Is Eru God?

[davem]

Originally Posted by Fordim Hedgethistle

*Fordim falls off his chair clutching at his chest. After being revived, he is carried out on a stretcher muttering...*

There was no Legendarium. He made a point about interpretation without invoking the Legendarium. I...I can't believe it....please please Eru, or God, or whoever, or Eru/God....don't let him admit The Hobbit to the Legendarium...

Actually, all he did was state the obvious fact that its possible to read LotR as a stand alone novel (indeed, for most of its history that's how it had to be read) & that if it is read that way the reader's interpretation may be very different from that of reading it in the light of the Legendarium as a whole

Originally Posted by LmP

Actually, the history of the discussions surrounding LotR before the publishing of The Silmarillion are precisely the opposite of what you suggest. I remember many articles in a host of magazines that were quite specifically about Aragorn, Frodo, and Gandalf as specifically Christ figures - - before 1977. And that's just one example..

Hutton was referring to the immediately post-LotR period. Tolkien actually refers to the accusations that there was an absence of religious themes/elements in LotR in The Road Goes Ever On - where he makes reference to the Elves' Hymns to Elbereth.

Hutton's point was that it was precisely readers who pointed out these 'similarities' & that Tolkien grabbed hold of these & played them up in order to point up his Catholic credentials.