Frodo, Free Will, More Tolkien Mania

The excerpt I posted, where Tolkien discusses “the failure of Frodo”, in the end, to complete his mission, generated a very interesting discussion. If you’re a Tolkien freak like myself.

Bill McCabe commented: You’re right, but he also makes the point that no man could hold an object with such power without succumbing to it’s power. While he makes the one point that men are weak and easily corrupted, he also shows the men of Gondor and Rohan finding the strength within to stand againt the Dark Lord. I’m wondering if any of the letters address this in more detail.

Well. Naturally because I am developing a form of Tolkien autism I searched out more quotes on this very important issue.

Tolkien has a lot to say about free will – and also about the “failure” of Frodo at the end. But he is never more clear than in this unforgivably long excerpt. (I type over 80 words a minute)

In this excerpt, Tolkien tackles the power of the Ring – and what the Ring does to people (except for Tom B., as discussed in the comments, as well). I mean, Galadriel, in her 2-second contact with the Ring, is wrung dry. And she is a veteran of wars and rebellions and Great Events.

Perhaps it is Great people who are more prone to the power of the Ring – because their egos tell them that they can actually have an impact on the course of events. While hobbits just want to have a nice smoke and gossip about their neighbors as they watch the stars rise.

Hobbits don’t have a well-developed sense of “agency” (read: EGO).

Anyway. In this letter, Tolkien describes what would have happened, he believes, if other members of the Fellowship had somehow found themselves in the position Frodo found himself in, at Mount Doom.

Again, this excerpt is LONG, my friends (it’s long enough that I omitted stuff not completely relevant to this discussion of free will. Please don’t kill me. I put ellipses where stuff is left out). It’s long, yeah, but people seem to enjoy reading these excerpts. So I will be the drudge. It’s great stuff.

I particularly like his cautionary tone at the end – when he described what possession of the Ring would do to a man of such great moral stature as Gandalf. Despite his message of hope, and the possibility of redemption, Tolkien seems, to me, most like a cynic.

I almost laughed out loud when I read this short letter to a fan, who had written asking him if he was working on a sequel to LOTR. Tolkien replied:

I did begin a story placed about 100 years after the Downfall of Mordor, but it proved both sinister and depressing. Since we are dealing with Men it is inevitable that we should be concerned with the most regrettable feature of their nature: their quick satiety with good. So that the people of Gondor in times of peace, justice and prosperity, would become discontented and restless – while the dynasts descended from Aragorn would become just kings and governors – like Denethor or worse. I found that even so early there was an outcrop of revolutionary plots, about a center of secret Satanistic religion; while Gondorian boys were playing at being Orcs and going round doing damage. I could have written a thriller about the plot and its discovery and overthrow – but it would be just that. Not worth doing.

Tolkien knew peace never lasts, and in his imagination he sees that little boys will form secret “Orc-clubs”, and not revere all that has gone before … It is human nature. Perhaps cynical.

But cynical in the way our Founding Fathers were, drafting the articles of impeachment before George Washington even became the first President. That fact alone is evidence of grave cynicism, but I would also call it ultimately pragmatism: Men will be men. Men are corruptible. No one is above making a grab for power. NO ONE.

September 1963 Draft of letter to Mrs. Eileen Elgar
Very few (indeed so far as letters go only you and one other) have observed or commented on Frodo’s “failure”. It is a very important point.

From the point of view of the storyteller the events on Mt Doom proceed simply from the logic of the tale up to that time. They were not deliberately worked up to nor foreseen until they occured. But, for one thing, it became at last quite clear that Frodo after all that had happened would be incapable of voluntarily destroyoing the Ring. Reflecting on the solution after it was arrived at (as a mere event) I feel that it is central to the whole “theory” of true nobility and heroism that is presented.

