Humility & Heroes

[Lalwendë]

Originally Posted by Ibrîniðilpathânezel

There's also the question of what Tolkien meant by "humble." Sometimes, I think the definition changes. At times, it refers to modesty and meekness, at other times about a more lowly status. The hobbits might be considered humble not because they lack arrogance and pride, but because they are a younger, less complex, more innocent society. They have had struggles to survive in their past, but they were usually against nature, not against legions of orcs and power-hungry Dark Lords. The cost of widsom all too often is the loss of innocence, which all the Shire lost to some degree when Saruman and his lackeys invaded it, but which Frodo lost more than any other, to the point that he no longer could remain a part of it. He had seen too much, endured too much, faced his own pride, failed, and was humbled -- what John Campbell might have called his heroic "descent into hell," a necessary part of his heroic journey to an eventual personal apotheosis.

That's probably quite fundamental to the topic, what Tolkien means by humble!

I think it does come in two ways:
1. Those who are by nature or status humble
2. Those who express and display humility

I think that the second category is particularly important as this is where Tolkien forces his good guys into humility as a requirement of their being 'good'. And that's where, I think, the notion of humility as a desirable character trait in a 'hero' is most important.

Frodo and the Hobbits of course are humble, they don't have to force themselves into humility because in comparison to those they meet along the way, they are at the bottom of the social heap. Not to say that they aren't tempted to 'big themselves up' of course (see Frodo's vision on Mount Doom and Sam's, when he briefly dons the Ring), but the greater people they meet, Kings, Princes, Captains etc, all must come to show their humility in the course of events.

In some cases, they must even humble themselves in order to achieve the things they are entitled to. Aragorn has to humble himself in order to be accepted as King, and Galadriel has to do so in order to be able to return to Valinor.