The Power of Nine

[Birdland]

Just a little interesting snippet I ran across while searching for "new" words to use in the RPGs

Nine:
A Celtic sacred number which represents the beggining and ending of all things. The square root of nine is three, the basic sacred number of the Celts.

After reading Leto's post about the "5 Itari", I had given some thought to the signifigance, if any, of Tolkien's choice of numbers; the Nine, the Seven, the Three, etc.

Do you think Tolkien chose these numbers intentionally, based on ancient mythology, or even his own Christian upbringing? Or perhaps a combination of the two, since many of the Christian teachings borrowed from other cultures; sort of as a way to give the people something they could relate to.

Or did Tolkien just think: "Nine. Yeah, that sounds like a nice, round, threatening number."

[ August 24, 2002: Message edited by: Birdland ]