The Lord of the Rings 1067betraying them by turning over what he has stolen
to the forces besieging the dwarves.
While such actions seem unheroic, they are
in fact noble acts. Bilbo is not trying to profit or
to betray his friends to defeat by an enemy army.
Indeed, he is willing to surrender his own reward
for his part in the quest. Rather than acting on his
own behalf, he is attempting to resolve the conflict
without combat by giving the humans and elves
the object for the return of which Thorin may be
willing to make peace. Though Bilbo’s gesture fails
(an important fact, one that makes the point that
heroism of any stripe is sometimes inadequate to
resolve problems), it is a gesture of sacrifice and
renunciation that redefines the meaning of heroism.
As Thorin notes, if more people shared the hobbit’s
preference for the pleasures of life rather than for
wealth and all it represents, the world would be a
better place. To be heroic in The Hobbit is ultimately
not to be strong or even to be clever or lucky. It is
to be generous. Strength, valor, and wit are valuable
but lesser traits.
Dominick Grace
ToLkiEN, J. r. r. The Lord of the
Rings (1954–1955)
J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings was pub-
lished in three volumes as The Fellowship of the Ring
(1954), The Two Towers (1954), and The Return of
the King (1955). The definitive example of modern
high fantasy, the novel narrates the epic quest of the
hobbit Frodo to destroy the One Ring of the Dark
Lord Sauron. This ring contains much of Sauron’s
power, and the world of Middle Earth can be saved
only if the ring is destroyed. Frodo is aided in his
quest by a fellowship of helpers led by Aragorn,
who ultimately assumes the kingship, and the wiz-
ard Gandalf. Other important characters include
Frodo’s companion Sam and the corrupted hobbit
Gollum, who once possessed the ring and yearns to
regain it, as well as the elf Legolas and the dwarf
Gimli. The story weaves multiple narrative strands
together as Aragorn and others try to distract Sau-
ron while Frodo and Sam attempt to find Mount
Doom and cast the ring into its fiery center. The
machinations of the wicked wizard Saruman as he
strives to acquire the ring further complicate events
and bring into play other forces, the treelike Ents.
The peoples of Middle Earth, represented mainly
by the horse-loving Riders of Rohan and the men
of Gondor, engage in desperate battles to stave off
defeat until Frodo can complete his quest. The novel
offers a profound meditation on heroism, fate,
hope, endurance, sacrifice, and the inevitable losses
caused by war.
Dominick GraceFate in The Lord of the Rings
Fate is a major element in The Lord of the Rings.
Though there is no explicit reference to a God, the
text is loaded with references to larger forces shap-
ing events. Gandalf argues that “Bilbo was meant to
find the Ring, and not by its maker” (The Fellowship
of the Ring), which is as close as the text comes to
acknowledging destiny at work. There are numerous
other examples of the idea that events occur because
they are meant to, or that events are fixed in advance.
Prophecy is a real force, and prophecies come true,
as do curses. The ghostly force that Aragorn leads
in the battle of Pelennor Fields, for instance, was
his to command because they had been bound to
service by an earlier oath and a subsequent curse.
Frodo’s prophecy/curse that Gollum will be cast
into the fires of Mount Doom if he dares to touch
Frodo again not only comes true but is central to the
novel’s resolution. Galadriel’s mirror shows charac-
ters visions not only of things that are but of things
that are to come. In a key scene, Sam suggests that
the adventure he and Frodo share is an enormous
story and those who are in it are there because “their
paths were laid that way” (The Two Towers); such a
view seems highly fatalistic. The novel repeatedly
suggests that forces other than the characters’ wills
influence their action, notably when Frodo is drawn
to use the ring. The sense of fatalism is so profound
that some characters succumb to despair, believing
that only one outcome is possible.
However, this sense of fate is only one strand of
the novel. Weighed against it is an equally strong
insistence on the necessity of choice. Events may
occur because they are meant to, and characters may
have had their paths laid for them, as Sam suggests,
but Tolkien insists on a role for choice. Every major