Quote:
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Originally Posted by littlemanpoet
Could you produce the evidence that Tolkien felt the need?
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I think we can draw conclusions. In reference to the Elves' Hymn to Elbereth he states (The Road Goes Ever On) 'The Elves sing hymns to her. (These & other references to religion in LotR are
frequently missed) ie he is clearly responding to accusations that there is no religion in LotR. In the Letters he repeatedly snatches at any references to Christianity by readers (to the extent that some of his responses are not actually sent, because he decides he has gone too far in emphasising the Christian 'connections').
Its clear that early critics did not pick up on the 'Christianity' that Tolkien states is there - but is it really there? If it can (& often is) read & enjoyed by readers who do not percieve any Christian elements in it (even ones familiar with the tenets of that faith) then Christianity is obviously not something that underlies the story.
I find it very interesting that when readers/reviewers/critics assigned to the story an underlying
political allegory (War of the Ring = WWII) he roundly condemned the idea, but the vaguest suggestion of any 'similarity' between elements in the story & aspects of Christianity produced the most positive response. Let's face it, the similarities between Elbereth
* & Isis are far stronger than those between Elbereth & Mary. His famous statemment that the book is 'a fundamentally Catholic work, unconsciously so at first, but consciously so in the revision' is simply not true - read HoM-e. Any 'revision' of the story was made for artistic reasons, or because he realised 'what really happened'. He even contradicted himself in statements in the Letters - in one he claims that the events at Mount Doom are an exemplification of the words in the Lord's Prayer 'Forgive us our tresspasses as we forgive those who tresspass against us. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil'. In other letters he states that it is the inner dynamic of the story so far that dictated those events. The culminating events may well exemplify the words of Jesus, but Tolkien only 'realised' that
after the book was published. I think its pretty clear that he wrote the story as a story, letting it flow & waiting till he realised 'what really happened'.
After publication he seems to have become distressed by statements that it was a religion-free work & eagerly took up every suggestion of an underlying Christianity. My feeling is that Tolkien never 'revised' LotR to make it 'fundamentally Christian & Catholic work' -
except in his own mind
after the fact. He wrote a story. Only after publication, when it wasn't recognised as the work of a Christian, did he feel he had to 'prove its credentials'.
* As she appears in LotR, that is.