August 19, 2002

Re: Lotr and Christianity and a Few Other Thoughts
Beans

Thought I haven't been keeping up much with the debate lately, but I decided to give you all a visit and I came upon Danny's post on LotR and Christianity and he said something I have always thought was true, just never got it into words.
"I have always felt that Tolkien's Christian beliefs and ideals are reflected in LotR, but that he never intentionally put allegories or parallels in there. Previously in this same note he makes it a point to say that he wanted to create myth not allegory."
I think that is something we can all agree on.
Yet there seems to be that many of you who think that Gandalf represents Christ, etc. I was very surprised that anyone would get that out of LotR. It is a work of fiction, and sure, you do find similarities to life and the author's life, but LotR was never meant to have so much symbolism in it. You have to do your research before you start proclaiming things that might make the author roll over in his grave. Just because you found it doesn't mean the author put it there.
Which brings up a question that's been floating about in my head. I know it's really strictly directed to LotR but I just want to know what you think. Must you exegete (i.e.. Explain or critically interpret the text.) every book you read to find the true meanings of the book? Must you go looking into the history and situation of the book just to find what the author meant to put in there? It seems a little tiresome to do that for ever work of fiction, every song, and some non fiction we read.
I know some of the themes and symbolism in some books is very easy to find, but when it gets down to the nit picky kind of stuff (Gandalf being Christ, for example) it's a lot of work just to prove your point. And the only way to do that is going straight to the author and asking. But it's kind of hard to do when the author's dead. Then you are left go through all his history, letters, etc. to find something there that might just prove you thoughts. It's a lot of work, just to prove one little point.
Which brings up another question. If you find something in a book that the author did not ever mean to put there, are you wrong about what you think? Or, are you right to some degree because to you and maybe a few others it's right? Must we throw away everything we find in book that we were never meant to find?
I'm very sorry if what I've just said is hard to follow, but this is the first time I've gotten this on paper and it's kind of scattered.
And on another note: I no you're all going to hate me for bringing this up again. I know I never got into this subject very much, but I would like to say, that it is very clear in the movie that balrogs have wings. You just have to watch.
~Beans