Keep Up Your Merry Hearts, and Ride to Meet Your Fortune!

Hello!

I wanted to use this last post of the semester as an opportunity to thank Dr. Donovan and all of you, my fellow classmates, for such a great class! I'm so glad I decided to take this course and it has honestly been my most favorite and exciting class this whole semester. Despite the second half of the semester being shaken up and everything having to go online, this class acted as a great motivator for me to keep up my studies and I learned so much from it!
Good luck to you all on your Final Portfolios and exams! I hope you all have a good summer and stay safe and healthy!

- Emma (aka Tom Bombadil)

My Thoughts on the Blog and Pseudonyms

Personally, this blog has been one of my favorite parts of this course. Although there were some weeks where I had a more difficult time coming up with an idea for a post, in general, I really enjoyed writing and reading posts during the week. I think this blog was a really useful space for continuing discussions from class or sharing ideas, thoughts, and opinions that people had about each week's reading or anything else Tolkien-related. I especially appreciated this blog when we transitioned from live class to Zoom meetings because I know, at least for me, inserting your own thoughts into class discussion over a virtual platform is a bit more difficult. Thus, this blog provided me with an outlet to mention whatever ideas occurred to me in class (or after class).

My only gripe with this blog would be in regard to the mechanics of Blogger itself, more specifically how you can't tag (or "label") your own comments and whenever you click on a Blogger profile, it doesn't show all posts/comments from that specific person. Perhaps using a different blogging platform would solve this issue since Blogger doesn't seem to be in any hurry to fix this issue.

As for the anonymity, I think this was another great aspect of the blog because it allowed people to share thoughts and opinions without fear of being judged (although everyone in this class has proven to be very cordial and open to new ideas).

Freewrite on Hope in the Houses of Healing

The scene that I chose is in Chapter 8 of Book 5 in The Return of the King when Aragorn comes into the Houses of Healing to heal the three warriors who fell during the Battle of Pelennor Fields: Faramir, Eowyn, and Merry. I particularly want to focus on the scene when Aragorn heals Faramir and calls him back to the world of the living and out of the darkness. This scene is filled with hope as it is the first instance in the sequence of scenes in the Houses of the Healing when Aragorn exemplifies not only his knowledge of healing remedies but also his deep care and love for others as the future King. I saw someone post recently about this scene and of how Aragorn not only healed their external maladies, in Faramir’s case his fever, but he also had the power to heal their internal suffering and grief. Faramir does not stir as his mind wanders in the dark world of “weariness, grief for his father’s mood, a wound, and over all the Black Breath” (864) and if not for the kingsfoil, the athleas, and Aragorn’s healing hands, he would’ve died, falling under the spell of despair and suffering induced by the evil of the Black Breath. However, as the helpers in the Houses of Healing display their hope in the athleas healing Faramir and Aragorn calls him back to the light, Faramir awakens, immediately showing love for his king, even though he doesn’t even know him. I think this chapter is one of my favorites in the whole series because it shows how hope can heal and to hope is to have the courage to keep on living. 

Later, when Aragorn heals Éowyn, she is more filled with despair, as she has lost her father-figure King Théoden and did not die beside him in battle, as she had wanted to. Her healing takes longer as she has to take more time to gain more hope for living. When characters fall into despair, they often lose the strength to go on. If Frodo and Sam had lost hope entirely, they never would have completed their journey because they would not have the strength to keep going. 

Tolkien seems to want the reader to know that in the face of such immense and all-powerful evil, having hope is extremely necessary to go on, to keep living. Going back to the Houses of Healing, this chapter/scene exemplifies the hope that is found through wanting others to live and healing those who have suffered.

