“She said to me, even now, there is hope left, but I cannot see it. It is long since we had any hope. My father is a noble man, but his rule is failing, and our people lose faith. He looks to me to make things right and I would do it. I would see the glory of Gondor restored. Have you ever seen it, Aragorn? The White Tower of Ecthelion, glimmering like a spike of pearl and silver, its banners caught high in the morning breeze. Have you ever been called home by the clear ringing of silver trumpets?”;

“I have seen the White City, long ago.”;

“One day, our paths will lead us there and the tower guard will take up the call: The Lords of Gondor have returned!”;

- Boromir to Aragorn, at nightfall in Lothlorien

Frodo Lives!

As long as there is hope, there are Hobbits. Where ever there is beauty, there are the fair folk. To quote Chesterton, “Fairy Tales are more than true; not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten.” And so I believe. Not because things like fairy tales or things like The Lord of the Rings never happen, but because they always happen. Our “Precious”, whatever it may be, consumes us. If the object of our desire is a golden ring, in fact “THE” Golden Ring it can only make us hardened and circular, like it is hard and circular. A circle is madness. It can never be any larger or smaller than it is. It runs forever, but only on the same path. An infinite retracing of steps, with no progress.

If our “Precious” is something broader, something bigger than ourselves, however, we can only expand and grow; and be better off for it. Like the Cross. Actually, I’m having a hard time expressing this idea, once again let’s look to Chesterton:

“As we have taken the circle as a symbol of reason and madness, we may very well take the cross as the symbol at once of mystery and of health. Buddhism is centripetal, but Christianity is centrifugal: it breaks out. For the circle is perfect and infinite in its nature; but it is fixed forever in size; it can never be larger or smaller. But the cross, though it has at its heart a collision and a contradiction, can extend its four arms forever without altering its shape. Because it has a paradox in its center, it can grow without changing. The circle returns upon itself and is bound. The cross opens its arms to the four winds; it is a singpost for free travelers.”

That is exactly what I was trying to, but never could, say. The free peoples of middle earth constantly live fairy tales. It is the “experts” whose lives are far too safe. The modern “experts” are free peoples, but they aren’t “normal” people. They aren’t really even free. They’re not free to believe in Hobbitts, or free to adventure. They can’t honestly enjoy the array of emotions that us everyday folks have the privilege of. They never truly love, never feel courageous, or chivalrous. And that is precisely why they’ve never saw an Orc, or an Ent.

“It’s a pity Bilbo didn’t kill him when he had the chance.”;

“Pity? It was pity that stayed Bilbo’s hand. Many that live deserve death. Some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them, Frodo? Do not be too eager to deal out death in judgment. Even the very wise cannot see all ends. My heart tells me that Gollum has some part to play yet, for good or ill before this is over. The pity of Bilbo may rule the fate of many.”;

“I wish The Ring had never come to me. I wish none of this had ever happened.”;

“So do all who live to face such times, but that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.”;

- Gandalf to Frodo, in the Mines of Moria

Prose like this is the scourge of Calvinists. They would seek to deny man’s freedom, and by doing so, they vilify the Creator. By focusing solely on God’s sovereignty they have missed man’s freedom. They have taken one of Christianity’s mystic ideas, and used it against another of the Church’s balance of mystical ideas. In fact, they have forgotten that their own favorite mystical idea is actually a “mystical idea”. Again, Christianity; and all of life is a paradox.

The point is that we have to decide, just as Gandalf said. We have a choice. We did not ask to be born, but since we were, the pendulum is in motion.We must choose a side. See Pascal’s Wager.

“One does not simply walk into Mordor. Its black gates are guarded by more than just orcs. There is evil there that does not sleep, and the Great Eye is ever watchful. It is a barren wasteland, riddled with fire and ash and dust, the very air you breathe is a poisonous fume. Not with ten thousand men could you do this. It is folly.”;

- Boromir at the Council of Elrond

Life is hopeless, if left to our own devises. Luckily, we aren’t alone. Saint George, apart from faith, hope, and love, could never have slayed the dragon. Peter, apart from his God, could never have became the Vicar of Christ. Saint Francis, if not for his homeless Messiah, could not have became a beggar. Evil is afoot everywhere, from Mirkwood to Milwaukee. We must gird ourselves with the proper armour.

“I do not know what strength is in my blood, but I swear to you I will not let the White City fall, nor our people fail.”

“Our people, our people! I would have followed you to the end… my brother… my captain… my king!”

“Be at peace, Son of Gondor.”

- Aragorn to Boromir as he dies

Certain things are worth fighting for. Freedom, for instance. Aragorn and Boromir were freedom fighters. The battles of our day are usually not fought with sword or cannon. Our wars tend to be more subtle. Many of us go on about our lives and never see the fact that we are at war. We are entrenched in a culture war. Not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, and evilness in high places. The King of this world, of Mordor, has indeed mustered his forces. They march already. TheRohirrim must be gathered. Ride. For freedom, for death. Today is a red day.

“Remember what Bilbo used to say: It’s a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there’s no knowing where you might be swept off to…”;

- Frodo to Sam

A final dose of Chesterton to summarize:

“The ordinary man has always been sane because the ordinary man has always been a mystic. He has permitted the twilight. He has always had one foot in earth and the other in fairyland. He has always left himself free to doubt his gods; but (unlike the agnostic of today) free also to believe in them. He has always cared more for truth than for consistency.”

“If he saw two truths that seemed to contradict each other, he would take the two truths and the contradiction along with them. His spiritual sight is stereoscopic, like his physical sight; he sees two different pictures at once and yet sees all the better for that. Thus he has always believed that there was such a thing as fate, but such as thing as free will also. Thus he believed that children were indeed the kingdom of heaven but nevertheless ought to be obedient to the kingdom of earth. He admired youth because it was young and age because it was not.”

“It is exactly this balance of apparent contradictions that has been the whole buoyancy of the healthy man. The whole secret of mysticism is this: that man can understand everything by the help of what he does not understand. The morbid logician seeks to make everything lucid, and succeeds in making everything mysterious. The mystic allows one thing to be mysterious, and everything else become lucid.”

“The determinist makes the theory of causation quite clear, and then finds that he cannot say “if you please” to the housemaid. The Christian permits free will to remain a sacred mystery, but because of this his relations with the housemaid become of a sparking and crystal clearness. He puts the seed of dogma in a central darkness; but it branches forth in all directions with abounding natural health.”

Amen.