If anguish were visible, almost the whole of this benighted planet would be enveloped in a dense dark vapor, shrouded from the amazed vision of the heavens! And the products of it all will be mainly evil - historically considered. But the historic version is, of course, not the only one. All things and deeds have a value in themselves, apart from their "causes" and "effects." No man can estimate what is really happening sub specie aeternitatis. All we do know, and that to a large extent by direct experience, is that evil labours with vast powers and perpetual success—in vain: preparing always only the soil for unexpected good to sprout in.
J.R.R. Tolkien, Letters (Letter 64, 10 April 1944 to his son Christopher), p. 76
This Tolkien passage reminds me of Sam's star of hope in the "Land of Shadow" chapter of The Return of the King. Perhaps a hint of the "eucatastrophe."
ReplyDeleteIt does seem to be a common feature of Tolkien's thought; the Ainulindale has something like it as well.
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