The Idea of Isolation (As Shown Through Denethor and Others)

Yesterday in class, someone made an interesting comparison between Denethor, Steward of Gondor, and King Théoden. They pointed out that while Théoden spent all his time with his men and rode into battle with them, Denethor willingly separates himself from his soldiers and the people of Minas Tirith by secluding himself in the White Tower. When Théoden was the victim of Saruman's spell and was totally isolated from his people, he was weak, physically and mentally, and was easily influenced by Wormtongue's shady words. Théoden's character, before he was released from the spell, parallels Denethor's character as he descends into madness during the siege of Gondor. The similar factor of these two powerful men's descent into darkness was obviously Sauron's influence but also their isolation. Luckily, Théoden came out of this okay, but Denethor...not so much. 

The reason why I find this parallel interesting is because it shows one of the most dangerous parts of Sauron's, and by extension the Ring's, influence, which is isolation. As Denethor was steadily fed images of evil and despair through the Palantir, he grew detached from the people who he was to serve as a leader to. The same can be said for Théoden before Gandalf snapped him out of it. Additionally, as the Ring overtook Gollum's mind, he isolated himself completely by going to the deepest, darkest cave he could find. Although he has Sam with him, Frodo also suffers this effect of the Ring as he must bear the mental weight of the Ring alone. 

It makes sense that Tolkien would equate isolation and seclusion with Sauron's evil since one of Tolkien's main positive messages in LOTR is the importance of unity and friendship in the face of danger and conflict. 

Tolkien's Organization of Perspectives/POVs

One of the main topics we discussed on Tuesday was how Tolkien chooses to include multiple perspectives which helps the reader get a good look at all the different events occurring  during the story. This use of multiple point-of-views/perspectives is especially useful in The Two Towers as well as The Return of the King since the Fellowship has split up into branches extending all over the map of Middle-earth. I greatly appreciate Tolkien's choice to divide up the perspectives because it really helps to see the development and growth of not only the "main" characters (like Frodo, Sam, or Aragorn) but also more "minor" characters (such as Merry and Pippin).

That being said, I've always thought it was an interesting decision of Tolkien's to divide up The Two Towers into Book 4 being exclusively Frodo and Sam's journey and Book 3 containing the events related to the rest of the Fellowship. I understand this choice on an organizational level since Frodo and Sam are isolated from the rest of the group so it makes more sense to put their whole story together. However, it does leave me a little confused in regards to the timeline of events since the split-up perspectives don't make this too clear, although Tolkien does ensure to include how time passes by mentioning how many days have passed, etc. Ultimately, understanding how different events align doesn't really matter since everyone miraculously and conveniently ends up in Mordor at the same time in The Return of the King.

These are just some ideas that occurred to me after our discussion on Tuesday. I'd be interested to know anyone else's thoughts on this! 

Friendship as a Motivator in the Two Towers

During Tuesday's meeting, our exercise focused on the choices and decisions made in Book 3, Chapters 1-5 of The Two Towers. I was given Chapter 4, "Treebeard," to look through and identify the various decisions that were made in that chapter. One choice that stood out to me in my list was Treebeard's decision to gather his fellow Ents and go to Isengard to bring an end to Saruman's destruction of the forest. As he comes to realize his decision to go to Isengard, he says: "'Curse him, root and branch! Many of those trees were my friends, creatures I had known from nut and acorn; many had voices of their own that are lost for ever now.'"
Thus the motivation behind Treebeard's choice is not only his duty, as a shepherd of the forest, to protect but also to bring justice to the fallen trees, his fallen friends. It's clear to the reader how close Treebeard holds his friends to his heart since he gets heated when discussing it and even breaks his even, level-headed behavior as he grows "too hasty."

Another instance of this type of motivation is in Book 3, Chapter 1, "The Depature of Boromir." At the end of this Chapter, Gimli highlights their two choices: to attempt to follow Frodo or follow the Orcs. Aragorn makes the decision to follow the Orcs on foot to rescue Merry and Pippin, specifically stating that if he were to follow Frodo, he would "abandon the captives to torment and death" and he "cannot forsake our companions while we have strength left." This is the more physically demanding decision, as it will require traveling by foot across Rohan rather than taking the boats. This choice also diverges from the initial purpose of the Fellowship-to help Frodo get the Ring to Mordor. One could argue that loyalty to either pair of Hobbits acts a motivator for both these choices, but as Merry and Pippin are in more imminent danger, Aragorn is driven to follow them. Additionally, Legolas and Gimli raise no objection to this choice or to their choice to follow Aragorn as it is clear that they too strongly value their companions' safety.

