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Originally Posted by Lalaith
Atlantis/Numenor, of course, but what about parallels between Numenor and the Flood? (I must say, I agree with the reservations davem and others have expressed about Adam and Eve and the serpent, but what I find really difficult getting to grips with, is the Flood.
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You read about a local 'flood' and see the Noachian deluge. Númenor was wiped out by a tsumani-like wave. Survivors escaped on a multitude of ships, not an Ark, and they did not have to carry all species of fauna back to Middle Earth. There was no mountaintop landing, no dove, no waiting for waters to recede. No rainbow at the end of the road.
And yet you, me and others see Genesis 6 in the Akallabęth.
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Even if we could accept that all humanity, even new born babies, were irredeemably evil, except for Noah and co, what about all the animals? Did they have moral sense and thus commit evil and deserve to die?)
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Animals are under man's dominion, and so I guess are of no consideration. They are not infilled with souls like we see in Arda. And at least in Arda babies are born 'not guilty.'
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Re Tolkienian deluges, it's not just Numenor of course. The breaking of Arda during the Valar-Melkor battle must have involved thousands of innocents perishing.
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Like I said, at least in Arda there are true innocents. I leave the last words to Eowyn and her quote regarding dying on swords.