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Eru (the One), also called Ilúvatar (the Father of All), is the name in the legendarium of J.R.R. Tolkien for the supreme God, the creator of the angels ( Ainur) and the universe ( Eä). He is the single omnipotent creator, but has delegated most direct action within Eä to the Ainur, including the shaping of the Earth ( Arda) itself. Eru is an important part of the stories of The Silmarillion but is not mentioned by name in Tolkien's most famous works, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings (He is alluded to as "the One" in the part of LotR's Appendix A that speaks of the downfall of Númenor). 1 Eru as Creator God
Elves and Men were created by Eru directly, without delegation to the Ainur, and they are therefore called "Children of Ilúvatar" (Eruhini). The Dwarves were "adopted" by Eru in the sense that they were created by Aule but given sapienceSapience is the ability of an organism or entity to act with intelligence. Sapience is synonymous with some usages of the term sentient, though the two are not exactly equal: sentience is the ability to sense or feel, while sapience is the ability to thin by Eru. Animals and plants were probably fashioned by Ainur after themes set out by Eru in the Music of the Ainur, although this is questionable in cases where animals exhibit sapience, as in the case of HuanTolkien's fictional universe of Middle-earth, Huan was a great Hound. Huan was given by the Vala Orome the Hunter to his friend Celegorm, one of the Sons of Feanor. Huan was as large as a small horse, and accompanied Celegorm on his huntings. When the Nol, or the Eagles in the Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit.
2 Tolkien on Eru
Tolkien understood Eru not as a "fictional deity" but as a name in a fictional language for the actual monotheisticMonotheism is the belief in a single, universal, all-encompassing deity. Various forms of monotheism exist, including: Theism, a term that usually refers to the belief in a 'personal' god, that is, a single god with a distinctive personality, rather than God, although in a mythological or fictional context. In a draft of a letter of 1954Events January events January 14 The Hudson Motor Car Company merges with Nash-Kelvinator forming the American Motors Corporation January 14 Marilyn Monroe weds Joe DiMaggio. January 15 Mau Mau leader Waruhiu Itote is captured in Kenya January 20 The Nati to Peter Hastings, manager of the Newman Bookshop (a Catholic bookshop in OxfordThis is about the city of Oxford in England. See also other meanings, including other cities. Oxford is a city and local government district in Oxfordshire, England, with a population of 134,248 ( 2001 census). Its latitude and longitude are 51°45'07" N a), Tolkien defended non-orthodox aspects as rightly within the scope of his mythology, as an exploration of the infinite "potential variety" of God ( LettersThe Letters of J. Tolkien (BooksEnthsiast.com) is a selection of J. Tolkien's letters published in 1981, edited by his son Christopher Tolkien and the biographer Humphrey Carpenter. The selection contains 354 letters, dating between October 1914, when Tol, #153). Regarding the possibility of reincarnationReincarnation also called metempsychosis or transmigration of souls is the rebirth in another body (after physical death), of some critical part of a person's personality or spirit. Its occurrence is a central tenet of Hinduism, Jainism, some African reli of Elves, Hastings had written:
- God has not used that device in any of the creations of which we have knowledge, and it seems to me to be stepping beyond the position of a sub-creator to produce it as an actual working thing, because a sub-creator, when dealing with the relations between creator and created, should use those channels which he knows the creator to have used already
Tolkien's reply contains an explanation of his view of the relation of (divine) Creation to (human) sub-creation:
- We differ entirely about the nature of the relation of sub-creation to Creation. I should have said that liberation 'from the channels the creator is known to have used already' is the fundamental function of 'sub-creation', a tribute to the infinity of His potential variety [...] I am not a metaphysician; but I should have thought it a curious metaphysic — there is not one but many, indeed potentially innumerable ones — that declared the channels known (in such a finite corner as we have any inkling of) to have been used, are the only possible ones, or efficacious, or possibly acceptable to and by Him!
Hastings had also criticised the description of Tom Bombadil by Goldberry: "He is", saying that this seemed to imply that Bombadil was God.
Tolkien replied to this:
- As for Tom Bombadil, I really do think you are being too serious, besides missing the point. [...] You rather remind me of a Protestant relation who to me objected to the (modern) Catholic habit of calling priests Father, because the name father belonged only to the First Person.