Tolkien's Medieval Inspirations and His Originality

Despite the unfortunate transition this class (and all my other classes) had to make from in-person to online, I do think I was able to successfully learn something valuable from this week's readings. I enjoyed analyzing these two main influential sources for Tolkien and finding the origin, you could say, of some of Tolkien's character types and overarching themes and ideas.

However, I think my biggest takeaway after reading Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and Prose Edda was the fact that I've developed an even greater appreciation of the intricacy of the history and lore of Tolkien's writings. A common discussion point in both of this week's exercises was that although Tolkien drew lots of inspiration for various characters/themes/actions from these medieval texts, he almost always took these inspirations and wove them (mostly) delicately into his stories, always ensuring that they'd serve a logical purpose within his own world. I've definitely not studied all of Tolkien's sources by any means so I'm just basing this idea off of the knowledge I've gained from these two texts and other sources we've discussed in class, but reading his sources has made me more appreciative of Tolkien's "original" ideas. The race of hobbits, for example, are an original creation of Tolkien's. Essentially, I think it's important and useful to understand his sources because it a) gives credit where credit is due for bigger ideas and b) it highlights Tolkien's own unique creativity.

The Idea of Responsibility in the Fellowship

When I initially think about who holds the most responsibility in the original nine members of the Fellowship, my mind immediately goes to Frodo, since he has voluntarily taken it up himself to be the Ring Bearer. The weight of this responsibility and duty that Frodo feels is almost physically hindering to him since he must act selflessly in order to fulfill his quest. We see this when he decides to depart from the Fellowship to complete his journey to Mordor alone, despite him knowing the road holds inevitable danger and he is not quite sure of his path. 

However, his lonesome journey is foiled by another character in the Fellowship who also stays true to their promises and responsibilities: Samwise Gamgee. One of the most obvious characteristics of Sam is his undying devotion to his master. He takes it upon himself to ensure the safety of Frodo's wellbeing and it is because of this intense feeling of responsibility and love for Frodo that he chooses to leave the relative security of the Fellowship to go with Frodo to destroy the Ring. 

Besides these two Hobbits, another figure in the Fellowship that was recognized to hold a great deal of responsibility was Gandalf, as he was the one who was knowledgeable about the paths they should take and what danger may lie ahead of them. 

After he falls into the depths of Moria, that responsibility for the guidance of the Company is passed to Aragorn, who feels this burden of responsibility heavily. In the first chapter of The Two Towers, after Aragorn finds Boromir dead, he is distressed and holds himself accountable for the breaking of the Fellowship. Thus, it seems to me that these four characters (Frodo, Sam, Gandalf, and Aragorn) shoulder a great deal of responsibility and hold themselves accountable to their duties, making them admirable figures in the story. 

An Appreciation Post for the Multimedia Projects

Firstly, I want to give everyone a high five for finishing their multimedia projects and successfully producing really interesting, insightful, and oftentimes funny videos. As far as group projects go, this assignment was definitely not the easiest, but I would say after watching all the finished videos, the results were pretty darn impressive.

I also have an appreciation for the subject matter of the projects. I especially appreciate the videos related to the Silmarillion that were presented on Tuesday since they're directly relevant to the material we're reading currently. As I read The Fellowship of the Ring again, I feel like I'm getting much more out of the story than I did the first time I read it.  I attribute this feeling to now being familiar with the ancient characters whose names are dropped everywhere and all the "historical" references that are mentioned in The Lord of the Rings. Being more aware of the history of Middle Earth and learning the significant stories of the Elder Days, like those of Beren and Lúthien, Eärendil, and Turin Turambar, makes reading The Lord of the Rings almost easier. Being in-the-know on who or what LOTR characters are referring to makes it easier to focus on the story instead of being lost in a sea of names and places you've never heard of. Essentially, despite the challenge of this group project, I can say with certainty that the results have improved my enjoyment of Tolkien's stories. 

