B2MEM Essay: Finding God(s) in Middle-earth

[marta-bee.livejournal.com]

B2MeM Challenge: N41 on Deep Thoughts ("God")
Genre: Essay
Rating: G
Warnings: none
Characters: n/a
Pairings: n/a
Beta: just_ann_now
Summary: How might Third Age characters have viewed Eru Iluvatar, the Valar, and the supernatural more generally? Using the creation myth of the Dwarves and the exercise in divine fumbling that is the Akallabeth, I explore how Ring-War era Gondorians might have approached religion. (I also make some suggestions for how similar concerns might affect other LOTR-era characters, though my focus was on Gondor.)

Finding God(s) in Middle-earth

Comments

[just-ann-now.livejournal.com]

Thank you for this thought-provoking piece!

[marta-bee.livejournal.com]

Thank you for reading it. And beta'ing of course.

[allie-meril.livejournal.com]

Wow, this is an awesome essay, Marta! Fascinating insights into the shaping of Gondorian religion.

[marta-bee.livejournal.com]

Glad you liked it! Thanks for reading, Allie.

[zdenka]

A fascinating essay! Here are some thoughts I had in reaction to it:

Since the "Faithful" of Numenor were persecuted for their beliefs/rituals and still kept to them, I am inclined to think that they would have kept some measure of them even after reaching Middle-earth. They no longer had the traditional center for their religion (the King and Meneltarma), during their last years on Numenor -- did Amandil take on some of the King's traditional functions as religious leader, I wonder, or would that have been thought sacriligious? The associations with centralized religion led by the King would have become negative, but perhaps keeping to their language and traditions became a point of pride -- as with many real-earth cultures when others attempted to suppress them. Once Numenor was destroyed, the rituals associated with specific holy places could not be performed at all. In theory, Elendil and then his sons could have taken on the priestly functions once associated with the King of Numenor, but perhaps the people would have been uncomfortable with that (seen as associated with a former time and with memories of persecution and human sacrifice). What I'm trying to get at is, I speculate that historical events would have led not to an abandonment of religion among the Faithful-descended Numenoreans, but a decentralization of religion -- perhaps analogous to Judaism after the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem. I think your arguments apply to many of the Numenoreans who colonized Middle-earth voluntarily -- though again, some of them were Faithful who left because of the persecution.

That's my two-cents'-worth, though I am no expert and might be completely wrong. :-) In any case, your essay was food for thought. Thank you for sharing it!

[marta-bee.livejournal.com]

This, right here, is precisely why I love fandom. Different viewpoints stretching my brain.

I am not sure I see them taking on a role just like what the faithful did, because they aren't Numenorean kings, and in any event I think that anything connected with a priestly class would leave a bad taste in their mouth. On the other hand, I can also see some people wanting to reclaim bits of that heritage, sort of like the SlutWalks (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SlutWalk) that happened a while back, or how Afro-Americans have tried to reclaim the "N-word." (As a caucasian I don't feel comfortable even saying it in this context!) I certainly would love for some author to write your view on things, to see how things might have unfolded along those lines.

In any event, thank you for reading - I appreciate the thoughts.