The final pages of The Lord of the Rings, and the death of Theoden never fail to leave me a little misty eyed.
If you haven't been paying attention, I'm a bit of a Tolkien fan, as I declared way back here. Some folks seem to think that C.S. Lewis is better, but they're usually Anglicans, so they're biased. Tolkien's craft, command of language, development of character is just vastly superior. And he doesn't smash you over the head with his theology. But it's there if you're paying attention.
OK, since White Supremacists seem to try to co-opt Tolkien as well as everything else, maybe he's too subtle. But White Supremacists aren't terribly deep thinkers, so it could be right in their face and they'd miss it, just like they missed that Homelander in The Boys is a Bad Guy. But women's agency, indigenous oppression, the rejection of Power, enviromentalism, the dangers of Corporate Greed, and the value of small things done with love are all there. Tolkien tells us that the mighty only exist, not to set things right, according to their wills, but to make space so that the small folk can build a better world, one garden at a time.
Something the rich and mighty in our world should think about.
I decided to return to my comfort blanket this spring because of all the stuff going on in the outside world, where it seems, when I'm feeling overwhelmed, that the Power of Mordor is growing. As I re-read The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, I noticed that all of the things that Jackson cut out of the movies are things of great value that I was only too happy to appreciate again.
There's more of the Shire, especially as Frodo and Sam move to Crickhollow. And if you're a Hobbit-head, and would like to live in the Shire, like me, then these chapters are super rich.
Merry and Pippin are actually intelligent and capable young hobbits, not the clowns that the movies cast them as. And Farmer Maggot. He squares up to a freaking Nazgûl! But this is an early indicator that Tolkien thinks real goodness and power comes from being rooted in the soil, oh... like Sam.
The Old Forest, Tom Bombadil, and the Barrow Downs, all show us that there are perils and powers beyond Sauron and the White Council. I think Tom Bombadil and Goldberry are present to show us what Middle Earth would have been like without Melkor's Rebellion. That was going to be my Ph.D thesis in the alternative timeline where I got to be a Professor of Literature.
The Pukel-Men. These, if anything, are an indictment of Numenorean Imperialism, which is touched on in The Silmarillion, but the emphasis on Elendil and his heirs pushes the conquering, oppressive expansion of the Numenorean Empire into the background. We don't learn in the movies of Numenor's spiritual and literal fall into darkness. Same with the Dunlendings. In the movies we don't really get why the Dunlendings hate the Rohirrim so much. You get pushed from fertile farmlands to scrabble a living in the mountains and see how you feel? The Dunlendings, full of hatred and anger, fall victim to the lies of Saruman. The Pukel-Men however, recognize the greater threat and side with the powers of Good.
The Fields of Cormallen and the whole long gentle winding down after the fall of Baradur. Wars just don't wrap up neatly, and everyone goes home. Troops didn't return home from the First World War until 1919. This part of the story gives Tolkien the time to tie up all the lose ends, and give us more time with beloved characters.
The Scouring of the Shire. I get why Jackson cut it out, but I think doing so diminishes the hobbits. But the movies do diminsh the hobbits to make Aragorn, Gimli, Legolas, and Gandalf bigger heroes. The Scouring finishes the hobbits' character development arc. And the hobbits come into their own and solve their problems without Legolas trick shooting while surfing on a shield. And Sam's Gaffer gets some great lines.
And there's more hobbits as the Shirefolk rise up against oppression and then rebuild.
Then there's all the stuff Jackson inserted into the movies.
Elves at Helm's Deep? Sigh. Thank goodness he resisted the temptation to have a bad assed Lara Croft-ish Arwen arrive to save the day. He filmed it. But left it out thank God.
The Witch-King breaking Gandalf's staff at the siege of Minas Tirith. Really? Doesn't that rather render Gandalf impotent now? And Merry dealing the fatal blow with his elvish blade is downplayed in favour of Eowyn's blow.
Faramir dragging Frodo and Sam to Osgiliath and Frodo having that dumb face off with the Nazgûl.
Aragorn killing the Mouth of Sauron is definitely not cool either. Aragorn is a valiant, honorable king and knight. Killing an Ambassador, even the Ambassador of the Dark Lord, is a moral failing. Poor way to start your reign.
I shan't bother itemizing what's wrong with The Hobbit movies. No one has time for that.
But it was good to re-visit beloved stories, and refresh them in my memory. Especially in our digital culture where the movies so easily erase the written text in the popular discourse.
