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Posts Tagged ‘tolkien’

Go Ask Frodo

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on November 16, 2024| 2 Comments »

GC Myers-- Follow the River sm

Follow the River— At Principle Gallery

‘I cannot imagine what information could be more terrifying than your hints and warnings,’ exclaimed Frodo. ‘I knew that danger lay ahead, of course; but I did not expect to meet it in our own Shire. Can’t a hobbit walk from the Water to the River in peace?’

‘But it is not your own Shire,’ said Gildor. ‘Others dwelt here before hobbits were; and others will dwell here again when hobbits are no more. The wide world is all about you; you can fence yourselves in, but you cannot forever fence it out.’

—J. R. R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

Yeah, I know. Another Tolkien passage in less than a week. I don’t think I’ve ever shared another passage from his books in the 16 years of this blog and now two show up in one week.  Guess that’s the way the Hobbit bounces.

I thought conversation between the hesitant hero Hobbit, Frodo, and the Elf, Gildor, fit with this painting, Follow the River, that’s at the Principle Gallery. The painting has an appealingly safe appearance with its blanket of green and its meandering tranquil river that, with the hills rising from it, feels safely walled in from the outside world. It has the insular warmth and security that I am sure the Hobbits felt in the Shire.

But there is darkness ahead. Part of me wants to see the rising moon in the blackened sky as light against the darkness while another part of me sees it as an ominous eye that surveils our every move.

Maybe it’s a bit of both. I can’t quite tell yet. Time will tell. But the message in this passage–the wide world is all about you; you can fence yourselves in, but you cannot forever fence it out— resonates in this moment. Blissful ignorance will not insulate one from the evils of the world.

Go ask Frodo. He’ll tell you.

Here’s a favorite song from Joni Mitchell that I’ve played a number of times in the past. It has the right vibe for this morning. Here’s her River.

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We Don’t Need Another Hero

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , on November 13, 2024| Leave a Comment »

GC Myers-The Uplifted Heart sm

The Uplifted Heart– At West End Gallery

There is more in you of good than you know, child of the kindly West. Some courage and some wisdom, blended in measure. If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world. But sad or merry, I must leave it now. Farewell!

–J. R. R. Tolkien, The Hobbit (1937)

These were the final words of Thorin Oakenshield, the Dwarf King, to Bilbo Baggins as he lay dying after the Battle of the Five Armies, which was the conclusive battle between the forces of good and evil in The Hobbit. Thorin realizes in that moment that greed, much like his own dwarfish thirst for gold, was the cause of all the ills of the world, responsible for all the destructive wars of conquest. He understands that if the inhabitants of Middle Earth were all like Bilbo, leading simple, cheerful lives centered on the goodness of life, that evil would cease to exist.

Heroism, by extension, would no longer be necessary.

Tolkien wrote this in the mid 1930’s, during the rise of Fascism and Naziism in Europe, and the storyline mirrors that time.

That the world would be a better place without the overriding greediness for power and wealth that grips this planet might be a simplistic and unrealistic idea.  It probably is.

But it is also an obvious truth and should remain fixed in our minds so that we might better recognize that type of thirst for domination when it raises its ugly head. Without it we are destined to never-ending repeats of the Battle of the Five Armies, where it will be us simple Hobbits who will have to screw up our courage and pay the price to once more quell those darker forces the face us.

It would be nice to not have to do this time and time again, wouldn’t it? Wouldn’t it be great to be able to focus on the simpler joys of this world? Wouldn’t it be wonderful to not need a hero except for those who pull kids out of burning buildings or cure disease?

I have no answers here, of course. Yeah, it would be great to not need heroes but the lust for power and wealth seems to be part of our DNA. Wish it weren’t so but we’re probably going to need more heroes in the near future. Most likely we’ll find that hero among those Hobbits forced at last to leave the comfort of their Hobbit holes. We surely won’t find that hero in Sauron’s Tower.

But it’s nice to think of a time when heroes are not needed. Sigh.

Here’s Tina Turner and her We Don’t Need Another Hero. You knew there was going to be a song, didn’t you?

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