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Virtuella's Idiosyncratic Literary Criticisms by Virtuella	9 Review(s)
Nafad	Reviewed Chapter: 4 on 7/26/2009
I have found the responses to your essay extremely interesting. One core Christian message in the Gospels is that our behaviour has consequences; and Frodo exemplified a character who believed that to the extent he was prepared to die in his quest. Thank you so much for your contribution which is so very illuminating. Author Reply: Thank you. It was great to have all these interesting comments. I would say, though, that "our behaviour has consequences" is a truism rather than a specifically Christian idea. That was part of my point I was trying to make, that if we want to call something Christian, it would really need to be something distinctly Chrsitian, rather than an idea that occurs in Christianity as well as in other traditions.

Linda Hoyland	Reviewed Chapter: 4 on 6/30/2009
A fascinating and thought provoking essay. Author Reply: Thank you. Thinking is always good. ;-)

cookiefleck	Reviewed Chapter: 4 on 6/26/2009
A friend just forwarded me the link to this story and I thought of you... thought you'd find it interesting. http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1906740,00.html?xid=rss-fullworld-yahoo Author Reply: Thank you, that was very interesting!

Raksha The Demon	Reviewed Chapter: 4 on 6/13/2009
Good points about Eru Iluvatar's essential aloofness from the mundane affairs of the world whose creation he began. I do recall that the Valar call upon him to cast down Numenor; so calling on Eru is a very big deal rather than a customary action. I'm non-Christian; and have always enjoyed LOTR. If, sometimes, I see Christian themes, I find they are not obvious, not preachy, and most can be universal, i.e. the importance of compassion and of hope over despair. Aragorn, who as an army leader and later a king at least fits the Old Testament model of the Messiah, likewise brings neither spiritual salvation nor a transformation of the social order. On the contrary, his reign reinstates and confirms the superiority of the Men of Numenorean descend over the “lesser” men. Tolkien has Aragorn call himself the last of the Numenoreans shortly before his death; which implies that his job was less to confirm the superiority of the Men of Numenor than to pass on the best of the Numenoreans to the Men of mixed blood who will come after him. At least that's how I look at his statement; which is odd; considering that Eldarion would have had some Numenorean blood, as would the descendants of Faramir and Imrahil and many others. It could be that Aragorn was the last man in whom the Numenorean "gift" of extremely long life was demonstrated, or at least the last man with that gift to die. There is no concept of spiritual salvation in LOTR, which is another Christian idea that one might have expected to find. I don't quite agree here; but I don't necessarily equate "spiritual" with "religious". It can be argued that the Nazgul (and Sauron himself) inflicted grave spiritual wounds to various individuals, through direct contact (Denethor using the Palantir) or the Black Breath (Faramir, and many others of Gondor and Rohan). Aragorn is able to bring some repair, some spiritual salvation; though not so much with Eowyn - he is more the agent of freeing her from the Shadow, by using the athelas, but it is Eomer whose voice she chooses to listen to; and neither of them fully heal her bruised spirit (Faramir does)... Another excellent and thought-provoking essay! Author Reply: Thanks for your comments. :) I think it might be tricky to define the term "spiritual" in this or indeed any context. When I mentioned "spiritual salvation" as a Christian concept I was thinking of the Evil that comes from within us. "Sin" in Christian theology is understood as "that which separates us from God." The examples you are giving are of an Evil that is inflicted from the outside. But, and this is one of my points I was trying to make, Tolkien very much projects Evil into the abominable Other throughout his work, so if we wanted to be psychoanalytic about it we would have to read those monsters and Dark Lords as the dark aspects of our own souls, in which case your argument would hold. Nice ambivalence, that. I like it!

Larner	Reviewed Chapter: 4 on 6/13/2009
One of the uniting features of the Inklings as they were originally constituted was that all of its members were attracted to Nordic mythology, culture, languages, etc. That Tolkien would construct a world in which there was a pantheon of sorts that is apparently modeled on the Norse gods is, I think, appropriate. Certainly in "On Fairy Stories" Tolkien made it clear that he feels subcreation is indeed the way in which we are made in the image of the Creator. And the only story he wrote that is truly a Christian allegory in any form is "Leaf by Niggle," in which his painting of the tree serves as a means of drawing folk further to the Mountains, which it is implied serve as the seat of the Creator. I found it interesting that Lewis borrowed the Mountains from that story for use in his "The Great Divorce." Author Reply: Thanks for mentioning these, I'll check them out sometime. I wrote this as a theologian rather than a Tolkien expert, so it's good to see the Tolkien experts adding their views. ;-)

Pryderi	Reviewed Chapter: 4 on 6/13/2009
Hi Virtuella I enjoyed reading this, potentially controversial, essay. I am, like one of your other reviewers, an atheist and yet I and others like me find Tolkien's works continually renewing and inspiring. As a result I certainly agree with the general thrust of your essay. There are two Tolkien quotes that come to my mind which I think might have added some force to your arguments. One is from letter No.131 In "The Letters of JRR Tolkien". It is in the famous letter to Milton Waldman at Collins when he thought they might publish The Silmarillion along with LotR while Allen and Unwin wouldn't. He is bemoaning the lack of an English mythology and trying to explain why the legends of King Arthur won't do for him: "For one thing its 'faerie' is too lavish, and fantastical, incoherent and repetitive. For another and more important thing: it is involved in and explicitly contains the Christian religion. For reasons which I shall not elaborate, that seems to me fatal. Myth and fairy-story must, as all art, reflect and contain in solution elements of religious and moral truth (or error), but not explicit, not in the known form of the primary 'real' world." The other quote is from "The Faithful Stone" in the section on the Druedain in Unfinished Tales. In fact it is the last sentence in that very short story. I do not know but Tolkien wrote it late in life and I think there may be a subtext on his own role as "subcreator". It goes as follows: "Alas! If some power passes from you to a thing that you have made, then you must take a share in its hurts." I am sure that sentiment would ring just as true to a believer in a benevolent creator as to an atheistic parent like me. There's also Sauron and the Ring of course.... Pryderi. Author Reply: Thank you for the quotes - it's good to meet people who are more erudite than myself... ;-)

