The 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 Subsequent apocalyptic literature is centered on religion, with God as the instrumental entity (Shaffer 142). Those who have read JRR Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings remember most vividly the great final battle in which evil is defeated in the apocalyptic end of an age. Tolkien's portion of apocalyptic literature in The Lord of the Rings seems different from traditional religious notions of an apocalypse because the entire epic fantasy seems devoid of religion and any notion of God. Through the recognition of auditory imagery in The Lord of the Rings and comparison with that of the most famous apocalyptic work, the Book of Revelation, Tolkien's apocalypse shows a divine force working behind the scenes. The armies in the final battle of the Age are agents of this god, conquering evil to complete the apocalypse. In Tolkien's fiction, observance of religion or God seems to be completely omitted. As William Dowie comments, “In The Lord of the Rings, however, there is no talk of gods, mysticism, or religion” (Dowie 266). Dowie notes that “The stories evoke participation in a secular religion, that is, a religion in which everything is sacred because all things, even the most natural, are related to each other and to a foundational transcendence” (Dowie 267). Many critics agree with this line of thinking that The Lord of the Rings did not explicitly mention religion other than respecting nature. Although Tolkien's next work, The Silmarillion, explicitly begins with an account of the gods present in a creation story, the characters of the Lord written above... 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 angels in the Book of Revelation. Many critics have wondered where God is in Tolkien's fantasy masterpiece, The Lord of the Rings. the Rings. They wonder how a classic fantasy about another world could have no notion of religion. The apocalyptic end of the tale appears to be devoid of religion, although apocalypse is usually a religious concept. By looking at the sound images of the apocalypse at the climax of the story, together with those 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, so a similar power is behind the actions of men in The Lord of the Rings.