When The Lord of the Rings Draws To A Close
I want to discuss the ending of The Lord of the Rings for a moment, and not the one in the movies. For those of you unaware, in the books, when the four Hobbits return home, their home is in ruins. The evil wizard, Saruman, has come and essentially enslaved their people, ruining their beautiful green fields, and instilling fear in everyone. The land is torn apart, it is dark and desolate, the huge beautiful party tree that stood a year before and became the center of the biggest birthday party the whole Shire had attended was cut down without a thought. The four returning Hobbits had to lead a rebellion against the wizard and ultimately kill him before they could even entertain the thought of restoring their land, and even once they had, it took them a long time. Things weren't magically fixed.
I'm recounting this, because as I see it, the end of the Return of the King held a very real, raw truth, and that truth was removed from the movies. The ending of the books hit home for many of us. We, along with the Hobbits had seen the Shire as this place that could never be touched or corrupted. But we were proved wrong.
The whole point of the ending of the Lord of the Rings was that everyone was touched by the war. Saruman didn't go after the Shire out of some petty revenger for these halflings that helped defeat him. He saw this small, soft, inherently gentle people and knew that not all of them could be warriors like the two he had seen. He knew they wouldn't fight or struggle under oppression. he knew he could break them and use them to his advantage. It showed that even though Frodo, Pippin, Sam and Merry viewed the Shire as home, as green, as lush, as quiet that they couldn't always depend on that. They view the Shire as untouchable, and I think Tolkien, having been though war and having been there just said no. He took that ideology and dashed it against the rocks and said, even your dearest, most secret places will be destroyed, torn apart by war, so do not become complacent. Be on guard, be on watch, be ready. Don't let in the evil because it will take the beautiful, green, fruit producing fields of your soul and blacken them, churn them up, implant huge machines that belch black, acrid smoke. he'd seen war. He'd seen physical and spiritual warfare and wanted to warn us. Keep watch, be ready.
I'm recounting this, because as I see it, the end of the Return of the King held a very real, raw truth, and that truth was removed from the movies. The ending of the books hit home for many of us. We, along with the Hobbits had seen the Shire as this place that could never be touched or corrupted. But we were proved wrong.
The whole point of the ending of the Lord of the Rings was that everyone was touched by the war. Saruman didn't go after the Shire out of some petty revenger for these halflings that helped defeat him. He saw this small, soft, inherently gentle people and knew that not all of them could be warriors like the two he had seen. He knew they wouldn't fight or struggle under oppression. he knew he could break them and use them to his advantage. It showed that even though Frodo, Pippin, Sam and Merry viewed the Shire as home, as green, as lush, as quiet that they couldn't always depend on that. They view the Shire as untouchable, and I think Tolkien, having been though war and having been there just said no. He took that ideology and dashed it against the rocks and said, even your dearest, most secret places will be destroyed, torn apart by war, so do not become complacent. Be on guard, be on watch, be ready. Don't let in the evil because it will take the beautiful, green, fruit producing fields of your soul and blacken them, churn them up, implant huge machines that belch black, acrid smoke. he'd seen war. He'd seen physical and spiritual warfare and wanted to warn us. Keep watch, be ready.
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