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dreamflowerContinuing my quotations from books about Tolkien and his work.
Today’s quotes are from Tolkien’s Ordinary Virtues: Exploring the Spiritual Themes of The Lord of the Rings by Mark Eddy Smith. The book concerns itself with the lessons we may learn about life from The Lord of the Rings, with chapters on such “ordinary” virtues as “Simplicity”, “Generosity”, “Friendship”, “Sacrifice”, “Humility”, “Trust”, “Wisdom”, “Courage”, “Love” and many others.
The first quotation is from the chapter on “Hope”, and the reason I like it is that it explores the idea of Frodo as “Endurance Beyond Hope”. The passage it mentions takes place when Frodo comes to the Morgul Vale:
“Then they come to the Morgul vale and witness the vast army that issues from it, and his renewed hope utterly departs from him. ‘I am too late,’ he thinks. ‘All is lost. I tarried on the way. All is lost. Even if my errand is performed, no one will ever know. There will be no one I can tell. It will all be in vain.’ In the midst of the mightiest deeds, guilt may steal up to tell us it’s not enough, we didn’t do everything we could have, we didn’t understand how important our task was, and now it’s too late.
Overcome with weakness, Frodo falls asleep even as the hosts are still crossing the bridge. Yet when he wakes he finds that ‘despair had not left him, but the weakness had passed. He even smiled grimly, feeling now as clearly as a moment before he had felt the opposite, that what he had to do, he had to do, if he could and that whether Faramir or Aragorn or Elrond or Galadriel or Gandalf or anyone else every knew about it, was beside the purpose.’
Hope is not a feeling, it is a choice, and even in the midst of despair we can still choose to carry on. There is no greater hope than that.”
The second quotation comes from the chapter on “Perseverance”. It concerns the part where the two struggling hobbits have come to within fifty miles of their goal. My favorite part is the last sentence in this quote, and I always mentally add "especially if that hobbit is named Sam Gamgee."
“…Sam gives a mouthful of water to Frodo and goes without himself. He cannot sleep for thirst, and at this point he holds his last debate.
Sam is Gollum’s complete opposite, and yet they are much the same. They have the same devotion to Frodo, the same indomitable spirit and the same inner dialogue with despair. They have different answers to their inner voices, and that is the essential difference between them--perhaps the only essential difference. Sam hears his own voice tell him. ‘You are the fool, going on hoping and toiling. You could have lain down and gone to sleep together days ago, if you hadn’t been so dogged.’ His answer: ‘I’ll get there if I leave everything but my bones behind. And I’ll carry Mr. Frodo up myself, if it breaks my back and heart, so stop arguing.’
At that moment the ground shakes, and a flicker of light from Mount Doom lights the clouds. ‘The mountain too slept uneasily.’ It seems to me that Sam is vying in perseverance with the mountain. In a world where all things participate in the struggle between good and evil, even leaf and stone, it is as if the evil mountain is beginning to doubt its ability to prevail against a hobbit.”
Today’s quotes are from Tolkien’s Ordinary Virtues: Exploring the Spiritual Themes of The Lord of the Rings by Mark Eddy Smith. The book concerns itself with the lessons we may learn about life from The Lord of the Rings, with chapters on such “ordinary” virtues as “Simplicity”, “Generosity”, “Friendship”, “Sacrifice”, “Humility”, “Trust”, “Wisdom”, “Courage”, “Love” and many others.
The first quotation is from the chapter on “Hope”, and the reason I like it is that it explores the idea of Frodo as “Endurance Beyond Hope”. The passage it mentions takes place when Frodo comes to the Morgul Vale:
“Then they come to the Morgul vale and witness the vast army that issues from it, and his renewed hope utterly departs from him. ‘I am too late,’ he thinks. ‘All is lost. I tarried on the way. All is lost. Even if my errand is performed, no one will ever know. There will be no one I can tell. It will all be in vain.’ In the midst of the mightiest deeds, guilt may steal up to tell us it’s not enough, we didn’t do everything we could have, we didn’t understand how important our task was, and now it’s too late.
