tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5746173806126403959.post1788139881455657690..comments2023-11-07T06:20:12.181-08:00Comments on Tolkien: Medieval and Modern: Locating Tolkien in English Religious History"Tolkien: Medieval and Modern"http://www.blogger.com/profile/04348913969813157482noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5746173806126403959.post-70313500608654123912011-05-08T11:43:28.510-07:002011-05-08T11:43:28.510-07:00I like the manner in which you have explored diffe...I like the manner in which you have explored different avenues here in an attempt to sort out the Iluvatar-Valar-God issue. Be careful about how you categorize the Valer within Tolkien’s universe: there, the Valar are only viewed as gods by Men. In his famous letter to Milton Waldman, Tolkien refers to the Ainur as being “of the same order” as the gods of other mythologies and merely “Englished as gods.” To describe the relationship between the Ainur and Iluvatar, taking into account that ultimately Tolkien’s characters are all monotheists, I think the word you are looking for is ‘henotheism,’ which literally means ‘one god,’ but which has come to signify a system by which numerous deities are all aspects of one greater deity, who is the ultimate Creator and/or focus of worship. Hinduism has often been described this way, although it depends on who you talk to.<br /><br />I’m not sure about your comment that Roman polytheism should be discounted because it is “not really English.” By that reasoning, so should Christianity, which was brought in through the Roman Empire. Pre-roman polytheism on the Isles incorporated some of Roman polytheism after a while, and, eventually, converted to Christianity (though sometimes under duress) with the rest of the empire. So, perhaps we could say that Tolkien was envisioning the syncretic religious traditions of the Isles in a new form!<br /><br />You make some excellent observations about the Ainulindalë as a chronological flattening of English traditions! I agree that this, in a way, brings past and present England together in this mythology.<br /><br />CourtneyCDKJacobsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15612608037267663825noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5746173806126403959.post-67257064076316724992011-04-27T16:14:16.588-07:002011-04-27T16:14:16.588-07:00But what then do with do with the fact that Tolkie...But what then do with do with the fact that Tolkien attributes this mythology not to the Anglo-Saxons as such, but to the Elves? You do a very nice job articulating the puzzle (how to have both Valar and God), but I'm not sure I see how "flattening" out the history helps us resolve the paradox of polytheism vs. monotheism when Tolkien seems to go out of his way to make the Elvish story clearly monotheistic. Are you suggesting something other than the intermingling of traditions that took place during the conversion of England to Christianity?<br /><br />RLFB"Tolkien: Medieval and Modern"https://www.blogger.com/profile/04348913969813157482noreply@blogger.com