Lord of the Rings

When I am reading a novel, I often get stuck--in a mood, a thought pattern, something--until I have finished processing the story and how I feel about it. Just yesterday I finished reading the Lord of the Rings series, by J.R.R. Tolkien, a series I hadn't read since high school. I watched the extended version of the films after I finished each volume as a reward along the way. I really ought to read more.

For some reason, the film makers decided to stray from the book's ending and just had the hobbits return to a Shire that was exactly the same as when they had left. In the novel, however, the hobbits had to chase off a large group of ruffians that had taken over all the hobbit lands. The villains had done quite a bit of damage, cutting down trees, clearing out the hill holes and erecting poorly made wooden structures instead. I can see the merit to both of these endings, though.

The film ending made the point that sometimes things never change--the people we fight for, the regular citizens never realize how close they have come to doom and destruction. In a way this makes returning heroes feel taken for granted. It also makes the entire adventure less real, as if it were all a dream and never really happened if there is no evidence back home of the adventures' travels. 

On the other hand, the book's ending of having the hobbits be heroes to their own people showed how much they had truly changed, how the battles they fought affected even those at home. The returning hobbits were equipped to handle the stress of defending their homelands, and everyone was able to appreciate that change. It proved to the whole hobbit population that they could defend themselves when necessary. Any culture, real or fictional, needs to have that heritage to look back on in times of trouble.

I also wonder if Frodo really needed to leave the Shire in the end and go off with the elves. Was the damage he sustained on his quest truly that terrible, hurt that no mortal love could heal? Sam went through as much as Frodo; perhaps his hurts were indeed different from Frodo's and could be healed through family and time. Are there soldiers like that too? War veterans who are so damaged they cannot stay home and must flee to some other land? I do not know any war veterans, or at least I have not heard them speak of their pain. 

I know there is some damage that only the Lord can cure, injuries that only an immortal, perfect being knows how to cure. But does that cure only come in the next life for these people, scarred by circumstance and the evil in the world? We all die imperfect beings, so in a sense, we all have to leave this world before we are completely cured. So I guess the answer is yes, the ultimate cure for our woes will only happen after we die, even if our woe is as minimal as missing the ones who have died before us and we are otherwise as perfect as we can get in this life.

Something else I find myself pondering is what would have happened if (spoiler alert to those who have never read the books or seen the movies!) Gollum hadn't been there to bite off Frodo's finger with the Ring at the end. Was the Ring's possession of that Gollum creature its own undoing, since the Ring was considered sentient and able to manipulate its victims? Or would Sam have fought with Frodo and thrown the Ring in the lava? Everyone admits that Sam was critical in getting Frodo to Mount Doom; I almost think Sam could have made the entire journey himself.

My favorite character has to be Sam (he was Frodo's companion on the quest to destroy the One Ring). There is one particular scene near the end of the journey that I must quote here, since Tolkien put it so well:

"But even as hope died in Sam, or seemed to die, it was turned to a new strength. Sam's plain hobbit-face grew stern, almost grim, as the will hardened in him, and he felt through all his limbs a thrill, as if he was turning into some creature of stone and steel that neither despair nor weariness nor endless barren miles could subdue" (p. 234 "The Return of the King).


I often feel like Sam, in my current stage of life. A long, seemingly pointless journey, with little hope and ailing companions. But I have also felt moments of strength, an incredible, unyielding power because of everything I have had to deal with in my life. Those days are a victory.