[Aiwendil]

I'm a little behind in reading this thread - this is chiefly a response to Davem's post 133.

Davem wrote:

Is M-e monotheistic or polytheistic? It can't be both.

Why must it be either? Why must we analyze Tolkien's mythos as belonging to one class or the other? In my opinion, forcing a label onto the mythology (or implicitly forcing a label via an excluded middle) is not productive. Tolkien's world is what it is. Sure, in some ways, it resembles a monotheistic world-view and in other ways a polytheistic one - but this does not mean that it must be (in some fundamental or mystical way) truly one or the other.

In short, we don't need Eru as part of the story. If Ainulindale had begun 'There were the Singers, & they sang The Great Song which brought the worlds into being...' the effect on the story would have been negligible.

I must disagree. Eru's existence and role as the Creator does more than a simple analysis of his actions might suggest. His existence does much the same thing that the God of the Abrahamic religions does for the Judeo-Christo-Islamic world view; it puts everything else in the universe into an overarching moral and teleological framework. Eru's existence defines the moral good (which is, incidentally, why it doesn't make sense to ask whether Eru's actions are "right"). The Valar are imperfect and flawed beings. Insofar as they do (or endeavour to do) good throughout the story, they are serving Eru. Now, if Eru did not exist, we would merely have a story about flawed 'gods' acting in whatever ways they wished; it would be, in that regard, like Norse or Greek mythology. Eru's existence adds an element to the mythology that is lacking in either of those counterparts. Now, I'm not saying that this is a good thing or a bad thing; that's a separate question (though personally I think it is good for the story) - but it is not nothing.

The idea of a God providing a moral framework may make some people uncomfortable. Indeed, I'm a non-theist, so the world-view presented in Tolkien's Legendarium is very different from that which I believe to be true. But when I think about the Legendarium, I must do so on its terms.