In Hostile Territory

This week's chapter is called "The Old Forest."  Frodo and company begin their adventure by leaving Crickhollow and heading out into the forbidding Old Forest.  Merry is somewhat familiar with the Forest, but he also admits sometimes the paths change without warning, and the trees are unfriendly.

You've heard of Ents, perhaps.  We will meet them much later.  But this chapter shows why Middle Earth needs Ents.  Often Lord of the Rings is seen as a parable about the sins of the industrial revolution.  The Hobbits, who farm and eat and party and are content, are the heroes.  Saruman cuts down a whole forest and Sauron engages in genetic engineering.  Even the Ring, itself, is an unnatural thing.  Tolkien seems to be against progress.  However, this chapter reminds us that Tolkien does not believe unbridled nature is the solution.  The natural world is dangerous and unpredictable.

The trees crowd the Hobbits on their way, and the path becomes confusing and unreliable.  Merry recounts a story of when the trees attacked the Shire and the Hobbits had to chop off their reaching limbs.  At the climax of the chapter, the hobbits are attacked by a willow tree.

How, you ask?  The willow tree makes them sleepy, and when they doze off it attacks them.  It draws Merry into it's trunk to squeeze him.  Pippin is overtaken by roots.  Frodo is pushed by the tree's limbs into a nearby stream in an effort to drown him.  The Old Forest is no safe haven.

As they wander about, the hobbits cannot help but fret over their dangerous situation:

There was not as yet any sign of a path and the trees seemed constantly

to bat their way.  Pippin suddenly felt that he could not bear it any longer,

and without warning let out a shout.  Oi! Oi1" he cried, "I am not

going to do anything.  Just let me pass through, will you!"

"I should not shout, if I were you," Said Merry. "It does more harm than good,"

Later, Frodo sings a song about being lost in the woods.  Though the forest may seem endless, the song says all paths end.  The song ends with the line "all woods shall fail."  When he says this, the words are seemingly swallowed up by the trees, and the air becomes noticeably thicker.

"They do not like all that about ending and failing," Said Merry.  "I should

not sing any more at present.  Wait till we do get to the edge, and then

we'll turn and give them a rousing chorus."

A few years ago I went on a road trip down to Tennessee.  On my way back, my car broke down and I was stranded in Appalachia.  I was fortunate to have been near a town, though 'town' seems like a generous term.  There was a motel, a gas station for trucks, a building with a big sign that said "food" over it, and a restaurant.  A few miles away was the mechanic.  His son was kind enough to drive me to and from their garage when needed.  I was stuck there for probably two days.

It was January.  There wasn't any snow on the ground, but it was very cold.  The motel wasn't usually open then (I think I just got lucky that the owner happened to also live there) so they didn't have any heat.  The owner gave me two small room heaters.  The TV had three stations.  The shower took forever to warm up.  There were no grounded outlets, so I wasn't able to use my computer.

The restaurant was good, but there was a note at the bottom of the menu - no soup on Sunday.  I don't know if religion actually had anything to do with it.  Once I went walking on a nearby hill.  I heard someone's radio tuned into conservative talk radio and the host was loudly condemning Hillary Clinton for Benghazi.

I was, to put it lightly, in a completely different kind of world than I am used to.  I'm Jewish and I live outside Boston.  I'm liberal.  I feel safe where I am.  I did not feel safe there.  I did not mention I was Jewish, actively lying whenever it came up.  Everyone was nice to me, but I couldn't help but worry what would have happened if I looked Jewish.  Or if I was black.  Or if I was a woman?  Maybe I'm not giving them enough credit.  But why should I?  Why take the risk?

One day the mechanic's son was driving me back to the motel.  We had talked quite a bit by then.  We connected over history - I have given tours in Lexington for quite a few years.  He went to Gettysburg regularly and hoped one day to participate in the re-enactments.  He said he liked the re-enactments because, among other things, it was the only time he could fly the Confederate flag without being criticized.  He then went on to complain that history was being forgotten and the Confederate flag isn't really racist and all the tired arguments we've heard about it.  He finished by saying, "You know what they say  - those who forget their history are doomed." I waited him to say the whole thing, but it didn't happen.  He evidently believed that was the whole saying.

