Inklings Forever Volume 5 A Collection of Essays Presented at the Fifth Frances White Ewbank Colloquium on C.S. Lewis & Article 30 Friends 6-2006 Dante and Tolkien: Their deI as about Evil John Seland Nanzan University, Japan Follow this and additional works at: https://pillars.taylor.edu/inklings_forever Part of the English Language and Literature Commons, History Commons, Philosophy Commons, and the Religion Commons Recommended Citation Seland, John (2006) "Dante and Tolkien: Their deI as about Evil," Inklings Forever: Vol. 5 , Article 30. Available at: https://pillars.taylor.edu/inklings_forever/vol5/iss1/30 This Essay is brought to you for free and open access by the Center for the Study of C.S. Lewis & Friends at Pillars at Taylor University. It has been accepted for inclusion in Inklings Forever by an authorized editor of Pillars at Taylor University. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. INKLINGS FOREVER, Volume V A Collection of Essays Presented at the Fifth FRANCES WHITE COLLOQUIUM on C.S. LEWIS & FRIENDS Taylor University 2006 Upland, Indiana Dante and Tolkien: Their Ideas about Evil John Seland Seland, John. “Dante and Tolkien: Their Ideas about Evil.” Inklings Forever 5 (2006) www.taylor.edu/cslewis Dante and Tolkien: Their Ideas about Evil John Seland Introduction Dante: The Divine Comedy When we compare the lives of Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) with that of J.R.R. Tolkien (1892-1973), As in The Lord of the Rings, The Divine Comedy is we find that, although they lived in totally different presented in the form of a journey.3 The pilgrim is historical periods and in countries culturally and Dante himself, who hopes to profit from his experiences geographically far removed from each other (one in and to return to earth and share what he has learned Italy, the other in England), their lives as well as their with others.