Frodo indeed “failed” as a hero, as conceived by simple minds: he did not endure to the end; he gave in, ratted. I do not say “simple minded” with contempt: they often see with clarity the simple truth and the absolute ideal to which effort must be directed, even if it is unattainable. Their weakness, however, is twofold. They do not perceive the complexty of any given situation in Time, in which an absolute ideal is enmeshed. They tend to forget that strange element in the World that we call Pity or Mercy, which is also an absolute requirement in moral judgement (since it is present in the Divine nature). In its highest exercise it belongs to God. For finite judges of imperfect knowledge it must lead to the use of two different scales of “morality”. To ourselves we must present the absolute ideal without compromise, for we do not know our own limits of natural strength (+ grace), and if we do not aim at the highest we shall certainly fall short of the utmost that we could achieve. To others, in any case of which we know enough to make a judgement, we must apply a scale tempered by “mercy”: that is, since we can with good will do this without the bias inevitable in judgements of ourselves, we must estimate the limits of another’s strength and weigh this against the force of particular circumstances. (We frequently see this double scale used by the saints in their judgements upon themselves when suffering great hardships or temptations, and upon others in like trials.)

I do not think that Frodo’s was a moral failure. At the last moment the pressure of the Ring would reach its maximum – impossible, I should have said, for any one to resist, certainly after long possession, months of increasing torment, and when starved and exhausted. Frodo had done what he could and spent himself completely (as an instrument of Providence) and had produced a situation in which the object of his quest could be achieved. His humility (with which he began) and his sufferings were justly reqarded by the highest honour; and his exercise of patience and mercy towards Gollum gained him Mercy: his failure was redressed.

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 effort or endurance falls short of his limits, and the blame decreases as that limit is closer approached. (No account is here taken of “grace” or the enhancement of our powers as instruments of Providence. Frodo was given “grace”: first to answer the call (at the end of the Council) after long resisiting a complete surrender; and later in his resistance to the temptation of the Ring (at times when to claim and so reveal it would have been fatal), and in his endurance of fear and suffering. But grace is not infinite, and for the most part seems in the Divine economy limited to what is sufficient for the accomplishment of the task appointed to one instrument in a pattern of circumstances and other instruments.)

…Frodo undertook his quest out of love – to save the world he knew from disaster at his own expense, if he could; and also in complete humility, acknowledging that he was wholly inadequate to the task. His real contract was only to do what he could, to try to find a way, and to go as far on the road as his strength of mind and body allowed. He did that. I do not myself see that the breaking of his mind and will under demonic pressure after torment was any more a moral failure than the breaking of the body would have been …

That appears to have been the judgement of Gandalf and Aragorn and of all who learned the full story of his journey. Certainly nothing would be concealed by Frodo! But what Frodo himself thought about the events is quite another matter.

He appears at first to have had no sense of guilt (“And there was Frodo, pale and worn, and yet himself again; and in his eyes there was peace now, neither strain of will nor madness, nor any fear … ‘The Quest is achieved, and now all is over,'”); he was restored to sanity and peace. But then he thought that he had given his life in sacrifice: he expected to die very soon. But he did not, and one can observe the disquiet growing in him. Arwen was the first to observe the signs, and gave him her jewel for comfort, and thought of a way of healing him…Slowly he fades “out of the picture”, saying and doing less and less. I think it is clear on reflection to an attentive reader that when his dark times came upon him and he was conscious of being “wounded by knife sting and tooth and a long burden”, it was not only nightmare memories of past horrors that afflicted him, but also unreasoning self-reproach: he saw himself and all that he done as a broken failure … And it was mixed with another temptation, blacker and yet (in a sense) more merited, for however that may be explained, he had not in fact cast away the Ring by a voluntary act: he was tempted to regret its destruction, and still to desire it. “It is gone for ever, and now all is dark and empty,” he said as he wakened from his sickness in 1420.

“Alas! there are some wounds that cannot be wholly cured,” said Gandalf – not in Middle-earth. Frodo was sent or allowed to pass over Sea to heal him – if that could be done, before he died…Bilbo went too. No doubt as a completion of the plan due to Gandalf himself. Gandalf had a very great affection for Bilbo, from the hobbit’s childhood onwards. His companionship was really necessary for Frodo’s sake – it is difficult to imagine a hobbit, even one who had been through Frodo’s experiences, being really happy even in an earthly paradise without a companion of his own kind, and Bilbo was the person that Frodo most loved. But he also needed and deserved the favour on his own account. He bore still the mark of the Ring that needed to be finally erased: a trace of pride and personal possessiveness. Of course he was old and confused in mind, but it was still a revealation of the “black mark” when he said in Rivendell, “What’s become of my ring, Frodo, that you took away?” and when he was reminded of what had happened, his immediate reply was: “What a pity! I should have liked to see it again!”…

