Lord of the Rings by Jane Chance

Author:Jane Chance
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: The University Press of Kentucky
Published: 2011-12-20T16:00:00+00:00

5

POWER AND THE COMMUNITY

The Return of the King

WAR AND THE COMPANY

In Towers the splitting of the narrative into two strands—Frodo and Sam journeying to Mount Doom and the remainder of the surviving Company regrouping—leads to further subdivision at the end. First, Frodo is left for dead at the Pass and Sam journeys on alone, and, second, Merry joins Théoden, while Pippin and Gandalf strike out for Gondor. This decimation of both Company and narrative is knitted up in the aptly named third volume, Return, the “Book of Returns.” Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli ride together to summon the Dead in chapter 2, while Théoden, Merry, and the Riders of Rohan head for Minas Tirith. Eventually all three strands will meet in Minas Tirith, after Frodo and Sam have returned the Ring to its origins, in book 6. The journeys to Minas Tirith and then to Cirith Gorgor in the two books of this third volume (books 5 and 6) echo the journeys to the two towers in the preceding two books (books 3 and 4) and will anticipate the journey of Frodo and Sam to Mount Doom and of all the Company back to the Shire in book 6. In the cases of both books 5 and 6, the destination appears to be a wasted city (Minas Tirith) or a source of power (Mount Doom). The return to the Shire at the end reminds us that corruption occurs even in the most familiar and nonthreatening community, just as it can affect the most dignified and caring of leaders.

The return of the hero (an event important in the classical epic) is used as a unifying image in Return. Boromir has returned as a dead hero to Gondor (or so his father believes); Faramir will return as a live hero and Steward. Aragorn, in the sixth and last book does return alive also, but as King rather than Steward. In another sense the Ring and the “Lord of the Rings” (Frodo? or Gollum? Sam?) return to Mordor and Mount Doom. If the dead Gollum can be said never again to depart, remaining the true Lord of the Rings in Mordor, then Frodo and Sam both return to the Shire, Frodo as hero and Sam as servant to the hero. Yet it is Sam who becomes mayor of the Shire, while Frodo departs for the Grey Havens. It is the passage of individuals into and out of the community, the whole, and the power they convey within that whole that interests Tolkien. Similarly, it is the communication between two individuals, two leaders, and even two parts of the same body (community, nation, etc.) and their harmonious concord that provides the opportunity for the idea of community itself to exist.

To understand how Tolkien structures his journeys in book 5, then, is to understand his symbolic quest. This quest concerns both the nature of real leadership and power and the complementary, but related, theme of language as a reflection of real knowledge and understanding. These qualities are necessary in a true leader and underlie real power, wherever it is found.

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