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Originally Posted by Mark 12_30
A reader who knows nothing about the Eddas, Beowulf, the Mabinogion, the Kalevala, will also be able to understand LOTR as it is. Are we then to believe that the Eddas, Beowulf, the Mabinogion, and the Kalevala had no effect or affect on LOTR, that there are no parallels, that the works were not part of the 'compost' out of which the legendarium grew, and that they should not be discussed here on the Downs?
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They all had an effect. But what effect did they have, & how did they work on Tolkien's imagination? There is some of Odin in Gandalf, some of Gwydion, some of Vainamoinen, some of Merlin, perhaps some of Jesus even. One could go very deeply into the way Tolkien's mind worked. He himself stated that he could not study fairy stories as he constantly approached them as a source of raw material.
The question is, did Tolkien 'steal' from the Bible - ie, did he take any figure or event straight from the Bible or not. Clearly he did not. He wrote the story as it came to him & images & ideas arose.
Now, the next question is whether such analysis & parallel hunting tells us anything. Does it tell us anything about M-e itself? About what went into it, perhaps, but that way lies a real danger, one that Tolkien himself pointed up - 'Breaking a thing to find out what it is made of'. Yet we know that Tolkien had read all the works you list above, the Bible, & many more. We know they influenced his thinking. Its not telling us anything we don't already know. 'There's an 'x' in LotR & an 'x' in the Bible' is a process that can go on for months, beginning with 'There is a Creator God in both' down to 'There is a lot of letter 'e's' in both'. The interesting thing, to my mind, is not to look at the raw materials he used, but at what he did with them.
Let's say the Bible was his chief influence - how & why did he produce something like LotR - on the surface of it a work a million miles away from the Bible?
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Originally Posted by Alatar
Just a thought: Let's say you observed my children and had some 'advice' for me, as they were acting slightly less than angelic. You want me to hear what you have to say, but as it's concerning my kids, you know that, though I may want to be depersonalizedly objective and open (and may even whole-heartedly agree with your observation), you're still going to engage that part of me that's emotional, whether I like it or not. A person's faith/beliefs may be like that. Surely you know this.
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Well, yes, I do know it, but.... Let me clarify my position as regards faith & religion. I would defend anyone's freedom of belief & their right to worship. That is an essential human right. On condition they do not harm anyone else - or attempt to prevent anyone else practicing their own belief. However, I do not respect 'belief' itself, or any particular religion. People believe all kinds of odd things - they always have & always will. I actually like the fact that folk believe all kinds of wierd things - it makes for an interesting world. I will go down fighting for your right to believe in & worship Jesus, Buddha, Allah, Ceridwen, Odin, cosmic pink elephants or who or whatever you want, but at the same time as I'm taking a bullet for your right to believe & worship as you will I'll also quite probably be thinking that what you believe is a bit silly.
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P.S. I too would argue that reps should not be posted without permission, as I would then have to continually be fretting that I wasn't writing 'good enough for primetime' reptext, which would then shorten the text (maybe that's not a bad thing) or leave it unsigned, just in case...but then if it were considered the best reptext ever on the Downs, then no one would ever know that it was from my pen...
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But if you weren't named then it would hardly matter. Again, my position is that if one has a gripe with another poster one should come out with it publicly. Its too easy to play Mr or Ms Sweetness & Light in the public forum & then stick the boot in in private & demand no-one must be told about it. My reps (all good, btw) usually come with the comment 'Good one ....davem' & that's it. Don't give bad rep comments & there won't be any need to worry about them being posted - anonymously or otherwise.....