[Boromir88]

I assume this is going to be a double-post, but I just wanted to break up the two chapters. So...A Shadow of the Past:

So: pity vs. malice and mercy vs. revenge.

Quite neat pairs indeed to run a universe.~Nogrod

Ooh, me like it.

While, it is hard in circumstances to define "good and evil," I believe there are definite distinctions made. Tolkien writes that he doesn't believe in "absolute evil," there are several grey characters (Denethor, Saruman, Boromir, Gollum), and in writing to Christopher about WWII, making the remark that there are "orcs on both sides."

Nogrod, I really like the set up of pity vs. malice and mercy vs. revenge, and this chapter looks at the fundamental question of what is right and what is wrong?

I think what we see (and it starts in this chapter) is the reoccuring theme that is it not our place to decide someone's ultimate judgement. In Letter 181, Tolkien's straightforward, and says he does not care to inquire into Gollum's final judgement, it is not his place. He stops (and doesn't send) a letter out talking about orc redemption writing: "It seemed to be taking myself too importantly."

And that is Gandalf's message to Frodo:

"Deserves it! I daresay he does. Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement..."

As we find out it was Bilbo's pity that made him relatively unscathed by the Ring, in contrast with Gollum's belief that the Ring was his and his strong desire for revenge against the thief Baggins.

Also, to point out here, Tolkien's idea of the #1 bad motive:

The supremely bad motive is (for this tale, since it is specially about it) domination of other ’free’ wills.~Letter 155

Thus, I think we can even put it in the broader terms of control vs. humility.

The ultimate bad guys want to dominate over everyone, and everything, they want that power to "run the show." Sauron, Morgoth, and Saruman all display the need to be in control. These baddies are all eventually brought to 'justice,'...death.

The supreme good guys are rewarded for the recognition that they are not the one's calling the shots. They know it is not their place to decide who lives and who dies. For even the wisest don't know how everything will play out. Pity and Mercy are the keys, it is Gandalf's, Bilbo's, Frodo's (and so on), recognition they aren't the "deciders."

I don't know, but perhaps it would be good to make some boundaries. Obviously, if Gollum is freely running around and eating babies pity doesn't mean you're going to pretend there's nothing wrong with that. Pity doesn't mean you'll absolve Gollum, Saruman, or any of them of their own accountability. Gandalf is the first to say Gollum (and he also states it about Grima) deserve death, but Gandalf's pity is the acknowledgement that he doesn't decide whether Gollum would die or not. Wth pity, I think comes a hope that since evil is not absolute, than redemption is possible for anyone. Gandalf is the first to admit that Gollum being cured is almost impossible, but that doesn't mean it isn't impossible (it's not beyond hope at least):

"There was a little corner of his mind that was still his own, and light came through it, as through a chink in the dark: light out of the past. It was actually pleasant, I think, to hear a kindly voice again, bringing up memories of wind, and trees, and sun on the grass, and such forgotten things.

"But that of course, would only make the evil part of him angrier in the end - unless it could be conquered. Unless it could be cured." Gandalf sighed. "Alas! there is little hope of that for him. Yet not no hope..."