[Estel the Descender]

Suilaid Mellyn,

It is true that Tolkin infused into his books his concepts of what is good, what is evil, and what he believed was truth. And his concepts were influenced by by his brand of Christianity. His use of the Vala, for instance, is very much like the heirarchy of saints in the R.C. And Sam's prayer was a type of glossolalia, 'speaking in tongues', which was directed at Varda (Elbereth Gilthoniel) who seems to be Arda's version of the Virgin Mary. And yet there are so many dissimilarities that the comparison has to be really stretched. The Vala can marry with each other and the inhabitants of Endor while R.C. saints and angels do not. And the Varda is similar to Mary only in comparable position and the devotion they both receive.

As for the ring representing sin, well, I do not know about that. All I know is that Tolkien, in keeping with Aquinas-style Catholicism which kind of disdained allegories. The ring is evil, yes, but not the symbol of sin. But if it should represent something (probably unintended) it might have represented the 'white magic' that Tolkien and Lewis encountered in Oxford. They were repeatedly told that magic can be used for good although both Lewis and Tolkien believed otherwise. 'But we will use our magic for good, right, so how can God frown on such a good intention?' I am not suggesting that Tolkien wrote about the ring to answer the magicians in Oxford whose favorite victim was Lewis anyway. But suppose. . . you have something that can help you defeat an ancient evil, why not use it? To use the One Ring against Sauron and Morgoth is like using 'white magic' against Satan. The Ring answers to Sauron alone just as any magic answers to Satan alone. 'But with the magic we were able to do a lot of good!' Indeed, so did the Three Elven Rings of power. Should the One Ring be destroyed all the good works of the Three would be undone and the Three themselves would lose all power. But such a loss would be worth it just to deprive Sauron of power. If Tolkien did use the Ring as a symbol of the 'white magic' of the Oxford magicians (BUT HE DIDN"T), then it might make sense.

But Tolkien said explicitly that his books were NOT symbols of something. He did borrow from Christianity the concept of evil, other religions having different beliefs about the struggle between good and evil (the Taoist belief, for instance believes that evil balances good: to eradicate evil is to eradicate good [Yin-Yang theory]; the Western concept of evil that has to be defeated is Judeo-Christian). Just as he patterned Quenya after Finnish, Latin and Greek (like Numenor-Atalante, Greek Atlantis, go figure), Sindarin after Welsh, Tolkien patterned the morality of his books on Judeo-Christian, Germanic and Nordic morality. But just as Quenya is NOT Latin or a symbol of Finnish (the Noldor definitely are not Finnish) nor is Sindarin Welsh, Tolkien's mythology is in a sense NOT Christian. Compatible, yes, but unlike CS Lewis who intended his fairy tales to introduce new readers to Christianity Tolkien made the stories to provide his created languages with a history. Now, if there are similarities at all, this should not be taken as 'plagiarism' or a lack of originality at all. If we are to believe the same way as Tolkien, we would believe that only the Judeo-Christian God is capable of true originality.

Meneg Suilaid!
Estel Authorion (the Descender)

'There is nothing new in the world. . . some will say, "Look, here is something new", but it has been from the very beginning.' (paraphrased from the 'Qoheleth' by Shalomah Ben David)