[davem]

But its this question of 'how we are meant to see them that intrigues me - are we 'meant' to see mountains as big rocks, or are we 'meant' to see them as physical symbols of spiritual things? Mountains may be 'meant to be the stuff of legends' but materially thay aren't that at all. If they are to be seen as the stuff of legends then there have to be legends about them. Legends are human inventions, stories we tell ourselves & each otherabout mountains. It is our stories about them that enable us to see them as something other than big rocks.

When we tell those stories we are giving to (or discerning) a meaning in them, but that meaning comes from our stories not from the mountains themselves.

The 'Way of Affirmation' or 'Beatrician Experience' posited by Charles Williams is something I've given a lot of thought to over the years. It's interesting to me that Tolkien is known to have said that when it came to literature, he and Williams "had nothing to say to each other". Which suggests to me that Tolkien didn't have a very high opinion of the Way of Affirmation. Nevertheless, it could be argued that LotR is itself a Way of Affirmation. Anyway.

I think Tolkien's relationship with Williams was more complicated than that. Certainly Tolkien valued Williams as a friend, & as Carpenter has pointed out, Tolkien was to some degree affected by jealousy of Lewis close friendship with the man. A lot has been written about the Tolkien Lewis friendship but very little about Tolkien's relationship with Williams. There is work to be done on that.