I wasn't clear before.
Quote:
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In the book lembas has two functions. It is a 'machine' or device for making credible the long marches with little provision, in a world which as I have said 'miles are miles'. But that is realtively unimportant. It also has a much larger significance, of what one might hesitatingly call a 'religious' kind. This becomes later apparent, especially in the chapter 'Mount Doom' (III 213 and subsequently) ... The lembas had a virtue without which they would long ago have lain down to die ...... It fed the will, and it gave strength to endure, and to master sinew and limb beyond the measure of mortal kind.
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Religion is (usually formal) human activity in response to the perceived supernatural.
Tolkien hesitates to call it religious, but does not stop from doing so. The Elves seem gifted to make everyday created stuff supernaturally potent, be it food, rope, clothing, boats that don't sink, swords that reveal the presence of enemies;
even in the Third Age.
But why does Tolkien call this "religious"?
Is it because it's supernatural? Or is it because it's consciously Catholic in the revision? Which reminds me of another thread I haven't found in a while, "Consciously So in the Revision".