Providence in LOTR?

[Kuruharan]

The balance or interplay between these two concepts is so difficult to sort out, both in Tolkien and real life.

But I still find those two ideas difficult to reconcile in my head, at least intellectually.

The two are undoubtedly tightly interwoven in the fabric of 'things.' There may be something of a dialectic between the two.

Unfortunately, the hard part of that is how do you have a dialectic between something that happened in the far past, and what is happening here and now. Although, as I understand it, the Music happened outside of Time and perhaps that makes some difference in the matter.

Alas! It falls beyond the scope of us mere mortals to understand such things.

one of the essays in Mortgoth's Ring where an Elf and a wise old woman discuss the possibility of Eru coming in to the world to heal it

An elf indeed! It was no less a personage than Finrod Felegund, who happens to be one of my favorite characters. And I'm here to make sure he's afforded the respect he deserves, by Crackey! [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img] [img]smilies/tongue.gif[/img]