Choosing the Light

“They Cannot Conquer For Ever!” Frodo Finds the Consolation of Nature and The Desolation of Darkness at The Cross-roads.

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The Two Towers by J.R.R Tolkien (Harper Collins 1991, 2007) pp. 915-919

The journey from the fragrant woodlands of Ithilien to the Cross-roads is marked by a growing sense of threat as, although it is only afternoon, a deepening darkness takes hold of the land, as if, as Sam puts it, the worst storm that ever was is about to break over their heads. The very ground beneath their feet begins to quiver as “a rolling and rumbling noise” is heard all about them.

Frodo descends into deep gloom.

“I’m afraid our journey is drawing to an end.”

The Cross-roads themselves are surrounded by ancient trees “of vast size, very ancient it seemed, and still towering high, though their tops were gaunt and broken, as if tempest and lightening-blast had swept across them, but had failed to kill them or shake their fathomless roots.”

On this occasion nature fails to give comfort to the hobbits. The trees seem to glower over them and as they stand at the Cross-roads and looks eastward towards the Morgul Vale Frodo is “filled with dread”.

But, at that moment, he turns westward as he becomes aware within the deepening gloom that a light is shining.

“Turning towards it, he saw, beyond an arch of boughs, the road to Osgiliath running almost as straight as a stretched ribbon down, down, into the West. There, far away, beyond sad Gondor now overwhelmed in shade, the Sun was sinking, finding at last the hem of the great slow-rolling pall of cloud, and falling in an ominous fire towards the yet unsullied Sea.”

The light of the setting sun falls upon the statue of a king at the centre of the Cross-roads and at first all the hobbits are aware of is the way in which orcs have desecrated it. The body of the king has been decapitated and its once proud head replaced by “a round rough-hewn stone, rudely painted by savage hands in the likeness of a grinning face with one large red eye in the midst of its forehead”.

But then in the last gleams of light cast by the setting sun Frodo sees the old head of the king lying by the side of the road and sees that it has been crowned again. Not this time with gold but a “trailing plant with flowers like small white stars had bound itself across the brows as if in reverence for the fallen king, and in the crevices of his stony hair yellow stonecrop gleamed”.

This is a moment in which both dread and hope are held together in utter poignancy. Briefly it is hope that rises in Frodo’s heart and he declares that “they cannot conquer for ever!” before the light is extinguished and it seems that they have been cast into everlasting night.

Which is more real? Are the last gleams of light that fall upon the crown of flowers more real than the darkness that follow them? We are reminded here of the words that St John writes as Judas goes out from the upper room to betray his lord and friend into the hands of his enemies. “And it was night”. Here too we see the struggle between light and dark playing out within a single moment and Tolkien surely alludes to the words of St John as he ends the chapter by saying that “the Sun dipped and vanished, and as if at the shuttering of a lamp, black night fell”.

It is hard not to feel the absolute triumph of darkness at this moment and yet too, the glimpse of hope in the refusal of life to allow the memory of the dignity of the king to be lost forever cannot be forgotten. This moment at the Cross-roads is one of the great moments in The Lord of the Rings. We think too of the crowing of the cockerell at the broken gates of Minas Tirith as day dawns and the sound of the horns of the Riders of Rohan is heard amidst the wreckage. The struggle between light and dark has to be fought within every human heart and the temptation to despair to be fought against, sometimes with every fibre of our being. It may not be his shout of defiance that carries Frodo onwards into his own struggle against the dark but neither is it forgotten as he shoulders his burden once more and marches into the very heart of the darkness. Frodo is not carried by lofty thoughts as he trudges eastward but neither does he give up. His own renunciation of despair is seen in every hard fought step that he takes.

The Meeting of Éowyn and Faramir. Defences Begin to Come Down.

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Why would we want to be unhappy, to choose thoughts of darkness, even to seek out death? Why would we choose to build defences against the light, using all our strength to try to keep it out? There are some, like Sauron, who have chosen the dark, believing that the light is some small, temporary and fragile thing that must ultimately fail against the overwhelming power that is darkness. Sauron has made his choice and it is fixed for ever. Happily this is not the path that Éowyn has taken. She has not said the great “Yes!” of her life to the dark.

But her soul is in danger. The years of hopeless misery in the halls of Théoden as he became a shrivelled figure dominated by the whispering of Wormtongue have left their mark upon her. At least in part she regards herself as a woman from “a thatched barn where brigands drink in the reek, and their brats roll on the floor among their dogs”. Briefly a door opened into her inner darkness and the glorious light that is Aragorn shone into her heart. She allowed herself to believe that he would take her away from her unhappiness to a place of glory. She would become a queen, adored by the world and untouched by her past.

And then her fragile dream was snatched away. Aragorn chose the Paths of the Dead as he was destined to do and he rejected her love, even refusing to take her with him as the shieldmaiden that she believed herself to be. Since that moment she has sought death in battle believing that this is the only escape for her from dishonour and misery. She will not risk to hope for herself again. The pain of rejection feels too great. She cannot ride with the host to battle with Mordor as she did before and so she is condemned to wait, longing for the safe return of her brother whom she loves but refusing to hope for herself again. The danger for her soul is that the darkness that she believes to be her fate might yet become a choice. She might become embittered, vengeful and cruel or she might take the road of despair just as Denethor did.

And then she meets Faramir in The Houses of Healing and everything begins to be transformed within her. Her first words are proud but “her heart faltered, and for the first time she doubted herself. She guessed that this tall man, both stern and gentle, might think her merely wayward, like a child that has not the firmness of mind to go on with a dull task to the end.”

This sternness and gentleness so wonderfully combined in one man she has met before in Aragorn and as with Aragorn she knows that Faramir is a mighty warrior, tested in battle. Of course she does not wish to appear like a little girl before him but her defences remain firm against hope. Then Faramir does something that Aragorn could never do.

“Éowyn of Rohan, I say to you that you are beautiful. In the valleys of our hills there are flowers fair and bright, and maidens fairer still; but neither flower nor lady have I seen till now have I seen in Gondor so lovely, and so sorrowful.”

Éowyn still resists, speaking of herself as a shieldmaiden and ungentle, but her defences are a little weaker. She is not yet ready to take the risk that any who fall in love must take; the risk of hurt and rejection. And she does not yet want to take the risk that lies beyond that fear, that to fall in love means to give yourself away into the hands of another, not just when all seems fair but in times of sorrow and anger too. The old English marriage service speaks of having and holding “for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish”. Éowyn is still far from being ready to make that choice but at the very least she has ceased to walk away from its possibility. Faramir has called her back towards the light.

Image by Anke Eissmann anke.edoras-art.de