He crawled back into the brambles and laid himself by Frodo’s side, and putting away all fear he cast himself into a deep and untroubled sleep. Now, for a moment, his own fate, and even his master’s, ceased to trouble him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach. as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. Yet amidst such apparent hopelessness, Sam - the peasant hobbit who, despite his humble origins, has gradually emerged as a figure of great moral and spiritual insight - beholds a single star shimmering above the dark clouds of Mordor. Even if somehow they succeed in destroying the Ring, there is no likelihood that they will survive, or that anyone will ever hear of their valiant deed. All their efforts seem finally to have failed. Near the end of their wearying journey Frodo and Sam are alone, deep within Mordor crawling like insects across a vast wilderness. Often the fellowship finds its profoundest hope when the prospects seem bleakest. They are called to be faithful rather than victorious. Their devotion to their quest does not depend upon any sort of certainty concerning its success. Such a distinctively Christian hope is not an explicit part of the Lord of the Rings, yet all members of the Fellowship of the Ring stake their lives on a future realization of the Good beyond the bounds of the world. Instead, it is hope in a future that God alone can and will provide. Such hope is not a general optimism about the nature of things, nor a forward-looking confidence that all will eventually be well. It takes the natural human aspiration to happiness and reorders it to the kingdom of heaven. Farewell!" The account of Arwen’s own burial contains another hint of resurrection: "She laid herself to rest upon Cerin Amroth and there is her green grave, until the world is changed." Here, as elsewhere in the trilogy, Tolkien obliquely suggests a hope for radically renewed life beyond "the circles of the world."Ĭhristian hope concerns precisely a radical change that breaks the code of the world’s endless turning. Behold! we are not bound forever to the circles of the world, and beyond them is more than memory. Tolkien’s epic trilogy The Lord of the Rings, as King Aragorn is preparing to die, he utters his final words to Arwen, his elven queen - words that contain a hint of resurrection: "In sorrow we must go, but not in despair. Tolkien obliquely suggests a hope for radically renewed life beyond “the circles of the world.” The transcendent is caputred, even the divine quality of real love, by having it issue in a pity and pardon utterly unknown either to the warrior cultures of the ancient world or to our own equally merciless culture of competition.Īt the end of J. Current articles and subscription information can be found at This material was prepared for Religion Online by Ted and Winnie Brock. Copyright by The Christian Century Foundation used by permission. This article appeared in The Christian Century, September 6, 2003, pp. Wood’s most recent book is The Comedy of Redemption: Christian Faith and Comic Vision in Four American Novelists (Notre Dame).
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |