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 Posted: Sun Sep 13, 2009 10:09 am
Anyone want to discuss the Christian values and stories that J. R. R. Tolkien included in his books?
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Posted: Sun Sep 13, 2009 10:11 am
Um, well, I think that the ring, could be interpreted as the fruit of knowledge.
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Posted: Sun Sep 13, 2009 10:17 am
Vamp C Um, well, I think that the ring, could be interpreted as the fruit of knowledge. Yeah, I thought of it as a sort of temptation of power. You know, they're all wanting it, but if they get it, they are corrupted by it.
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Posted: Sun Sep 13, 2009 3:06 pm
The dualism of Judeo-Christian tradition has been so ingrained in western thought that it's impossible for there not to be a certain level of its influence in many fictional writings. But for the most part J.R.R. Tolkien was influenced by Pre-Christian European tales, while he was a staunch Catholic he was fascinated by stories like Beowulf. I see a much more pagan influence in Lord of the Rings than I do Christian due to that.
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Posted: Sun Sep 13, 2009 9:03 pm
i really dont see any major christian influence in his books at all
like Der said, his books were influenced more by polythiestic tales, myths etc
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Posted: Mon Sep 14, 2009 12:33 pm
Sheagorath_The_MadGod i really dont see any major christian influence in his books at all like Der said, his books were influenced more by polythiestic tales, myths etc None at all? I have to disagree there. While the story on a whole isn't completely composed of Christian references and I agree that other religions, stories, and such have been worked in, you have to admit that there are many things in the stories that people would relate to Christianity. For example, many people would relate the beginning of the Silmarillion to the creation story. I was just curious as to whether anyone else was seeing what I was there.
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Posted: Mon Sep 14, 2009 4:53 pm
I think that perhaps Aragorn and the prophecy about him could be compared to that of the Messiah in the Bible, but I don't see much beyond that in relation to Christianity. Gandalf and the other Wizards remind me of Druids from Celtic mythology, and the Elves certainly resemble the Irish tales of Fae very closely. the Orcs and Goblins are like tales of demons and evil spirits from ancient European myths, too. So I have to say that paganism and old myths influenced Tolkein's material more than Christian tales; however, morality and ethics is definitely evident in his writing. Good and evil are very clearly defined: Sauron and his minions are evil and Frodo and his friends are good. Perhaps the struggle between Middle Earth and the Dark Lord could be likened to that of Mankind's struggle against Satan and towards God. (I'm not Christian, I'm just saying).
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Posted: Mon Sep 14, 2009 5:01 pm
My view: you can interpret it as you wish. If you see Christian symbols in there, fine. Paganistic ones, fine. It may well be that it was completely secularly written... no one really knows, maybe not even him, now do they?
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Posted: Tue Sep 15, 2009 4:17 am
LotR is actually two different journeys, Frodo's and Aragorn's. They meet at times, but for the most part are separate. As such, there are definite morals which differ from one "story" to the other.
Frodo's is a tale of resisting temptation, and determination despite all else. Although Samwise seems far more intelligent than Frodo, the journey itself is very Judeo-Christian in its inspiration.
Aragorn's is different. There are far more supernatural encounters, lots of romance, and much more magic. It is definitely far more paganistic in its teachings and meanings.
Gandalf jumps around a lot, but its quite easy to relate him to the figure of Merlin, with both Frodo and Aragorn acting as the King Arthur figure.
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Posted: Wed Sep 23, 2009 1:37 am
wow i always though the ring represented sin/evil in you life how one thing can crupt one person if let alone but that we must destroy it in our lives, the longer we hold it the werse it gets.
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Posted: Sat Sep 26, 2009 11:09 am
Hahah I had this conversation just the other day. Personally I think Tolkiens books were influenced by Christianity quite a bit. After all he was a prominent voices for evangelical Christianity
There's a lot of examples I could give but here's an interesting one I thought of:
The story of Aragorn and Arwen. If you think about it, it's very similiar to the story of the fall of man. Arwen would be Adam and Aragorn would be the forbidden fruit. Without the fruit Adam would have run around the garden for all eternity, but he took the fruit and thus fell into mortality.
Arwen gives up immortality for Aragorn.
*shrug* just my thoughts.
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Posted: Tue Nov 10, 2009 8:05 pm
I actually wrote a paper on this a few weeks ago.
The ring is temptation- we do not have to give in to it, but we are follish beings who do so anyway. Giving into the seemingly endless power of the ring is sin, and submission to satan and evil.
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Posted: Tue Nov 10, 2009 8:08 pm
We could just leave this off at it depends on whos reading it
i saw absouloutly no christian etc influence were as another person might se nothing but christian etc influence, it all depends on the reader
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