Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Boromir88
I think Tolkien would be more in line with Tom Shippey's remarks in The Road to Middle-earth that 'Luck' would be a more suitable word in Tolkien's works than 'Providence' or 'chance':
Shippey goes further to say that it is perhaps better to have luck than it is to have providence:
It's the ability of individuals where they can 'change' their luck, and therefor fate can be denied.
|
However, the old meaning of 'luck', which Tolkien no doubt knew from his Anglo-Saxon readings, was that the king's luck was from the gods. When the king became 'unlucky', it meant that the gods had 'unlucked' him, and the folk would believe themselves in need of a new king; would kill that one and raise up another one who was 'lucked' by the gods. So 'luck' in Tolkien does not necessarily signify something other than doom or fate or providence.