J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings - Frodo Baggins as a Christ-Figure
J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings has delighted readers since its publication owing to its author's skillful development of his fantastic realm and its inhabitants adventures therein. In fact, Tolkien is rightly regarded as the father of the modern fantasy genre, and it often seems all fantasy imitates his work in some way. However, as readers return to the work, it often becomes apparent that the work is more than a simple escapist journey into an imaginary world; the work represents the finest traditions in literature and rich grounding in Tolkien's study of language and mythology. Equally surprising, though, Tolkien himself admits that the series is a "fundamentally religious and Catholic work…"[1] To the casual reader, Middle-Earth, the setting, seems a world devoid of religious practice, Christian or otherwise. Unsurprisingly, Tolkien added that the religious aspect about which he spoke appeared "unconsciously so at first, but consciously in the revision," and that "the religious element is absorbed into the story and the symbolism."[2] Therefore, an investigation into probable sources of Christian symbolism leads to questions of characterization and its most obvious target: Frodo Baggins, a Christ-figure.
The protagonist of the story, Frodo Baggins is a Hobbit, a small humanoid creature, short in stature and big in appetite. As soon as Tolkien introduces him in the first chapter, Frodo's status as a Christ figure emerges: "Anyway: there was this Mr. Frodo left an orphan and stranded," gossip Frodo's new neighbors when his uncle Bilbo adopts the him.[3] immediately, Frodo possesses two important characteristic of any Christ ...
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...ery land of Mordor, conquering an evil which seems far greater than himself. In doing so, Frodo makes up for carelessness of the nations of Middle-Earth who in their sloth allowed the evil to rise up, despite forewarning of the danger. In all these things, there exist clear similarities with Christ who undertakes a similar goal, vanquishing the evil of sin from the world with total selflessness, compassion, and determination. In the end, Frodo admits admirably, "I tried to save the Shire, and it has been saved…."[6]
[1] Tolkien, J.R.R.. "To Robert Murray, S.J." 2 December 1953. The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien. Ed. Humphrey Carpenter and Christopher Tolkien (Houghton Mifflin Company: Boston, 1981) 172.
[2] Ibid.
[3] Tolkien, J.R.R.. The Lord of the Rings (Houghton Mifflin Company: Boston, 1954) 31.
[4] Ibid, 217.
[5] Ibid, 309.
[6] Ibid, 309.
It will be the contention of this paper that much of Tolkien's unique vision was directly shaped by recurring images in the Catholic culture which shaped JRRT, and which are not shared by non-Catholics generally. The expression of these images in Lord of the Rings will then concern us.
Although JRR Tolkien is notorious for his numerous, and often seemingly irrelevant, minor characters - the necessity of an index of names in The Return of the King proves this without a doubt - one of the most crucial and fascinating characters of The Lord of the Rings physically appears in barely more than one-sixth of the novel. The character Sméagol, often referred to by his alter ego Gollum, on a basic level serves only to guide Frodo and Sam to Mordor, as well as to destroy the Ring when Frodo cannot. However, in the course of doing so, we are revealed, hint by hint, of the enigmatic and contradictory character who "hates the Ring and loves the Ring - just as he hates and loves himself" (Sibley 170). In The Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien uses the character Sméagol, forged from a collection of historical and historically mythological tales, as a foil for the central hero Frodo Baggins as well as the Christian example of hope, despite the powerful corruption of evil.
Among the many ways Americans can participate in politics, voting is considered one of the most common and important ways for Americans to get involved. The outcome of any election, especially at the national level, determines who will be making and enforcing the laws that all Americans must abide by. With this in mind one might assume that all Americans are active voters, but studies show the voter turnout is actually astonishingly low. With this unsettling trend it is important to know what statistics say about voter turnout as was as the four major factors that influence participation: Socioeconomic status, education, political environment, and state electoral laws, in order to help boost turnout in future elections.
Kroeber, Karl. "Tolkien, J. R. R. (1892-1973)." British Writers: Supplement 2. Ed. George Stade. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1992. 519-536. Literature Resources from Gale. Web. 14 Jan. 2014.
Frodo’s experiences are universal to humankind. For some, a fight against your own evil that tries to bring you down can relate to both Frodo and the humankind. Facing challenges and tasks that you may not w...
