hn-classics/_stories/1956/12517423.md

created_at	title	url	author	points	story_text	comment_text	num_comments	story_id	story_title	story_url	parent_id	created_at_i	_tags	objectID
2016-09-16T21:18:27.000Z	The Fantastic World of Professor Tolkien (1956)	https://newrepublic.com/article/136543/fantastic-world-professor-tolkien	lermontov	148			114					1474060707	story author_lermontov story_12517423	12517423

All this is the secret information which Gandalf, after twelve years of search and travels, returns by night to tell Frodo. For, thanks to Bilbo’s inheritance, the harmless young Hobbit is now in possession of the Lord of the Rings.

Frodo, appalled, attempts to pass the ring to Gandalf. But Gandalf knows that those who possess the ring end by being possessed. And, while he is tempted by power his spirit is one of “pity for weakness, and the desire of strength to do good.” So he refuses the responsibility. No time is left, for Sauron is closing in on the Shire. Frodo flees to save his homeland, taking the ring and followed by three companions, while Gandalf goes his own way towards their next meeting place. Stone barrow-wights encase the Hobbits; ringwraiths, slaves of Sauron, pursue them and wound Frodo. He makes mistake after mistake and survives only though his own bravery or by the intervention of some unexpected force of good. Strider, a ranger sent by Gandalf, guides him and so at last Frodo reaches Rivendell.

For evil is matched and overcome not by superior power, but by the determination and the goodness of ordinary beings, ennobles by the assumption of burdens beyond their capacity to bear.

In Rivendell, the Council of Elrond is held and the decision is made to attempt the destruction of the Ring. But this, ancient folklore asserts, can be accomplished only by casting the ring into the fire mountain that rises in Mordor, the fortress of the enemy. The one who will bear it there must be chosen and after a long silence Frodo whispers, “I will take the ring though I do not know the way.” Next from the Free Peoples a fellowship is formed to help the ring-bearer: a man, Boromir, the three Hobbits, an elf, a dwarf, Gandalf, and Strider, now revealed as Aragorn, heir of the ancient Kings of the West.

The Fellowship sets out by a hunter’s moon and passes through increasing peril. A snowstorm drives them into Mines of Moria where Gandalf in battle with a dreadful spirit of the underworld vanishes into an abyss. Aragorn leads the company on to the enchanted beauty of Lothlorien. There no shadow lies, but the reluctant Fellowship moves on. Soon they are surrounded by orcs and still worse the ring begins to work its evil among them. For the unconquered cities around Mordor are under attack from Sauron, and when Boromir realizes that Frodo will not be diverted to their defense, he attempts in a moment of madness to seize the ring. Then, at the end of the first volume, Frodo realizes that he must continue alone. He slips on the ring and escapes followed only by his gardener, Sam.

So the Fellowship is broken. Aragorn aided by Gandalf, now returned from the dead, leads the company in desperate battles against the present forces of Sauron. Frodo, battling evil itself, is lost with Sam on the barren slopes of the Emyn Muil. There Gollum, who once held the ring, overtakes and plots to kill them. Frodo, instead is empowered to kill Gollum, but he remembers his own protest to Gandalf and Gandalf’s answer:

“What a pity Bilbo did not stab the vile creature when he had a chance.”

“Pity? It was a Pity that stayed his hand.”

“I do not feel any pity for Gollum. He deserves death.”

“Deserves death! I daresay he does. Many that live deserve death. And some die that deserve life. Can you give that to them? Then be not too eager to deal out death in the name of Justice ... even the wise cannot see all ends.”

So Gollum is spared, to guide Frodo and then betray him. Thus as the second volume closes, Sam is forced to abandon his master and, bearing the ring, move on to Mordor alone.

But Frodo survives, and in the third volume while the Fellowship wages a climactic battle to occupy the attention of Sauron, he accomplishes the impossible. The battle is won, the wounded remain, beyond hope of healing. But folklore proclaims: The hands of the King are the hands of a healer and so shall the rightful King be known. Aragorn returns from the battle and by healing earns his place as King. The Fellowship is reunited and parts in peace. The new age begins.

Its promise exceeds the wildest hopes of the heroes. But it is not for all to enjoy. “I thought you were going to enjoy the Shire too after all you have done,” cries Sam to Frodo whose old wound will not heal.

So I thought once too [Frodo answers]. But I have been too deeply hurt, Sam. I tried to save the Shire, and it has been saved, but not for me. It must be often so Sam when things are in danger someone has to give them up, to lose them so that others may keep them.

So Frodo departs, leaving Sam to raise a family and the reader to reflect on the meaning of Tolkien’s tale.

And of course it contains meaning. The Lord of The Rings is primarily story telling, but the universality and the timeliness of its plot give to it allegorical significance.

It is the struggle of good and evil that Tolkien sets apart, through fantasy, from superficial detail. Evil in the form of Sauron, is man’s rebellion against Providence, his attempt to become the lord of a world he did not make. For he who starts by forcing his will upon others, ends by destroying everything that he touches. Gollum is also evil, but not beyond redemption. He is the servant of power, spared out of pity in order that the compassion of the Hobbits may enable them to surmount the insurmountable. For evil is matched and overcome not by superior power, but by the determination and the goodness of ordinary beings, ennobles by the assumption of burdens beyond their capacity to bear. Gandalf is brilliant and Aragorn brave, but Frodo’s is the decisive will. And yet for all his achievements, Frodo remains unchanged. For Tolkien’s purpose is not that Hobbits should cease to be Hobbits; it is simply that they should understand and give their best.

Gandalf is the instrument of Providence, but a strange sort of instrument. His power is limited and less than Sauron’s; his interventions are decisive but rare; frequently he is absent when he is most needed. He is forbidden to dominate. For in the First and Second Ages of Tolkien’s world, the gods interfered in man’s fate and so obscured it. In the Third Age their emissary is present, but as a helper only. The Age ends with the destruction of the ring, and the time of man’s dominion begins. So when Frodo and the High Kindred, whose time has also passed, step into the ship that bears them to the Grey Havens, Gandalf is also on board.

Anyone inheriting the fantastic device of human language can say The Green Sun. Many can then imagine or picture it. But that is not enough.... To make a secondary world inside the Green Sun will be credible commanding Secondary Belief will demand a special skill, a kind of elvish craft. Few attempt such difficult tasks. But when they are attempted, and in any degree accomplished, then we have a rare achievement of Art... indeed story telling in its primary and most potent mode - Tolkien

This standard, set by Tolkien in his contribution to the Essays Presented to Charles Williams, is met in his own work. He possesses elvish craft. He adds to it the scholar’s perspective and the humanist’s faith. And yet he never allows the magical balance of mystery and perception to be lost. For reasons his world of fantasy is more gripping than the events that occur next door, say at Ten North Frederick. For Tolkien’s fantasy does not obscure, but illuminates the inner consistency of reality. There are very few works of genius in recent literature.

This is one.