grimalkin, can you expand on the earth, air, fire, and water theme? There might be something to that.
Solomon’s raising a
demon using the Star of David is not a tale with which I’m familiar. It isn’t in the Bible, neither in the Tanakh (or Old Testament) nor in the New Testament. I’m not familiar with it from my acquaintance with the Talmud, though that is admittedly thin. I have read material that references such a tale, but it was, as best I remember, medieval material on alchemy and magic.
Solomon
did participate in three festivals in Jerusalem. He did
not lead them, however: that job belonged to the high priests. (Solomon’s descendant
King Uzziah burned incense on the alter despite the instruction of Torah and the attempted intervention of the priests, and
for his presumption, was immediately struck with leprosy.) Only at the
dedication of the First Temple was Solomon an integral part of the worship: he prayed publicly, and at the end of his prayer, a cloud filled the temple so that no one could enter it. This clear division of priestly and royal functions in Judaism may well be the foundation of our separation of Church and State. The site of the Temple is the
Temple Mount, “Mount Moriah”, in Jerusalem. Occasionally archeologists will find bits and pieces of Solomon’s First Temple. (The
Second Temple was built by
Herod the Great; Jesus was alive during its construction: this building is the temple described in the New Testament.)
The three festivals are
Passover (Pesach; Easter in Christianity),
Shavuot (the First Fruits; Pentecost in Christianity), and the third begins with
Rosh Hashanah (called Yom Teruah in Torah, Feast of Trumpets, beginning of the liturgical year) and ends with
Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, the holiest day in Judaism (no analogue in the Christian
calendar). Again, neither Solomon nor any other of
the old kings presided over the ceremonies. (Remember the fate of Uzziah!)
The
Númenórean kings, however, were
priest-kings. The three festivals were
Erukyermë (“Prayer to
Eru”) at planting in the spring;
Erulaitalë (“Praise of Eru”) at midsummer; and
Eruhantalë (“Thanksgiving to Eru”) at harvest in the autumn. The kings led the people to the summit of Meneltarma. Three
great eagles, called the Witnesses of
Manwë, observed these proceedings. After many generations, the kings grew jealous of the longevity of the Eldar, which they mistook for immortality, and little by little rebelled against the
Valar and Eru. Tar-Ancalimon, the fourteenth
King of Númenor, neglected the festivals; his father, Tar-Atanamir, was the first to openly rebel against the Valar, flatly rejecting the counsel an embassy of
Elves (and possibly of
Maiar) from
Valinor who tried to reason with him. 956 years after Tar-Ancalimon died, his descendant Tar-Palantír tried to revive the worship of Eru, but to no avail: his nephew
Ar-Pharazôn usurped the throne and took Tar-Palantír’s daughter, Míriel, to wife, renaming her Zimraphel. Ar-Pharazôn brought
Sauron to
Númenor (Sauron never dared to climb Meneltarma and enter the Hallow), who taught the
Númenóreans to worship
Morgoth and practice human sacrifice.
In
Middle-earth, there was no practice like that in Númenor. There was a little hallow on Mindolluin above the
city of
Minas Tirith, but only the kings went there. It was here that
Aragorn found a sapling of
the White Tree that he replanted in the Court of the Fountain. In a footnote in
Letters of JRR Tolkien #153, Tolkien wrote,
There are … no temples or “churches” … in this world among “good”
peoples. They had little or no “religion” in the sense of worship. For help they may call on a
Vala (such as
Elbereth), as a Catholic might on a Saint… The Númenóreans … were pure monotheists. But there was no temple in Númenor (until Sauron introduced the cult of Morgoth). The top of the … Meneltarma … was dedicated to Eru, … and there at any time privately, and at certain times publicly,
God was invoked, praised, and adored… But Númenor … was destroyed [along with] the Mountain…, and there was no substitute. Among the … remnants of
the Faithful…, religion as divine worship … seems to have played a small part; though a glimpse of it is caught in
Faramir’s remark on “grace at meat”.
I am very interested in your view on earth, air, fire, and water. That theme appears in the Three Elven Rings:
Vilya (air,
Elrond’s ring), Nenya (water,
Galadriel’s ring), and
Narya (fire,
Gandalf’s ring), and
the One Ring (earth). In
Morgoth’s Ring, CJRT publishes his father’s essay, “Notes on Motives in
the Silmarillion”. In part
(ii), Tolkien wrote
Melkor incarnated himself (as Morgoth) permanently. He did this so as to control the
hröa, the “flesh” or physical matter, of
Arda. …[O]utside
the Blessed Realm, all “matter” was likely to have a “Morgoth ingredient”, and those who had bodies, nourished by the
hröa of Arda, had … a tendency, small or great, towards Melkor: they were none of them wholly free from him in their incarnate form, and their bodies had an effect upon their
spirits.
…Sauron’s relatively smaller power was
concentrated; Morgoth’s vast power was
disseminated. The whole of Middle-earth was “Morgoth’s Ring”… [T]he final eradication of Sauron … was achievable by the destruction of the [One] Ring. No such eradication of Morgoth was possible… Sauron’s power was not … in gold as such, but in a … particular portion of … gold [i.e., the One Ring]. Morgoth’s power was disseminated throughout Gold, if nowhere absolute (for he did not create Gold), it was nowhere absent. (It was this Morgoth-element in matter … which was a prerequisite for such “magic” … as Sauron practiced with it and upon it.)
…[C]ertain “elements” … had attracted Morgoth’s special attention… For example, all gold (in Middle-earth) seems to have had a specially “
evil” trend – but not silver. Water is represented as being almost entirely free of Morgoth. (This … does not mean that any particular … water could not be poisoned or defiled – as all things could.)
Tolkien did not invent these
concepts. They enter into medieval thought
through the Greeks:
Democritus rejected it, and from him and his school of thought we derive modern
chemistry and atomic theory in physics; but it has still profound effect in the arts and literature, where its symbolism, as you refer,
grimalkin, carries meaning. Where do you find this in
The Hobbit, which precedes the
Lord of the Rings and Tolkien’s writings in
Morgoth’s Ring by a good twenty years?
