e370117c   
   XPost: rec.arts.books.tolkien, alt.fan.tolkien   
   From: hayesstw@telkomsa.net   
      
   On Tue, 31 Jan 2012 13:19:54 -0800 (PST), calvin    
   wrote:   
      
   >But I'm wondering if Tolkien put Yule into the Shire   
   >culture not as merely a year-end festival based on   
   >Germanic/Norse tradition, but as a deliberate softening   
   >of what might be thought to be a pagan culture of the   
   >Hobbits in the Shire.  Before Bilbo, as near as I can   
   >tell, there was no knowledge of Eru/Ilúvatar and the   
   >Ainur, thus no religion at all.   
      
   Perhaps for a similar reason to that of C.S. Lewis for including Christmas in   
   the Narnia stories -- that it might have homely associations for the readers.   
      
   Quite a lot of Christmas cards have pictures of people in 18th and 19th   
   century dress, showing a world that is not now and probably never was. But it   
   creates associations in the minds of readers, and Tolkien clearly wants   
   readers to have those kinds of associations with Hobbit culture.   
      
   "The lord of the rings" is a Christian book, but it certainly isn't religious.   
      
      
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