The people shake their heads and wave their fingers in disapproval towards the government from local levels to national levels--mimes of America. These mimes act out their opinion rather than using their voice to declare what they want. Pretending to perform action rather than completing action, these mimes dissimulate so they do not feel excluded. America is blessed with the opportunity to live in a country endowed with such great freedoms. In the United States, the basic freedoms for voting are often taken for granted and unutilized by many Americans, especially Texans. Despite the large size of Texas, the historic background of voting and other factors have caused the state to experience low voter turnout.
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien was born on January 3, 1892 in Bloemfontein, South Africa. He studied at Oxford pursuing a degree in English language and literature. This later gave him the thought of creating his own imagined world known as Middle-Earth. He then later married Edith Bratt, had four children, and became a professor at Oxford. The Hobbit, first published in 1937, had some of Tolkien’s invented language and mythology. The plot and character’s of The Hobbit combined the ancient heroic Anglo-Saxon and Scandinavian epics, which he studied at Oxford. The Hobbit “is immersed in folk tradition” (Matthews). The character Bilbo Baggins was inspired by the rural Englishman of the 1930s. Tolkien was inspired by ancient European myths leading him to write Lord of the Rings, a prequel to The Hobbit. On September 2,1973, J.R.R. Tolkien died at the age of eighty-one.
From its early period, the United States has obtained an indirect type of democracy, and has always had contentment that its citizens are allowed to vote for their representatives, especially the President. Nevertheless, the amount of citizens that actually vote in nationwide elections has decreased noticeably over the years. Voter participation and turnout has been declining in the United States throughout history. Voter turnout, the percentage of eligible individuals who actually vote (Ginsberg), to this day is lower than it was in the 1900’s. Since 1912, presidential elections have only had about 50 to 65 percent of Americans participate. This means that about half of United States citizens who are eligible and have the freedom to vote have failed to participate in presidential elections. At the end of the nineteenth century voter turnout started plummeting, reaching the 60 percent level by the election of 1912 (Teixeira, 1987). The declining rate of voter participation in the United States is due to voter registration and procedu...
Frodo Baggins, the main character in the movie faces many compelling circumstances in his quest and is challenged to sacrifice much of himself. The first challenge Frodo has to face when Gandalf as...
Studies have shown that 9 out of 10 people will have a seizure in their lifetime. Every person is different not every case is the same. There is no known cure for this disability. There are studies that are going on today that are trying to find out more about Epilepsy.
A seizure is considered to be anything that disrupts the natural circuit of the brain. When a seizure happens, the brains neurons fire uncontrollably, causing the brain to make the body jerk, abruptly fall, or have distorted vision. The normal electrical balance in the brain is lost, the nerve cells misfire, and there is a sudden, brief, uncontrollable burst of abnormal electrical activity. This causes out of sync signals from the brain to misfire (Sahoo, 2014). There are over 3 million people who suffer from epilepsy in the United States alone, with most of them being diagnosed by the time they are twenty-five years old.( Epilepsy Foundation, 2014).
Epilepsy is a condition characterized by recurrent seizures which are unprovoked by any immediately identifiable cause (Hopkins & Shorvon, 1995). It is also known as a seizure disorder. A wide range of links and risk factors are associated with the condition, but most of the time the cause is unknown. Epilepsy is one of the most common neurological disorders, affecting approximately two and half million people in the US and about 50 million worldwide. Though seizures can occur at any age, epilepsy is most commonly seen in children and the elderly. Most respond well to treatment and can control their seizures, but for some it is a chronic illness. A clinical diagnosis is the first step to finding a potential cure for the disorder.
J.R.R. Tolkien's concept of too much power is summed up by Lord Acton when he once said, "Power corrupts, but absolute power corrupts absolutely." In Tolkien's first book of his fantasy based trilogy, Lord of the Rings, the Fellowship of the Rings tells a story of a quest to destroy a powerful ring throughout Tolkien's created "Middle Earth". This quest was headed by a "Hobbit" named Frodo Baggins who, in the end, becomes corrupted by power himself. This corruption begins when Frodo uses his ring to become invisible over and over again to escape certain situations. The quest to destroy the powerful "Ruling Ring" forms the basis for this story.
J.R.R Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings is a peerless fantasy of epic proportions. While eschewing allegory in favor of an historical perspective, Tolkien has imprinted the work with many of his own closely held Catholic beliefs. In a lecture concerning Tolkien’s writing given to students at Villanova University, Dr. Tomas W. Smith put it this way
Wood, Ralph C. "Traveling the one road: The Lord of the Rings." The Century Feb. 97: 208(4).