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jallanite · 11-26-2012, 08:12 PM

Bêthberry and Boromir88 have both given excellent posts, as is usual for both (and also Lady Brooke).

I personally do recognize that Tolkien in his letters often did not provide his full opinion on many topics and sometimes changed his opinion over the years.

I also recognize that Tolkien put many of his likes into The Lord of the Rings, including some of his religious beliefs, but not all of them. For his story supposedly takes place before Jesus (or Mary, his mother) ever existed. Also, unlike John Milton in Paradise Lost, Tolkien makes no mention anywhere of the Trinity, and refers to the single God as Eru ‘the One’ in his tales, presumably because he fictionalized the tales as records from long ago before Christianity existed, and before any known religion imagined any chief god to be three-in-one, at least so far as I know. The Greek goddess Hecate was sometimes three-in-one.

Much Roman Catholic and basic Christian belief does not appear because, as Tolkien often indicates in Letters, he designed his imaginary prehistoric civilization in a particular way, I suspect in part so that he might avoid many religious issues. Originally in making the Earth flat he may have intended to clearly indicate that this was only fantasy because Christians in general, though not always, had accepted a spherical Earth as they did in his own day.

The Lord of the Rings is fantasy tale involving Elves, Dwarves, and Hobbits, none of whom existed according to general belief. There is no reason to think from anything Tolkien wrote that in real life he thought they had ever existed either. The tale shows a totally imaginary past to be viewed for pure enjoyment.

Quite naturally Tolkien based the morality in the book on his own feelings for what was moral which is mostly shared, at least in word if not in deed, by non-Roman Catholics and non-Christians. He avoided dealing with controversial subjects. For example, capital punishment comes up only in a personal opinion by Gandalf that Bilbo was right to spare Gollum when he could have killed him.

The law codes of Gondor and the Shire supposedly derive from old Númenórean law codes which largely derive from Elvish laws which derive directly from the teaching of the Valar. But Tolkien only provides a few glimpses of these laws.

11-26-2012, 08:12 PM	#36
jallanite Shade of Carn Dûm Join Date: Apr 2001 Location: Toronto Posts: 479	Bêthberry and Boromir88 have both given excellent posts, as is usual for both (and also Lady Brooke). I personally do recognize that Tolkien in his letters often did not provide his full opinion on many topics and sometimes changed his opinion over the years. I also recognize that Tolkien put many of his likes into The Lord of the Rings, including some of his religious beliefs, but not all of them. For his story supposedly takes place before Jesus (or Mary, his mother) ever existed. Also, unlike John Milton in Paradise Lost, Tolkien makes no mention anywhere of the Trinity, and refers to the single God as Eru ‘the One’ in his tales, presumably because he fictionalized the tales as records from long ago before Christianity existed, and before any known religion imagined any chief god to be three-in-one, at least so far as I know. The Greek goddess Hecate was sometimes three-in-one. Much Roman Catholic and basic Christian belief does not appear because, as Tolkien often indicates in Letters, he designed his imaginary prehistoric civilization in a particular way, I suspect in part so that he might avoid many religious issues. Originally in making the Earth flat he may have intended to clearly indicate that this was only fantasy because Christians in general, though not always, had accepted a spherical Earth as they did in his own day. The Lord of the Rings is fantasy tale involving Elves, Dwarves, and Hobbits, none of whom existed according to general belief. There is no reason to think from anything Tolkien wrote that in real life he thought they had ever existed either. The tale shows a totally imaginary past to be viewed for pure enjoyment. Quite naturally Tolkien based the morality in the book on his own feelings for what was moral which is mostly shared, at least in word if not in deed, by non-Roman Catholics and non-Christians. He avoided dealing with controversial subjects. For example, capital punishment comes up only in a personal opinion by Gandalf that Bilbo was right to spare Gollum when he could have killed him. The law codes of Gondor and the Shire supposedly derive from old Númenórean law codes which largely derive from Elvish laws which derive directly from the teaching of the Valar. But Tolkien only provides a few glimpses of these laws.