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Originally Posted by Selmo
Where can I find Eru's yardstick in LoTR? There are no Ten Commandments, Book of Deuteronomy or Sermon on the Mount to stand as such. Is Eru even named?
Are the Valar or Maiar ever refered to directly?
All we get are vague hints like Gandalf's words to Frodo that he was meant to have the Ring by the will of someone/something other than Sauron or Gandalf being sent back after his encounter in Moria by some unnamed and undefined higher power.
I know there is more information in the Appendices but few people bother to read through them all and even fewer go on to The Silmarillion.
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I think there are enough clear, or veiled, statements in LotR about higher powers, wills, the 'Rules' for the attentive reader to be aware of an objective moral value system being operative - even if that is some form of 'natural law' - what we don't get from the work is any sense that morality is subjective, without any relation to eternal values - indeed, Aragorn's words to Eomer are an appeal to an objective moral code/value system - because of things like this we are made aware of this 'code' & if we then look carefully we will see it cropping up in many places in the story. In HP there is no such
appeal to a system of higher objective values because no such values exist.