Re-reading the Lord of the Rings, Chapter 8

Tolkien's main motivation in this chapter is obviously to furnish a poetic rendition of yet another British landscape, namely the heathlands, which he uses to touch lightly upon the light of Christianity, but he also continues on with his student analogy for one last time, it thus linking chapters 3 through 8.

As simple as the instructions of wisdom may be, they are not easily followed by those who don't understand their significance. And any false step, however innocent looking, leads on another path, where other rules apply, so that often enough people are better guided by their instinct than the lessons of wisdom they've learned.

I'm not sure whether Tolkien is factually correct when he describes the change from Pre-Christianity to Christianity as the movement from final satisfaction to final relief, but that's his take on the barrow cultures, which, by the same reasoning, would also extend to ancient Egypt and Macedonia and everyone today, whose grave is a little too magnificent.