Most people I've met and talked to about Lord of the Rings seem to think of Frodo as a chump. And if you just watch the movies this is true; movie Frodo is the ultimate of chumps. He inherits the last vestige of evil power from a bygone age, which proceeds to ruin his life. Sacrificing his life Frodo travels to Mordor, where he ultimately fails to give up the thing the had traveled so long to get rid of and returns back to a quiet life, where he is haunted by the horrors he experienced, eventually having to go to Valinor to go find peace. It's a thoroughly depressing story. And completely guts the character from the book, making for a mere shadow of what was intended. I personally hesitate to even call them by the same name. Here's why.
During the Council of Elrond Elrond calls Frodo the equal of the likes of Beren and Turin Turambar. Anyone who knows the Silmarillion knows this is no small praise. Elrond is saying Frodo is a mover and shaker of the world on the same level of the heroes of old! And that's before Frodo gets to Mordor. As Frodo travels he only becomes more and more impressive. With no power he awes the likes of Faramir, holds council with Galadriel as someone on even footing (even if he doesn't recognize it), and is able to channel the Ring to his own personal charisma, cowing Gollum with nothing more than a few stern words. Frodo does fail to destroy the Ring, but this is after a journey that literally no one else in the entirety of Middle Earth could have done. It is presented within Tolkien's framework that no one can hold out against evil for forever, not in this world. But even so, why on earth
It all comes to a clean focus in The Scouring of the Shire, which is emphatically the point of The Lord of the Rings. It is explicit in the text itself. To omit it is to cut out the central conflict of LOTR, nevermind all of Tolkien's Legendarium! It is here where Frodo comes into sharp view. To those of you who still don't know, The Scouring of the Shire was what happened when the hobbits returned to the Shire.. only to find that a vastly depowered Saruman had taken over their homeland and corrupted it. Merry, Pippin, and Sam manage to organize a resistance and, taking Saruman's henchmen by surprise, bring down Saruman's government. But the most important part of Saruman, his voice and mind, were not taken away by Gandalf. Saruman can still manipulate and wreck souls, if only they don't know they can prevent it. All the other hobbits flinch.
All but Frodo. Up until Frodo nobody had ever gone toe to toe with a maiar with something so simple as conversation. A maiar's power isn't in his physical strength, but in his soul, his mind. Physical power comes and goes and is not something that Tolkien regards as special. But the mind? The soul? Those are completely irreplaceable and are where power truly lies. And no one in the Legendarium has been able to just stand up to maiar and win, not in a duel of wits.
Nobody but Frodo.
Using nothing but the strength of his character Frodo completely dismantles Saruman's evil in front of the hobbits of the Shire. With all the respect and care in the world Frodo counters Saruman's voice, allowing the hobbits to be free from the last enslavement Saruman had put them under. And Frodo does this with absolutely no force, whatsoever. Going to hell and back has not destroyed Frodo, on the contrary: Frodo is one of the strongest beings in Middle Earth. He is certainly unique.
What to make of the ending, then? Frodo is most definitely not broken by his experiences in Mordor. He has evolved a quiet strength that is all but impossible to see. Frodo is hurt by his experiences, of course; he does have his wounds. But the wounds are not all-consuming. But eventually the clock does have to run out on not being home. And Frodo is not home. There is only one place for someone who had been strengthened like how he was, and it is nowhere near the Shire.
Far from being the sacrificial lamb that must go on in misery until Heaven smiles upon him, Frodo winds up being one of the most powerful folk in all of the Legendarium. Able to walk with elves and men equally as easily as hobbits, Frodo became someone that even the gods could not contend with. And when it was time for him to go Frodo left in peace. Far from being a long defeat, Frodo's arc is one of victory in the face of adversity.
No comments:
Post a Comment