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Lane Haygood · 16 Dec 2010, 17:44 · from 2010-December.txt.gz

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From: lhaygood at gmail.com (Lane Haygood)
Date: Thu, 16 Dec 2010 11:44:51 -0600
Subject: (urth) (no subject)
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As I understood it, the cosmology of Arda/Middle Earth was supposed to
be a mythical re-telling of the "true" (for Tolkien) cosmology,
dressed up in the myths of the Elves, etc.  Of course they wouldn't
use angels and demons and creation and all of that; they're not
humans, and the cosmology we have received as revealed wisdom, etc.,
is only for Fourth Age peoples.

But a straight 1-for-1 substitution (a la Lewis) would have been
distasteful for Tolkien, who loved myths and the changes myths and
languages go through as cultures meet and intersect, but hated
allegory.

LH

On Thu, Dec 16, 2010 at 11:41 AM, James Wynn <crushtv at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>>> David Stockhoff-
>>> I understood that to be James' point. Tolkien was a Christian writer.
>>
>> I'll let James speak for himself if I'm wrong, but I understood his
>> saying that "Silmarillion does not align with the Bible" as meaning
>> that it was not in line with Tolkien's actual beliefs. My point is
>> that, while I doubt that JRRT actually "believed" the Silmarillion,
>> its cosmology actually _does_ align with the Bible, with the correct
>> dance steps.
>> --Dan'l
>
> Ehh...The creation story in Silmarillion simply does not jive with Genesis.
> I don't see how all the hammers and grease in Mordor could wedge it in.
> ?While there's nothing _hostile_ to Judeo-Christianity in Middle Earth, I
> seem to recall that Tolkien said in "Letters" that he deliberately left
> religion out of the books.
>
> While Wolfe has not been so careful about not touching the high-voltage wire
> called Religion, I think the same thing applies in that his characters think
> and talk about religion in different terms than we do. It is essentially the
> same as in the Soldier books. Wolfe deals with religion from the perspective
> of his characters, not in the way he would if he were teaching a Sunday
> School class. The themes and concepts are compatible and sometimes
> analogous. The characters' sense of their relationship to the Increate is
> different. Irreconcilably different. And no amount of dancing will bridge
> the gap. To try to do so is like asking for scientific justification for
> Galadriel's bowl. Or to question whether a human baby raised by a tribe of
> chimpanzees would survive, let alone come to lead the troop.
>
> u+16b9
>
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