"Many Partings" - Ben's Thoughts

I love this chapter. It feels so very true-to-life, and fills me with real emotion. We've all had events, or periods of time in our lives, that are particularly vivid; particularly meaningful; or are filled with particularly important relationships. Moving on to the next stage of life is always so bittersweet. That's the emotion that this chapter conveys. The hobbits have undergone such difficult but rewarding experiences that to leave that behind is not easy. Sam doesn't really wish to go back to Lorien -- but he does want to relive or perhaps just re-experience, just for a moment, the feelings that he had while he was there in "Fellowship." You can never truly return to prior states of being. But the memories remain so potent, the emotions so real, that you wish it so. Nostalgia is one of the most powerful emotions, in my opinion -- often more powerful than fear, anger, or even love.

And of course, this is when "Return of the King" kicks into high gear with that theme of beginnings, endings, loss, and change. The book always was one of "dying magic"; the Elves passing across the Sea and leaving Middle-earth to Sauron and Men has always been in the background, but here it's incredibly foregrounded. Jacob is left cold by Tolkien's lack of explanation -- he seeks for meaning behind it all. But I think it's fairly true to life that everything remains kind of vague and formless. Isn't that how it works for us? The beginnings and endings in our lives are often meaningless, or imposed by factors outside our control, sometimes with very little explanation or warning.

Nevertheless, I will try to impose some sense to it all, given my knowledge of Tolkien's legendarium. The Elves were the first race of sentient beings to awaken in Middle-earth, many ages ago. They lived through Ages of Earth without sun or moon; they were the "children of the stars" that traveled to Valinor, Tolkien's version of heaven where the Vala (gods) dwelt, long ago. Many Elves -- including many we encounter in The Hobbit and LOTR (such as the Elvenking of the wood-Elves, Legolas, and most of the people of Mirkwood and Lorien) -- never traveled to Valinor and chose instead to remain in Middle-earth. Those who did and returned are the "High" Elves, who beheld the light of the Valar in ages past or are their descendants (Galadriel, Cirdan, Elrond).

But the Elves' time in LOTR was coming to an end. With the creation of the sun in the First Age of the world came the awakening of Men, who spread to fill the earth. Some Men were friendly with the Elves; many were not (see even the Rohirrim's fear of the people of the Wood), but they were all destined to become the inheritors of Middle-earth; no longer subservient or lesser than the Elves but in fact the lords of the earth. The Elves' magic (read: power, ability, ties to each other and the physical world) was naturally fading. One concrete reason for this change (something more physical, perhaps, than the vague explanation that it was just "their time") was the fact that Valinor, or heaven, the home of the gods, was physically removed from the sphere of the Earth. Only those granted a boon from the Valar could now come to Valinor. In that sense, Jacob's question about whether the Elves are actually ascending to another sphere of existence is in fact correct.

Into this cycle of change and transfer of power comes the Three Rings. Sauron was the one who introduced the Elves to ringlore, in the Second Age, before they realized his true nature as a servant of Morgoth. The purpose of the Three Rings, reading between the lines, was to heal, preserve, and inspire the Elves, despite their waning power and influence. Imagine a race confronted with the fact that your very presence in the only world or home you ever knew was becoming obsolete. (This sounds very much like growing old and seeing your children and grandchildren growing past and away from you, a similarity that I think is no coincidence.) The power of the Three Rings was to stave off the mass depression that was leaching into the Elvish people.

Of course, since Sauron was the mastermind of ringlore, we can perceive the innate selfishness (justifiable, perhaps, but selfishness nonetheless) of the Three Rings. When it is time, it is time; trying to preserve what is lost does not help anyone. But then Sauron made the One Ring, which we are told was the Master Ring, with some kind of power over even the Three that Sauron never personally touched. The power of the Three was turned from preserving the power of the Elves towards fighting the Enemy. It makes sense that when he was defeated, the purpose of the Three was utterly spent. Neither could they be used to prolong the power of the Elves when the Fourth Age was come and the ascendance of Men was cemented.

In the end, of course, Jacob is correct -- all the guff about the Rings is just some fairly transparent trimming to the story. While it's fun to learn in "Grey Havens" that Gandalf had one of the Three, the whole time we knew him, it doesn't really add anything to what came before. I am a firm believer, however, in the themes that Tolkien is espousing -- cycles, passing the torch, and fading with dignity. Bilbo is the exemplar of this cycle: retaining his humor, wit, and interest in friends and family while formally and informally passing the torch to the next generation (symbolic in the gifts he gives the hobbits). There is a warmth and dignity to those final sections of the chapter that I hope we can all achieve in our life when we confront change, loss, and the ultimate passing.