Eleven Lessons From the Lord the Rings

 

I have always loved the Lord of the Rings (books not the movies) since I first read them. I was probably seven and when I got to the end, I was sad -- not just because of the final parting, but also because a whopping good tale was over.

Tolkien's stories probably seem a little dated these days. They move a little slowly. He didn't like to kill off his main characters. His descriptions of places are fairly long and odd poems and made up languages dot the text.

Maybe it is because of these things that I have loved the books so much, but I have also found that there is a wisdom and a Christian ethic that fills these books that a lot of modern fiction is missing. Other books may be more intense and drama filled, but they don't speak to me in the same way.

I have cobbled together ten quotes and what they say to me.

Life is not about battles.

"Victory cannot be achieved by arms..." --Gandalf

I think many people read the Lord of the Rings for the first time expecting to find pages rippling with magic spells and scintillating battles. While there are some of both of those things, they are a small portion of the books.

Our world and even Christians have lost track of what will bring victory. It is not achieved by battle, but rather by small people doing the little they can.

God is guiding each situation.

"I can put it no plainer than by saying that Bilbo was meant to find the Ring and not by its maker. In which case you (Frodo) were meant to have it." -- Gandalf

Tolkien made it clear throughout the story that there bigger hands guiding the story. Sauron and Gandalf and others are doing what they can to push events in one direction or the other, but Someone greater is making sure that at the right time a tiny hobbit finds a magic Ring.

That to me, is a very encouraging thought.

Kindness shields us from much evil.

"Pity? It was pity that stayed his hands. Pity and Mercy: not to strike without need. And he has been well rewarded, Frodo. Be sure that he took so little hurt from the evil, and escaped in the end because he began his ownership of the Ring so. With Pity." --Gandalf

Gandalf was responding to Frodo's upset statement that it was a pity that Bilbo didn't stab Gollum when he had the chance. Gollum had betrayed them and was dangerous to the quest. Gandalf's answer left no doubt of his opinion of the subject.

Kindness, even to someone who doesn't deserve it, yields blessing in the end.

Those who focus too much on the darkness brave two perils -- despair and desire.

"It is perilous to study too deeply the arts of the Enemy, for good or for ill." -- Elrond

"Didst thou think that the eyes of the White Tower were blind? Nay I have seen more than thou knowest, Grey Fool... For a little space you may triumph on the field, for a day. But against the Power that now arises there is no victory." --Denethor

The Lord of the Rings makes it clear that there are two dangers. Saruman, a very wise man and wizard, was corrupted through his study of Sauron's arts. He desired the same sort of power and prestige that he thought that path offered.

On the other hand, Denethor, Steward of Gondor, was driven to his own destruction by the sights he saw of the enemies of his land. Truly it is dangerous to meditate too long on the darkness.

It feels very appropriate to contemplate this thought for a long moment. It feels as though the righteous, in these times, have been driven in one of two directions. Either they are using the Enemy's weapons against him or, they simply despair -- the evil is just too great to be overcome.

These things ought not so to be.

Even the most evil men are not evil in the beginning.

"For nothing is evil in the beginning. Even Sauron was not so." --Elrond

The message is clear. It is not that there is good in everyone that will rise up, like Anakin Skywalker from the ruins of Darth Vader.

Rather, those who are evil have fallen because of the choices that they made. Those who are good are  on the right path because of decisions that they have taken. Integrity comes because someone chooses every day to follow the right path, not because he or she is inherently righteous.

Good things are worthwhile, even if we don’t understand them.

“He that breaks a thing to find out what it is has left the path of wisdom.” --Gandalf

Gandalf was responding to Saruman who has just told him he is no longer Saruman the White, but Saruman of Many Colors. Gandalf responded simply “I liked white better.”

Perhaps there is a need in us to understand the inner workings of everything. It is more important to identify wholesome, good, and pure things and cling to those, even when we don’t understand them completely.

It is the smallest deeds and lives that make the difference in this world.

“Yet such is oft the course of deeds that move the wheels of the world: small hands do them because they must, while the eyes of the great are elsewhere.” --Elrond

Human nature is to focus on great feats of athleticism and courage and to think that the course of human events is altered by these things. The adage of Mother Teresa rings true, we can not all do great things, but we can all do small things with great love.

The Ends Do Not Justify the Means

'But fear no more! I would not take this thing, if it lay by the highway. Not were Minas Tirith falling in ruin and I alone could save her, so, using the weapon of the Dark Lord for her good and my glory. No, I do not wish for such triumphs, Frodo son of Drogo.' -- Faramir

Faramir, brother to Boromir is a wonderfully noble character.  His relationship with his father, Denethor, is filled with tragedy, as Denethor clearly valued Boromir above his younger brother.

Frodo is attempting to find a way into Mordor when Faramir captures him and Samwise.  In this chance encounter, Faramir has the opportunity to take the ring from Frodo and bring it back to his city, assuring the men of Gondor of certain victory.

When facing the same decision, Boromir fell to temptation, but Faramir chooses against the temptation.  He cannot use the enemy's weapons against him, even if it is only the way to assure his country of victory.

Those who use evil weapons end up corrupt in the end -- even if they have only good motives.

We are only setting the table for another generation.

“Yet, it is not our part to master all the tides of the world, but to do what is in us for the succor of the years wherein we are set, uprooting the evil in the fields that we know, so that those who live after may have clean earth to till. What weather they shall have is not ours to rule.” --Gandalf

There are tasks for each day, decisions that we make that will affect the course of the lives of our children and our children’s children. This is not a new concept, nor is it terribly deep and yet, our human tendency is to focus on ourselves and our pleasures rather than on those who will come after.

Regardless of our intentions, future generations will reap the seed we sow today.

Heroes are those who keep on despite the darkness.

“That’s not the way of it with tales that really mattered or the ones that stay in the mind. Folk seem to have been just landed in them, usually – their paths were laid that way as you put it. But I expect that they had lots of chances, like us, of turning back only they didn’t.” --Sam

I suppose we read stories incorrectly. We read them knowing that the hero overcomes, that good wins, and that Sauron is destroyed (minor spoiler), but the characters in the midst of the story don’t know that. They only know that the challenges set before them seem overwhelming.

Each one of us is in a story today and we don’t know the ending. It is our challenge to persevere despite the darkness.

Heroes give for others even though they may not personally enjoy the results of their labors.

“I tried to save the Shire, and it has been saved, but not for me. It must often be so, Sam, when things are in danger: someone has to give them up, lose them, so others may keep them.” –Frodo

This is for me, the saddest point in the story. Frodo returned to the Shire but was so deeply wounded that he could never find healing. He doesn’t hold that against the hobbits who don’t understand.  He is only glad that something good has been saved.

So it is for us. We must make the effort, endure the darkness, and continue on, not because we get some benefit, reward, or medal at the end. Rather something good has been accomplished. Something valuable has been saved.

Everyone has a reason for playing a part in this story.

Even Gollum.