I love the Lord of the Rings. My passion for it originates from watching the movies while I was too young to understand them, and then watching them with my brother Todd when I could understand. The interest grew in middle school, when I first read the six books compiling The Lord of the Rings and the prequel The Hobbit. I loved the books even more than the movies; and that's saying something. However, my love for Tolkien's novels spurned from the marvel of creating a whole new world, one with multiple languages, cultures, heroes, battles, and bad guys- and not from the intricate literary symbolism within the book. Which is just fine, but my unbound love for the book was not quite as understood as it could have.
Today, at work, that all changed. I'm currently rereading LOTR for fun. I brought The Fellowship of the Ring in my lunchbox I take to work. We were collecting bugs 35 minutes Northeast of Pine, Idaho (I'll talk about my work later). Lunchtime. I pulled out a turkey sandwich and a book and read about Rivendell, and the council of Elrond. The description of Frodo showing Bilbo the one ring in Rivendell hit me like a wrecking ball."Slowly Frodo drew out the Ring... To his distress and amazement he found he was no longer looking at Bilbo; a shadow seemed to have fallen between them, and through it he found a little wrinkled creature with a hungry face and bony groping hands... the music and singing round them faltered. Silence Bilbo looked quickly at Frodo's face and placed his hands across his eyes. 'I understand now. Put it away! I am sorry. Sorry you have this burden: sorry about everything... It can't be helped.'"
Please tell me you read that. These words reminded me of two things:
1. J.R.R. Tolkien was good friends with C.S. Lewis, and they were both devout Christians
2. A line from Fleetwood Mac's "Dreams", which was in my head all day-
"Thunder only happens when it's raining"
I realized that I was wading the shallow end of a 40 feet deep pool. The One Ring does not only signify evil and that which destroys light, but more specifically the Ring is a literal translation of addiction and selfishness taken to the extreme. Isildur, Sauron, and Gollum, the three non-hobbit Ring bearers, were destroyed because of their twisted obsession with the ring. They lost common sense, and a sense of their own purity, in their duty of carrying the ring. They would all soon give up their own selves, like Bilbo: becoming bony, groping, hungering, and separated from a higher light, to bind themselves to the ring.
The ring is a band. a simple-looking, gold band. but whosoever wields the ring, will be bound to it. Tears them apart from the inside. Like an egregious relationship splintered by abuse, the victim becomes dependent and intertwined upon the perpetrator. It happened to all those that held it, whether innocent hobbit or beastly necromancer. This is proof of addiction, and sickened dependence. The victims throw out their own decisions for that of the ring, like Frodo at Amon Sul.
In every world we live in, there is a band. Simple in nature, lethal in reality. Some people are Gandalfs: much too wise to be encompassed inside the Ring's perimeter, but are called to higher purposes. Some people are Aragorns: they must assist and aid in any way possible those who are in bondage to the ring. And some people are Frodos: however innocent to the world, they are bound to the ring. They must do all in their strength to destroy the One Ring, to free them and those around them from the pestilence, the sickness that afflicted them for so long.
The fantastical piece of LOTR that makes the whole story a mix of heroic, saddening, and even disdainful, is that the dark power that binds all of middle-earth is thrusted upon a halfling. It isn't carried by a great warrior, or a cunning elf, or a nazgul, but someone least appropriate for the job. It's like a hundred elephants balancing on a tennis ball. An incredulous feat of will and power that thrashes the reader into every direction, immersing the reader deep into the book. However, the story of the Lord of the Rings goes deep into that which I still do not fully comprehend, so I will stop here with my shallow symbolism and redundant points. But, what I have learned from the book today has brought much more appreciation to the novels than I ever imagined.
THE LAST AND ONLY REAL IMPORTANT THOUGHT:
Look at the Fleetwood Mac quote again. "Thunder only happens when it's raining." Darkness, sadness, grief only occurs when you put on your One Ring- whatever restricts you from your full potential. Every person chooses whether or not it should rain in their lives. If you have a hardship equivalent to that one ring, you can either choose to become like gollum, or Isildur; give up on your own choices, give in to the ring. Or, you can be Frodo or Bilbo. It is each person's choice whether or not to give in to the One Ring. I've never really connected to the books so closely before, just wanted to share.
The ring is a band. a simple-looking, gold band. but whosoever wields the ring, will be bound to it. Tears them apart from the inside. Like an egregious relationship splintered by abuse, the victim becomes dependent and intertwined upon the perpetrator. It happened to all those that held it, whether innocent hobbit or beastly necromancer. This is proof of addiction, and sickened dependence. The victims throw out their own decisions for that of the ring, like Frodo at Amon Sul.
In every world we live in, there is a band. Simple in nature, lethal in reality. Some people are Gandalfs: much too wise to be encompassed inside the Ring's perimeter, but are called to higher purposes. Some people are Aragorns: they must assist and aid in any way possible those who are in bondage to the ring. And some people are Frodos: however innocent to the world, they are bound to the ring. They must do all in their strength to destroy the One Ring, to free them and those around them from the pestilence, the sickness that afflicted them for so long.
The fantastical piece of LOTR that makes the whole story a mix of heroic, saddening, and even disdainful, is that the dark power that binds all of middle-earth is thrusted upon a halfling. It isn't carried by a great warrior, or a cunning elf, or a nazgul, but someone least appropriate for the job. It's like a hundred elephants balancing on a tennis ball. An incredulous feat of will and power that thrashes the reader into every direction, immersing the reader deep into the book. However, the story of the Lord of the Rings goes deep into that which I still do not fully comprehend, so I will stop here with my shallow symbolism and redundant points. But, what I have learned from the book today has brought much more appreciation to the novels than I ever imagined.
THE LAST AND ONLY REAL IMPORTANT THOUGHT:
Look at the Fleetwood Mac quote again. "Thunder only happens when it's raining." Darkness, sadness, grief only occurs when you put on your One Ring- whatever restricts you from your full potential. Every person chooses whether or not it should rain in their lives. If you have a hardship equivalent to that one ring, you can either choose to become like gollum, or Isildur; give up on your own choices, give in to the ring. Or, you can be Frodo or Bilbo. It is each person's choice whether or not to give in to the One Ring. I've never really connected to the books so closely before, just wanted to share.
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