Paul List - Mount Doom: The Prophecy of Tolkein Revealed

Copyright 2022 by Paul List and Ali Ghaffari

First Paperback Edition

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PB ISBN: 978-1-956267-73-0

eBook ISBN: 978-1-956267-74-7

Printed in the United States of America

Dedication

W e dedicate this book to Mabel Tolkienwho died for her faith and in the process inspired the greatest author of the millennium.

Special Thanks

T hank you to Pauls parents, Fred and Ethel List, who introduced Paul to The Lord of the Rings as a child. Ali would like to thank his family, Mary Ghaffari, Reyna Ghaffari, Kaelyn Ghaffari, Natalie Ghaffari, Barry Martin, and Kinslee Sexton for their love and support during the countless hours it took to write this book, as well as his parents for their constant love and support. Lastly, we want to express our deepest gratitude to Ruth Dwyer, who provided hours of careful editing to our manuscript when we needed it the most.

I wish it need not have happened in my time, said Frodo. So do I, said Gandalf, and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us. And already, Frodo, our time is beginning to look black. The Enemy is fast becoming very strong. His plans are far from ripe, I think, but they are ripening. We shall be hard put to it. We should be very hard put to it, even if it were not for this dreadful chance. The Enemy still lacks one thing to give him strength and knowledge to beat down all resistance, break the last defences, and cover all the lands in a second darkness. He lacks the One Ring.

J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings : One Volume (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt), p. 51, Kindle.

Table of Contents

Authors Note

A bout seven years ago, I asked my very dear friend, Ali Ghaffari, to help me write a book, knowing myself as one who rarely has the patience or the focus to realize, materially, what is in my mind. Ive spent my life studying and thinking about many complicated things, and often my mind rests on metaphysical concepts regarding the nature of reality. Ive gained many insights, and these have enriched my own interior life and brought me great peace and joy because they have brought me closer to God and made me less dependent on this material world for any real happiness. Ive become less invested in the material realm of creation and more invested in the immaterial realm, but I have shared very little of what Ive found. This is not because Im particularly selfish or lazy. I just dont have the patience to write things down systematically. Shortly after starting, my mind races off to new things, connecting ideas beyond what it is that Im supposed to be writing about. As a result, I had written dozens of essays on a wide range of topics related to J.R.R. Tolkiens mythology that Ive shared with Ali over the years, giving him the task of trying to compile the ideas of my interpretation of Tolkiens mythology into a single work that brought the reader along a journey from the origins to the conclusions of Tolkiens work. This was a difficult process, but over time and repeated work, thought, and revision, we have come up with something of which we are both proud and which we hope would have pleased Tolkien and his mother, Mabel.

The result is a work that enhances the Tolkien readers individual relationship with the mythology. Rather than restricting the reader to a complete, certain, and rigid perspective outside himself, it allows for ones own reflection and meaning in a new and higher context of his own soul. Tolkien brings the reader deeper and deeper within himself to encounter the reality of his own being in conflict and communion, fellowship and combat with exterior or cosmological influences that are either benevolent or malevolent toward the soul. This will challenge the reader and make him uncomfortable at times; shining the light of Truth into our own souls often uncovers things wed rather keep hidden. When we deny any reality of Truth, we suffer from a deprivation akin to blindness, but far more debilitating and toxic. The wonderful thing about Truth, however, is that its not only revealing, but healing, and if we allow it, it can change our lives.

This new framework for interpretation opens new territory for the reader and for future writers to explore. Although we do provide some strong assertions of what we believe Tolkien meant in certain areas of the mythology, we do not claim to offer a self-contained and complete exposition of the stories, due to their individual applicabilitythe narrative can be uniquely applied and interpreted by each reader. Moreover, rather than being completely synthesized to a final tonic resolution, where the motion of the harmonies comes to complete rest at the end of the music, this book allows the music to continue beyond a final resolution and spiral out and beyond into time and space, propelled by the imaginations of others who find inspiration in this new and eternal setting. This, then, is the first phrase in a new music, a mighty theme which invites others to adorn and embellish with the gifts they are given to propel Tolkiens mythology further out into the depths of time, here among the innumerable stars.

Paul List

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For years, Paul would call me and tell me his ideas about Tolkiens mythology. Repeatedly, he asked me to help him write a book about the matter. Being incredibly busy with deployments and a new family, it took some time to position myself to be able to help him. Finally, seven years ago, I was able to devote some time to help. The project began with a bang. Paul sent me essay after essay, thought after thought, usually a single stream of consciousness that spanned many different topics. In the meantime, I read as many books about Tolkien as I could, recording quotes we could use for our book. After about a year of this, life took over and my attention moved on to other, more pressing tasks. Every few months, Paul would call and say we needed to get it going again and wed push through a bit more work. It wasnt until the fall of 2019 that we finally got serious about it. Paul called and I invited him down to the chaos of our home to pull the book together.

I will look back fondly at our time together in the writing of this book as I got to spend time with a man who has changed the trajectory of my life. Our long hours together often resembled the image of a farmer who would bring to a chef stacks of his choicest meat and vegetables and ask that the chef prepare a delicious meal. In the end, we have produced something we can both be proud of.

Over many week-long and weekend-long visits, we have feverishly written, argued, and written some more while the chaos of five children and two dogs swirled around us. We are forever grateful to my wife, Mary, and my children who were incredibly patient with us while we worked this out.