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Beleg
04-22-2003, 04:59 PM
That is not the voice that the Wise hear out of the darkness and from beyond it. Nay, lord, the Wise among Men say: "We were not made for death, nor born ever to die. Death was imposed upon us."


What was the reason behind this claim of Men? Surely, there is some reason (allthough in the Athrabeth Men do loathe to tell that to elves) what are your thoughts about this claim, and what do you think is the reason behind this claim.

2.
'I will not,' said Andreth. 'We do nor speak of this to those of other race. But indeed the Wise are uncertain and speak with contrary voices; for whatever happened long ago, we have fled from it; we have tried to forget, and so long have we tried that now we cannot remember any time when we were not as we are- save only legends of days when death came less swiftly and our span was still far longer, but already there was death.'


Isn't this claim appose to the general opinion? Men's life span was shorter before they reached Beleriand? Do you believe this claim to be true? If yes, then why?

3. But already we had our lore, and needed none from the Elves:

Why? Did the Atani learned most of their craft from the Dark Elves and the Nandor? or were they born with the knowledge of Middle-Earth? And if not then the development of a whole civilaztion is a long prcoess while the men achieved it in about three hundred years? Had the Vala or Eru already (if Vala had the power) enriched the brains of Men with the knowledge of Middle-Earth?

4. 'In that the Eldar would say that they err,' said Finrod. 'To us your claim for Men is strange, and indeed hard to accept, for two reasons. You claim, if you fully understand your own words, to have had imperishable bodies, not bounded by the limits of Arda, and yet derived from its matter and sustained by it. And you claim also (though this you may not have perceived) to have had hroar and fear that were from the beginning out of harmony. Yet harmony of hroa and fea is, we believe, essential to the true nature unmarred of all the Incarnate: the Mirroanwi as we call the Children of Eru.' 'The first difficulty I perceive,' said Andreth, 'and to it our Wise have their own answer.


What might the answer be? Since the Answer of Ingold seems so logical?

5. 'I will not,' said Andreth. 'We do nor speak of this to those of other race. But indeed the Wise are uncertain and speak with contrary voices; for whatever happened long ago, we have fled from it; we have tried to forget, and so long have we tried that now we cannot remember any time when we were not as we are

Lets look at it.

Men awoke in 1 A.O.S. (age of Sun)

Baran lived from 262* to 355* A.O.S. He lived to the age of 93. Seeing that he died at a pretty old age, surely in his youth people would have been alive who were 80 to 90 years old, and who fathers and grandfathers would be the first generation of Men. Surely from them Beor would have learned the old traditions and they would have been kept alive. And Andreth is only three generations on from Beor and she was born only after 5 years of Beor's death. So with regard to that the lore and earlier knowledge should have been transferered to Andreath. Not a lot of time and generations have elasped since the first begining of men, speically if we consider Andreath's claim that save only legends of days when death came less swiftly and our span was still far longer And Andreath here is talking as if ages of Sun or trees have elasped when really not more then 8 or 7 seven generations of men would have passed since the first awakeing of men. I just am not clear about the point. I am not sure i have made the point very clear, since i myself am perplaxed in which way to put the interogative question, but i'd like you to explain whatever you know about this topic.

Eriol
04-22-2003, 06:38 PM
I have only read the Athrabeth once, and therefore this may be off the mark. Also, I don't remember the Answer of Ingold that you alluded to. So:

a) the Athrabeth seems to be Tolkien's attempt to reconcile the Silmarillion myths with Christianity. Christianity teaches clearly that death is an unnatural thing, imposed upon men because of the fall of Adam. It is the consequence of sin. This is why St. Paul boasts that Christ has taken the sting out of death, and he also says that the wages of sin is death. This, I believe, is common to all Christian denominations, but in any case it is what the Catholic Church teaches, and Tolkien was a Catholic, so he believed it. Therefore echoes of this can be seen in Andreth's words, in the Athrabeth.

b) the chronology. Christopher Tolkien says in Morgoth's Ring that Tolkien was revising the chronology. There are allusions to the appearance of men still in the darkness of the stars, and that Melkor would have caused their fall before he was chained. This would leave the Three Ages of his imprisonment as well as the years of the sun to account for such ancient lore among men.

Sorry I can't give quotes, I don't have the book with me.

In any way when reading any volume of HoME we must take care to note that the published Silmarillion is in many places contradictory with the other texts (those of HoME). Christopher Tolkien had to select among several versions of each story in order to forge a coherent narrative. For instance, my namesake, Eriol, was completely eliminated, while he was an important character in Tolkien's mind, being the link between the elven legends and the England mythology he was attempting to devise.

Summing up: the "official" chronology of the published Silmarillion is not in agreement with the Athrabeth, and that is the answer for most questions of chronology.

