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Old 11-12-2017, 09:42 AM   #10
Zigūr
Ghost Prince of Cardolan
 
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Originally Posted by Inziladun View Post
Perhaps. And maybe Varda?
The more I think about it, the more I question my own connection (Manwė, Tulkas, Ėonwė). I was thinking of this in comparison to Michael casting out Lucifer, but nothing quite like that happens in the tale of Eä:
1. Melkor left the Timeless Halls (comparable to Heaven, perhaps) to enter Eä of his own volition.
2. Tulkas drove Melkor into the Void (either Space or Nothingness); hardly the same as being cast out of the bliss of Heaven and falling to Earth.
3. Melkor fled Aman (another place comparable to Heaven) of his own volition.
4. Someone (Tulkas? Ėonwė? Mandos?) cast Morgoth into the Void after his trial and execution following the War of Wrath. Again, not a Heaven-to-Earth transition.

Thus even those examples don't really fit. The other roles of Michael in Catholic tradition, accompanying souls to judgement, weighing souls and guarding the church, don't seem to fit terribly well with anyone either, although I suppose the roles related to souls have perhaps a limited correlation with Mandos. Yet why should they? I've always had the impression that Professor Tolkien did not wish for the Christian elements of his work to be too overt and literal, but rather thematic.
Quote:
the religious element is absorbed into the story and the symbolism. However that is very clumsily put, and sounds more self-important than I feel. For as a matter of fact, I have consciously planned very little (Letter 142)
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