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Old 08-28-2003, 09:55 PM   #23
Corwyn Celesil
Haunting Spirit
 
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: The House of the Fountain, Gondolin
Posts: 57
Corwyn Celesil has just left Hobbiton.
Silmaril

A paradox is something that appears contradictory, yet is not. God/Eru using the evil that is done to bring about His plan while not negating free will is a theme in both the Bible and LOTR, and one that has always delighted me (I love paradoxes).
Another very strong theme is divine intervention in the characters' lives. All through LOTR runs the thread of 'This was meant to happen,' or 'It seems like a coincidence, but it isn't.' When Iluvatar and the Ainur made Middle-earth, there were things that Iluvatar hid from the Ainur, and I think one thing that was to come as a surprise was His close intervention in the happenings and lives of Middle-earth, at least in LOTR. Divine intervention is one of the most basic themes in the Bible.
Have any of you noticed Tolkien's delight in beauty? While this is not overtly a Biblical/Christian theme, it is a sort of tip of the hat to the Creator of that beauty. I wonder if Tolkien was familiar with Gerard Manley Hopkins, a Jesuit Priest who wrote poetry that gloried in the beauty of God's creation. His descriptions of beauty seem to have that same kind of joy.
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Then came there from the south of the city the people of the Fountain, and Ecthelion was their lord, and silver and diamonds were their delight; and swords very long and bright and pale did they wield . . .
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