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Scholarly Pursuits  by Antane

"It was Pity that Stayed His Hand"

Among the many great lessons that come from the Red Book of Westmarch is the one that teaches the value of pity, mercy, and compassion that various people give to Gollum. The care that comes from the heart is what makes the Quest to destroy the Ring possible. It starts with a lost and terrified hobbit in a dark tunnel, but it ends much later. While it is true that Bilbo’s pity rules the fate of many, it is another’s which rules the fate of all.

At the end of Bilbo’s chase after Gollum, the Ring-finder fights within himself one of the most important battles ever waged in Middle-earth. He finds that his would-be murder has unintentionally brought him to the exit, or at least as far as the miserable being is willing to go without risking capture by the goblins. He then stops there, blocking Bilbo’s way. Gollum detects by hearing and smell that the thief of his precious is near. In Bilbo’s desperation to escape with his life, he faces the temptation that to do so, he must slay his adversary. Certainly this could be easily justified as self-defense. The world would know nothing of it. It would take a while for even the goblins to notice that their kind were no longer disappearing with the creature no longer around to eat them.

Luckily for Gollum and all Middle-earth, Bilbo still has the presence of mind to heed the presence of Ilúvatar. The impulse to kill Gollum disappears as fast as it comes. There is absolutely no reason to pity such a terrible thing, yet such springs up in the Ring-finder’s heart and restrains his hand. Though not speaking specifically of the hobbit, Richard Mathews notes, “Time and time again the spiritual decisions of the most consequence are faced by individuals alone” (Lightning from a Clear Sky 32). Bilbo intuitively understands what it means to love an enemy, as he feels for an instant the agony of one so long trapped in darkness with no way out of it. This realization turns Gollum from a feared enemy into a fellow human being with a tormented heart and soul.

What also helps Bilbo to decide is the fact that although he knows Gollum wishes to kill him, the evil creature has not actually tried to do so. Bilbo bases his response, as Frodo does later, on what has happened, rather than give into fears of what might happen or even is likely to but has not occurred yet. The elder Baggins has once more laid some important groundwork for the destruction of the Ring and the salvation of his future cousin and heir. No foreknowledge of this moves his heart, however. Rather, he responds even more admirably, for he shows “mercy for mercy’s sake alone” (Ware, Finding God in The Hobbit 53; italics in original). Tolkien noted, “[Gandalf] did not mean to say that one must be merciful, for it may prove useful later – it would not then be mercy or pity, which are only truly present when contrary to prudence” (Letters 253).

Decades later, Gandalf and Aragorn seek long and hard for Gollum, but it is in vain until the Ranger providentially finds the hobbit’s footprints on the way home. Aragorn captures the creature and bring him to Mirkwood. Grace protects Gollum once more as the Elves watch over him. They treat him kindly because of Gandalf’s hope for his cure and allow him some limited freedom.

During Frodo’s own battle between fear and mercy, he recalls Gandalf’s words at Bag End about Bilbo’s pity and his own lack of it. He had made it perfectly clear that he wished his uncle had killed Gollum, but Linda Greenwood observes what happens as the Ring-bearer faces the creature himself.

"The pity that Frodo shows Gollum is what brings mercy to himself. In his first meeting with Gollum, Frodo reverses his own desire to kill Gollum because of the fear he feels . . . . The compassion that is first shown by Bilbo, however, becomes the vehicle of Frodo’s salvation. At his first encounter with Gollum, pity overturns Frodo’s initial wish for justice. As Frodo poises his sword at Gollum’s neck to prevent him from doing any more harm, his conversation with Gandalf so many days past comes wafting back to his mind. The prophetic words of Gandalf are the catalyst that stays Frodo’s hand . . . .

"As these remembered words internally ring forth, Frodo lays down his sword. His desire for justice dies and he spares Gollum’s life. What is his motive? It seems to be a pure act of pity. His act is motivated by compassion. He acts with a mercy that demands and expects nothing in return, with the ‘Divine Gift-love’, which [C.S.] Lewis explains, enables a man ‘to love what is naturally unlovable . . .’ (Four Loves 128)" (“Love: ‘The Gift of Death’” 178-179).

Frodo then speaks aloud to Gandalf, who, as far as he knows, is dead, and assures him that no harm will come to Gollum. The fear that caused the Ring-bearer to wish the wretched being dead has not left him, but what the wizard planted in the hobbit’s heart months earlier now bears fruit. Frodo sees Gollum for the first time, not only with his own eyes but with those of Bilbo’s and Gandalf’s. Fleming Rutledge beautifully makes note of another set: “Sam and Frodo both ‘see’ Gollum, but only Frodo is enabled to see him as God sees him. That sort of sight, as all the Gospels make clear, can be granted only by the grace of God” (Battle for Middle-earth 198). The Ring-bearer’s view of Gollum completely changes at this moment, and he wants Gandalf to know it. With such testimony, Frodo proves what Gimli said at Rivendell about the giving of one’s word strengthening a trembling heart. Pity softens the Ring-bearer’s former hostility, stays his hand, and enables him to give his oath. In some dim way, he realizes “There but for the grace of God go I,” as St. Philip Neri said in a much later age. Like Bilbo, Frodo has no idea how momentous this decision is for himself and for all Middle-earth.

Faramir is the next to give mercy. He shows restraint in not immediately slaying a possible adversary after the Rangers find Sméagol enjoying some fish at the Forbidden Pool. The man first seeks out Frodo, who begs for his guide’s life. He says the creature is not aware of the peril he is in and is in some mysterious way connected with the great task of the Ring. Frodo asks Faramir to allow him to go down to Sméagol and offers his own life in exchange if Gollum gets away. The Ring-bearer is so essential to the Quest, yet he is willing to put himself in danger to save another who is also vital.

