The Rings of Power

“We Will Burn Like Heathen Kings Before Ever a Ship Sailed Hither From The West.” The Despair of Denethor and the Faithfulness of Faramir.

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The Return of the King by J.R.R Tolkien (Harper Collins 1991) pp. 806-807

As the Morgul host draws nearer to the defences of Minas Tirith and the siege engines draw ever closer to its walls we find two distinctly contrasting stories taking place. For as Gandalf and the Prince of Dol Amroth stride about the walls lifting the hearts of its defenders for a time at least, so we find the Steward of Gondor withdrawing to a private chamber in preparation for his suicide and for the ritual killing of his son.

Some of his men plead with Denethor to give guidance to the defence of the city, telling him that not all will follow Gandalf who they do not know, but need the Lord of the City to lead and direct them. We are reminded of the defenders of Helm’s Deep when Éomer rides up to them in order to announce that their king has come to aid them.

“That is good tidings beyond hope,” declares the sentinel. It is only when the one recognised as the true king (and Denethor is a king even though he does not bear the title) comes that his people find strength once again. So we are reminded once more of the words of the 16th century Anglican divine, Richard Hooker, “How are the people to know they are faithful unless their captains tell them?”

Denethor has nothing to say to his people anymore except for the word that he has for himself.

Burn.

“Better to burn sooner than late, for burn we must.”

Denethor has given in to despair. “We will burn like heathen kings before ever a ship sailed hither from the West. The West has failed. Go back and burn!”

And so the work of Sauron is complete in the Steward of Gondor, the work that Sauron has been doing through the Palantir, the Stone of Osgiliath. Sauron is the serpent, the accuser of the brethren, whose work is to lead us to despair through his whispering in the ears of those who have sought to stand against him. Saruman was lured into his snare at first through his study of the Rings of Power and so came to believe that it would only be through the achievement of power, of total power, that victory could be won. So, through the Palantir, the Stone of Orthanc, Sauron displayed his power to Saruman and so convinced him that his victory was inevitable. Saruman came to believe that only by becoming an ally to that power could he survive, and just possibly become the lord of the West himself, if only he were to gain the power of the Ring himself. And Denethor, through the Stone of Osgiliath, saw also the overwhelming power of his enemy and the inevitable victory of darkness. Denethor too saw hope only through the possession of power, through possession of the Ring, and in his loss of that possibility and the loss of the son who he had loved lost all hope.

We might want to be reminded here that Denethor’s words about the failure of the West have also been spoken by Faramir in his meeting with Frodo. “For the Enemy increases and we decrease. We are a failing people, a springless autumn.”

A failing people. A springless autumn.

Faramir can see all that his father can. The growing strength of his enemy and the decline of his own people, but he does not give way to despair. He does not give way to despair because he has a faith that goes deeper than a belief in power. He makes it clear to Frodo that he has no desire to possess power if that were to mean the power of darkness, that if he were to find the weapon of the Enemy, the Ring, lying by the roadside, that he would not wish to make it his own, not even for the good of Gondor or for his personal glory. Faramir’s longing is for goodness, for beauty and for truth, and so his roots go deeper by far than they do for Saruman or for Denethor. It is his sadness that this longing only wins for him the scorn of his father, the accusation that he is a “wizard’s pupil” and that he only wishes to appear lordly, that his longing is merely performance; but his roots go deeper even than a natural longing for his father’s approval.

That Faramir’s kingly nature is both recognised and loved by the people of Gondor surely tells us that in all of us, if we think of ourselves as being the ordinary folk as are those people, is a desire for the same goodness, beauty and truth as Faramir has. Faramir does not need to make speeches in order to tell his people that they are faithful. He only needs to live out that faithfulness himself.

“Nay, Nay, Whatever May Now Betide in War, My Line Too is Ending, Even The House of The Stewards Has Failed.” Some Thoughts on Hope and Expectation in The Lord of the Rings.

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The Return of the King by J.R.R Tolkien (Harper Collins 1991) pp. 799-806

I am grateful to one of my regular correspondents, Kate Splieth, for thoughts that have led to this reflection as we continue to think about the siege of Minas Tirith before the arrival of the Riders of Rohan, one of the darkest moments in The Lord of the Rings. In a comment on my last reflection upon eucatastrophe, she writes this,
“Is there a difference between hope and expectation?”

