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Maybe where the influence came from...I know just how Gothic and visceral the religion is.
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To think I've been called "Too Christian to be Goth!"
Quite true, though. The concept of "suffering" is still an essential part of the Catholic Church these days, even after a very large makeover in Vatican II.
I like
Hookbill's point about the contrasts. Like foils. Having the black, the white, and the grey all in one novel is essential to the scope of
The Lord of the Rings.
The idea of contrasts makes me think of one of the philosophical attempts to explain the existence of pain and suffering and the like in the world while leaving room for some kind of ultimate good divine presence...of course I can't quite recall the name of it, but... It tried to prove that we would not have concepts of 'light' and 'dark,' 'old' and 'young,' 'hot' and 'cold,' if either sensation or concept stood on their own. We would not truly understand that someone was 'old' if there was no concept of 'young' to compare it to.
The attempt is to say that 'good' could not really exist as we understand it and could not be fully appreciated if it stood on its own, without 'evil' to compare to it.
I like that argument, even though all that bloody nasty science behind the colours supposedly makes it illogical. *hmph*
Wow. I didn't know people really looked at it that way. Ah, how ignorant am I.
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Ringwraiths, faceless, cloaked, and who will relentlessly hunt you down.
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I am certainly quite prepared to admit that reading LotR one night left me rather frightened when reading about Ringwraiths at some point. I thought it was perhaps the first time Frodo sees a Ringwraith, but the way I remembered the passage is completely different from the actual passage… Ah well.
I think the real scary thing is the Ring itself – it’s scary because you just don’t understand how a piece of metal can cause such destruction even within a single person. I think that might be the scariest aspect because it is the most human sort of fear, a fear of corruption, which we face pretty much every day in one form or another.