However, I was in what felt like hostile territory.  If not to me, personally, then to people I am close to.  I was fortunate that I could keep my mouth shut and not reveal myself to be what may be perceived as "the other."  I needed these people to cooperate with me.  I needed them to serve me food, to keep their motel open, and to fix my car (and at a reasonable price).  As much as I wanted to speak out, was this the right moment?  I was a stranger stranded in their land.  Why would they listen to me?

We live in an increasingly totalitarian world.  Not only in the Middle East, not only in Latin America, but also in Europe and even in America.  Dissent is not as valued.  If you are on the side of those in power, any dissent is seen as an attack.  And if you are on the side of those out of power, dissent is not enough.  You must be a revolutionary.

These extremes will breed more extremes.  A revolution is victorious or it is squashed.  Anything else is a loss.  As we've learned in Iraq and Afghanistan (and Vietnam, before), unless you can totally defeat the enemy, they'll just keep recruiting and keep attacking.  Similarly, a totalitarian regime is victorious or it is defeated.  There is no survival for "the other".  They are defeated or they flee.  This binary choice pushes all to the extremes.

The trees of The Old Forest do not like visitors.  They are irritable and prone to violence.  They object even to certain words, even when those words are meant as benign (When Frodo sings that the woods will end and fail, it is obvious he means the woods can be left behind, not that the woods will cease to exist).  The trees don't communicate clearly, they only act more or less hostilely.  You need to guess what they're thinking and hope you guess right.

But Merry provides an alternative.  They will soon leave the woods - the woods that have abused them throughout their travel.  When they leave, they can insult them all they want.  Heck, they can "turn and give them a rousing chorus" right on the border.  And what will they be able to do about it?  Nothing.

The world is becoming more dangerous even for us Americans at home.  I was listening to a podcast which had an extended quote from the Brett Kavanaugh hearings.  Hearing his voice for such a long time she came to my room and looked at me quizzically.  She asked if I liked him.  I said no.  Then the podcast hosts came back on, and she understood I was just listening to the news.  She said, "Oh whew - I thought I was going to have to move!"  She nor I didn't laugh.  We understood.

But that's crazy, to not be able to live with someone because they have different political opinions!  Heck, many people oppose marrying outside their political tribe.  That's some extreme shit!  How can you know the political tribe of everybody you interact with?  You can't!  So when we talk about it in public we use hushed tones, as if we're plotting something terrible, lest someone from The Other Side overhears and interjects.  Or we talk about it loudly, almost daring someone to disagree.  When we ask someone's political opinions, it is rarely a genuine question, but more likely a probe.  We hear they support gun rights?  We assume they oppose abortion, don't value the arts, and are probably racist.  We hear they support immigration?  We assume they are pro-choice, anti-gun, and part of "The Resistance."  And then we decide to be nice to them or not based on these assumptions.  The public space is no longer safe - it is a highly surveilled space, and Big Brother is us.

Extreme measures, by their nature, tend to lack strategy.  When you're in an extreme situation, you often have so little power that you just need to do everything you can and just hope something works.  But this is often counter productive.  No matter what side you're on, enemies count on you making a misstep.  You can win just because your opponent did something stupid and lost.  But a win is a win.

Pippin shouts at the trees because he resents them for assuming he has ill-will.  Frodo sings a song to keep the company's spirit up.  In both cases, Merry has to intervene.  Neither song nor resentment is appropriate.  They need to employ strategy, even if it is as simple as waiting for a better opportunity.

The world is dangerous.  Be safe.  Be thoughtful.  Plan carefully.  The more extreme you are, the more likely you are to adhere to a "strategy" of brute force.  But The Old Forest is unforgiving.  It is here to swallow you up.  And the trees are strong.

The Hobbits, in the end, are defeated.  They are saved only by a eucatastrophe.  A mysterious character named Tom Bombadil happens to pass them by and, when he whispers to the willow tree, it releases the hobbits.  He invites them to his house, which is where our next chapter will take place.

We will explore more of Tom Bombadil next week.  But suffice to say he doesn't do much in this story and he doesn't show up again.  His power and motives are mysterious.  We cannot depend on our own Tom Bombadil coming to rescue us.  We are the ones we've been waiting for.  We must be.

The Lord of the Rings: An Ethical Guide is a Patreon-supported project.  Thank you to all those who have contributed.

Like this project?  Want to learn more?  Want exclusive access to behind-the-scenes content?  Go to my Patreon site and see how you can become a part of the action!