(no subject)

[martasfic]

I've started rereading the Silmarillion on a bit of a whim ('tis the season....) and I've been thinking about the Ainulindale. 

Specifically: why did Iluvatar "expound the theme" of the Song to the Ainur, rather than performing it himself, or indeed just having it exist in His Mind. What's the advantage of involving the Ainur, who seem to have been created particularly for this purpose? Broadly speaking, I mean — their role seems to be to take the general theme Iluvatar revealed to them and instantiate it, to give it a kind of reality. And obviously reality is better than merely conceptual/hypothetical in several important ways, but what's the value in doing this through third parties?

I have my theories drawing from some neoplatonic philosophy, and am toying with the idea of writing an essay on it all, just because I miss playing with the philosophy. But I'd be interested in what other people think, if anyone has any thoughts.

(*waves*, btw. I do realize I've been AWOL....)

Comments

[ericadawn16.livejournal.com]

Hmm, well...

Obviously, from a storytelling perspective, that's just the way you do things: God had his angels, Titan had his kids, Ymir begat others, etc

From practicality, it probably expends a lot of energy and time. In the long run, these new creatures and environments might take up a lot of time like when someone creates a Minecraft server and realizes there's so much to it that they need help.
By being involved in the creation in the first place...instead of bought in later like many archetypal tales...it not only gives them a more intimate knowledge but it also creates a kind of ownership; giving them more incentive to do their job. This has mixed results, like Yavanna making the Ents as retaliation at her specific wards being destroyed by the future Dwarves.

I actually thought it made more sense although I suppose there's some religious and political thoughts involved, too. Protestantism focuses on the holy trinity but Tolkien was Catholic where God also has all these specific saints that people can pray to with equal effect as to just praying to God for protestants. Catholicism is set up more like what he ended up doing as opposed to Eric Liddell describing protestantism in Chariots of Fire as a "benign and loving dictator".

Then, there's England. There's a single figurehead as the king or queen but there is the House of Parliament along with more local representation. Tolkien always stressed against absolute power, especially when bombs were involved, and while Aragorn was king, all the different groups had their own leaders, too. Even though he wasn't one...Disbrutist?, many of the ideas in the book could read as Socialist including everyone sharing in the creation instead of one singular creator.

[lindahoyland.livejournal.com]

I'd love to read the essay if you write it. Good to see you here. Maybe Eru wanted more variety in the music or saw the Ainur as different aspects of the One? I see the attraction to Tolkien of creating a mythology as I've loved developing the moon religion of Harad in my stories.