Riddles in Dark Chambers
I just wanted to briefly note the name Riddle. Rowling and Tolkien Note that in both Rowling and Tolkien we "meet" Riddle/s in dark chambers under the earth. It is in the Chamber of Secrets that we really "meet" Tom Riddle, really find out who is is. It is in the game of Riddles played by Bilbo and Gollum under the Misty Mountains that we first meet the One Ring (a bit like the ring Riddle wears to identify himself in visiting his uncle Morfin, the same ring which the "destruction" of which burned DD's hand irreparably, and, if the "stoppered death" theory is correct, cost him his life ... ie he died to undo the ring - just as Frodo and Sam had to be willing to die to undo Sauron's ring.) Riddles in the Dark I have stated before that my thoughts on "Elendil's Sword vs Isildur's Bane" (in Tolkien) center on Revelation. If you want a connection with Harry Potter before I get further down, simply look at the number of Christ Symbols Granger notes in Potter and then read the second article number (the first paragraph of the first "chapter," entitled "Revelation Itself," the first paragrph/article being the preface) of Dei Verbum from the Second Vatican Council - where Christ is called THE Revelation of the Father, neither Scripture nor Tradition is "sola", they both flow from the one Word ... this is central to the Medieval Theology that is the background structure for Medieval Alchemy and literature. The One Ring as a revealer is seen in something like the dream Boromir relates at the Council of Elrond (in Mythopoeic literature, including the Bible, dreams are often prophetic and revelatory - Boromir's dream being about the ring itself). This is, I believe, how Tolkien thought of myth as natural revelation. Myths are "riddles in the dark" that, like the light atop Gandalf's staff in the mines of Moria, can be a signpost to truth in a deep dark pit of a world. But, like Sauron's ring as a revealer, they can be perverted into evil. It is NECESSARY to uncover the ring, and so myth is necessary. But when it gets set up against supernatural revelation (as in Boromir's statement at the council that he did not come seeking a lost heir, only the answer to a riddle), then the discovery of the ring can be threatening. It must be done (Gandalf is adamant about this, that the ring should be discovered and destroyed, versus Saruman's complacent statements that the ring has probably already disappeared for good), but it brings with it danger. Danger that those such as Denethor and Boromir will want to use a perverted form of myth (idolatry) as a weapon, rather than seek the fulfillment of pagan myth in the truest form of myth, Christian revelation. The same is true for Rowling. When the Riddle (Tom) sets up its own person/identity as an idol, it becomes the evil that is Lord Voldemort. Love, Christian Charity, is central. Tom Riddle is really the power of myth without the heart of the Christian myth, i.e., myth in the sense of Lewis' "Myth Become Fact", i.e., Christ. |
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