After the Rangers capture Gollum and bring him before Faramir, the man says that he has so far spared him because of Frodo’s plea. But he adds that he has to know for himself whether the creature is worthy of escaping with his life after it should have been automatically forfeit. Bilbo, Frodo, and Faramir all look into Gollum’s soul and recognize the evil that dwells there, yet they all give mercy nonetheless. This gives the wretched hobbit further opportunity to repent and be cured.

After Frodo walks wearily but upright toward the fulfillment of his vocation at Mount Doom, Sam is left outside the Sammath Naur with Gollum. As it seemed for Bilbo in that dark tunnel long ago, to kill such an evil creature appears the only prudent thing to do. But something keeps Sam’s wrath in check, just as something kept Bilbo’s fear from overwhelming him—the same something actually. After pity can no longer stir Frodo’s heart, it reaches Sam’s because the gardener held the Ring himself and felt a small degree of the agony that each Bearer endures. This tremendous moment of growth for Sam bears within it the final good fruit coming from the torment that the young hobbit felt after his master’s apparent death. He does not hate Gollum any less, but he spares him out of newborn compassion and freely wills to let him live. The extension of mercy at this critical moment is the pinnacle of all that Sam has done for Frodo and the culmination of all that was given previously by Bilbo, the Mirkwood Elves, Frodo, and Faramir. Had just one of these not performed their own act, Sam would not have had his opportunity to choose to do the same. The pity of Bilbo does indeed rule the fate of many, but ultimately the pity of Sam rules the fate of all. All of his myriad other sacrifices have brought him and Frodo this far, but another one is necessary to fulfill the Quest. If Sam had not given up his desire for Gollum’s death, everything else he and Frodo did could have proved vain. But Sam does not act from any of this anymore than Bilbo did in his own equally momentous decision. Only the Writer of the Story knows the consequences of both choices and the others that have come in between.

Mercy, pity, and compassion save Frodo at the Fire after the Ring claims him. He receives what he had freely given. Love is a choice. Pity is a choice. Mercy is a choice. The entire Quest relied on giving these to one not deserving of it but receiving it anyway. Bilbo gave it from his heart. Frodo did so as well after learning how to from Gandalf. Faramir gave it because Frodo begged for it. If just one of them had not, especially Sam, the Quest would have failed. How very much relied on this as each built on what others had done and at the pleading of others. Tolkien noted that

". . . the ‘salvation’ of the world and Frodo’s own ‘salvation’ is achieved by his previous pity and forgiveness of injury. . . . To ‘pity’ [Gollum], to forbear to kill him, was a piece of folly, or a mystical belief in the ultimate value-in-itself of pity and generosity even if disastrous in the world of time. [Gollum] did rob him and injure him in the end - but by a ‘grace’, that last betrayal was at a precise juncture when the final evil deed was the most beneficial thing any one cd. have done for Frodo! By a situation created by his ‘forgiveness’, he was saved himself, and relieved of his burden"(Letters 234; italics in original).

Another powerful lesson about pity and mercy occurs after Frodo, Sam, Merry, and Pippin return to the Shire and encounter the Chief of the ruffians at Bag End. On the way there, Merry counsels his cousin not to be gentle with this leader, who turns out to be none other than Saruman. Frodo does not take Merry’s advice even after the wizard murderously assaults him. Sam is hot for retribution, but the Ring-bearer says that no matter what he does not want any aggressive action taken. Rather than respond with like violence, he forgives his attacker without anger or hate and as quickly as Sam has forgiven him his own trespasses. Frodo has learned much about the power of this during the Quest. His active but peaceful resistance to Saruman’s violence is as effective a barrier to harming him as the mithril coat. Clyde Kilby remarks that this compassion “surpasses the norm of ordinary morality. It has the quality of mercy such as Portia calls ‘an attribute of God himself’” (“Mythic and Christian Elements in Tolkien,” Myth Allegory and Gospel 137). Grace gives the Ring-bearer this and the strength to extend it. Even if the wizard had been successful and Frodo’s lifeblood poured out, one knows that his radical words of forgiveness and forbiddance of revenge would have been the same.

 

Works Cited

Greenwood, Linda. “Love: ‘The Gift of Death’.” In Tolkien Studies Volume II: An Annual Scholarly Review, ed. Douglas Anderson, Michael D.C. Drout and Verlyn Flieger. Morgantown,WV: West Virginia UP, 2005: 171-195.

Kilby, Clyde S. “Mythic and Christian Elements in Tolkien.” In Myth, Allegory and Gospel: An Interpretation of J. R. R. Tolkien/C.S. Lewis/G.K. Chesterton/Charles Williams, ed. John Warwick Montgomery. Minneapolis, MN: Bethany Fellowship, 1974: 119-143.

Mathews, Richard. Lightning from a Clear Sky. San Bernardino, CA: Borgo Press, 1978.

Rutledge, Fleming. The Battle for Middle-earth: Tolkien’s Divine Design in The Lord of the Rings. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2004.

Tolkien, J. R. R. The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien, ed. Humphrey Carpenter. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2000.

 

A/N: This is excerpted in great part from my book, Moments of Grace and Spiritual Warfare in The Lord of the Rings (WestBow Press). For more details and how to order your copy, go to http://ow.ly/ez2dT.





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