It is in the tragic character of Denethor that we see that difference most clearly expressed. From the moment that Denethor first receives the sign that his son, Boromir, has been killed, he begins his fall into despair. When Gandalf and Pippin first meet him, seated upon the Steward’s chair in the throne room of Gondor, they see this sign in his hand. He holds aloft the horn of Boromir that was cloven in two as he made the brave defence of Merry and Pippin at Parth Galen that led to his death.

From that time onwards Denethor’s spirit is broken even though he continues to direct the defence of the city against the Morgul host. But at the last the Prince of Dol Amroth carries the body of Faramir from the failed defence of the fords of Osgiliath to his father, and whatever strength Denethor had to continue resistance is lost.

“I sent my son forth, unthanked, unblessed, out into needless peril, and here he lies with poison in his veins. Nay, nay, whatever may now betide in war, my line is ending, even the House of Stewards has failed. Mean folk shall rule the last remnant of the Kings of Men, lurking in the hills until all are hounded out.”

We may note here that Denethor has reduced the story of his people to the story of his family, of his line. He is convinced, wrongly as we shall see, that Faramir is dying, and unlike Sam Gamgee, kneeling beside what he believed to be the corpse of Frodo in Shelob’s Lair, Denethor sees no reason to carry on, “whatever now may betide in war.” To him there is no future, even if victory should ultimately be achieved over the forces of Mordor. His line is ending, just as the line of the Kings of Gondor failed.

Here we see the difference between hope and expectation, or at least expectation as it has become. In the Latin text of the Nicene Creed we read et exspecto resurrectionem mortuorum, and I await the resurrection of the dead. The word, exspecto, that has become expect in modern English is associated with specto, to look out for, to wait for, to hope for. This kind of expectation is to Denethor, a fool’s hope, and when men call for guidance from their lord, Denethor answers, “Follow whom you will, even the Grey Fool, though his hope has failed.”

Denethor has given in to despair which is the ultimate consequence of his expectation. All his gathering of intelligence has convinced him of the overwhelming power of his enemy and the utter inadequacy of his own resources. His one hope, if we can call it that, was to gain control of the Ring of Power and so have a weapon that he could use of sufficient power to stand against that enemy. In this manner he resembles Saruman who also hoped to gain control of the Ring, although unlike Saruman, Denethor never considered the possibility of becoming an ally of Sauron. Saruman’s intention was to ally himself to Sauron while seeking either to gain control of the Ring or to create his own ring of power. Denethor was never a traitor unlike Saruman.

But neither Denethor, nor Saruman, had hope. Both gave way to despair. Saruman did so cynically, choosing to ally himself with darkness believing that darkness would have the last word in everything. Denethor also came to believe in the final victory of darkness but refused to ally himself with that darkness. In that sense there is still a heroism in Denethor, a heroism that he shows in the breastplate that he wears under his robes.

And what of hope? Gandalf chooses hope, the decision to believe that at the end the good, the true and the beautiful will prevail even though all that can be seen is darkness and the power of evil. In the Council of Elrond the choice was made to send the Ring to the Fire, not because it was felt to be a good idea but because it was the right thing to do, the only thing that could be done without giving way to the ultimate power of all the Ring represented which is the power of power itself.

“Yet My Heart Guessed That Frodo and Gollum Would Meet Before the End. For Good or For Evil.” Gandalf Speaks of the Weaving Together of Frodo and Gollum’s Fates.

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The Return of the King by J.R.R Tolkien (Harper Collins 1991) pp. 796-797

Those who have journeyed with Gandalf from the opening chapters of The Lord of the Rings know that this intuition, that the fates of Frodo, Bilbo, Gollum and the Ring are intimately woven together, has been with Gandalf at least since his conversation with Frodo in Bag End in the chapter entitled, The Shadow of the Past, if not before. It was in that chapter that we learnt of Gandalf’s suspicions regarding the nature of Bilbo’s ring and how those suspicions were confirmed when he cast the Ring into the fire and so was able to read the fateful words:

One Ring to rule them all, one Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them.

Gandalf told Frodo of how Gollum had come into possession of the Ring through the murder of his friend, Déagol, and how he had come to know of the name of Baggins simply because Bilbo had told him his name. I wonder if Tolkien had the story of Odysseus and Polyphemus in mind as he wrote this. If so did he contrast the hubris displayed by Odysseus when he boastfully declared his name as he escaped his captor with the simple honesty that Bilbo displays in telling his name to Gollum? We will return to this later.

