The role of Fate in Middle Earth - The Barrow-Downs Discussion Forum

KayQy · 02-10-2001, 08:12 AM

<font face="Verdana"><table><TR><TD><FONT SIZE="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Haunting Spirit
Posts: 55</TD><TD></TD></TR></TABLE>
Fate vs. Free will

I might be just repeating stuff here, but I think that there's a difference between knowing what will happen and making something in particular happen, and there's a mixture of both in ME (and IRL, too). Eru, or whoever was the "something else at work," may have merely known about the goblins capturing Bilbo and the dwarves in the mountains, but he may have guided his hand in the dark to where the ring was, for example. Or to go back a bit, Thorin may have asked Gandalf for advice on a fourteenth member of his own free will, but knowing that he would ask, Eru could have caused the memory of Bilbo to come up in Gandalf's mind.

The days are fated to be filled with marvels.</p>

02-10-2001, 08:12 AM	#11
KayQy Wight Join Date: Dec 2000 Location: Currently Spain Posts: 250	<font face="Verdana"><table><TR><TD><FONT SIZE="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Haunting Spirit Posts: 55</TD><TD></TD></TR></TABLE> Fate vs. Free will I might be just repeating stuff here, but I think that there's a difference between knowing what will happen and making something in particular happen, and there's a mixture of both in ME (and IRL, too). Eru, or whoever was the "something else at work," may have merely known about the goblins capturing Bilbo and the dwarves in the mountains, but he may have guided his hand in the dark to where the ring was, for example. Or to go back a bit, Thorin may have asked Gandalf for advice on a fourteenth member of his own free will, but knowing that he would ask, Eru could have caused the memory of Bilbo to come up in Gandalf's mind. The days are fated to be filled with marvels.</p> __________________ Do you really want to know / Or are you a little scared, Afraid that God is not exactly what you'd have Him be? --OC Supertones, "Wilderness" "Good sense about trivialities is better than nonsense about things that matter." -- Max Beerbohm