The Introduction of Arwen in the Fellowship of the Ring

One of the aspects of the film adaptations of The Lord of the Rings series that has always stood out to me was their enhancement of Arwen's involvement in the main events of the story. Given that I just read the books for the first time this year and am currently reading them for a second time, I was far more familiar with how the story and characters were presented in the films. That being said, when I read through the series, I was pretty surprised at how little Arwen appears in the story (and how her and Aragorn's relationship is merely implied until The Return of the King). Since this week's readings covered "Many Meetings", the first and only chapter that Arwen actively appears in until The Return of the King, I thought I would dedicate a post to where the Lady of Rivendell falls in line of important characters in the history of Middle-Earth.

As is stated in "Many Meetings", Arwen is the youngest of Elrond and Celebrían's children and their only daughter. Her paternal grandparents were Eärendil and Elwing. It is through her grandmother than she is a descendent of Beren and Lúthien, to whom she is said to have a strong likeness to in appearance. She is also the granddaughter of Galadriel and Celeborn through her mother Celebrían. However, despite her mother being Elven, Arwen is of the Half-Elven since her grandfather is Eärendil, the second of the Half-Elven. Her marriage to Aragorn, whose ancestor is Elros, brother of Elrond and Half-Elven, would reunite the lineage of the Half-Eleven.

Also a fun note about her name(s): One of the names she is known by is Undómiel, which is the Quenyan (High-Eleven) word for Evenstar: Undómë meaning "evening twilight" and el meaning "star". The name Arwen is in Sindarian (the common Elvish language) and translates to "royal, noble" and "maiden".

Beowolf Freewrite (Tolkien and His Take on Dragons)

“Beowolf’s dragon, if one wishes to criticize, is not to be blamed for being a dragon,, but rather for not being dragon enough, plain pure fairy-story dragon. There are in this poem some vivid touches of the right kind- as pa se wyrm onwoc, wroht wæs geniwad: stonc æfter stane, 2285 – in which this dragon is real worm, with a bestial life and thought of his own but the conception, none the less, approaches draconitas rather than draco: a personification of malice, greed, destruction (the evil side of heroic life), and of the undiscriminating cruelty of fortune that distinguishes not good or bad (the evil aspect of all life)." 
- Beowolf: The Monsters and the Critics, pg. 17

This description of Beowolf’s dragon seemed to me to reflect what Tolkien believes is the right kind of dragon in a story by pointing out the less effective use of a dragon in Beowolf. He says that Beowolf’s dragon is more draconitas than actual draco, being a personification of the evil side of heroic life and the evil aspect of all life (the “undiscriminating cruelty of fortune…”). This made me think of how his thoughts on Beowolf’s dragon must have influenced the way he wrote Smaug in The Hobbit. In his story, Smaug is a wicked and cruel, but intelligent creature with the characteristics that Tolkien stated the Beowolf dragon could have had more of: “bestiality of life and thought of his own.” It seems to me that though Smaug is most definitely a good example of a dragon as a malicious creature, but Tolkien does create a character in his story that represents the evil side of heroic life-Smaug’s hoarding of the treasure in the Lonely Mountain is not unlike Thorin’s later attitude towards the treasure and the Arkenstone after the desolation of the dragon. Smaug is indeed representative of the power of fortune and riches that attract both evil forces (like the goblins) and “good” or not inherently evil ones (like the wood-elves and the men of Lake-town). I think Tolkien finds a good balance of symbolism and fairy-tale monster in his creation of Smaug.

Addition to free-write: I was initially confused by Tolkien referring to dragons as “worms” but after the art report on “Glorund Sets Forth”, it makes more sense as Tolkien had more non-traditional beliefs/depictions of dragons' physical appearance, such as Glorund. 

