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Dread Horseman
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Re: Book of the Century?
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Quote:<hr> The Silmarillion however, IS a religious book.
Quote:
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"Indeed, a good portion of The Silmarillion is obviously setting forth the basis for the "religion" of the higher cultures of Middle-earth. That is to say, the "history" (or mythology if you prefer) of the interaction of the lesser races with the Valar and of the Creation."
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Exactly my point.<hr></blockquote>
It would be silly to argue that
The Silmarillion isn't concerned with establishing Middle-earth's "religious" mythology, and that's not the point I was making.
I simply disagree that the prof wrote either the Sil or LotR as a platform for preaching "religion" or as a religious allegory, or that either book is "primarily religious" in nature. I only picked out a couple of quotes but I could probably pull a dozen more out of
Letters alone. Tolkien frequently and vociferously denied any such intention. Letter #131 offers a long and very interesting discourse that touches on this topic and is well worth a read. Tolkien discusses the linguistic origins of Middle-earth, and his eventual desire to create a uniquely "English" mythology (this is the letter which expresses the hope, oft-quoted by Gil, that "other minds and hands, wielding paint and music and drama" would add their contributions to the legendarium). Its a long and complicated discussion, but here are a few revealing quotes from it on the topic at hand: <blockquote>
Quote:<hr> ...an equally basic passion of mine
ab initio was for myth (not allegory!) and for fairy-story, and above all for heroic legend on the brink of fairy-tale and history, of which there is far too little in the world (accessible to me) for my appetite.
I was from early days grieved by the poverty of my own beloved country: it had no stories of its own (bound up with its tongue and soil), not of the quality that I sought, and found (as an ingredient) in legends of other lands. There was Greek, and Celtic, and Romance, Germanic, Scandinavian, and Finnish (which greatly affected me); but nothing English, save impoverished chap-book stuff. Of course there was and is all the Arthurian world, but powerful as it is, it is imperfectly naturalized, associated with the soil of Britain but not with English; and does not replace what I felt to be missing. For one thing its 'faerie' is too lavish, and fantastical, incoherent and repetitive. For another and more important thing: it is involved in, and explicitly contains the Christian religion. For reasons which I will not elaborate, that seems to me fatal. Myth and fairy-story must, as all art, reflect and contain in solution elements of moral and religious truth (or error), but not explicit, not in the known form of the primary 'real' world.
I dislike Allegory – the conscious and intentional allegory...
In the cosmogony there is a fall: a fall of Angels we should say. Though quite different in form, of course, to that of Christian myth. These tales are 'new', they are not directly derived from other myths and legends, but they must inevitably contain a large measure of ancient wide-spread motives or elements.
This legendarium ends with a vision of the end of the world, its breaking and remaking, and the recovery of the Silmarilli and the 'light before the Sun' – after a final battle which owes, I suppose, more to the Norse vision of Ragnarök than to anything else, though it is not much like it.<hr></blockquote>On the other hand, I agree (as I stated above) that all of Tolkien's work is infused and informed by his Christian morals and beliefs -- however, this is quite a different thing from saying that he viewed his work as "primarily religious" in nature. One of the qualities of his work that makes it so widely accessible is that it isn't overtly "religious" or "preachy".
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Edited by: <A HREF=http://www.barrowdowns.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_profile&u=00000005>Mister Underhill</A> at: 6/13/01 12:49:03 pm