4 ms·

Pretty sure that the GP is referring to the effectiveness of lembas. It's described as being extremely nutritious so that one bite can fill a man's stomach and

by Merad 6y ago

Pretty sure that the GP is referring to the effectiveness of lembas. It's described as being extremely nutritious so that one bite can fill a man's stomach and keep him on the march all day. I'm fairly certain that Tolkien actually stated that lembas is a reference to the Eucharist. No doubt he had experience with hardtack, but IRL hardtack isn't really known for being nutritious or pleasant to eat.

Mediterraneo10 6y ago
> I'm fairly certain that Tolkien actually stated that lembas is a reference to the Eucharist. I'd really want to see a cite for that. Tolkien was infamously hostile to any allegorical reading of The Lord of the Rings. Sometimes a fantasy epic is just a fantasy epic.
- cynicalkane 6y ago
  Tolkien both claimed that LOTR was allegorical and that it wasn't. Probably he was using the common definition of allegory in one context and the literary definition in the other. When Tolkien said he disliked allegory, he meant he disliked literary works that map directly onto some external meaning that was necessary for understanding the story. He thought a story should stand on its own, and, further, it wasn't good writing to try to force a story into allegory rather than let it take its own direction. But we also know from his letters that he purposefully incorporated religious (specifically, Catholic) metaphors into LOTR, which most people would call allegory, including Tolkien on some occasions.
- Merad 6y ago
  Was able to find it through Tokien Gateway (a really great reference, BTW), Letter 213: http://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/Letter_213 http://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/Letter_213 > From [Tolkien's] works one could deduce the Christianity but not perhaps the Roman Catholicism, except that one critic related invocations the Elbereth and Galadriel's character to Catholic devotion to Mary. Another saw lembas, which fed the will and became more potent when fasting, as derived from the Eucharist.
  - Mediterraneo10 6y ago
    From your link (written in rather grammatically flawed English) it is unclear whether Tolkien intended that symbolism, or if he was only relating that a third party claimed that symbolism in his work.

by Merad 6y ago

Mediterraneo10 6y ago

> I'm fairly certain that Tolkien actually stated that lembas is a reference to the Eucharist. I'd really want to see a cite for that. Tolkien was infamously hostile to any allegorical reading of The Lord of the Rings. Sometimes a fantasy epic is just a fantasy epic.

cynicalkane 6y ago
Tolkien both claimed that LOTR was allegorical and that it wasn't. Probably he was using the common definition of allegory in one context and the literary definition in the other. When Tolkien said he disliked allegory, he meant he disliked literary works that map directly onto some external meaning that was necessary for understanding the story. He thought a story should stand on its own, and, further, it wasn't good writing to try to force a story into allegory rather than let it take its own direction. But we also know from his letters that he purposefully incorporated religious (specifically, Catholic) metaphors into LOTR, which most people would call allegory, including Tolkien on some occasions.
Merad 6y ago
Was able to find it through Tokien Gateway (a really great reference, BTW), Letter 213: http://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/Letter_213 http://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/Letter_213 > From [Tolkien's] works one could deduce the Christianity but not perhaps the Roman Catholicism, except that one critic related invocations the Elbereth and Galadriel's character to Catholic devotion to Mary. Another saw lembas, which fed the will and became more potent when fasting, as derived from the Eucharist.
- Mediterraneo10 6y ago
  From your link (written in rather grammatically flawed English) it is unclear whether Tolkien intended that symbolism, or if he was only relating that a third party claimed that symbolism in his work.