Hobbits, Humans, and the Meaning of Life

The Lord of the Rings follows the adventures, struggles, successes, and failures of the unlikely little Hobbit heroes. Hobbits are not particularly remarkable. They eat a lot and tend to be fat, they love to laugh, and enjoy living comfortably. They prefer to live quiet and static lives, remaining almost entirely unknown by most in Middle Earth. Not only do Hobbits avoid adventure, they actually disdain it. Bilbo Baggins was one of the only Hobbits in recent memory to have gone on an adventure, and he was considered by most of the Shire folk to be “queer”. Just as the world didn’t know much about Hobbits, likewise the Hobbits did not know much about the world. 

As a rule, adventures are disdained by Hobbits because they are unknown, scary, and can ruin one’s reputation. They also have the added inconvenience of potentially disrupting a Hobbit’s ideal meal schedule, something both Bilbo and Sam complained about. It takes a lot to get a Hobbit to agree to embark on an adventure. For Bilbo, it took significant blows to his pride before he agreed to go on the Quest of Erebor, and even then, he spent considerable time on his journey pining for the comforts of his Hobbit hole. Only after learning that the fate of the world literally rested on his shoulders did Froo join the Fellowship and embark on a journey to Mordor.   Though destroying the ring was a seemingly impossible task,  he accepted the ring out of duty and the goodness of his heart. Tolkien wrote, “It seems clear to me that Frodo’s duty was ‘humane’... the quest had as its object… the liberation from an evil tyranny of all the ‘humane’”.  Merry and Pippin insist on joining Frodo only because they are his friends, they love him, and want him to be safe. When Frodo is trying to go to Mordor alone at the end of the Fellowship of the Ring, Sam does the same: “‘It would be the death of you to come with me, Sam,’ said Frodo…  ‘I know that well enough, Mr. Frodo… And I'm coming with you.’” 

Tolkien writes, “Mine is not an ‘imaginary’ world, but an imaginary historical moment on ‘Middle-earth’ – which is our habitation.” In other words, their world is our world and just like the Hobbits, humans tend to accept a mundane life. People are inclined to live out routines and go through life just checking off boxes. This, however, is not how we are meant to live. “The opposite of holiness is not, first and foremost, a life of sin, so much as settling for a bland and mediocre existence.” 

Both The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, contain themes about the value of humans departing from their routine and resolving to live radical and holy lives. Saint Francis de Sales said, “All of us can attain to Christian virtue and holiness, no matter what condition of life we live and no matter what our life work may be.”... Likewise Tolkien wrote:“For if there is anything in a journey of any length, for me it is this: a deliverance from the plantlike state of helpless passive sufferer, an exercise however small of will, and mobility”. 

Once people start to move out of their comfort zone and embark on the figurative and uncomfortable journey toward holiness, only then they can find their purpose in life. Tolkien explains, “So it may be said that the chief purpose of life, for any one of us, is to increase according to our capacity, our knowledge of God by all the means we have, and to be moved by it to praise and thanks.”  A purposeful life rejects the mundane and embraces the supernatural and the sacred so we can be closer to Christ. Once we resolve to go on the saintly journey, our lives will be forever changed, just as the Hobbits were never the same after they rejected their dim and routine lives in the Shire. 

The Bilbo we meet in The Lord of the Rings is interesting and exciting.  He is an Elf friend, poet, linguist, wielder of the ring of power, master negotiator, and a warrior.  This Bilbo is far different from the Bilbo we met earlier in The Hobbit before his life-changing adventure. The pre-quest Bilbo was frightened when an eccentric wizard thrust him into a wild escapade where he encountered over a dozen dwarves, evil Trolls, noble Elves, terrifying spiders, and treasures guarded by a ferocious dragon. Though he reluctantly agrees to join the quest (partly out of pride) the quest transforms him. At the end of The Hobbit, Gandalf notes, “You've changed, Bilbo Baggins. You're not the same Hobbit as the one who left the Shire…”. Likewise, Pippin and Merry literally grow taller, after drinking Ent-draughts, symbolic of their character growth. As the story develops, Sam also changes, namely his love for Frodo intensifies. He drives the mission forward by saving Frodo from Shelob, and makes key decisions, like leaving their things behind in the final chapter of their journey to Mordor. He even resolves, at the end, to carry Frodo, despite realizing that once he reaches the top of Mount Doom he may never come back: “‘Come, Mr. Frodo!' he cried. 'I can't carry it for you, but I can carry you.’”

Merry, Pippin, Bilbo, and Sam experience positive character development and achievements. Frodo, however, has a serious lapse of judgement when he fails to destroy the ring, keeping it for himself instead. Eventually, the ring is destroyed, but Frodo’s failure to destroy it himself speaks to our human condition.  If we make the courageous decision to strive for holiness, we will have failures, and that’s okay. Frodo, despite failing, bore the ring all the way to Mount Doom. Without his efforts, the ring would never have been destroyed. As humans, we know we can never be perfect, but we can strive for saintliness, and in the end trying is better than doing nothing.  

Frodo endures much suffering and he is forever changed by quest to Mordor. Similarly, we should also expect suffering in our lives.  Suffering is never in vain because suffering unites us to others and most importantly, to our Lord’s suffering and passion. Christ never promised us comfort on Earth which is why Saint Paul wrote, “...be self-possessed in all circumstances; put up with hardship; perform the work of an evangelist; fulfill your ministry.” (2 Timothy 4:3-7) Sam recognized the darkness and tragedy that is the reality of human life in his speech to Frodo on the way to Mordor, “It’s like in the great stories Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger they were, and sometimes you didn’t want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad happened. But in the end, it’s only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer.” That is the promise Christ makes us: everlasting life with him in heaven. He conquered the darkness. He conquered death. On the cross he promised the good thief that that very day he could be with him in paradise.  Three days later, through his resurrection he promised those who love and follow Him that they too will join Him in paradise, where we will bask in His glorious light and be relieved of all the  suffering and hardships of our earthly journey. 

The Lord of the Rings is, as Tolkien said, “a fundamentally religious and Catholic work…” It is not allegorical, but rather filled with mythological metaphors. It is likewise difficult not to note the many Catholic themes are found in his body of work. For example, Frodo and Sam’s journey to Mordor can evoke very deep discussions and diverse interpretations than the one put forward in this blogpost. Tolkien’s writing lends itself to these debates and unconstrained analysis based on one’s lived experiences.  For example, I read The Lord of the Rings through the eyes of a devout Roman Catholic who now attends a secular university. As a young adult, I am actively trying to make sense of the world I was raised in and the world I now live in. Tolkien's work and this class have been a serendipitous spiritual wake up call, where the Hobbit’s journey presents deeply personal and important spiritual questions in my own life. As Tolkien said, “If sanctity inhabits [my] work or as a pervading light illumines it then it does not come from [me] but through [me]. And neither of you would perceive it in these terms unless it was with you also.” I see the meek and unsuspecting Hobbits, Frodo, Sam, Pippin, Merry, and Bilbo, as God’s call to reject the easy path and to pursue the adventurous, albeit difficult, life of seeking truth, justice, and saintliness. As Sam says, “There’s some good in this world, Mr. Frodo. And it’s worth fighting for.” These books are beautifully written and reveal greater layered truths about humanity, life, purpose, prayer, and the meaning of death through a Catholic prism. Tolkien recognized that his work does not belong to him and will be interpreted and used by others who draw meaning from it that he never intended. As Tolkien fans and students of this class we are privileged to be gaining the knowledge and insight  to “defend” the books against “the malice of its enemies.” 

~Evita