Tolkien's Epic Genius: The Ring, Force, and Redemption
by Stuart Busenitz
Feast of St Martin the Confessor, Pope of Rome; Holy Monday in East
Anno Domini 2020, April 13
TOLKIEN'S HEROIC
hobbits are celebrated and honored both by the powerful and mighty within the tale and by serious critics and casual readers outside the text. Gandalf, Galadriel, Elrond, and Aragorn all pause to acknowledge the goodness, truth, and beauty exemplified by Frodo, Sam, and their companions. Amidst the clash of good and evil, light and darkness, beauty and horror, the hobbits shine brighter and resist longer than the seemingly more powerful agents of good. Their virtue is constructed on generations of sacramental living wherein the simple pleasures and beauty of life are enjoyed in their proper portion and order resulting in a formidable buffer between the allure of absolute force presented in the possession of the one ring.
The magnetism of the one ring does not impact Frodo and his kinsman in the same manner as the ancient and powerful. For Gandalf, Galadriel, Aragorn, and Boromir, the ring presents a terrible temptation to enact their construct of goodness with sheer force and coercion, while the hobbits seem to be almost impervious to this enticement. Even when Sam is faced with a direct temptation from the ring, he envisions transforming the dark lands of Mordor into green gardens (cf. The Return of the King, Houghton Mifflin, 1955, p. 177). The simple goodness imbedded in Sam’s hobbit sense displays a reality rooted in sacramental living. Through his understanding of goodness in its proper order, Sam is able to resist the allure of the ring, thereby enabling him to enact his dream on a smaller scale when he helps restore the Shire with Galadriel’s gift. The smallness of hobbits, both in stature and power, allows them to navigate through the perils of darkest temptations that the mighty dare not tread. The humility grown in sacramental living—wherein the eating of simple food and excellent beer is more to be wished than the ambition of an emperor—allows darkness, ugliness, and evil to engulf its own destruction.
The contrast between Frodo and Gollum illustrates this point beautifully. Gollum is reduced by the ring’s power because he is attracted to the “shortcuts” to goodness. Gollum is able to steal and kill for his own gain using the power of the ring resulting in a life in cold, damp, darkness. Desiring life, Gollum receives prolonged life wherein the force of the ring reduces him to a pathetic material thing with a will so corrupted that the penetration of the slightest light causes him to writhe in anguish.
In her essay “The Iliad, or the Poem of Force” Simone Weil defines force as “that x
that turns anybody who is subjected to it into a thing” (Univ. of Chicago Press, 2003, p. 6). She goes on to clarify that force can create a thing out of a human body before death: “He is alive; he has a soul; and yet—he is a thing. An extraordinary entity this—a thing that has a soul…It was not made to live inside a thing; if it does so, under pressure of necessity, there is not a single element of its nature to which violence is not done” (ibid., p. 7). Gollum reflects this assertion most poignantly. Instead of sheer force destroying in a single blow, the force of the ring reduces Gollum over a long period of time resulting in a more tragic thing
than Weil’s description of Hector’s death (ibid.). In contrast, Frodo not only resists the absolute force of the ring, but he sees and attempts to redeem the miniscule part of Gollum’s true nature. Frodo’s humility, forged in simple hobbit living and tempered by bearing the ring’s burden, enables him to see beyond Gollum’s thingness. Frodo sees Sméagol and attempts to nurture the only real aspect left within the ancient and shriveled thing left by the force of the ring.
Unfortunately not all ends in bliss. The force of the ring is enabled to destroy itself, but not without leaving its scar. Frodo and Sam’s sacramental hobbit virtue enables them to enter the heart of Mount Doom, but Frodo’s will succumbs. Even within his failure, Frodo’s smallness, humility, and weakness—he gave sting to Sam—allows evil to envelope itself. Had Frodo been a mighty warrior like Aragorn or a demigod like Gandalf (or to a lesser degree, Galadriel) Gollum’s attempts to wrench the ring would have been futile. Frodo’s lack of sheer physical force enables the wiry Gollum to forcefully take the ring. This forceful action enacts Frodo’s curse resulting in Gollum destroying himself, the ring, and Sauron.
While many readers see Frodo’s failure as disappointing, Tolkien understood what Weil says about the scars of force (ibid. p. 28). The Lord of the Rings
has been falsely accused as escapist, but Tolkien’s reflection of the Greek epic’s struggle between destiny and the human soul is displayed clearly in Frodo’s permanently broken soul. Tolkien accurately displays the effects of misfortune on Frodo’s soul. While Sam redeems the Shire and marries Rosie, Frodo’s wounds never heal. His soul is marred. As Weil says, “Grace can prevent this touch from corrupting him, but it cannot spare him the wound” (ibid. p. 29). Ironically, while Weil pondered if the epic genius of the Iliad
would be rediscovered, Tolkien was in the process of writing a novel that would reflect both the genius of the Iliad
and the power of the Gospel.
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