Dear Readers,
A few weeks ago I celebrated the first post on my blog to have been viewed 1,000 times. It is entitled A Chance for Faramir, Captain of Gondor, to Show His Quality. If you look at Top Posts and Pages in the column on the right of this page you will find a link to it there.
Today I wish to celebrate the second of my posts to achieve the same distinction. Actually allow me to confess. It has been viewed 997 times but I hope that by the end of the day that will have become 1,000! It is a piece that I remain pleased with. It expresses two things. One is the importance of small things in The Lord of the Rings and how wisdom is shown in paying attention to them. Another links to a recent conversation on the blog about how Sauron, the great planner, tends to overlook small things. Olga Polomoshnova made this point in a comment on my post, Why Did Sauron Make the Ring?
And the post that I hope you are about to read also gave me the chance to thank one or two othere who have been regular supporters of the blog. Conversation is one of the joys of blogging and it has contributed so much to deepening my understanding of Tolkien’s work.
Frodo cannot cast the Ring into the Fire. It has mastered him and will not be destroyed in that way. In the last two weeks, firstly in my own post, Frodo Claims The Ring For Himself and in Anne Marie Gazzolo’s wonderful meditation, The Ring Claims Frodo we saw that Frodo spent all that he could of himself just to bring the Ring to the Mountain. He had nothing more to give. As Tom Hillman put it, with typical wisdom in a comment on Frodo Claims The Ring For Himself, “no-one could have achieved the Quest by throwing the Ring into the Fire”
I think it is necessary to pause here a moment to say that when Tom says no-one he means that not Elrond, nor Galadriel nor Gandalf nor Aragorn could have thrown the Ring into the Fire. There is an amusing meme that does the rounds of the…
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Wisdom from The Lord of the Rings 
Beautifully done. Bonus points for addressing that shallow meme about the Eagles.
I tried to like the original post too, but my app took me to a plain white screen. Odd.
Thank you so much for this, Lady Emily Rose. Tolkien had to deal with people who wrote to him saying that Frodo was a failure, even an imposter, claiming to be a hero (at The Field of Cormallen) when he was, in fact a coward, even a traitor. The more that I thought about this and engaged in conversation with others, the more I realised that no-one could have just thrown the Ring into the fire, let alone people sitting on the backs of eagles. A greater power needed to be at work as it needs to be in all the big things in our lives.
Thank you for trying to Like the original page. WordPress is, by far, the best blogging site but maybe even it has some shortcomings.
Sadly, people today seem too quick to be cynical and snarky than actually give due to anything of quality. It’s as through understanding is beneath them somehow. Ironically, I don’t get it.
Agreed, WP is the best, but the occasional glitch will happen.
I agree but I have hope that just as there is so much laziness of thought so there is a growing desire to reach for something that goes deeper. Maybe it is inevitable that the two must live side by side.
I hate to say it, but you’re probably right. Pop culture makes everything lazy on some levels. But this is why blogs like yours stand out, and why Tolkien’s work will stand on its own in spite of everything else. There are no memes without the original.