Finrod, Andreth, and the coming of Eru

[Angry Hill Troll]

There's a very curious passage in Athrabeth Finrod ah Andreth (Morgoth's Ring: HoME X) in which Tolkien appears to be giving Middle Earth a much more explicitly Christian outlook than he seems to at any other point in his work.

[Andreth] How could Eru enter into the thing that He has made, and than which He is beyond measure greater? Can the singer enter into his tale or the designer into his picture?

'He is already in it, as well as outside,' said Finrod. 'But indeed the "in-dwelling" and the "out-living" are not in the same mode.'

'Truly,' said Andreth. 'So may Eru in that mode be present in Eä that proceeded from Him. But they speak of Eru Himself entering into Arda, and that is a thing wholly different. How could He the greater do this? Would it not shatter Arda, or indeed all Eä?'

'Ask me not,' said Finrod. These things are beyond the compass of the wisdom of the Eldar, or of the Valar maybe. But I doubt that our words may mislead us, and that when you say "greater" you think of the dimensions of Arda, in which the greater vessel may not be contained in the less.

'But such words may not be used of the Measureless. If Eru wished to do this, I do not doubt that He would find a way, though I cannot foresee it. For, as it seens to me, even if He in Himself were to enter in, He must still remain also as He is: the Author without. And yet, Andreth, to speak with humility, I cannot conceive how else this healing could be achieved. Since Eru will surely not suffer Melkor to turn the world to his own will and to triumph in the end..., then Eru must come in to conquer him.

'More: even if Melkor (or the Morgoth that he has become) could in any way be thrown down or thrust from Arda, still his Shadow would remain, and the evil that he has wrought and sown as a seed would wax and multiply. And if any new remedy for this is to be found, ere all is ended, any new light to oppose the shadow, or any medicine for the wounds: then it must, I deem, come from without.'

Is Tolkien saying that at some point in the future (at least in Finrod's view) a Christ-figure (an incarnation of Eru) will come to ME and set things aright? Of course in the actual casting out of Morgoth from Arda, Eru didn't personally intervene, as Finrod seems to imagine. So in that event is Tolkien saying that that is the difference between ME and Christianity: that Eru isn't going to appear in person, and thus there will be no foreseeable way for Arda to be cleansed of Morgoth?

[ October 07, 2003: Message edited by: Angry Hill Troll ]