Was Tolkein a fatalist?

[Lush]

lindil, that was a very eloquent explanation of a very complex theme in Tolkien's work. I salute you.

Per the contrasting of Tolkien and Hemingway in the original post of this thread: perhaps the way that Hemingway dealt with the nature of fate was less dramatic, but with all due respect to old Ernest, look at who out of the two killed himself and who ended up living a full life.

If one is to give the title of "fatalist" a negative connotation, then based of what we know of Hemingway's personality, we can crown him the winner of this "contest." Yet my dictionary, for example, says that a fatalist is one that believes "that events are determined by fate." Nothing more, nothing less (then again, it is not the best dictionary in the world, and I'm sure, for example, that the one that Squatter has on his desk is more useful).

[ August 15, 2003: Message edited by: Lush ]