Every author who writes about immortal creatures has a different take. The author of Gulliver’s Travels, Jonathan Swift, took the view that being immortal is one of pain, of forgetting. Other authors have taken the view that being immortal is a life of loss, of the people you love constantly dying around you, of everything you love, in fact, changing, while you never do the same, such as in The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, by V.E. Schwab. Even Marvel takes into account immortal beings, and the struggles of such life. The point is, every story about immortals describe the prospect in a different way, and what the Lord of the Rings does, is it looks at both sides of the story – not through mortal and immortal, or men and elves as described in class, but between the good and the bad – the elves and Gollum. Here Tolkien shows the duality of immortality, the ability for it to be utilized as a way to, in a way, perfect society, to consistently better oneself and those around you, or to forget all that you’ve ever known, to spiral deeper and deeper into madness and despair. And of course the elves’ aren’t perfect, but comparative to Gollum, they’ve achieved much more with their immortality.
And a big part of that is due in part to, well, first of all, the ability to retain an able body and mind, but mostly the fact that they have a society. A group of beings that all share the gift of immortality, and what that chiefly does is take away the loss of their surroundings. Despite their immortality the elves retain their relationships, their surroundings, everything they love, throughout their lives. It’s what makes Legolas’ relationship with Gimli so unnatural. It’s what makes the elves themselves so separate from every other race. Time doesn’t move faster for them, but it might as well, because the humans and hobbits and dwarves around them are constantly dying and being replaced. So similar to Gollum, they curl inwards, but instead of a single being, they have an entire society to lean on, to build. And even as Gollum creates their own canon inside their head, their own world, so to do the elves create their own world, building out their arts and ideas and civilization, until they become so disconnected with the land and peoples around them, that they leave. Similar isolation, similar end results, but extremely different usages of the power of immortality.
So what can we learn from this duality? Of course, there’s the value of community, but the hobbits could teach us that. There’s the value in bettering oneself and using the gifts that you’ve been given in a productive and useful way, but the elves themselves don’t always do that. I think the important lesson to take from Tolkien’s dual portrayal of immortality is to value the gifts we’re given – the way each and every various race of beings in Middle-Earth does. To make the most of each opportunity as it comes our way, and instead of hoarding our treasure, as Gollum does, share what we have with the world around us. Because that’s what the Lord of the Rings is, at its heart, at its clearest level – a tale of adventure, of wonder, of exploration. Yes, there are lessons to be learned, morals to be questioned, and various ideals and methods of the world to interrogate. The elves and their passion for various topics of learning are important – how they make use of their immortality, how they structure their society – but there’s a reason this epic is told through the eyes of a hobbit. Because it’s meant to show us to enjoy the world around us, to explore and learn more with each new day.
-MR
4 comments:
I would have liked to hear more about Tolkien's own reflections on immortality that we read in his Letters and in the Athrabeth. To be sure, the Elves are on the whole better than Gollum, but there are Elves and Elves! Not every Elf ends well, and some die, raising the question of the difference between immortality as lifespan and immortality as actual experience. The Silmarillion is a long meditation on this tension, which bears thinking on, too! RLFB
One of the things that Tolkien says in his letters is that people often confuse Elven immortality, and that elves are truly immortal, but they have freedom from time. I agree with what you are saying about the elves, and think it is very interesting how they live their lives separately from most of the world partially due to their long lives. I think part of what makes the elves compelling is their understanding of time, and how they actually look to humans as the lucky ones. I think the point about isolation is especially compelling, because they could use immortality to their advantage, Gollum could have done the same when he had the ring. But that is not what either of them do, they tend to live isolated lives, and only interact with their own people, and Gollum remained alone. The tie between the ring and immortality is also interesting, because it connects immortality to evil and power, which is not the same with the elves.
What an insightful perspective on the portrayal of immortality in literature. I really enjoyed your comparison between the immortal experiences of the elves and Gollum in Tolkien's Lord of the Rings. I agree with your point that the depiction of immortality varies from author to author, and how each presents a different facet of this concept adds depth to our understanding of it. The theme of isolation and alienation from a constantly changing world rings true in most depictions, however, the existence of a community, like the elves, indeed provides a different outcome than Gollum's solitary existence. This comparison raises an interesting question: would Gollum's path have been different if there were others like him sharing his immortality? Furthermore, I'd argue that the immortal narrative might also be a metaphor for the human struggle against change and the relentless march of time. - WS
The one without a tag is -RL
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