Religious Background of Middle Earth

[Flame of Udûn]

I didn't meant to assert that there was no single creator (of course Eru made the Valar and was the commander of the song that created the world). I did not mention him because I was looking at how the mythology fits in with that of the Norse rather than how it is similar to Christianity (eg. Melkor's fall being similar to that of satan). Despite Eru being very similar to the Christian God this does not in my opinion move the Valar to a position lower than that of the viking gods for in viking mythology the gods did not in fact create the universe they did however fashion it from the body parts of a dead giant that Odin slew. This to me is reasonably similar to the creation of the universe in ME except within the Viking mythology there is not a creator for Odin and his two brothers (the rest of the gods are descendants of these three) they are the grandsons of a male human type creature (obviously cannot be human reallyseing as they are gods) and he was licked out of the ice by a cow who also gave him sustinence in her milk.

[Alfirin]

Certainly, many of the character in ME are very reminiscent of characters from Norse mythology. Caracaroth, for example, has a lot in commom with Fenrir, right down to biting off someones hand (In Caracaroth's case, Beren, in Fenrir's, Tyr). Somewhat more tenuously, Roac (the Raven in the Hobbit) may have something in common with Hugin and Munin, Odin's messenger ravens. As the head of basically demons of fire Gothmog (the Balrog, not the Nazgul) may have its orgins in Surtur, lord of Muspelheim. At least that how I see some of it

[Formendacil]

My general take on the matter is that in the "physics" of Middle-earth, to use the word somewhat unorthodoxly, Tolkien went with a most Nordic look, feel, and air. He says as much himself, and a quick glance at the mythology he borrows from and his lifelong interests corroborate the story readily.

However, in the metaphysics of Middle-earth (here, however, I use the word somewhat more conventionally), I would say he hies closer to the Catholic side of things. This Catholicity doesn't come through very much in the externals (the "physics") of the stories, but I think it's there in what underlies them: in things like the Long Defeat/Eucatastrophe relationship, the goodness of Matter mixed with its corruption by the Prime Evil, and idea of a historically-grounded redemption.