Losing sight of the basics......

[Anna Licumo]

[My gooodness, I'm not really smart enough to debate firmly in this! Still, I have my own two cents...]

Characters like Helm Hammerhand, Turin, and Dain show clear affinities with quasi-pagan heroes.

And if I'm not mistaken, early Christians (especially Catholics) took old pagan myths and heros and slightly converted them into saints and miracles- to make it easier on the converts to accept things, I suppose. So is Turin an almost pagan character? Hmmmm.

That could perhaps lead to certian implications. [though I am probably looking too deep into it] The Valar as the 'demi-gods' and their later seperation to Men and Elves... I believe it even mentions that the Children knew Eru (though perhaps not by that name) was their true god, a polytheist approach, but that Melkor/Sauron built churches to 'dark worship', to help get the Numeanors to support him to his attack on Valinor.

And how does this relate to Tolkien and his Catholic beliefs? Would the change of a polytheist to pagan and the Men's downfall reflect that? How would the Fall- 'Atlantis'-likewise reflect on English mythology?

[Sorry if my post is slighly derailing or a wrong- I am struggling to finish the Sil., what with Collage-prep classes and the such. Just ignore me and I'll go away. ]