A Dark Ending

Like most second parts in a trilogy, The Two Towers tells a dark story.  Helm's Deep is a squeaker of a victory.  Many lives were lost in the defense of Helm's Deep, and defeating Saruman gets them little closer to Sauron.  The only thing they really gain is the palintir, which so far has caused only trouble.

On the other side of the Anduin, Frodo and Sam find in Gollum a guide to Mordor whom they know they cannot fully trust.  We meet Faramir, who fights what he considers a hopeless war.  The book ends with Gollum finally betraying Frodo and Sam in the darkest of places.

The final chapter of this book is called "The Choices of Master Samwise".  Assuming Frodo is dead, Sam realizes the duty falls to him to take the Ring to Mount Doom.  He takes the Ring and starts to leave Frodo behind.  But then he hears orcs come to take Frodo's body, and Sam cannot help but return to Frodo.

Realizing there are too many orcs to fight, Sam listens.  Frodo is not dead, as Sam had thought.  Shelob's poison merely knocked him out.  The orcs take Frodo's body, and Sam secretly follows behind.   Finally the orcs leave the tunnel and go into a tower, the door of which shuts behind them before Sam can get in.  The chapter ends like this:

The gate was shut. Sam hurled himself against the bolted brazen

plates and fell senseless to the ground. He was out in the darkness.

Frodo was alive but taken by the Enemy.

Frodo has been captured.  Sam has the Ring but has given up the Quest to find Frodo, and then he ran into a door so hard he knocked himself out.  Eat your heart out, Empire Strikes Back.

Uncertainty over Frodo's fate will hang over the first half of our next book.  Though the other characters will do what they can against Sauron, Frodo is the key to victory.  Truly, all they can do is hope.

We're living through dark times.  Women's rights are being subverted by the 'rights' of fetuses.  The Executive Branch is refusing to comply with the Legislative Branch's attempts at oversight.  Climate Change is coming - or maybe it's already here.  It's hard to keep track of it all and also hard to keep it from feeling personal.

A good thing to recall is that we are not the Frodo of this story.  Not everything depends on us.  We can worry and provide support but we don't have to surrender our whole life to the cause.  We can also have our own lives.  We should do what we can, but we should also find time to enjoy life.

We may be in darkness now.  We may be living through an extended period of political and humanitarian darkness.  Such may be our fate.  Here's a quote from much earlier in our text - Chapter 2 of Fellowship:

“I wish it need not have happened in my time," said Frodo. "So do I," said Gandalf,

"and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide.

All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.” 

It may be our doom to endure this darkness, but let's look at it this way: The burden is ours. If we can overcome it, future generations will be spared.   Not that a martyr complex is good - such a view of self-sacrifice can cause one to be ready to give up everything.  But if we are willing to live hard lives, if we are able to find sustaining pleasures in those lives, we may have the grit to give those who come after us better lives.  And maybe they will remember our sacrifices, maybe they won't.

I feel as if I am stumbling again over the same theme that caused me difficulty a few weeks back.  The issue boils down to "What are the ethics of hopelessness."  One cannot counsel hope.  Recommending that one pretends everything is fine is also impractical.  But dwelling on one's hopelessness is also a bad recommendation - it saps one of all motivation.  What do we do with such a dangerous state of mind?

A reorientation is in order.  For the next book, in addition to finding a theme or lesson in each chapter, I will also excerpt a passage related to hopelessness to see what the text says.  Maybe the Creative Wizard has left us clues that way.  Maybe not.  We'll see - I really don't know what I'll find.  The future is uncertain.

And that's where we'll end.  The future may not be hopeful, but it is uncertain.  We should remain vigilant and look for new opportunities as the situation changes.  Whether large opportunities like victory at the supreme court and at the border, or smaller opportunities like providing a safe space for someone when they are overwhelmed, we should act when we can.  We're in dark times now, but unlike our text, this is not the end for us.

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!