Classic works of apocalyptic literature, such as the Book of Daniel and the Book of Revelation, are inherently religious and God-centered. As a result, most later apocalyptic literature is also centered on religion, with God as the instrumental entity (Shaffer 142). Those who have read JRR Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings remember very clearly the great final battle where evil is defeated in the apocalyptic end of an era. Tolkien's piece of apocalyptic literature in The Lord of the Rings seems different from traditional religious notions of apocalypse because the entire epic fantasy seems devoid of religion and any notion of God. Through recognition of the aural imagery of The Lord of the Rings and comparison with that of the most famous apocalyptic work, the Book of Revelation, Tolkien's apocalypse does indeed show a divine force operating behind the scenes. The armies of the final battle of the Age are agents of this god, defeating evil to complete the apocalypse. In Tolkien's account, observance of religion or God seems to be completely omitted. As William Dowie comments, “In The Lord of the Rings, however, there is no question of gods, mysticism, or religion” (Dowie 266). Dowie observes that "the stories evoke participation in a secular religion, that is to say a religion in which everything is sacred because all things, even the most natural, are linked to each other and to a founding transcendence" (Dowie 267). Many critics agree with this idea that The Lord of the Rings has no explicitly mentioned religion aside from reverence for nature. Although Tolkien's later work, The Silmarillion, explicitly begins with a tale of gods present in a creation story, the characters in the earlier written The Lord...... middle of paper ... eaten and destroyed. With these sounds, the apocalypse of The Lord of the Rings is successfully completed by a divine figure acting through men, just as God acts through the angels in the Book of Revelation. Many critics have wondered where God is in Tolkien's fantasy masterpiece, The Lord of the Rings. They wonder how a classic fantasy about another world can have no concept of religion. The apocalyptic ending of the tale seems devoid of religion, even though an apocalypse is generally a religious concept. Looking at the aural imagery of the apocalypse at the climax of the story, in conjunction with that of the Book of Revelation, one can see the way in which a notion of God operates in the apocalypse. Just as God acts through angels to complete the Apocalypse in the Book of Revelation, a similar power lies behind the actions of men in The Lord of the Rings..