Finrod VS Andreth - The Battle of the Theologians

[@reflectiverambling1148]

I absolutely adore all this and this story. And I love your point that it hits him that it's a long wait and no guarantee for renewal as it's always painted that 'oh it's fine 'cause eventually' " but at the same time I was always under the impression that with Andrerth there isn't a guarantee of what, say, we would consider as heaven. That mortals are just promised to stop living. Also I know this is strange but, healing the earth, to me also translates as just being fertilizer for it. I like the introduction of longing for the end of a melody. I'm totally gonna call you throwing out a TLK ref was for me. XP THough you're also pretty much describing TLK 1 1/2 :p

[@TheBrothersArda]

Lol maaayybbbeee it was a throw away ref for you hahahaha. Anyways, yeah this is a great story.

[@ZephyrOptional]

The main (non christian) pagan themes in Tolkien are: Death is a gift not a punishment, God specifically and reasonably creates evil, honorable suicide is not a sin, men and women were created as equals, no hell or eternal punishment, Men are tasked to heal Earth not wait for it to be remade for them. Humans seeing death as a punishment from God is bad human lore. Tolkien says in letter 156: “but the view of the (human) myth is that Death - the mere shortness of human life span -is not punishment for the Fall, but a biologically (and therefore also spirituality, since the body and spirt are interested) inherent part of Man’s nature. The attempt to escape it is wicked because ‘unnatural’ and silly because Death in that sense is the Gift of God (envied by Elves), release from the wariness of Time… a good Numenorian died of free will (honorable suicide) when he felt it to be time to do so.” The song of Eru IS “one big happy family” that even Morgoth plays his Devine role as Eru created him (and his evil) thusly. His unsent letter 153 to Catholic book seller Peter Hastings politely illustrates why and where his Legendarium diverges from his personal faith and that looking for too much Catholic allegory is taking his story “‘too seriously’ or in the wrong direction.”