XPost: rec.arts.books.tolkien   
   From: john@jones5011.fsnet.co.uk   
      
   "Larry Swain"  wrote in message   
   news:413B3E93.EBC4D7D9@operamail.com...   
   >   
   > I have to agree with Chris on this one.  I find it extremely   
   > unlikely that Tolkien, an Edwardian Englishman and don at Oxford   
   > with an extremely strong Catholic faith was in the 20s and 30s   
   > aware of, much less familiar with the Zohar.   
   >   
   > Rather, I think there are things that Tolkien would have been   
   > intimately familiar with that combined to give Tolkien the   
   > idea.  Christianity at about the same time as the Zohar is being   
   > developed also developed the idea of a "tree" illuminating the   
   > whole world--the cross, and there are indeed Anglo-Saxon and   
   > Latin poems and hymns that express this idea in just those   
   > terms.  It is a small leap to go from this tree giving spiritual   
   > "light" to physical light.  Second, in Genesis already before   
   > the creation of the sun, moon, and stars, there is a distinction   
   > between night and day.  A little speculation on how that is   
   > distinguished in Genesis WITHOUT the presence of the sun etc   
   > might lead someone who loved trees and plants to make an   
   > association with plant life and light.  Finally, it is not   
   > uncommon to believe and note that plants give off their own kind   
   > of light.  Put these items into the cauldron of story, anf   
   > voila, I think out pops the 2 Trees.   
   >   
      
   Another source would be another part of Genesis; the Two Trees in the Garden   
   of Eden (the Tree of Life, and the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil).  Of   
   course, these didn't give out light but they are a possible starting point,   
   perhaps.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)