LOTR: The Return of the Rings, Revisited and Revealing

A few months ago, I wandered into aFacebook fan page for the Lord of the Rings trilogy, the films directed by Peter Jackson.

Wow, what a great set of films they were! I had not appreciated how good they were. Indeed, The Return of the King deserved to win the 2004 Academy Award for Best Picture.

It's a really moving series, a powerful fantasy, excellent movie-making. The source material from J.R.R. Tolkien is high-quality stuff to begin with, and the actors and director magnified its beauty, wonder, and wit. There were so many opportunities for the film to fail, to become too schmaltzy or cloistered in a world of petty fandom. Instead, this film resonates on many eternal themes, and showcases that even in great victories there are still failing characteristics which all of us must overcome.

For all of its whimsy, "The Lord of the Rings" movie trilogy speaks to real hearts and real minds, does not insult viewers. The playful antics of the Hobbits, coupled with the raw emotions of human beings and other fairy-like creatures, appeal to all audiences.

I took the time to watch all three movies over the last few weeks (including over the Christmas-New Years break), and I was really impressed with the whole production.

One of my favorite quotes from the trilogy takes place in the midst of the musing fears and comforts between Samwise Gamgee and Frodo Baggins toward the end of "The Two Towers":

I love this quote, and I have been sharing it often.

But now, I want to focus on the final film in the trilogy "Return of the King," and specifically the final scenes.

Frodo Baggins and his fellow Hobbits return to their homes in The Shire. They see all their friends, family, and neighbors whom they have known for years.

When they return to the local pub to drink a pint, however, their is a marked, saddened sobriety in their bearing, in their actions. Life is completely different for them, especially Frodo. They journeyed all over Middle Earth, they fought some of the greatest forces in that world, they defeated the most formidable foe--Sauron--and they overcame some of their own vices and limitations to accomplish those deeds. They received consummate honor for their sacrifices, too.

Who can forget Aragon, the rightly crowned king of Minas Tirith, telling the four Hobbits: "My friends, you bow to no one!" Amazing. After such powerful and moving service to their countrymen and to the world at large, one would think they would be received with greater aplomb.

Yet that does not happen. Instead, all the other Hobbits in Hobbiton go about their little lives, enjoying simple pleasures, not realizing how big, grand, amazing, and even intimidating the world can be, and not understanding not appreciating (or rather, being able to appreciate) the incredible good that Frodo and his Fellowship achieved for them.

Who can go quotidian routines after having done so much unprecedented good?

This revelation really spoke to me, and one of the last lines in the film encapsulated this sentiment for me:

You can see the whole scene here.

Not only do Gandalf, Elrond, and the other creature-heroes of Middle Earth leave for the West, but so does Frodo. There is nothing left for him in Middle Earth, in the Shire. He has changed dramatically so, he has grown, he has seen things about himself, much good and even some not so good, and that revelation has transformed everything for him.

He left the Shire, and he cannot go back to the way things were.

There is one commentary on this scene which casts a particularly negative interpretation on the exchange between Frodo and Samwise:

Tolkien wrote: “We are finite creatures with absolute limitations upon the powers of our soul-body structure in either action or endurance. Moral failure can only be asserted, I think, when a man’s efforts or endurance falls short of his limits, and the blame decreases as that limit is closer approached.”

So no blame is attached to Frodo by any other person except for the blame that he attaches to himself but that is sufficient for Frodo to experience both judgement and punishment.

Tolkien addresses this with wonderful sensitivity in his letter.

The main thrust of this article is that Frodo is leaving Middle Earth to atone for his failure to get rid of the Ring of Power completely on his own. The main argument is that Frodo is not fit for his homeland because in a sense, he failed them.

I do not accept this view.

What I see is a Hobbit, a youth who has matured through great trial, one who sees everything so differently, more profoundly than before, and who can never quite fit in with the surroundings and personalities of his younger days, before he ventured to Mordor to get rid of the Ring.

Now that Frodo has changed, now that he has grown, he has to move on. 

This revelation speaks to me because I have experienced this similar transformation in my life. Over the last few months particularly, I have found myself no longer interested in going to the same haunts, same events with people whom I have known, whom I befriended long ago. We don't share the same values, views, or goals anymore. I have been really growing in grace as I see more of Jesus in God's Word, as I understand more of the abuse and pain I went through when I was younger, and now that I am older and wiser, I can see things more clearly.

How I related to people in the past, and many of the activities and efforts I invested in in the past, no longer matter that much to me. Some friendships I have given up, seeing how those individuals have not grown up, do not see more, have no interest in trying new things or obtaining greater revelation of the truth.

It's painful to part ways with people whom you have known for so long, yet you find that there is little else to know, and you have come to see, understand, perceive, and discern so much more than they have, and more than they care to learn about. Yet there is great peace in understanding that the pain of parting ways with others, with familiar faces and places, is inevitable, and an inevitable good. It means that I am growing, changing for the better, something that I have consistently prayed for in my life.

This powerful revelation really shook me, and I am so grateful to have rewatched not just the Lord of the Rings Trilogy, but to appreciate the final goodbyes of Frodo Baggins in that final scene.