with evil in Tolkien’s work as “mere posturing in a rigged boat.” The truth is that “fortune” in Middle-earth, and in the world beyond it, is biased in both directions. On the one hand, grace is always available to those who seek it and ask for it, biasing “fortune” in the direction of goodness; yet, on the other hand, the fallenness of nature means that man’s natural tendency is towards concupiscence and its destructive consequences. If we don’t ask for help, we are bound to fall. It is in this