411). In Edmund Burke’s conception, the sublime is that which inspires both dread and wonder in equal measure, and the Mines of Moria completely embody that ideal. While one can possibly view Moria as being dark and dreadful, the image of Gimli singing his nostalgic song into the lonely dark opens readers to a new perspective. It allows one to see the place not simply as a dreadful crypt, but as Gimli and Balin see it – as Khazad-dûm, a vast and ancient city forged by dwarven hands over thousands of years. While Tolkien does suggest that the Balrog is in some sense a just-reward for dwarven greed, his overall goal within the text is to show the wonder and inherent goodness of Middle-Earth. To him, the sublime is useful only insofar as it is able to illuminate the light, and he employs it in that fashion through his description of Moria.

While the gradual building of dread and awe through setting is important in establishing the Balrog and Cthulhu as sublime creatures, it is crucial to evaluate that sublimity through the language used to describe the monsters themselves. It is also pertinent to examine them not just in terms of their physical appearance, but in how the characters within each story react to and ultimately challenge them. In the case of Cthulhu, Lovecraft writes the creature as being incredibly alien and incomprehensible as to reflect the incomprehensible depths of the wider universe. This is first shown in the fact that the narrator finds it impossible to define Cthulhu in any earthly terms. He says, “There is no language for such abysms of shrieking and immemorial lunacy, such eldritch contradictions of all matter, force, and cosmic order. A mountain walked or stumbled. God!” (Lovecraft). While the description of R’lyeh evoked strong feelings of alienation – of a landscape so vast and foreign it could scarcely be described – Cthulhu itself defies all explanation. As the sublime often manifests itself in that which human beings cannot comprehend, Cthulhu is the total embodiment of the concept; its entire existence is contrary to matter and time - the two essential elements of what one might consider to be reality.

Cthulhu’s sublime, almost God-like nature is further demonstrated through the narrator’s description of the Alert’s escape – when Johansen was forced to drive the boat into the creature’s skull. He likens it to “a stench as of a thousand opened graves, and a sound that the chronicler could not put on paper” (Lovecraft). Almost immediately, “the scattered plasticity of that nameless sky-spawn was nebulously recombining in its hateful original form” (Lovecraft). As Cthulhu is something beyond comprehension, Johansen is unable to truly defeat it. The resulting cloud of gas is repugnant beyond imagination, and induces a sound beyond any textual description – the language at work here is distinctly sublime, as it recalls senses so strong that they are impossible to truly capture. Lovecraft is attempting to evoke the terrible, inhuman nature of Cthulhu by making it completely repugnant. In terms of his belief in the insignificance of humans, it is extremely fitting that Johansen is unable to kill Cthulhu, as it is a creature that transcends human conceptions of death. As the cultist couplet within the story explains, “That is not dead which can eternal lie, / And with strange aeons even death may die” (Lovecraft). Cthulhu is neither living or dead: it is eternal, and exists in an realm beneath the Earth yet beyond space and time. The fact that Johansen escapes at all is less a consequence of his own actions, and more a result of narrative necessity – he must escape in order to chronicle his encounter with what is ostensibly the face of a God. In the end, however, he is still killed by the cultists. Like all who glimpse the face of Cthulhu, Johansen is marked for death; his precious human life is so insignificant in comparison to the vast reality of the cosmos such that he is unable to help himself in any way.

Unlike Lovecraft, who goes into excessive detail regarding the repulsive, psychological horror evoked by Cthulhu, The Balrog’s physical description is far less insidious. While Tolkien does attempt to evoke a sense of the sublime, he does so not to inspire existential terror, but to cast the Balrog within the broad concept of evil so prevalent in the series. The Balrog is first described when it reveals itself to the Fellowship at the Bridge of Khazad-dûm: “The ranks of the orcs had opened, and they crowded away, as if they themselves were afraid … it was like a great shadow, in the middle of which was a dark form, of man-shape maybe, yet greater; and a power and terror seemed to be in it and to go before it” (Tolkien 429). Tolkien clearly wishes to evoke dread in this description of the Balrog, but only to a certain extent. Unlike the psychological hold Cthulhu demonstrated over his victims, neither the Fellowship nor the orc hordes are driven into madness at the sight of the Balrog. It is significant, however, that the orcs – belonging to one of the most loathsome races of Middle-Earth – actually shy away from the creature out of fear and submission. Tolkein effectively uses the sublime to position the Balrog as a powerful, awe-inspiring creature, firmly in line with the evil which permeates his world. This is brought into focus when Gandalf stands firmly in opposition to the beast, claiming: “‘I am a servant of the Secret Fire, wielder of the flame of Anor. You cannot pass. The dark fire will not avail you, flame of Udun. Go back to the Shadow! … its wings were spread from wall to wall; but still Gandalf could be seen, glimmering in the gloom; he seemed small, and altogether alone: grey and bent, like a wizened tree before the onset of a storm” (430). In this moment, it becomes clear why the Fellowship’s journey through Moria was focused so heavily on the sublime – on a sense of fear and dread gradually building towards this specific confrontation. The image of Gandalf marking himself in direct opposition to the “dark fire” and the grandeur of the Balrog is a direct embodiment of Tolkien’s most treasured theme: that of the conflict between good and evil. By casting the Balrog back into the darkness, Tolkien demonstrates that sublime terror need not be the overriding force within the world. The Balrog is essentially elevated as a sublime and terrible creature specifically so that it might be cast down.

Ultimately, both authors draw heavily on the sublime aesthetic in the creation of their most incredible monsters. However, the specific diction and techniques used in their employment of the sublime differs in accordance with each text’s core themes. In his description of both Cthulhu and R’lyeh, H.P. Lovecraft takes the sublime to its absolute end, thus exacerbating its most distinct quality: that of a thing which human beings are unable to comprehend. This is very much in line with the main premise at work within the story: the idea that human beings are but motes in the cosmic dark, utterly insignificant in the grand scheme of the universe. Tolkien, however, uses the sublime only insofar as it is useful in illuminating the wonder and goodness inherent within Middle Earth. While he places great emphasis on the terrible, sublime nature of the Balrog of Morgoth, he does so only reinforce the will of the main characters. The main idea operating within The Lord of the Rings is that while the sublime forces of the world are powerful, they are no so great as to destroy the goodness of the free people who live in it.

Works Cited

Burke, Edmund. "Of the Sublime." The Harvard Classics. Bartleby, n.d. Web. 03 Nov. 2016.

Lovecraft, H. P. "The Call of Cthulhu." Wikisource. Wikipedia, n.d. Web. 03 Nov. 2016.

Tolkien, J. R. R. The Fellowship of the Ring. London: HarperCollins, 2007. Print.