Sam is meant to be lovable and laughable. Some readers he irritates and even infuriates. I can well understand it. All hobbits at times affect me in the same way, though I remain very fond of them. But Sam can be very “trying”. He is a more representative hobbit than any others that we have to see much of; and he consequently has a stronger ingeredient of that quality which even some hobbits found at times hard to bear: a vulgarity – by which I do not mean a mere “down-to-earthiness” – a mental myopia which is proud of itself, a smugness (in varying degrees) and cocksureness, and a readiness to measure and sum up all things from a limited experience, largely enshrined in sententious traditional “wisdom”. We only meet exceptional hobbits in close companionship – those who had a grace or gift: a vision of beauty, and a reverence for things nobler than thmselves, at war with their rustic self-satisfaction. Imagine Sam without his education by Bilbo and his fascination wtih things Elvish!…

Sam was cocksure, and deep down a little conceited; but his conceit had been transformed by his devotion to Frodo. He did not think of himself as heroic or even brave, or in any way admirable – except in his service and loyalty to his master. That had an ingredient (probably inevitable) of pride and possessiveness … In any case it prevented him from fully understanding the master tha the loved, and from following him in his gradual education to the nobility of service to the unlovable and of perception of damaged goods in the corrupt. He plainly did not fully understand Frodo’s motives or his distress in the incident of the Forbidden Pool. If he had understood better what was going on between Frodo and Gollum, things might have turned out differently in the end.

For me perhaps the most tragic moment in the Tale comes in II 323 ff. when Sam fails to note the complete change in Gollum’s tone and aspect. “Nothing, nothing,” said Gollum softly. “Nice master!” His repentance is blighted and all Frodo’s pity is (in a sense) wasted. Shelob’s lair becomes inevitable.

This is due of course to the “logic of the story”. Sam could hardly have acted differently … If he had, what could then have happened? The course of the entry into Mordor and the struggle to reach Mount Doom would have been different, and so would the ending. The insterest would have shifted to Gollum, I think, and the battle that would have gone on between his repentance and his new love on one side and the Ring. Though the love would have been strengthened daily it could not have wrested the mastery from the Ring. I think that in some queer twisted and pitiable way Gollum would have tried (not maybe with conscious design) to satisfy both. Certainly at some point not long before the end he would have stolen the Ring or taken it by violence (as he does in the actual Tale). But “possession” satisfied, I think he would then have sacrificed himself for Frodo’s sake and have voluntarily cast himself into the fiery abyss.

I think that an effect of his partial regeneration by love would have been a clearer vision when he claimed the Ring. He would have perceived the evil of Sauron, and suddenly realized that he could not use the Ring and had not the strength or stature to keep it in Sauron’s despite: the only way to keep it and hurt Sauron was to destory it and himself together – and in a flash he may have seen that this would also be the greatest service to Frodo. Frodo in the tale actually takes the Ring and claims it, and certainly he too would have had a clear vision – but he was not given any time: he was immediately attacked by Gollum. When Sauron was aware of the seizure of the Ring his one hope was in its power: that the claimant would be unable to relinquish it until Sauron had time to deal with him. Frodo too would then probably, if not attacked, have had to take the same way: cast himself with the Ring into the abyss. If not he would of course have completely failed. It is an interesting problem: how Sauron would have acted or the claimant have resisted. Sauron sent at once the Ringwraiths. They were naturally fully instructed, and in no way deceived as to the real lordship of the Ring. The wearer would not be invisible to them, but the reverse; and the more vulnerable to their weapons. But the situation was now different to that under Weathertop, where Frodo acted merely in fear and wished only to use (in vain) the Ring’s subsidiary power of conferring invisibility. He had grown since then. Would they have been immune from its power if he claimed it as an instrument of command and domination?

Not wholly. I do not think they could have attacked him with violence, nor laid hold upon him or taken him captive; they would have obeyed or feigned to obey any minor commands of his that did not interfere with their errand – laid upon them by Sauron, who still through their nine rings (which he held) had primary control of their wills. That errand was to remove Frodo from the Crack. Once he lost the power or opportunity to destroy the Ring, the end could not be in doubt – saving help from outside, which was hardly even remotely possible.

