ИСТИНА

J.R.R.Tolkien’s statements about his adherence to Catholicism give rise to the temptation to scrutinize his works looking for the ideas and practices distinctive for this branch of Christianity. The approach I propose implies the change of the perspective. I argue that the “natural theology” (Letters. Letter 165 to the Houghton Mifflin Co.) of Arda reflected in Tolkien’s Legendarium should be analyzed as complete and self-sufficient system of historical facts and inner beliefs; and as such it differs dramatically in some key points from Christian world-view. One of most interesting of these differences is the state of Men. As we have known from Athrabeth Finrod ah Andreth published in the Morgoth’s Ring, volume ten of the History of Middle Earth, Men by the order of Enemy rejected the Voice which spoke in their hearts and took Morgoth for their Lord and swore to serve him. So the Fall of Men came. Eru ceased to speak with Men, because they didn’t want to hear Him, but before that he told them that they in a little while had to come to Him and to learn who is their Lord. But Hurin rejecting Morgoth’s power to break him down declared the words that, as he himself was saying, was put into his heart in this hour: “You are not the Lord of Men and shall not be…”. The incredible sufferings of Hurin and his kinsmen was a kind of redemption of the Fall, performed not by God, but by a man. Thus the wrong loyalty was rejected. From the time of Hurin Men have been not fallen, thought fallible, due to genuine fallibility of all nature in Arda Marred.