Lal's on vacation and I can tell.
I'm about caught up with this page of the thread (I admit to not entirely being attentive for a good four of them, and apparently I did myself a favor
).
I'm familiar,
Lal, with pretty much all the history you describe, except for the Saxon penchant for rendering the Brits incapable of progeny.
It wouldn't surprise me.
The Celtic outlook has, by and large, been more "upbeat" than the Nordic, as you say,
Lal.
Now, how did we get here? (LMP scratches head trying to recall the order of the links in the spilled chain on the floor) Oh yeah, that dichotomy.
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Bethberry
Is there a moral basis for behaviour which does not depend upon an end-time scenario? Is this admittedly very modern morality explored in LotR?
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Yes and maybe.
As for the 'yes', it seems to be based on survival necessity. As soon as a civilization has reached the point at which its members cease to be primarily concerned about survival (except for the poor of course), morality begins to alter such that it's based on things other than survival. Such as personal inclinations. People of 150 years ago would be horrified at what we just look the other way from or outright tolerate.
As for the 'maybe', what's 'admittedly' mean? LotR is a very modern story. It couldn't have been written before WW One. Its themes have much in common with the so-called Lost Generation. Speaking of which (this is just occurring to me based on having mentioned the 'LG' above), The LG had only the dry husk of a Christian faith which they more or less didn't really take seriously, they had science, and they had their classical education which had long since replaced anything remotely Germanic until perhaps the university level and then only by choice. You may recall that from Renaissance until mid-way through the last century, it was generally accepted that
Roman and Greek is Good, Germanic is at best embarrassing. Then here comes J.R.R. Tolkien who has the nerve to write a book in which
Roman and Greek are virtually non-existent and
Germanic/Celtic/Finnish are glorious! The literati were not pleased (snicker), especially after a
Mein Kampf kind of war had just been fought and won or lost depending which side you were on, in which the 'bad guys' had celebrated their German-ness. The nerve of that Tolkien.