cookiefleck	Reviewed Chapter: 4 on 6/11/2009
I'm an Atheist and a great admirer of The Lord of the Rings. I am alternately offended and amused (not in a good way) by fan fiction authors who reinvent the LOTR universe as Middle-Christian-earth, overlaid with overt Christian/religious references. I read your essay (Chapter 4) expecting something different and was pleasantly surprised. I haven't read your earlier essays. I was with you until this sentence: "The difference, I think, lies in the awareness of the god-like nature of creativity and in the conscious effort to contribute with one’s creativity to the overall beauty and variety of God’s creation, much in the way Johann Sebastian Bach dedicated his music to the greater glory of God." I think it makes more sense to say that the difference lies in the BELIEF of the god-like nature of creativity. And having said that, I think that - regardless of slightly different motives - all creative people are trying to create and share something that is either thought- or sensory-provoking (and not necessarily "beautiful"). Author Reply: "I'm an Atheist and a great admirer of The Lord of the Rings. I am alternately offended and amused (not in a good way) by fan fiction authors who reinvent the LOTR universe as Middle-Christian-earth, overlaid with overt Christian/religious references." Yes, I remember you mentioning that before. I think there are psychological reasons for this phenomenon, and at the heart of it is an insecurity. Some people seem to feel that it is somehow wrong for them as Christians to enjoy anything that isn't at least implicitly Christian. A mature believer, however, can enjoy all manners of things without feeling a need for them to have a Christian message. There also seems to be a notion that when an author, who is a Christian, writes a book, it must be a Christian book. To which I reply: If Tolkien baked a cheesecake, was it a Christian cheesecake? You know, I was wavering between "awareness" and "conviction" and I wasn't completely happy with either. I'll need to think about the word choice here again. I totally see your point.

Dreamflower	Reviewed Chapter: 4 on 6/11/2009
A fascinating examination. I too, think that some of the efforts to draw Christian parallels from LOTR are often overdone-- and in the areas you mention are the places where that "overdone-ness" is most likely to occur. I especially find it somewhat out of place in fic, where fanfic writers slip right on over into the area of allegory (which JRRT disliked). JRRT had in mind a "pre-Christian world" and his very reluctance to introduce any elements that might be interpreted as "pagan religious observance" contributes to the feeling of aloofness about his Creator-analogue, Eru. And yet by implication we are shown that Eru does relate to his world-- He is the "meant", the "chance if chance you call it", the One who saw that Gandalf was "sent back", and who rewarded Frodo's mercy to Gollum by Gollum's intervention. But He does not relate in the intimate manner in which we are shown in the Christian scriptures, because the events leading to that intimacy have not yet occurred. Frodo was not a Messiah; neither was Aragorn; nor was Gandalf-- yet each of them was what might be called a "Christ-type" in that they each embodied some elements which we identify as "Christ-like". As a Catholic, JRRT was familiar with the idea of certain people whose sanctification was a representation of Christ's qualities without making them a Messiah. There were many biblical saviors, prophets and kings who foreshadowed the One who became the Savior, Prophet and King. There are a good many overtly Christian motifs that are present throughout LOTR, but they are presented with great subtlety. Some of them are clear, others need to be "dug out". Have you ever read The Battle for Middle-earth by Fleming Rutledge? She points out a lot of things that I had missed over the years. It's an excellent book, although there are parts of it that I disagree with. At any rate, I think you have hit upon the most important thing: for JRRT, it was the act of sub-creation that was the most personally Christian thing about his work-- not just LOTR, but his entire body of work dealing with M-e and Arda. He felt, and often said, that there was another Writer of the story, and that it was not himself. Wonderful essy; lots to think about here! Author Reply: Thanks for your detailled comments. As I said, yes, there are some bits and pieces dotted about, but they fall short of the concepts as they appear in Christian theology. "But He does not relate in the intimate manner in which we are shown in the Christian scriptures, because the events leading to that intimacy have not yet occurred." That's a valid point in a way, but on the other hand, according to scripture, there is never such a time. God relates to all the patriarchs from the start. Thanks for your thoughts and for the book recommendation, I'll see if I can get my hands on it.

Erulisse	Reviewed Chapter: 4 on 6/11/2009
A very interesting examination of the ramifications of Tolkien's religious tenets and his life's work of creativity. Although I do not necessarily see all of these aspects the same way that you do, you offer some serious food for thought. Thank you for this contribution, I found it occupied my thoughts for quite a while and I suspect that I will be thinking about aspects of it for several days more. Author Reply: Oh, goodie. I'm a teacher, so I like nothing better than making people think. (Well, apart from chocolate, of course. And sweat-peas. And ... well, you get my point.) Thanks for reviewing!

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