Inderjit S
04-22-2003, 07:06 PM
What was the reason behind this claim of Men? Surely, there is some reason (although in the Athrabeth Men do loathe to tell that to elves) what are your thoughts about this claim, and what do you think is the reason behind this claim

Bitterness perhaps against their mortality. The 'mortality' of men had been existent since before their creation. They just needed an excuse, remember that Tolkien says 'All men are fallen', both in his Letters and in the Athrabeth.

Men's life span was shorter before they reached Beleriand? Do you believe this claim to be true? If yes, then why?

Yes. Looking at the age spans of some of the Beorian lords, they often numbered 90+ years, and Andreth comments on it. I think that in a way they had found 'paradise' in pre-Bragollach Beleriand and they could interact with the crème de la crème of the Quendi, the Eldar (As opposed to the Avari) and this had an effect on them. But Sador, Hurin's servant comments on this, the 'flame' (fea?) of men burning quicker when they interact with the Eldar:

In their light we are dimmed, or we burn with to quick a flame... Unfinished Tales; Of Turin Turumbar

This of course, could be a poetic reference to their low life expectancy in comparison to Elves.

Why? Did the Atani learned most of their craft from the Dark Elves and the Nandor? or were they born with the knowledge of Middle-Earth? And if not then the development of a whole civilaztion is a long prcoess while the men achieved it in about three hundred years? Had the Vala or Eru already (if Vala had the power) enriched the brains of Men with the knowledge of Middle-Earth?

The Valar, apart from Ulmo maybe, had little interaction with men, Finrod seems to think men are 'too great' for them to handle. Read the part about Andreth's fall carefully, and you will see how Eru allows them to make their own discoveries and decisions.

On Elvish help before they entered into Beleriand. It's is probable that any Nelyarin Avari would’ve taught them lore (As Tolkien comments on) but the Tatyarin Avari, who were not as friendly as their Moriquendi counterparts would've been unfriendly to them and judging by the reaction of the Nandor of Ossiriand, in which they said they would afflict men unless they left, they would've received little help from any Eriadorin Nandor, or any that they encountered on their journey. 'Of Dwarves and Men' comments on the kinship between the tongue of the Easterlings and the Easterlings and about various alliances between the Longbeard Dwarves and pre-Marachian tribes in Rhovanion, so they could've learnt lore from a combination of Nelyarin Avari and Dwarves.

What might the answer be? Since the Answer of Ingold seems so logical

I don't understand why are you using outdated names? 'Ingold' as a name for Finrod only existed in the pre-LoTR Quenta's of HoME 4 and 5.

Men awoke in 1 A.O.S. (age of Sun)

As Eriol said, Men were supposed to have awoken much further back, in Tolkien’s latter writings. I believe this is the case in the Athrabeth as in the story of the downfall Melkor puts on a fair semblance and the Silmarillion tells us that after his fleeing from Formenos and destruction of the Trees he could never put on a fair semblance again. Also the time-line for it cannot possibly allow for the men to 'fall' and then for some to rebel and migrate, and reach Beleriand. That couldn’t happen in 300 odd years.

Eriol
04-23-2003, 06:54 PM
Originally posted by Walter
Eating the "fruit of the forbidden tree" probably meant "gaining knowledge" rather than "loosing immortality" (which IMO was a mere consequence of the former), something that God had prohibited for his children.


Yep. That is why death is the consequence of sin. Death is not "sin", but the consequence of man's separation from God, and wanting to be as God, to quote the snake.

Furthermore I see Tolkien's ideas, as presented in the Athrabeth, exceeding the philosophical conceptions of Christianity by far...

:D Then you have a greater opinion of them than Tolkien himself, most probably. I am sure he would not call his philosophical insights greater than that... he would probably agree that "the wisdom of men is foolishness in God's eyes".

And I am not sure of what you are calling "the philosophical conceptions of Christianity" either, so I can't delve deeper into that.

Eriol
04-24-2003, 12:27 AM
Originally posted by Walter

I did not say or mean "greater" than the philosophical conceptions of Christianity, I meant "broader" or "wider", regarding to the considerations about the "eternal harmony" of hröa and fëa (within the confines of Arda) as well as about the re-incarnation or "re-housing".


Oh, I got it. Sorry then. You mean that Tolkien's imaginings are broader in the sense that it involved re-incarnation, re-housing, etc. etc. That is correct, of course -- since these things do not happen (or at least were never observed) in our world, no wonder philosophers (Christian or otherwise) never gave any thought to it. Elves surely had to do it, for they experienced both phenomena in themselves.

As for which God, you are again correct :D. That God, which did all of those things you mentioned. Do you mean you think he could have done better, as in "He is not as good as you would expect him to be"? Well, that's a whole new debate, and an interesting one. If the Guild of Philosophy is ever created I would like to discuss that...