But now we will return to Gandalf’s intuition that he speaks of to Pippin here, that “Frodo and Gollum would meet before the end. For good or for evil.” What Gandalf said to Frodo of his intuition was this:

“I have not much hope that Gollum can be cured before he dies, but there is a chance of it. And he is bound up with the fate of the Ring. My heart tells me that he has some part to play yet, for good or ill, before the end; and when that time comes, the pity of Bilbo may rule the fate of many- yours not least.”

This is one of the most quoted passages in the whole Lord of the Rings, and one that when cited often focusses upon the word, pity, and rightly so, because when Frodo finally meets Gollum he announces, as if to an unseen listener, that now he has seen Gollum he does pity him. The pity of Bilbo and then of Frodo does play a central role in the story and we will think about this on other occasions, but now I wish to think about the part that fate plays in the story, and then to think about the part it plays in all stories, not least our own.

It is easy, maybe too easy, to link the manner in which Gollum first obtained the Ring with his ultimate fate, to fall into the fires of Mount Doom still holding it. We might argue that Gollum deserved his fate, but then we have to ask in what way Frodo deserved his. For Frodo is wounded by the Morgul blade below Weathertop, stung by Shelob in her lair, has his finger bitten off from his hand just as Sauron lost a finger to the broken blade of Narsil when he lost the Ring to Isildur. And in all this we must think of the way he had to bear a burden whose malevolent power gradually overcame his brave heart until he had no freedom left to choose. Did Frodo deserve this as Gollum deserved his fate? I find it hard to argue that he did. Of course, Frodo had his weaknesses just as we all do, but he would not have suffered this fate if he had not made the heroic choice to bear the burden to Mount Doom, a choice that Elrond declared made him worthy, not to be punished, but to stand alongside the Elf-friends, such as Beren, who were his mighty ancestors.

Frodo’s fate must remain a mystery to us, and so too must Gollum’s. It is not for us to determine the ultimate fate of anyone. Gandalf himself declared to Frodo that “Many that die deserve death. And some that die deserve life.” Perhaps Tolkien was thinking of his closest friends who fell in the battles of the First World War and of his own survival in that conflict when he wrote this. Fate is not something that lies within our ability to understand. We only are given the task either to bear our fate bravely and to struggle to do the good we can within our fate or we can try to fight against it. There is heroic courage in the latter choice and like Odysseus we might be shaped for good in the struggle. He was a sadder and a wiser man than the one who boasted of his name before Polyphemus when he finally returned to Ithaca many years later.

“Cirith Ungol!” He Muttered. “Why That Way, I Wonder?” Did Gandalf Have a Better Way in Mind For Frodo and Sam?

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The Return of the King by J.R.R Tolkien (Harper Collins 1991) pp. 796-797

As Gandalf and Pippin take a few moments for reflection after their meeting with Denethor and Faramir Gandalf ponders what he has learnt from what Faramir had brought from his mission in Ithilien and most especially what he has learnt of Frodo and Sam.

“Cirith Ungol!” he muttered. “Why that way, I wonder?” He turned. “Just now, Pippin, my heart almost failed me, hearing that name.”

Faramir too felt nothing but horror when he first learnt that this was the way that Gollum was going to lead Frodo and Sam into Mordor and even now Pippin can see that Faramir “did not like the place [Gollum] was taking them any more than [Gandalf]” did. Gandalf knows far more than Faramir knows of Cirith Ungol, the pass of the spider, but we must ask the question, if Gandalf’s heart failed him on hearing that name did he have an alternative in mind that would have been better for Frodo and Sam to follow? Did he have a plan for entering Mordor that he had not had the chance to speak of to Frodo before his fall in Moria?

Of course, the answer to this question is that we do not know. Gandalf did not speak of plans to the members of the Fellowship. His initial plan to cross the Misty Mountains by the Redhorn Gate below Caradhras was no more than one step on the journey towards Mordor, a way that he hoped would be passable because the journey that Boromir had taken north through the Gap of Rohan was not available to them because of Saruman’s treachery. Gandalf did not even speak of his intention to go by way of Lothlórien let alone the way the Fellowship should go after staying there.

So we can say with certainty that if Gandalf did have a plan to enter Mordor by a particular way then he never spoke of it, not even to Frodo. This leaves us only with speculation and this we will attempt to do here.