Frodo had become a considerable person, but of a special kind: in spiritual enlargement rather than in increase of physical or mental power; his will was much stronger than it had been, but so far it had been exercised in resisting not using the Ring and with the object of destroying it. He needed time, much time, before he could control the Ring or (which in such a case is the same) before it could control him; before his will and arrogance could grow to a stature in which he could dominate other major hostile wills. Even so for a long time his acts and commands would still have to seem ‘good” to him, to be for the benefit of others beside himself.

The situation as between Frodo with the Ring and the Eight (the Witch-king had been reduced to impotence) might be compared to that of a small brave man armed with a devastating weapon, faced by eight savage warriors of great strength and agility armed with poisoned blades. The man’s weakness was that he did not know how to use his weapon yet; and he was by temperament and training averse to violence. Their weakness that the man’s weapon was a thing that filled them with fear as an object of terror in their religious cult, by which they had been conditioned to treat one who wielded it with servility. I think they would have shown “servility”. They would have greeted Frodo as “Lord”. With fair speeches they would have induced him to leave the Sammath Naur – for instance “to look upon his new kingdom, and behold afar with his new sight the abode of power that he must now claim and turn to his own purposes.” Once outside the chamber while he was gazing some of them would have destroyed the entrance. Frodo would by then probably have been already too enmeshed in great plans of reformed rule – like but far greater and wider than the vision that tempted Sam (“Wild fantasies arose in his mind; and he saw Samwise the Strong, Hero of the Age, striding with a sword across the darkened land, and armies flocking to his call as he marched to the overthrow of Barad-due.”) – to heed this. But if he still preserved some sanity and partly understood the significance of it, so that he refused now to go with them to Barad-due, they would simply have waited. Until Sauron himself came.

In any case a confrontation of Frodo and Sauron would soon have taken place, if the Ring was intact. Its result was inevitable. Frodo would have been utterly overthrown: crushed to dust, or preserved in torment as a gibbering slave. Sauron would not have feared the Ring! It was his own and under his will. Even from afar he had an effect upon it, to make it work for its return to himsefl. In his actual presence none but very few of equal stature could have hoped to withhold it from him. Of “mortals” no one, not even Artagorn. In the contest with the Palantir Aragorn was the rightful owner. Also the contest took place at a distance, and in a tale which allows the incarnation of great spirits in a physical and destructivle form their power must be far greater when actually physically present. Sauron should be thought of as very terrible. The form that he took was that of a man of more than human stature, but not gigantic. In his earlier incarnation he was able to veil his power (as Gandalf did) and could appear as a commanding figure of great strength of body and supremely royal demeanour and countenance.

Of the others only Gandalf might be expected to master him – being an emissary of the Powers and a creature of the same order, an immortal spirit taking a visible physical form. In the “Mirror of Galadriel”, it appears that Galadriel conceived of herself as capable of wielding the Ring and supplanting the Dark Lord. IF so, so also were the other guardians of the Three, especially Elrond. But this is another matter. It was part of the essential deceit of the Ring to fill minds with imaginations of supreme power. But this the Great had well considered and had rejected, as is seen in Elrond’s words at the Council. Galadriel’s rejection of the temptation was founded upon previous thought and resolve. In any case Elrond or Galadriel would have proceeded in the policy now adopted by Sauron: they would have built up an empire with great and absolutely subservient generals and armies and engines of war, until they could challenge Sauron and destroy him by force. Confrontation of Sauron alone, unaided, self to self, was not contemplated.

One can impagine the scene in which Gandalf, say, was placed in such a position. It would be a delicate balance. On one side the true allegiance of the Ring to Sauron; on the other superior strength because Sauron was not actually in possession, and perhaps also because he was weakened by long corruption and expenditure of will in dominating inferiors. If Gandalf proved the victor, the result would have been for Sauron the same as the destruction of the Ring; for him it would have been destroyed, taken from him for ever. But the Ring and all its works would have endured. It would have been the master in the end.

Gandalf as Ring-Lord would have been far worse than Sauron. He would have remained “righteous”, but self-righteous. He would have continued to rule and order things for “good”, and the benefit of his subjects according to his wisdom (which would have remained great.

Thus while Sauron multiplied evil, he left “good” clearly distinguishable from it. Gandalf would have made good destestable and seem evil.