Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Feanor of the Peredhil
Do you have a point? We are not discussing a mysterious and magical text that was brought down from on high within a burst of white light, whose origins are unknown, and that promises to save the world. It wasn't sent over by aliens, it didn't suddenly appear to a hobo in a shack emblazoned with words too hallowed to repeat. We're talking about books. Written by this guy. Tolkien was a great writer, sure, but he was human and his books are merely books, no matter how nicely they are written. Tolkien was happy, got angry, had moments of sadness, of hyperactivity, of hunger, of jealousy; he reproduced with his wife, went to the bathroom. Forgive the blasphemy, but I assume he also burped at least once in his life.
Tolkien was a master wordsmith, but he was still just a guy talking. Making things up. Inventing a world.
If we want to invent perspective with which to view this world, created by this guy, to see if we can learn something, why do you care?
|
Well, I don't exactly see what this 'revelation' is that you assume yourselves to be on the verge of.
Could it be 'Tolkien was a Christian, who had read the Bible, & its possible to find certain similarities between the language & stories of the Bible & his own sub creation!!!!!!!'?
There - I said it for you. Tolkien was quite probably influenced by (among
God knows how many other things) the Bible. You can find (&/or impose) Biblical symbolism & allegories on the Legendarium (& for all I know there may well be a hidden code in there too which reveals when the Day of Judgement will take place).
I'm sure there are even some deliberate nods towards his faith - the dates of the setting out of the Fellowship from Rivendell & of the Fall of Barad Dur & all that.
But that's not new, its not original, & God knows why anyone outside of a few evangelicals on a mission to get us all back to church or some seriously anally retentive fans would actually care what went into the 'leaf mould of the mind' out of which grew Tolkien's particular Tree.
We are all influenced by what we read, experience & believe. You seem deserate to prove that this was allso the case with Tolkien - but I don't think anyone is arguing with that.
One word of warning though. As I said earlier, I've read quite a few of these pieces on how LotR is a deeply Christian work - just glancing at my bookshelf now I can see 'Tolkien in Perspective', 'Tolkien's Oridinary Virtues', Finding God in the Lord of the Rings', Secret Fire, Tolkien Man & Myth & JRR Tolkien's Sanctifying Myth among others, along with a nice thick folder of essays printed off from the Web many of which are by Christians & purport to show Tolkien's work was deeply Christian. Their motivation seems twofold - the first can be summed up as 'See, you like LotR, LotR is a Christian book, so, why not come to church this Sunday?' & the second as 'Wow!!! I've just discovered similarities between characters & events in LotR & the Bible! I must be a genius!'. What they all have in common is that they are completely unconvincing, badly written statements of the glaringly obvious or simply embarrassing: 'Aragorn had a beard & long hair & looked like Jesus...'.