The Lord of the Bible?

[Lalwendë]

Originally Posted by alatar

With much trepidation I post in this ill-favoured thread of threads, yet not sure where else to post this little giblet.

In William Young's book, The Shack,, the main character, Mack, gets to meet with the triune Christian god in person. He is at first taken aback as God the Father is in the form of an African woman.

He - Mack - notes that he was expecting God to look more like "Gandalf."

Actually that's another to add to the growing list of incidences where Tolkien's characters have become almost archetypal. Barely a week goes by these days when I don't hear some journalist refer to a politician as being 'like Gollum' or some old geezer being 'like Gandalf'.

It doesn't surprise me when characters in books (or indeed real people) say their image of God is like Gandalf - he's a kindly, wise old man, which is what people would quite like God to be (even though an African woman is as good as any guess); and the image of Gandalf is pervasive now - indeed I think Tolkien chose a Jungian archetype in the first place because you could make a right long list of 'folk who remind you of Gandalf'.

I wonder if their image was of Ian McKellen as Gandalf though? I always knew Lancastrians were the chosen ones