Bethberry
This a point made by Garth. Without WW1, for all its horrors, we wouldn't have had Middle Earth. Which is strange, to say the least.
Certainly, after reading this book I'm sure that without the horrors of the Somme the Middle Earth we know & love would never have come into being.
Something occured to me recently - about the way Frodo was meant, as Gandalf put it, to have the Ring. So, isn't Gandalf saying that Illuvatar intended Frodo's suffering, & ultimate destruction - because He must have known that that would be the result of Frodo undertaking the Quest.
And could it be that God intended Tolkien to go through what he did - I suppose Tolkien would have agreed that God was in control of his destiny - he even seems to imply that it was not God's will that his friends should survive the war - but this is another way of saying God intended their suffering & death. Lewis says something similar - 'Pain is God's megaphone to rouse a sleeping world... God uses suffering to make us let go of our hold on the toys of this world...' But what God, in Tolkien's view, intends for himself & his friends (&, by extension, for his own mother), & what Illuvatar intends for Frodo, is difficult to relate to our modern Christian ideas of a 'loving God'. Perhaps the war gave Tolkien a deeper, mystical, understanding of God. Tolkien's God, both within & outside of ME, seems to be one who will, in the 'right' circumstances intend our suffering, even to the death - for Frodo there is no happy ending, not in this world - he suffers until he dies. Yet Tolkien doesn't fall into taking the easy option - like Pullman, & dismissing God as either bad or mad, & proposing that everything will be wonderful if we just get rid of Him. Tolkien confronts us with a God who takes as well as gives, who destroys (even those who love him) as well as creates.
I think I've gone completely off subject here! (still for some reason, can't get over to the dumbing down thread!!)
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