'Its about death, the inevitability of death'

[Dininziliel]

Davem writes: [QUOTE] Then, he spares Gollum, not for the stupid, insulting reason that the movie makers give (Frodo saying 'I need to know he can be saved' or whatever), which is pure selfishness, but as an act of mercy, inspired by pity. At the end he even tries to spare Saruman.
We are alone in a dark world, living in a little circle of light (I'm going with Tolkien's ideas in the Beowulf essay), waiting for the 'Dragon' (death), & all we have is our own eqivalent of Galadriel's glass - 'Hope without guarantees'. Doing the merciful, compassionate, thing is 'fighting the long defeat'. And it seems to me that Tolkien is saying that's all we can do, & more, that that's required of us, by the fact of our humanity, whether there's anything else beyond this life or not. /QUOTE]

I was moved by your expression. I agree with your tack on both movie and book. It struck me the other night that, along with Gimli, Frodo probably gets the shortest shrift from "fan" attention of all the characters in LotR.

I, too, wish more Tolkien "fans" would deal with the more uncomfortable aspects--how he weaves the foundational theme throughout the tales and how they rest upon it. I believe that this is what calls to most of us who have continued to love Tolkien's writings from childhood, and why his books are among the worldly things we turn to in order to understand the unworldly realities with which we struggle.

Hopefully, there will be other contributions to this thread. I, for one, feel a need to share this particular exploration with others.

[ March 10, 2003: Message edited by: dininziliel ]