Quote:
Originally Posted by Inziladun
By those standards though, I think Eru demonstrates his omnipotence in instances like I cited. The destruction of Númenor and the giving of immortality to Tuor were both unnatural acts, in that they would seemingly not have been accomplished without his direct intervention.
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But Tolkien leaves it questionable in both cases how much one is even supposed to give fictional belief to his account of the destruction of Númenor or the giving of immortality to Tuor.
In
Morgoth’s Ring, “Myths Transformed”, I, Tolkien declares:
It is now clear to me that in any case the Mythology must actually be a ‘Mannish’ affair. (Men are really only interested in Men and in Men’s ideas and visions.) The High Eldar living and being tutored by the demiurgic being must have known, or at least their writers and loremasters must have known, the ‘truth’ (according to their measure of understanding). What we have in the Silmarillion etc. are traditions (especially personalized upon actors, such as Fëanor) handed on by Men in Númenor and later in Middle-earth (Arnor and Gondor); but already far back – from the first association of the Dúnedain and Elf-friends with the Eldar in Beleriand – blended and confused with their own Mannish myths and cosmic ideas.
In later writings the same idea occurs at odd places, that the
Silmarillion tales and connected stories as they appear in the writings are often not accurate as written.
So the tale of the downfall of Númenor is in error when it claims that the Earth was only made spherical at that point in its history. The Earth had always been spherical.
As to Tuor, the published
Silmarillion only claims (bolding by me):
But in after days it was sung that Tuor alone of mortal Men was numbered among the elder race, and was joined with the Noldor, whom he loved; and his fate is sundered from the fate of Men.
Tolkien also says in
The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien, letter 153 (bolding by me):
Tuor weds Idril the daughter of Turgon King of Gondolin; and ‘it is supposed’ (not stated) that he as an unique exception receives the Elvish limited ‘immortality’: an exception either way.
Here Tolkien points out clearly that the information about Tuor’s supposed immortality is not actually stated in the text. In short it is only what would now be called a
legend.
You might as well claim that the accounts in the Bible of Enoch and Elijah being taken to heaven by God without facing death proves God’s omnipotence. But the Bible also does not actually say any such thing. It is only readers who infer it. And later creators of legend.
The fictional Eru is omnipotent not because of anything he actually does in Tolkien’s account, but because Eru is obviously a fictional version of the God whom Tolkien worshipped in real life who is said to be omnipotent. But theologions limit this God’s omnipotence, reasonably so I think. See
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11251c.htm for Omnipotence as defined and discussed by the Catholic Encyclopedia. Or see Wikipedia’s discussion at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omnipotence . You may also find
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omnipotence_paradox of interest.
PaigeStormblood’s original question can only be answered, as much as can be answered, by getting into theological philosophy which considers such things.