The Tolkien scholar Tom Shippey discusses the connection between the Valar and luck on Middle-earth, writing that as in real life People ... do in sober reality recognise a strongly patterning force in the world around them, but that while this may be due to Providence or the Valar, the force does not affect free will and cannot be distinguished from the ordinary operations of nature, nor reduce the necessity of heroic endeavour. He notes that this exactly matches the Old English view of luck and personal courage, as in Beowulf's often spares the man who isn't doomed, as long as his courage holds. The Tolkien critic Paul H. Kocher similarly discusses the role of providence, in the form of the intentions of the Valar or of the creator Eru Ilúvatar, in Bilbo's finding of the One Ring and Frodo's bearing of it; as Gandalf says, they were meant to have it, though it remained their choice to co-operate with this purpose.