[quote]Silyak wrote:
[quote]dmaddox wrote:
[quote]csulli wrote:
[quote]furo wrote:
[quote]csulli wrote:
Tolkien
[/quote]
Why csulli, why?!
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Because the sonofabitch was infatuated with elves and halflings. Elves are hyper-effeminate and make extensive use of cowardly magic and bows. Hobbits are exceedingly weak and pathetic and make extensive use of cowardly stealth and trickery.
He even makes stupid hobbits like the focal point of the stories and main heroes somehow. The appeals to weak little children who want to feel like they can be important to by making use of weak cowardly tactics despite the fact that they would really be almost totally useless.
Fine, whatever. It didn’t appeal to me though. He made dwarves a laughing stock. They were like fucking comic relief the whole goddamn time. Dwarves! The guys who are strong and tough and heavily built and so stout and barrel chested as to be almost as broad as they are tall. Who grow epic beards even the most manly man couldn’t hope to match. I mean they’re almost literally powerlifters.
Who make the best and strongest beer and can out drink an entire village of a lesser race. Who wield the weapons of a true warrior, massive axes and hammers! Who have a grim, stoic demeanor and aren’t afraid of a good doom and never forget a grudge.
But no Tolkien preferred to portray them as inferior to the Elven Abercrombie and Fitch boys for whom he had a massive hard-on.[/quote]
Him and CS Lewis pretty much invented the Fantasy genre themselves. I understand why you see it the way you do.
Now I am going to go all PWI on y’all. There is actually a biblical reference to all Tolkein and CS Lewis’ books. The whole fantasy genre was invented as a tool to bring people to Christ. Good vs Evil, the weak beating the strong, the elves were actually Angel like characters. [/quote]
CS Lewis is quite biblical/Christian, especially “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.”
However, I wouldn’t say that Tolkien follows a Biblical or Christian mythology very closely. You can definitely draw analogies but the problem is that while there are many analogies they aren’t consistent as far as which Tolkien character/race is analogous to what in the Bible and also none of them are particularly complex and convincing. The most common and obvious analogy is probably Aragorn as the returning king. But that would mean that Aragorn is analogous to Christ and there really just isn’t much else in common between the two. The more reasonable explanation is that Aragorn was a king in exile reclaiming his throne.
This isn’t to say that Tolkien doesn’t have an obvious spiritual overtone or that there isn’t an obvious weak overcoming strong and good vs. evil. Those are quite pronounced but they don’t really point to Christianity and the Bible in specific. If you read “The Silmarillion” you get more of the sense of Tolkien’s mythology and world creation. Here Manwe can be seen as the Christ figure. However, once again the story is so complicated with so many gods, demi-gods, demi-demi-gods, elder races, younger races, etc. that any minor similarities to the Bible and Christianity are not likely part of a larger overarching analogy.
If Tolkien is really trying to make a Biblical analogy, the biggest inconsistency comes down to understanding which characters and people represent mankind. Obviously there are humans, but it almost seems that the hobbits are the people and the people are something else. [/quote]
My understanding of Tolkiens pantheon of “gods” and races is that he mixes the christian one with a norse/greek one.
Here is how I see it:
Eru Illuvatar( The creator/The one ) = God.
Ainurs ( Spirit beings ) = Angles.
Vahlas ( The greates among the Ainurs ) = Arch-angles.
Maias ( The lesser among the Ainurs ) = lesser angles. ( Gandalf, Sauron etc belongs to this chategory )
Elves = Elves from Norse mythology.
Men = Men.
Dwarves = Dwarf from Norse mythology.
Hobbits = The british agrarian middle class.
