Quote:
Originally Posted by Nogrod
I think it's quite easy to see the first theme meaning a first creation, the Ainur joining His mind and starting to create by giving their individual tones into it. But when Melkor started adding his own things as to lead the theme into dissonance (to dis-accord), then Ilúvatar made a counter-move into the theme (part two) which might be "the introducing of death", or "creating of mortals", or what will you have there to counter Melkor's schemes (it says Melkor had the mastery in the end of the second theme and the Ainur went silent). Heh. Sounds like the Christian theology version I just dissed...
So in a way Ainur and Edain, but also creation and conflict in it which is resolved with a new creation.
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Totally. Tolkien was a Christian of course...I think his stories "re-tell" the Christian myth in a very beautiful way...and before I move on, I have to say this as well: In
Morgoth's Ring, Finrod Felagund alludes to the Incarnation of Eru as the final redemption of Middle Earth and it's people (would quote it, but don't have the book handy to do so, I believe you can look it up online)...of course, this going along with Tolkien's view that the history of Middle Earth is actually a distant history of our own reality, points again to the Christian myth, that is, God reconciling with Man once and for all via the Incarnate Christ. In a fashion, we see the destruction of the Ring and the rise of good men via Elessar (Aragorn) from the Numenorians as the final defeat of Evil Incarnate (Morgoth, Sauron, Orcs, though we know Morgoth will one day break the Doors of Night, that besides.) But evil now moves from being definitive and "outward" (Morgoth, Sauron, Orcs) to more of an "inward" condition (sin, frailty, imperfection) requiring ultimate redemption and reconcilation as the Elves have all but faded and Elessar, the line of Numenor and the great men of the past are but a myth and have "faded" in their own right.
So the coming of the Christ would signify God (Eru in Tolkien's mythology) progressively making himself more and more "present" to Men in order to unite with them, whereas in the past we could say that the Valar and Eru seem to have successively withdrawn from Middle Earth, along with the Elves, even not revealing themselves directly through the events of the Third Age and on into the Fourth Age...though they still did intervene via the Istari and such. But you know what I mean...
So the Third Theme...did Tolkien speak much of a Third Theme or is it pretty much open to conjecture? I do know the Elves were not spoken of as being involved in the Second Music necessarily, but the Elves believed that Eru would not abandon them. If we were to continue in the thought that Middle Earth is a distant history of our own, then:
1) Possibly the Second Music could have been the coming of Eru as a Man (the Christ). This would have been the culmination, the crescendo of Eru's planned union with Men, or
2) It has not yet happened, and the progressive Christian "theme" in Tolkien's mythology and the recent few thousand years of our own world is leading up to the Second Music with the coming of the Christ still being a definitive point of demarcation in our history anyhow; meaning, it has brought us closer to the person of Eru himself as he has provided redemption from the "sin" or "inward" frailty that seemed to plague the Edain throughout Tokien's writings. But the "crescendo," the Second Music has yet to happen...
Whatever it is, we can deduce that there is something significant and special about Men in Tolkien's writings; though they appear to be the weaker of the two races (Elves being the other) and we would often rather associate ourselves with the Elves in their perfection, they embody something that even intimidated Morgoth upon their initial appearing in the far east of Middle Earth (see Silmarillion). What is it? If I remember right, one thing was he could not master them easily...
If we haven't even hit the Second Theme, I am not sure what the Third Theme is all about...clue me in if it is mentioned somewhere, because I cannot remember.
Ahh...here is a great link to the Eru/Christ connection right here in our own forums...
http://forum.barrowdowns.com/showthread.php?t=472