of the comming of men

[lindil]

<font face="Verdana"><table><TR><TD><FONT SIZE="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Haunting Spirit
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Re: of the comming of men

greetings and welcome to the downs Eljimbo!
If I recall aright the 'purpose' to which the original [book of lost tales] mythology was put was to serve as a source for the longings of beauty , nature, and I would say [though JRRT did't state this explicitly -early on at least] especially a longing for a higher state of being.
lost tales was centered on Elves and Men only slowly crept into the tales . The hearer of the tales[Eriol-Aelfwine] was a mariner whomanaged to sale to the Lonely isle and here the stories mostly from the Elves -it served to explain the vague longings among men.
As the stories grew they [to my mind ] seemed to move closer and closer to illuminating the central tenets of his traditional Christian faith [see most especially Finrod and Andreth [in Morgoth's Ring] wher e Finrod postulates the need for Iluvatar to become incarnate in his own creation to save it from the Fall - he also recognizes that Men share a destiny w/ Iluvatar Himself outside the circles of the world which is in all liklihood closed to Elves.If I understood you aright much of what you articulated seemed to be among JRRT's reasons for men -alsoI would go so far to say that unless Men entered in [or the whole thing was allegorical ] there would be no 'purpose' for the whole thing. . The Myth's became more 'realistic' as he got older till he found himself pondering the need to do away with much of its fictional cosmology.
If the professor had had the life span of a dunedan I would not have been suprised to see him alter geography to match Europe more closely . and so on till he found himself caught up in the Old Testement!
well there you have it [from me at least].
I am sure others here at the Downs can illuminate this far more.
lindil

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