Moriah

Yep, I'm going to talk about poetry again, kind of. We were talking in class about allusions and as an example we read the story of Abraham having to sacrifice Isaac since it alludes to Christ's sacrifice (although since it happened before I would more of call it foreshadowing, but whatever) and I noticed something very interesting. The place where Abraham takes Isaac is a mountain in a land called Moriah. Now, I don't want to read too much into this, since I hate it when people over analyze things but, I found some interesting parallels to this story, the story it intentionally foreshadows, and the Lord of the Rings.

In a mountain in a place called Moriah Abraham is asked and almost sacrifices his only son (well, his only son through his wife, but lets not get into that). This represents the sacrifice of Jesus, the only begotten son of God, who died so that we could live (with God again). In the mines of Moriah, in a mountain, Gandalf sacrificed himself so that others in his party could live. Gandalf, like Jesus, also overcomes death and return as something greater and then cleanse the earth of evil. 

Now, I'm not trying to say that Gandalf was necessarily meant to by a type of Christ, especially not only because he sacrificed himself and then came back. If that was all it took Jean Grey would be the greatest type of Christ ever. I just think it's cool that the place where Gandalf does sacrifice himself is called Moriah and is in a mountain, just like Abraham and Iassac, which was meant to be a type of Christ's sacrifice.

And  to think that when I was 13 I got lectured by some potentially well minded church goer for liking Lord of the Rings because it apparently wasn't Christian enough. Anyway, fun though of the day. The name of the mines of Moriah. Coincidence or intentional?