[Cleburne]

There are witches in Lewis and Tolkien, but they are evil and possess power that is quite real- but in the end they are defeatable, and the source of their power and the reality of their evil is never in doubt. Case in point is the Witchking of the Lord of the Rings. One of the nine men who worshiped Sauron and were given rings by which Sauron ensnared them, he held evil "power": power, at the expense of his life. A very nasty fellow, he was defeated by a woman and a hobbit: a working of the weak against the strong.

If the Witchking and the other Nazgul are not literary figures who exemplify the danger and evil of the worship and enamourment of the Enemy, you will be hard pressed to find better ones. And for that matter, while it is not an allegory per se, strong Christian thought runs throughout the Lord of the Rings, and even more so, the Silmarillion.

[sitetest]

Dear Cleburne,

"There are witches in Lewis and Tolkien, but they are evil and possess power that is quite real- but in the end they are defeatable, and the source of their power and the reality of their evil is never in doubt."

This is only partly true for Tolkien. The fact is, there are many characters in Tolkien who engage in magic or similar sorts of things. Many of these are the GOOD guys.

Certainly, Gandalf, Elrond, the elves in general, and even Aragorn have powers beyond the normal.

At least give Jael her due. At least in Tolkien, not all magic is performed by bad guys who get defeated by magic-free good guys.


sitetest

[Jael]

There are no good witches. No not one.