comments that while there is no direct correspondence between any Lord of the Rings character and any biblical figure, Elbereth does resemble the Virgin Mary in one sense, in that she can grant favours and come to the help of people in need. Similarly, she writes that Sam makes the invocation Elbereth Gilthoniel! as he faces off with Shelob in the darkness of her lair, holding aloft the Phial of Galadriel, which blazes with (in Tolkien's words) an "intolerable light" as if "'his indomitable spirit' had activated it". Providence, predestination, and free will Rutledge considers the question of divine providence, predestination, and free will a central theme of The Lord of the Rings. The question hinges on the apparent contradiction between divine action and intention on one side, and human freedom on the other: if the divine power acts in the world, how can individual action be free? Rutledge notes that theologians have grappled with the problem, and that Tolkien's book can be read as an explanation of how it can work out in practice. The divine will remains almost entirely beneath the surface in the story, as she believes it does in the real world; but Tolkien gives hints throughout the text, most often in the form of statements in the passive voice about the causes of events which might appear to be luck or chance. Thus, for example, Gandalf says that Bilbo and Frodo were "meant" (in the passive voice) to have the One Ring, though it remained their choice to co-operate with this purpose. Providence is represented in Middle-earth by the will of the Valar. This can be detected but is subtle enough not to affect the free will of the story's characters, or the need for individual courage and trust in the face of an uncertain future. In keeping with that subtlety, the Valar are mentioned directly only once in The Lord of the Rings, when one of Faramir's Rangers of Ithilien encounters the enormous Mumak or battle-elephant of the Haradrim and says "May the Valar turn him aside". Fall of man Tolkien stated that The Downfall of Númenor (Akallabêth) was effectively a second fall of man, with "its central theme .. (inevitably, I think, in a story of Men) a Ban, or Prohibition". Bradley J. Birzer, writing in The J. R. R. Tolkien Encyclopedia, notes that Tolkien thought that every story was essentially about a