We know that Frodo first tried to enter Mordor by way of the Morannon, the Black Gate, and we know that this was clearly impassable. It was the way that Sauron expected an invasion from his foes and so it was more fortified than any other way into his land. And so if it was not to be that way or by way of the Morgul Vale and Cirith Ungol what other way could Frodo take?

The northern and western and southern marches of Mordor were impassable mountain ranges apart from the two passes of which we have spoken so this leaves us with the east of his land. The way into Mordor from that direction was more open than any other although all the lands east of that border were Sauron’s allies, but it might have been possible to go that way. Why then did Frodo not consider it? The reason is simple. It was because of time. Frodo knew that he did not have the luxury of time to complete his mission, that if he took too long, even if he were to succeed, all would be too late. The forces of evil would have destroyed much that was good, true and beautiful in the world, perhaps even rendering the world unhabitable except for that which was nasty and vicious.

Even at the beginning of the journey that Frodo made with Sam after the breaking of the Fellowship and his journey through the Emyn Muil, Frodo resented any delay.

“What hope we had was in speed,” he said to Sam. “Delay plays into the Enemy’s hands- and here I am: delayed.”

So we are left with the strongest sense that Gandalf had no better alternative than the one that caused his heart to fail, unless we go back to that ridiculous meme that is popular with some fans of the story that Gandalf meant Frodo to be flown to the Cracks of Doom by the Eagles of Manwë and if that was the case we might just expect him to mention this just once in the story or that he would have taken the route west to the eyries of the Eagles out of Rivendell, the way that Thorin’s party took in The Hobbit, instead of going south to the Redhorn Gate.

No, I think we must at last come to the conclusion that Gandalf had no plan, even that whatever news he received of any way into Mordor would have caused his heart to fail. Of course, he is right to fear that Gollum’s intentions are treacherous, “But so it must be. Let us remember that a traitor may betray himself and do good that he does not intend. It can be so, sometimes.”

“Is There Any Hope? For Frodo, I Mean; Or at Least Mostly for Frodo.” Pippin Wonders if There is Any Hope Remaining.

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The Return of the King by J.R.R Tolkien (Harper Collins 1991) pp. 796-797

After the counsel in the chamber of the Lord of the City all go to their rest and Gandalf and Pippin to the chamber that they share together. And there in the privacy of that room Pippin speaks at last, asking the question that is closest to his heart.

“Tell me,” he said, “is there any hope? For Frodo, I mean; or at least mostly for Frodo.”

Of course, when Pippin says “mostly for Frodo”, what he implies is an unspoken question.

Is there any hope for me? For any of us? And we do not blame him for this. We would all ask the same question. Pippin’s love for Frodo is not diminished in any way by his asking it.

And in his reply Gandalf acknowledges what we have been thinking about in the last few posts. He acknowledges that Denethor is right. He acknowledges that any hope that there has ever been that Frodo will succeed in his mission was foolish. But we will not go back to the alternative that Denethor says could and should have been done, that the Ring should have been brought to Minas Tirith by Faramir and that it should have been hidden there until “the uttermost end of need”. We have considered this and recognised that this too would have been foolish, even wicked, that if the Ring had come to Denethor it would have overthrown his considerable mind and almost certainly would not have prevented Sauron’s inevitable victory.

And so all the alternative there is is two forms of foolishness. So is there any hope?

Gandalf ponders Pippin’s question and, as he does so, he begins to find reasons to go on hoping, reasons that may be smaller than the biggest reason of all, that the Divine Power does not will that Frodo should fail, but big enough to give reason not to give in but to resist.

Sauron has launched his assault upon Minas Tirith before he is ready and while Frodo is still free. Now his attention will not be solely upon the borders of his own land, defending them against any attack, but upon Minas Tirith.

And Gandalf wonders why he is doing this now, and so he thinks back to the Stone of Orthanc that Pippin looked into and which he gave to Aragorn to keep.

“Ah! I wonder. Aragorn? His time draws near. And he is strong and stern underneath, Pippin; bold and determined, able to take his own counsel and dare great risks at need. That may be it. He may have used the Stone and shown himself to the Enemy, challenging him, for this very purpose.”

Indeed, we know that this is precisely what Aragorn has done, and why he has taken the Paths of the Dead, bringing with him the host of Oath Breakers to the port of Pelargir to relieve its defenders from the siege of the Corsairs of Umbar and to bring the fleet at anchor there up the Anduin to aid the defenders of Minas Tirith. This would indeed be a reason for hope but even if Aragorn were to succeed it would only bring a little hope, perhaps very little hope as Denethor will later assert.

