A SMIDGEN OF RELIGION
“There was once a little man called Niggle, who had a long journey to make. He did not want to go, indeed the whole idea was distasteful to him; but he could not get out of it. He knew he would have to start some time, but he did not hurry with his preparations.”
-J.R.R. Tolkien
​
Niggle knows that he will one day die and thereby embark on the “long journey” to the afterlife. But like most people, he views death as a distasteful problem for another day.
​
Niggle’s name literally means “to do something in an ineffective way”. Suitably, he envisions many painting projects but has a hard time completing them.
​
Niggle lives out in the countryside and only has one neighbor: Parish, a grumpy man with a bad leg, a critical eye for gardening, and no respect for Niggle’s paintings. Similar to how clergymen tend to Church parishioners, Niggle feels a responsibility to tend to Parish.
​
The painting that Niggle especially wants to complete is of a leaf. This then expands to a branch, then to birds on the branch, then to an entire tree with mountains in the background.
​
​
However, Niggle’s procrastination and many “interruptions” disrupt his progress. This includes having to cycle to town in the rain to contact the doctor for Parish’s sick wife and the builder for Parish’s damaged house.
​
Eventually, a man dressed in all black (aka “Death”) arrives at Niggle’s house and introduces himself as the Driver. He tells Niggle that his journey starts today and whisks him away. Because Niggle is unprepared and doesn’t have any luggage, the Driver sends him to the Workhouse Infirmary (aka “Purgatory”).
​
There, “He did not like the treatment at all. The medicine they gave him was bitter… It was more like being in a prison than in a hospital. He had to work hard, at stated hours: at digging, carpentry, and painting bare boards all one plain colour.” Through these assigned menial tasks, Niggle works through his aversion to physical labor.
​
One day, Niggle overhears two voices that agree to send him to “the next stage”. The next day, Niggle finds himself in a familiar outdoor setting: “Before him stood the Tree, his Tree, finished.” He marvels at the exquisite leaves, listens to the birds sing, and explores the surrounding forest. “There were the Mountains in the background. They did get nearer, very slowly. They did not seem to belong to the picture, or only as a link to something else, a glimpse through the trees of something different, a further stage: another picture.”
​
As Niggle works to develop the rest of the plot of land, Parish joins him and shares his knowledge of the earth, plants, and trees. The two collaborate to create a beautiful landscape. When they finish, they go for a long walk.
​
“They walked until they came right through the distances to the Edge. It was not visible, of course: there was no line, or fence, or wall; but they knew that they had come to the margin of that country. They saw a man, he looked like a shepherd; he was walking towards them, down the grass-slopes that led up into the Mountains.”
​
The shepherd (who represents Jesus) announces that this land is called “Niggle’s Country” and asks if they would like him to guide them onwards towards the Mountains (aka “Heaven”). Niggle agrees to go with the shepherd, but Parish stays back.
​
Back in Niggle’s hometown, people talk about how Niggle never finished anything and how his canvases have been put to “better uses” by patching up Parish’s damaged house. Part of his large canvas (with a mountain peak and a spray of leaves) gets salvaged and framed in a museum. When the museum burns down, Niggle’s work on earth thereby returns to ashes.
​
.............................
​
Even though Niggle’s works were ultimately forgotten in his old country, God still views him as a creative sub-creator.
Many of Niggle’s “interruptions” that were favors to others were actually the fruit of his labor.