[burrahobbit]

Also, no he wasn't. He was a philologist. All the time.

Tolkien was a dedicated Catholic, to be sure, and his works are steeped with Christian values (except that Jesus is everybody's best friend, because Jesus wouldn't have been around yet when Tolkien's Middle-earth stories took place), but that isn't what makes a work allegorical.

Gandalf isn't Jesus because they have absolutely nothing in common aside from dying and saving. You may not have heard of this, but it seems that Jesus had this habit of talking to tons of people at once about how exactly a person goes about being cool. Maybe I'm not as well read as you guys, but I don't remember Gandalf ever doing that. I only remember him ever doing stuff like that with just one person at a time, like when he told Frodo not to kill Gollum.

I guess I should just go read the books again or something (including the preface, you guys, seriously).

[ January 27, 2003: Message edited by: burrahobbit ]