Overcome with weakness, Frodo falls asleep even as the hosts are still crossing the bridge. Yet when he wakes he finds that ‘despair had not left him, but the weakness had passed. He even smiled grimly, feeling now as clearly as a moment before he had felt the opposite, that what he had to do, he had to do, if he could and that whether Faramir or Aragorn or Elrond or Galadriel or Gandalf or anyone else every knew about it, was beside the purpose.’
Hope is not a feeling, it is a choice, and even in the midst of despair we can still choose to carry on. There is no greater hope than that.”
The second quotation comes from the chapter on “Perseverance”. It concerns the part where the two struggling hobbits have come to within fifty miles of their goal. My favorite part is the last sentence in this quote, and I always mentally add "especially if that hobbit is named Sam Gamgee."
“…Sam gives a mouthful of water to Frodo and goes without himself. He cannot sleep for thirst, and at this point he holds his last debate.
Sam is Gollum’s complete opposite, and yet they are much the same. They have the same devotion to Frodo, the same indomitable spirit and the same inner dialogue with despair. They have different answers to their inner voices, and that is the essential difference between them--perhaps the only essential difference. Sam hears his own voice tell him. ‘You are the fool, going on hoping and toiling. You could have lain down and gone to sleep together days ago, if you hadn’t been so dogged.’ His answer: ‘I’ll get there if I leave everything but my bones behind. And I’ll carry Mr. Frodo up myself, if it breaks my back and heart, so stop arguing.’
At that moment the ground shakes, and a flicker of light from Mount Doom lights the clouds. ‘The mountain too slept uneasily.’ It seems to me that Sam is vying in perseverance with the mountain. In a world where all things participate in the struggle between good and evil, even leaf and stone, it is as if the evil mountain is beginning to doubt its ability to prevail against a hobbit.”
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Date: 2009-03-17 06:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-03-18 02:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-03-17 06:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-03-18 02:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-03-18 02:00 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-03-18 02:13 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-03-18 01:55 pm (UTC)It's very interesting that you should choose to post about Hope, as that is our church's theme for Lent. I'm going to share this quote with our Pastor.
I always love Sam's speech about Hope in the movie - that there is something good, something worth fighting for, and that's why they are doing what they are doing. That's what a hero does, isn't it.
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Date: 2009-03-18 02:16 pm (UTC)I really do love this little book. It's not long or scholarly but it is packed with excellent examples of how we can use lessons from the story to guide our lives, and showing the parallels between LotR and Scripture.
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Date: 2009-03-18 04:47 pm (UTC)I love that. :)
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Date: 2009-03-18 05:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-03-18 11:31 pm (UTC)Tolkien once said that his books were about death, if they were about anything. And I think one of the ways this theme plays out is in the tension between hope and despair. It is certainly present in the story of Bronwe athan Harthad and Harthad Uluithiad. But it is also present in the story of Denethor and Théoden, in the story of Éowyn and Faramir, in the story of Aragorn and Arwen. It is such a powerful theme. Hope is faith renewed when one star shines down on you, handing your treasure to the King of your enemies, picking up the knives of your captured friends, following your nose, creating a diversion, or setting off on a fool’s errand. Hope, played out in little and large ways, is one of the things that makes this story so resonate with me personally. There have been many times of personal darkness when I’ve felt like Frodo slogging through the wastes, bowed down by circumstances too heavy for me to bear. It seems strange to say that a fictional character could give me hope, but it is true. I can think of Frodo and count my blessings. I can admire his struggle and borrow some of his strength. I can think of all the good that people struggle to do, and all of the people who, like me, affirm hope by their love of this story, and it does make me feel better.
(I wish I would have had a chance to respond to this 24 hours ago when I first read it. I'm so glad you're doing these quotes!)
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Date: 2009-03-18 11:37 pm (UTC)I just googled, and it's available on Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Tolkiens-Ordinary-Virtues-Exploring-Spiritual/dp/0830823123
I remember that I purchased both it and the Following Gandalf one several years ago at a Christian bookstore.
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Date: 2009-03-19 12:24 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-03-20 12:18 am (UTC)Oh. Wow. That one is so very special.