La triple menace eschatologique dans The Lord of the Rings de Tolkien

A place of desolation where blood-red flames stand out against pitch-black darkness. A barren land where the grass does not grow. The dwelling of a big fiery eye, without lids, threatening to spread its power throughout Middle-earth... Mordor is indeed the epitome of a biblical locus infernalis. The characteristics of this hellish scenery become climactic with the eruption of Mount Doom, when the One Ring is finally destroyed. Yet, the looming presence of evil does not end with the annihilation of the Dark Lord Sauron. It survives with his minion, Saruman, who has expanded his deleterious influence from Isengard to the Shire, a now distorted locus amoenus, picture of a Garden of Eden, and, to a certain extent, symbol of the author’s beloved rural England. The present article analyses this threefold apocalypse in The Lord of the Rings.