Characters
Bilbo Baggins: Frodo’s Grandfather, from whom the ring then passed on to Frodo
Gollum: A creature who was once a hobbit, bearer of the ring before Frodo’s Grandfather,Bilbo Baggins
Lady Galadriel: Co-ruler and Lady of Lothlórien
Lord Elrond: Ruler of superior Elf Species, which fought against Dark Lord Sauron
Mordor: Base of the villain Sauron
Middle Earth: Human-inhabited world
Orcs: Monstrous creatures who makes up the army of Dark Lord Sauron
Things Change, people change & so do we as time wears and tears us apart, with change being the only constant in this fast moving materialistic monotonous life of ours but the only unchanging part of our life is- The Story. Stories of our lifetimes which we like to cherish, the one whom we have learnt lessons from, thus making the person what they are. But apart from stories of our lifetimes, the stories that really mattered in one’s life are the great fictional stories which have been foresaid and retold bracing the course of time, be it Aesop’s Fables penned in 6th Century B.C.- collection of short moral fables credited to the slave- Aesop or be it the debacle of Trojan War written by blind Homer in epic poem The Iliad in 8th Century B.C., thus dignifying the time in which they were written. One such epic penned down in the world of Literature is the famous, “The Lord of the Rings’ written by the legendary J R R Tolkien in stages between 1937 A.D. to 1949 A.D.
Story of this epic revolves around the all powerful One Ring- The Lord of Rings which Sauron, the Dark Lord of Mordor is trying to seize in order to cast his shadow over the entire middle earth with he becoming the Unconquerable which seems an easy task with the brute army of monstrous Orcs by his side. Lord of the Rings- which is the ‘One ring to rule them all, one ring to find them, one ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them’. It is usually the case that such great Power needs a force and a leader of equivalent power if not less, for enemy to be destroyed and his conquest to be halted. But that is not the case here, as ‘The Fellowship of the Ring’- a group of 8 individuals with powerful characters are assigned with the task to take the One Ring to Mordor, where it is to be “cast into the fiery chasm from whence it came”, with the onus of the quest is on the ring bearer who happens to be 3 foot 6 inch Hobbit- Frodo Baggins. Although the fellowship consist of dominant personalities like Gandalf, the Wizard; Aragon, the staunch Strider; Legolas, the swift Elf; Gimli, the aggressive Dwarf & Boromir, a valiant Warrior; each and every one of them in some or other capacity was capable of facing the might of Sauron, but as Gandalf once answered to Lady Galadriel on her asking as to why he recruited Bilbo Baggins as a member of dwarves company who were trying to reclaim their homeland, as Bilbo was a home ridden hobbit who thought of nothing but his books, his armchair, his homeland Shire, and Gandalf reply laid rest to the question, “Most people believe that it is only the great power that can hold evil in check, but that is not what I have found. I found, it is the small everyday deeds of ordinary folk that keep the darkness at bay, small acts of kindness and love. And as to why Bilbo Baggins? It is perhaps because I am afraid and he gives me Hope”.
A ring which none of the mightier in fellowship will be able to yield since ring lures in turn corrupting the person who yield it. Great power corrupts absolutely, as although the ring had to be carried but was not to be worn, for wearing the ring means one attains supreme power. The ring bearer has to be one who had the unusual courage of hearing the internal voice and declining ‘The Power’, whence it lies at his feet, as it is not easy being a witness when one has the power to rule, a Courage of highest order, and these type of courage is found in the unlikely places, and that place had to be the pure heart of Frodo Baggins, better put in the words of Lord Elrond “Frodo if you do not find a way, no one will. This is the hour of the Shire-folk when they arise from their quite fields to shake the towers and the counsels of the great.” The only Hope- Frodo Baggins. But Hope is not victory!
Hope, a four letter word on which the future of entire universe hinges on, something which has always battled the odds, something which is rekindled, but what it moves on is the endorsement and support by someone which prevents it from being converted into despair. Yes it was Gandalf, the great wizard who rekindled the hope that the ring could be destructed but journey to Mordor was what mattered and Frodo couldn’t have made it without the member of fellowship, his gardener friend- Samwise Gamgee, someone who not only kept Frodo going, but at times taking even himself by surprise by his acts of courage in order to save Frodo from the perils which lie in front of both of them. For Sam, who became ring bearer for a less than a day when Frodo was in the clutches of Orcs and it was his wisdom which prevented him from wearing the ring in Mordor as he knew in the core of his heart that he was not large enough to bear such a burden and only one small garden with he as a free gardener was all his needs and due, giving back the ring sheerly without any affection, to Frodo after he was rescued from Orcs; for simply making Frodo realize that although we shouldn’t be here in the situation, but we are, like in the great stories where folks seemed to have been just landed in them – usually, with those folks having lots of chances of turning back only they didn’t. And if they had, no one would have even known as they would had been forgotten they kept on going as we should for the only simple reason that, there is some good in the world, and it’s worth fighting for. As without Sam, Frodo wouldn’t have realized his destiny.
Many of us think what Frodo prayed to God, when the ring first came to him that the situation that is prevailing now need not have happened in his time, but that is what everybody thinks isn’t it. But it is not for us to decide, all we have to decide is what do with the time that is given to us. Situations that we get landed in are unusually like Frodo or other members of Fellowship did, the only thing that we can do is to realize our destiny like Frodo did. If we are on the right path the good, the bad and the ugly everything colludes for our hope to be realized. The zest of entire book can be summed up with the simple statement from Frodo, when the ring gets destroyed and both Frodo and Sam descend the mountain, Frodo recalls Sam of what Gandalf once said to them about treacherous Gollum, “Even Gollum may have something yet to do. But for him, Sam, I could not have destroyed the Ring. The Quest would have been in vain, even at the bitter end. So, let us forgive him! For now quest is achieved, and now all is over”.
Nikhil Bangde 