And Pippin has one more question. Why have Frodo and Sam taken up with Gollum of all the creatures in the world, and why are they trying to enter Mordor by way of Cirith Ungol?

“And I could see that Faramir did not like the place he was taking them to any more than you do. What is wrong?”

And here at last Gandalf comes, in his response, closer to the greatest cause for hope of all. For even though he fears the way that Frodo and Sam have taken with their treacherous guide he must acknowledge that he does not know a better way. There is no better way. All ways into Mordor are defended and unassailable, or if they are less defended it would take so long to achieve as to render any success almost meaningless for there will be nothing to return to.

So, there is no hope except for the greatest hope of all, that a power greater than any upon Arda has willed that through the most unlikely of all means, by means of a treacherous guide, Frodo and Sam should achieve their task. But to desire this end is almost too much for anyone without falling into the most terrible pride or complacency. The best way remains to take one brave small step and then another.

“There are evil days ahead. To sleep while we may.”

“You Think, As is Your Wont, My Lord, of Gondor Only.” Gandalf Speaks of a Greater Vision, One That Denethor Does Not See.

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The Return of the King by J.R.R Tolkien (Harper Collins 1991) pp. 793-797

If Denethor had ever made an inaugural address on becoming the Steward of Gondor we could be fairly confident that at its heart would lie the idea, if not the words, Gondor First.

As Denethor and Gandalf debate together about what should have been done with the Ring of Power it becomes clear that Denethor believes that if Gondor were to fall, so too would the West. Indeed, in his mind, the West and Gondor are one thing. Gondor is the last outpost of Númenor, the “West-Land” that lay far to the geographical and spiritual west of Middle-earth, and from which Elendil and his followers first came and founded the kingdoms of Gondor and of Arnor. And so, to Denethor, if Gondor falls “the West is finished”.

To a man with such a vision there is only one thing that can be done with the Ring and that is to keep it and not to use it “unless at the uttermost end of need” when the victory of Mordor over Gondor becomes an inevitability.

Gandalf believes that even with the decision not to use the Ring except in such extreme circumstances the Ring would corrupt and finally overthrow the mind of Denethor, but there is a further point that he makes, one that offers an entirely different vision of reality to the one that Denethor holds.

“You think, as is your wont, my lord, of Gondor only,” said Gandalf. “Yet there are other men and other lives, and time still to be. And for me, I pity even his slaves.”

The word, his, refers of course to Sauron. The slaves of Sauron speak first of all of the people who live by the Sea of Núrnen in the southern and more habitable part of Mordor, and who grow the food that supplies the armies that Sauron stations in the northern parts of that land. Their master is the Gloom of Nurn, one of the Nazgûl who ruled them from his fortress of Thaurband. Tolkien speaks of the sad waters of the lake and so we can understand the life that these people must have led.

The first thing that is clear from what Gandalf says of the slaves of Sauron is that they are not enemies but prisoners to be liberated. And indeed, Aragorn did liberate them after the fall of Sauron and the land about the Sea of Núrnen was given to them as their own possession. But there is a further thing that Gandalf wants to make clear to Denethor, and that is that if his care extends as far as Sauron’s slaves then it extends to all peoples, to Elves and Men, to Dwarves and to Hobbits. For Gandalf there is no hierarchy of peoples and there is certainly no such thing as Gondor First! Yes, Gondor deserves honour because it holds within its memory all that was best about Númenor, the memory that Elendil brought with him to Middle-earth. And it deserves honour because, as Beregond put to Pippin, “we have this honour: ever we bear the brunt of the chief hatred of the Dark Lord, for that hatred comes out of the depths of time and over the deeps of the Sea”. But this honour is shared with all the foes of Sauron and all the peoples of Middle-earth are the creatures of Ilúvatar and are loved by him. As Gandalf says to Denethor, although the Steward of Gondor may believe that he only has one task and that is the welfare of his people, for Gandalf that concept of stewardship is too narrow. Gandalf is a steward of all the peoples of Middle-earth, indeed of all its creatures.

This does not mean that Gandalf has authority over Denethor even as he does not have authority over Aragorn, or Elrond, or Galadriel, or Théoden, or over Frodo for that matter. Gandalf as steward is the servant of all and not the master. His desire is for the welfare of all and so he knows that in many ways he will come into conflict with Denethor, for their interests are not the same.