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Collgrim
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re: Symbolism and the One Ring

Good afternoon, kinsmen! I decided while having coffee this morning to jot down my thoughts on the One Ring as a literary symbol in Tolkien's work. This seemed like the appropriate forum in which to post given the book club announcements are made here. I hope some of you find this interesting. Please feel free to contribute comments, speculations, and observations, for everyone's interpretation varies based on knowledge base. I always enjoy diverse feedback on critical essays. So, without further banter, please enjoy.


Symbolism and the One Ring

It is no surprise one finds symbols throughout Tolkien's work, as they have become a fundamental component of literature, film, and even daily conversation because they allow us a way to relate abstract and often complex concepts into a more manageable form, such as when one gives roses to a significant other. We associate roses with love because it is a universal symbol. Because of this ubiquitous nature, symbols are prominent rhetorical strategies: Hawthorne has his colors; Orwell his animals; Melville his ship; Soto his pie; Lucas his Force--and Tolkien has his One Ring, the concrete representation of greed, temptation, power lust, and their effects on people. Perhaps no other symbol in his work has more metaphorical significance.

Why is it so immensely difficult for the people of Middle Earth to resist the One Ring's insidious draw? The answer to this is the same as when mothers ask their children why it is so difficult to leave the cookie jar alone until after dinner. Humans are often fickle slaves to base instincts, especially their ambitions. Mountains of courage and will are required to fight back the urge to dive face first into the Oreos five minutes before the broccoli casserole is ready. This is the human condition, part of the "Doom of Men" as it is known in Tolkien's world.

Tolkien uses many characters to demonstrate the effects of the One Ring's power: Gollum lacks the will to subvert the ring and, as a result, becomes an obsessed monster; the Nazgul, once noble humans who are described as Sauron's "most terrible servants," become the embodiment of corruption as they one by one "fell under the thraldom of the ring that they bore," which is logical given Galadriel's qualification that humans, "above all else desire power." Even the strongest, Aragorn, is occasionally tempted. Boromir, for all his incredible strength and presence, cannot resist the ring. These are, of course, only smatterings of examples. The lesson (warning?) of the One Ring, however, is singular and can be applied in the modern world to politicians, tyrants, kings, corporate giants--almost anyone in a position of power, wealth, or prestige.

Hobbits, however, seem to be the anomaly. Is it by accident that Frodo is destined to take the One Ring to Mordor, the birthplace of lust and greed and industrial might and unnatural terror not unlike the monster in William Blake's "Tyger Tyger?" If one considers Tolkien's humble description of hobbits, one can find that Frodo is likely the only choice to carry the ring, for he and his ilk show more resilience against the ring's draw than most, evident in the fact that Bilbo, while in possession of the ring, fared far better than Gollum, who is the tragic example of the monster one can become should one allow what the ring symbolizes to dominate oneself, and through Elrond's comment to Gandalf concerning Frodo's "remarkable" resistance to the ring's power.

One can argue that Tolkien uses hobbits--their love for and connection to nature, their family values, their agrarian lifestyles, their aversion to urban and unnatural landscapes, and their non-ambitious nature--as a lesson for his readers, one aimed to amplify the defensive benefits of remaining in touch with the natural world, with oneself, and with simply decency to one another and one's surroundings.

This simpler, more rooted existence is ironically what makes hobbits more powerful than the more advanced race of men as it concerns the One Ring's influence. Where humans desire wealth and power, hobbits desire fields and meadows, the latter being an unshakable shield against the One Ring's mighty sword and a formidable, natural, and living power in itself best identified by Romantic poet William Wordsworth in "Tintern Abbey":

" While with an eye made quiet by the power
Of harmony and the deep power of joy,
We see into the life of things.
For I have learned
To look on nature not as in the hour
Of thoughtless youth; but hearing oftentimes
The still, sad music of humanity,
Nor harsh nor grating, though of ample power
To chasten and subdue. And I have felt
A presence that disturbs me with the joy
Of elevated thoughts; a sense sublime
Of something far more deeply interfused,
Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns"

Perhaps it is through this unnamed yet living power that allows the hobbits, who seem to be the race most closely attuned enough to notice such a presence (even if they are, on the surface, unaware), the hardiness Elrond spoke of. It is not likely coincidental, then, that Tolkien presents hobbits in this fashion, as they, more than humans, seem to be almost beyond the destructive temptations--the metaphorical call of the One Ring--most cannot overcome.

What, then, is the take-away from Tolkien's work as it relates to symbolism surrounding the One Ring? Perhaps it is a simple lesson: don't fall to the temptations of greed; don't underestimate the corrupting and often insidious nature of power; beware the Dark Side of the Force. Or perhaps it is a message more closely rooted in our connections to the natural world and our sense of decency in adhering to the Golden Rule, as evidenced by the simple yet big-hearted hobbits of the Shire, who spend their time proliferating life out of selfless love instead of destroying it out of selfish desire. If the hobbit's example is to be the focus, then perhaps Tolkien's message is that those who separate themselves from stimuli conducive to the propagation of greed and lust are the most defensible of us all against the ever present, immortal monster that forms the root of the human condition. I tend to agree with the assumption made in a letter Tolkien wrote concerning those in power while he served in the Royal Army during World War I, a letter featured in John Garth's Tolkien and the Great War: "Gentlemen are rare among the superiors, and even human beings are rare indeed."
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