When he was pressed with the question "what is The Lord of the Rings about," J.R.R. Tolkien usually stated that it was not about anything. On one occasion, however, he gave a different answer. He said that, if it was about anything, it was about death. This can be seen, as I mentioned in the previous post, in the fact that much of Middle Earth is in terminal (or at least advanced) decline when we are introduced to it at the end of the Third Age. The return of King Elessar does bring hope, but it is a limited one. The elves do not remain in Middle Earth to share it, nor does Frodo.
As a survivor of childhood cancer, I was introduced to death at an early age. In fact, the life I live is one given by grace. One might say "on borrowed time" (as if each of our lives isn't just that). I might have died in '91. The interval, short or long, I live in is the gift of God.
Mortality. It means giving up life upon this Middle Earth; the joy and the pain. Aside from that ultimate voyage, however, there are many lesser deaths that we face upon this shore: moving away, graduation, changing churches, parting with dear friends. Each of these is felt as a loss; an awareness of time breaking in upon a soul born for timelessness. They are glimpses of the flaming sword burning east of Eden. Tolkien captures those moments in a way unequaled by all writers I know save, perhaps, one.
Comments