[billbears]

bump

[EternalHope]

The Wall Street Journal gets it.

[Valin]

Between his Oxford lectures on medieval literature, Tolkien invented a mythology of Middle Earth. It was published posthumously as "The Silmarillion" in 1977

Absolutely the best analogy of the Genesis story ever.

[RAT Patrol]

LOTR ping!

[tarawa]

Tolkien absolutely despised allegory, and I think he would have been severely disappointed in how we have chosen to interpret his stories. That being said, once the work is out in the public, it will always be up to the individual reader to interpret it however he or she sees fit, and truly can or should sway that.

[shezza]

Bump for later....

[HairOfTheDog]

Gandalf: "I am the servant of the secret fire, wielder of the flame of Anor. The dark fire will not avail you! Flame of Udun!"

From The Encyclopedia of Arda

I didn't really know there was that much uncertainty as to what was meant by that line...

I thought it referred to his Ring of Power, Narya, Ring of Fire...

Ring of Fire
Narya, the Red Ring

Timeline:

Dates:	Completed c. II 1590. Passed into the West with Gandalf 29 September III 3021
Origins:	Made by Celebrimbor and the Mírdain of Eregion
Other Names:	Narya, The Red Ring

Narya, the Red Ring; one of the Three Rings of the Elves that was originally granted to Círdan, but passed on by him to Gandalf.

Which is not to contradict the message of the article, that Gandalf certainly had power given by the Holy spirit, as an Istari, a spirit sent by Ilúvatar (The One) to Middle Earth to aid the Free Peoples of middle against the return and rise of Sauron.

[Dialup Llama]

Another aspect of these two films is how well they have fit in with the horrific, current events and how much comfort the first film provided.

How can you look at the massed army of orcs (from the east) trying to destroy the cities of the West and not determine just who the orcs really are these days. The orcs even have their own religion founded by the demon influenced, former holy man Saurumon who provides the ideology for their jihad... errr I mean war.

[drjimmy]

Peter Jackson, the director, appears to grasp all this. His films can't be called religious, but they contain important moments of religious feeling.
I wonder if the writer has seen some of Peter Jackson's other films:

Bad Taste (1987)
Four dim-witted men from the New Zealand National Air and Space Defense League arrive in a small New Zealand fishing town to investigate a report of landing UFO's and take on a batallion-sized army of aliens who have massacred the town's population as part of their plans to use humans as part of their main ingredient for their intergalactic fast-food chain.

Braindead (1992)
A young man's mother is bitten by a "rat monkey." She gets sick and dies, at which time she comes back to life, killing and eating dogs, nurses, friends, and neighbors.

Heavenly Creatures (1994)
Based on the true story of Juliet Hulme and Pauline Parker, two close friends who share a love of fantasy and literature, who conspire to kill Pauline's mother when she tries to end the girls' intense and obsessive relationship.

The Frighteners (1996)
A psychic private detective who consorts with deceased souls becomes engaged in a mystery as members of the town community begin dying mysteriously. While investigating, he is aided by a friendly doctor who believes in his psychic abilities and is hindered by a crazed G-Man, a woman involved in an old serial killing, and what may be the spirit of Death itself.

Perhaps Peter Jackson recognizes the importance of the Holy Spirit in Tolkien's allegory. More likely he recognizes a kick-ass line delivery by Ian McKellen as Gandalf.

[SkyPilot]

My 6 year old watched FOTR, and said:

"Daddy, Sauron is supposed to be Satan, right? And the elves are jus like da angels--right Daddy?"

Anyone who can't see the Christian themes in Tolkien is either blind or kidding themselves.

What I find interesting are the PC critics of Tolkien. Western-like characters are the GOOD (the Shire is very English, elvish is close to Dutch, etc), while the language of Mordor is a amalagmation of Arabic and Russian:

Ash nazg durbaturluk
Ash nazg thrakatuluk agh burzum-
ishi krimputal

Tolkien also describes the characters of Far Harad in very Arabic terms.