Tokien and C.S. Lewis
 

Ok, I was talking to my friend yesterday night and we were talking about the biblical ties in the Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit, i.e. Gandalf portraying Jesus in a way.

And then we got into the discussion of Tokien being religous. And we talked about C.S. Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia books and how they respresent biblical stuff. And my friend said that Tokien said that C.S. Lewis' books were foolish and were not religous. Is this true?

I don't think Tolkien was trying to be religious, he didn't like that sort of thing (the word escapes me at the moment) but i believe that that C.S. Lewis did intend the religious links.

I never came across so negative an attitude of JRRT towards CSL's Christian Writings. Although he had [ and expressed] some misgivings] Narnia which as elements of pure allegory; the most obvious being Aslan does in fact = Jesus Christ. This sort of thing was not to JRRT's liking, but I have never seen a quote of his [ or recall one at least] that was so harsh.

I have read the Inklings [ along time ago] the Magical World of the Inklings and Tolkien a biography along w/ a few other scattered books on JRRT. And he comments on CSL in his Letters.

Dorathain, would ask your friend for some specific quotes. I would bet you are getting an exaggerated paraphrase.

And welcome to the Downs Dorathain!

In the forward to FotR, JRRT states that ". . . I cordialy dislike allegory and all its manifestations . . ." Perhaps this is what your friend is refering to?

Hmm, thats an odd statement. From my reaserch Tolkien and C.S. Lewis were very close friends and didn't like to criticize each others works. Tolkien most of all wanted to tell a good story and he didn't like the idea of an allegory were the story was subserviant to an idea. Lewis's books are all pure allegory. In Tolkien's books the story is just a Really good story and is not a theology is disguise. So Tolkien didn't prefer Lewis style but he by no means thought his books were silly.

P.S. What do you guys think of my cool new avatar. It finally started showing up today.

that does not mean of course, and, in fact implies, that Tolkien liked other parts, still more they were close friends, and he (JRRT) was appreciating Lewis' opinion greatly:


the main reason for disagreement between two came, i think, of their different, though in both cases Christian, theological outlooks. cf:

BTW, **** stands for shorter form of Richard, but, since apparently this board has improper language protection on...

I've just finished an RE project about CS Lewis, and i needed to look at a lot of allegorical links between the Bible and the chrnicles of Narnia. Aslan is SO obviously Jesus, the white witch is the devil, the stone table is the cross, Lucy Susan Edmund and Peter are Matthew Mark Luke and John. i do, however, strongly dislike Lewis, because he, in theory, spurned Tolkien for ilicit satanist Charles Williams.

"Spurned Tolkien" ?

i would like to point out that for one C.S. Lewis is one of the most destinguished religious writers of his time, and infact Dedicates a Book to his good friend J.R.R Tolkien, just open up a book called "The Screwtape Letters" and youl clearly see, These two guys had the utmost respect for eachother and i dont think they would speak poorly of eachother in any way, and infact i wouldnt doubt it if they actualy accepted each others ideas.

From what I've heard (Which is never entirly reliable) and what I know (which isn't much) Lewis and Tolkien were good friends, and Lewis considered Tolkien his mentor. I could be all wet though. [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img]

Tolkien and Lewis were good friends, yes. But from what I hear, Tolkien was quite critical of Lewis's work because it was so blatently allegorical. I think Lewis took it right in stride though, and the two remained good friends. (As far as I know)

While Tolkien didn't want to get allegorical, being a Christian I don't think he could avoid it. However, he didn't create perfect allegories (such as Lewis did with Aslan), but sprinkled it around. (I've heard it put that three of the places of Jesus were incorporated, Priest, Prophet and King; Frodo as Priest, carrying away the sin, Gandalf as Prophet, and Aragorn as King.)

I read The Chronicles of Narnia very early on, and didn't get into the Lewis's Space Trilogy until much later. (And 'tis a good thing too...Lewis's characters swear like sailors sometimes!) I didn't become a Rings fan until just last year!

There have been several discussions on Tolkien and C.S.Lewis; please check here, here, here, and here. Since that's already confusing enough, this thread is closed. Please read and post on the above.