Fate and Destiny in the Hobbit

The concept of fate and destiny in the Hobbit is interesting to me because for some characters, their destiny is obvious and spelled out for them while for others, it occurs to them unexpectedly. The characters I'm specifically thinking of are Thorin and Bilbo. I should clarify first that fate and destiny aren't one in the same, as destiny are the events that will happen to something/something for with a predetermined purpose while fate are events/often death that mostly occur out of someone's control, possibly by the hand of a supernatural being or thing. 

Thorin's destiny, as the grandson of Thror, is to retake the Lonely Mountain from Smaug and reclaim the great halls, caves, and of course treasure of his ancestors. As a result of reclaiming the Mountain and the treasure, Thorin would fulfill his destiny to be the King under the Mountain. However, fate steps in and he unfortunately dies after the Battle of the Five Armies. In his case, Thorin perceived his duty to his ancestors as his destiny and took control of fulfilling it but he could not control his fate. 

Bilbo contrasts to Thorin in that he had no idea about his destiny (i.e. his involvement and significant role in the adventures of the story) nor how his destiny would affect the history and future events of Middle Earth. A quote that stood out to me when I finished the Hobbit was Gandalf's response to Bilbo when he notes that the prophecies of the old songs are actually true: 

"And why should not they prove true? Surely you don't disbelieve the prophecies, because you had a hand in bringing them about yourself? You don't really suppose, do you, that all your adventures and escapes were managed by mere luck, just for your sole benefit? You are a very fine person, Mr. Baggins, and I am very fond of you; but you are only quite a little fellow in a wide world after all!"

I think what Gandalf says here explains a bit about how a character's fate and destiny are controlled to some level by higher powers who set the prophecies for Middle Earth in place. 

I'd be interested to hear/read anyone else's thoughts on this quote, as I think it could be related to characters/events/themes in Tolkien's other works. 

Natural vs. Unnatural: Horses

The creatures I listed as being written as having "natural" behaviors in Chap. 6-9 of The Hobbit were the horses/ponies. I was thinking specifically of Beorn's horses/ponies since they are mentioned quite a few times when the company is interacting with Beorn. These horses display affection and loyalty to their master (or would it be more appropriate for Beorn to be their friend?) and know how to find their way home and thus behave. Granted, when the company initially came upon Beorn's horses, they acted sort of like guard dogs and ran to tell him that Gandalf and the dwarves and Bilbo had arrived. As far as I know, this isn't usual horse behavior. But for the most part, they behave as horses in our reality would behave.

That being said, horses/ponies remain essential creatures for the characters in The Hobbit, as their presence (or lack thereof) indicates the ease of the company's journey. They also are essential creatures in The Lord of the Rings series as we will later learn about Shadowfax (whose supernatural capabilities may be an exception to the natural rule) and the horses of Rohan and of course Bill the Pony. After thinking about how Tolkien uses horses within Middle Earth,I appreciate how he manages to make them important creatures that have subtle, but definite effects on the state of the characters without adding too many fantastical or unusual elements to them.

I am Tom Bombadil

Hey dol!

I am called Tom Bombadil and I am quite a peculiar figure! I live close by the Old Forest with my lovely wife Goldberry, the daughter of the River. I am the Eldest and I have seen all the different beings and creatures come and go throughout their lands and through the ages. That being said, I have little interest in the goings-on outside my domain and would much rather sing my songs and spend time within the regions of my land.

Although the beginning of my existence is tricky to put a pin on, I first arrive in the story of the Ring when Frodo Baggins and his fellow hobbits, Merry, Pippin and Sam, have a unfortunate encounter with Old Man Willow in the Old Forest. After this event, Goldberry and I hosted the hobbits in our home where they could rest, feast, and enjoy all my fantastic stories. It is at this point that it is revealed that the Ring holds no power over me, let alone any noticeable effect. However, as I stated before, I have no desire to do anything with it as it concerns happenings outside my domain.

Personally, I find Tom Bombadil's character fascinating and I wish he appeared more actively in the rest of The Lord of the Rings series besides in The Fellowship of the Ring. I have a feeling he's one of Tolkien's more allegorical characters since he's so ambiguous, so I look forward to possibly learning more about him.