"Ainulindalë: Tolkien, St. Thomas and the Metaphysics of the Music" Jonathan McIntosh

[Bêthberry]

Jonathan McIntosh’s article is, to me, one of the most fascinating articles in Music in Middle-earth because it challenges the common critical idea that Tolkien’s creation is a story of “the long defeat”. Very intriguing indeed!

McIntosh begins by examining several prominent critical studies which have argued that the Music displays a falling away from the ideal or perfection. Among such studies are those of critics many Downers will be familiar with: Brad Birzer, Howard Cox, Bradford Lee Eden, David Grubbs, and Verlyn Flieger, to name but a few.

These studies, McIntosh argues, are limited by their focus solely on the initial music and their dependence upon Neoplatonic thought. In their place he examines the initial Music, the Vision, and then the ultimate physical creation of the world Eä, the World that is, using the metaphysical ideas of St. Thomas of Aquinas and, ultimately, Tolkien’s own ideas on dream and vision from OFS. I am really intrigued by McIntosh’s arguments, but I’m not familiar enough with Aquinas’ thought to comment on how well he uses it and would welcome comments from Downers who I think might be, such as Formendacil, Legate and Mark—and anyone else of course.

The comparison of the initial Music, the Vision and the ultimate creation shows some intriguing differences amongst them, particularly in how “Otherness” becomes so significant in the Vision and how, as McIntosh argues from Aquineas, “the act of existence . . . constitutes the highest actuality or reality of a thing” (p. 57).

This essay could well turn some of our Downs’ threads upside down.

PS. Bad punc intentional! Because of the length of the title, I had to omit some commas in order to fit the full title and author's name into the thread title.