Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you have probably heard about J. R. R. Tolkien, especially his most popular works of fiction: ‘The Hobbit’ and ‘The Lord of the Rings’. However, Tolkien wrote a much larger mythology BEFORE these two, ‘The Silmarillion’ being (in his and my opinion) his best and most beautiful work. Lots of texts he wrote dealt with topics that even mirrored the real world problems, especially religious questions: why would the good God (Eru Ilúvatar in his Legendarium) allow the Devil (Morgoth) and his evil to exist?
Tolkien did not take the fundamentalist interpertation of Genesis as hard, 100% history, though he did believe it is a wonderful myth (and he used that word positively, never to mean “fable” or “false story”). And yet, he did believe there was a Fall of Humankind - one has to exist, even if it was not eating from a literal tree. The text he wrote about the Fall is ‘The Tale of Adanel’, a text I think can be read independently, without knowledge of his other works.
You can read the story here:
I needed to post it here partly because of simple discussion, partly because of the hard YEC and the belief Genesis 2-3 must be taken literally, as I think ‘The Tale of Adanel’ convinced that doesn’t have to be the case. But that’s just as an addition. In actuality, I would simply like to see what everyone else thinks of this story. It is rather ignored even among fans and studies of Tolkien, yet I think it is one of his best works ever. It is a great, DEEP insight into human nature that, IMO, FLAWLESSLY describes so much of human heart, history, evil, and God’s own character in just 1,649 words! (Yes, I counted.)
Please treat yourself and read it. You’ll see what I mean.
My dad was a middle school language arts teacher and he used to read to my brothers and I before bed well into our teens. He read us this part of the Simarillion and we discussed the whole idea of retelling the truth of the Creation story in different ways (which is basically the concept of Mythos as a vehicle for truth.) I remember it being a beautiful story.
Our mom did that; we got the entire works of Rudyard Kipling read to us. I clearly remember one or another of us asking for The Elephant’s Child again, and we loved the way she read the phrase “the great gray-green greasy Limpopo River”. I don’t recall anything more profound than How the Leopard Got His Spots or our oft-repeated line “You’re a better man than I am, Gunga Din”.
So my mind started offering up comparisons to Kipling when I read this Tolkien story!
The story definitely lays out how a fall from grace can be
Thanks so much for this! I first read Tolkien as a teenager and still remember getting goosebumps at the return of the king. Still have the (yellowed) paperback set I read in the mid-'70s. Never read The Silmarillion, so this is totally new to me. Wonderful stuff.
I wholeheartedly agree with both these opinions. Tolkien has reimagined the creation story in a new framework, but as far as the science and theology goes, he nailed these first paragraphs.
Oh, please do! This story needs to be known by many people! Mention it in the article, in a speech or whatever you have prepared, but do mention it. It is incredibly insightful IMO:)
“But we were few, and the world was wide and strange. Though we greatly desired to understand, learning was difficult, and the making of words was slow.”
Just so that I could help a little bit, the exact place this tale comes from is ‘The History of Middle-earth’ Volume 10, titled ‘Morgoth’s Ring’. It is from Part Four of that volume, titled ‘Athrabeth Finrod ah Andreth’, an incredibly insightful and philosophical text in which the elven king Finrod and mortal wise-woman Andreth discuss the different (though equally bitter) fates of Elves and Men. This story is included as a note in that text.
Just writing this down out of help, so that, if the story is included in the article, it can be properly referenced:)
The references can be found in this article about the tale. I am new to this forum and don’t know how to ‘polish’ things up for the lack of a better term, but you can find the information you need in the ‘References Section’, under 1. (Though there it is said Note 9 instead of Note 11 - the latter is the correct one.)
And in my unpolished version:
‘Morgoth’s Ring’ J. R. R. Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien (as editor), Part Four: ‘Athrabeth Finrod ah Andreth’, Author’s Notes on the Commentary, Note 11.
This is not an explanation of where evil came from. This is only a way of blaming evil on someone and something else.
But I think that is the real source of evil – this blaming someone and something else instead of acknowledging our mistakes and learning from them. It becomes a bad habit like a drug, making us feel better when we are really not better but only worse if anything. And by passing the blame we create an adversary and give it power over us.
I remember reading that the concept of fairness can be found among chimps and possibly others. But they don’t make the next step to justice; their reaction to unfairness is revenge.
This reminds me of an article that a Roman Catholic priest showed me during my university days. It described a study that had been done which showed that Catholics who go to confession regularly have less stress and treat others with more respect. It made the point that if you hang onto something wrong that you’ve done by blaming it on someone else then that thing, and later more such things, will build up and trend towards worsening behavior. The difference the researchers pointed to was that those who go regularly to confession have learned that blaming others is a bad strategy.
I appreciate the link and followed up with everything I could find. This seems to be the book; the only thing I’m missing is page numbers. If you have a hard copy, I’d love that info.
I hadnt really made the connection, however, as i have seen the movies, i must admit after researching this a little, there are some inherent similarities.
What we do see is how the world changed as a result of evil/sin in the movie and the effect it had on Smeegal after he became consumed by the ring.
By possessing the One Ring, his life extended centuries beyond his nature, and he became deformed and twisted in body and mind by the corruption of the Ring.
Originally a Stoorish hobbit, born in TA 2430, Sméagol spent the early years of his life living with his extended family under a Matriarch, his grandmother. Around the year 2463, Sméagol became the fourth Bearer of the One Ring, after Sauron, Isildur, and Déagol. Déagol was his cousin, and on Sméagol’s birthday, they went fishing in the Gladden Fields. It was there that Déagol found a gold Ring in the water, after being pulled out of their boat by a large fish. Almost immediately, Sméagol fell to the power of the Ring, demanding it as a birthday present. When Déagol refused, Sméagol promptly flew into a rage and fought with Déagol over the Ring, choking him to death and taking the Ring as his own. Sméagol was quickly corrupted further by the Ring and banished by his people; turned by his grandmother out of her hole, he was forced to find a home in a cave in the Misty Mountains in around TA 2470. The Ring’s malignant influence twisted his Hobbit body, as well as his mind, and prolonged his life far beyond its natural limits. He called it his “Precious” or his “birthday-present,” the latter as a replacement in his mind for killing Déagol.[1] Gollum | The One Wiki to Rule Them All | Fandom
Smeegal originally looked very different…
Before sin
After sin (seeing light for the first time after his transformation)
The movie It does show a strong link with the ruin of the perfection of world and also of those who succumbed to the temptations of evil.
These include the battle of good versus evil, the triumph of humility over pride, and the activity of grace. A central theme is death and immortality, with light as a symbol of divine creation, but Tolkien’s attitudes as to mercy and pity, resurrection, the Eucharist, salvation, repentance, self-sacrifice, free will, justice, fellowship, authority and healing can also be detected. Divine providence appears indirectly as the will of the Valar, godlike immortals, expressed subtly enough to avoid compromising people’s free will. The Silmarillion embodies a detailed narrative of the splintering of the original created light, and of the fall of man in the shape of several incidents including the Akallabêth (The Downfall of Númenor).
Psst! @adamjedgar the movies are good. The books are MUCH better. The movies leave out a lot.
And then there is the entire body of fictitious primary sources the movies don’t touch.
Shhhhh. Whisper:
Read the books. I think you will like them.
A lot.
I was deeply impressed by the comparison between Gandalf (Jesus) and Saruman: (Science without God). Gandalf wins and Saruman turns out to be a fool and despote.
