In a message dated 2/22/02 9:56:27 AM, AndrewBarton_at_... writes:
<< Tolkein was a Christian
and I'd have hoped he would allow for the possibility of an orc overcoming
its background. No sentient being should be beyond the possibility of
redemption. >>
The reason JRRT didn't allow for redemption was that this was a pre-Christian world, and as a religious Christian he didn't believe that redemption was possible until Christ put it on offer, so to speak.
That's also why religion in the books is so vague.
It's worth remembering that the POV of the whole series is that of the hobbits. Much of the action takes place offstage because no hobbit was there. The understanding of what was going on is that of the hobbits. Bilbo gets information about past history while he's at Rivendell, but there isn't a single thing in the LoTR's main text that some hobbit doesn't "know."
Also, as a narrator, JRRT was better at describing good than evil. It's the transitory nature of even near-immortal beauty that brings out the best in JRRT. This, too, could be interpreted as the hobbit's POV.
For an example of a (shorter) epic that was better in describing evil, see Fred Saberhagen's Empire of the East.
Jim Chapin
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