Imagine no religion

[TheGreatElvenWarrior]

There are a lot of passages in LotR where it says that something has happened because it was "meant" to happen. I reread Mt. Doom last night in hopes that I could find a passage where Sam looks to the skies in Mordor and sees one star. He said something that might have referenced Eru, but I didn't find the passage, and I started doubting as to whether or not that actually happened, or if I combined a movie and book moment in my mind. I mention this because even in that one chapter I noticed Sam thinking that something was "meant" to be. If a series of events happens that is attributed to fate, in my mind that is equating those events to be "from God" in some way or another. While the peoples in Middle-earth (the exception being the kings of Numenor) never did seem to go to church, they did talk an awful lot about "luck," fate," and being "meant" to have or to do something. That points, to me, to some higher power at work. That if the characters themselves are only vaguely aware or believe that there are some higher powers working for them, they do appreciate it, and at least mention it. In Mt. Doom, Sam thinks to himself that he has found an incredible stroke of luck when he finds a road in Mordor leading to Orodruin (that the narrator is quick to point out is Sauron's personal road from Barad-dur to the mountain, but Sam does not know this). Sam and Frodo take this road all the way to the mountain. Sam distinctly mumbles to himself about how they were "meant" to find this road and take it. Another example would be Gandalf telling Frodo that he and Bilbo were "meant" to find the Ring, but not by Sauron. That leads me to believe that either Eru or the Valar moved their hands in some way to lead Bilbo to find the Ring in Gollum's keeping.

I hope I did not ramble. I rarely post on the books forum, so my serious posting mode is a bit rusty.

[Puddleglum]

Originally Posted by TheGreatElvenWarrior

I reread Mt. Doom last night in hopes that I could find a passage where Sam looks to the skies in Mordor and sees one star. He said something that might have referenced Eru, but I didn't find the passage

It's there. It's in the preceding chapter "The Land of Shadow"

Originally Posted by Land of Shadow

Far above the Ephel Dúath in the West the night-sky was still dim and pale. There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach.

His song in the tower had been defiance, rather than hope, for then he had been thinking about himself. Now his own fate, even his master's ceased to trouble him. He crawled back into the thicket, laid himself at Frodo's side, and cast himself at once into a deep and untroubled sleep.

Like most else in LOTR, explicit reference to Eru is minimal or omitted. Tolkien wrote once to the effect that this was intentional. That the, if you will, "religious" elements were subsumed into the story itself, rather than stated explicitly. Thus, the characters do not (except only rarely) refer to Eru but the story is predicated upon both his presence and his sovereignty over the unfolding story.

Hence, Sam's returned hope is based upon his recognition that for all his seeming power and menace and bluster, Sauron is (in the end) futile and passing. It is hard, often, to grasp such a thought in the middle of such travails (which is one reason why few characters "do" grasp it - even for a moment), but it serves to express (I believe) Tolkien's hope - not only for the story of LOTR, but also, by extension, for our times - that when the story has finally reached the end all the pains and loss will be redressed and seen as no more than growing pains - as a rock climber forgets all his/her scrapes and bruises for joy of the view seen once the cliff top has been reached.

[TheGreatElvenWarrior]

Originally Posted by Puddleglum

It's there. It's in the preceding chapter "The Land of Shadow"

Thank you for finding that. I was lost when trying to look for it, and now I think that is exactly the passage I was thinking of.