[Estel the Descender]

[img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img] Hello, Tyler!

[img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img] Don't worry man, no one is offended
. Besides, if any of us wrote an offensive post, either the post gets deleted by the dread Barrow-wight (and no Tom Bombadil to the rescue!) or the the thread mysteriously closes. Since that hasn't happened yet, well, then everything is still okay!

I really don’t see a Jesus figure. It goes into great depth on his birth. It was a very big deal. If someone was to be a Jesus figure there is not mention of something like that. Aragorn was born as a Numenorean which was a big deal due too having some aspects on an elf but nothing compared to Jesus. In the Bible Jesus did so much. I really don’t see any character doing anywhere as much as he did. There were people who did a lot such as Frodo just dealing with the ring. You could say this is like Jesus saving everyone. It was going to cost him his life but he knew that it had to be done. Just like destroying the ring had to be done. Also Frodo doesn’t die which makes the reader happy to see the hero win and live happily ever after. This makes a better story.

Well said! Nothing anyone in the LotR did can even compare to the work of Jesus Christ. I think that comparing Jesus to Frodo, Aragorn, or Gandalf is like comparing a bonfire to the sun.

[img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img] Good to hear from you too, Kalessin!

Tolkien himself disliked the diminishing of (his) art that categorising it by a simple, superficial portrait of the creator implies. . .
<div align=left> --Kalessin </div>

I see that we understand Letter #213 the same way.

A reader can confer 'allegory' to a work for their own purposes, just as many other personal interpretations are part of their own valid experience.
<div align=left> --Kalessin </div>

I dislike Allegory--the conscious and intentional allegory--yet any attempt to explain the purport of myth or fairytale must use allegorical language. (And, of course, the more 'life' a story has the more readily will it be susceptible of allegorical interpretations: while the better a deliberate allegory is made the more nearly will it be accepted just as a story.)
<div align=left> --From Letter #131 </div>

The more 'realistic' a story the more people find meaning in the story, hence the tendency to allegorise. It is funny that the deliberate allegory Starship Troopers is seen more as sci-fi literature rather than a philosophical work.

Tolkien was a devout Catholic when he wrote the first edition - had his Catholicism changed by the time he came to revise? It is NOT the Bible, it is a human book by a human author and not the verbatim dictated words of God (unless through divine determinism you posit that all actions are willed by God - and even if you do, is there no difference between the inspiration of the Gospels and Tolkien's own subcreation?)
<div align=left> --Kalessin </div>

I quite agree that the LotR is not like the Bible in the sense of Divine Inspiration. As an Evangelical Christian I would affirm the uniqueness of the Scriptures in this matter. I however am not like most believers in Divine Inspiration: I am not a determinist but a person who affirms the doctrine of Free Will. (Don't worry, I took no offense nor do I intend to give any [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img] .) I do not believe that all actions are willed by God, definitely not those done against his known will.

Estel, I hope, or think, our areas of agreement are fundamental and any disagreements technical (I am not talking about personal religious convictions here [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img] ). . .
<div align=left> --Kalessin </div>

[img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img] I HOPE so, too, Kalessin. But, hey! differences are a given. What would life be like if all of us had the same face, same sex, same age, same everything? Where others see contradiction I see harmonic counterpoint. But like any 'classically' trained musician, I do enjoy harmonic resolution.

Advanced Happy Holidays, People of the Downs!

[img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img] A ná merye i turuhalmeri ar alya i vinya loa!