The Sacrifice of Frodo

For Tolkien, “the most important part of the whole work [is] the journey through Mordor and the martyrdom of Frodo” (qtd. in Hammond & Scull 615). The hobbit carries the Ring against his skin like a viper clutched to his heart, which bites him again and again and spreads its poison through him. At the beginning of the Quest, it seduces him into participating in his own corruption or at least tries to do so. After this fails, it grows increasingly coercive and tries to bypass its Bearer’s will altogether.

The terrible struggle against the Ring and the despair it engenders tears Frodo apart. Yet as more of his self is taken away, even his memories, he refuses to surrender. He focuses every drop of his heart, soul, will, and strength into actively fighting his spiritual battle. His torment is also his glory. Peter Kreeft notes, “the self is saved only when it is lost, found only when really given away in sacrifice. True freedom comes only when you bind yourself to your duty” (“Wisdom” 46). This Frodo does to the utmost. Even after all hope leaves him, he goes on, holding onto the shreds of his self and struggling to the point of crawling after deprivation and his burden weaken him so much he can do nothing else. He is spent bit by bit on his journey, hallowed for it and hollowed out by it, poured out as “a holy sacrifice, truly pleasing to God” (Rom. 12:1). Colin Gunton notes, “Again and again we are reminded of biblical texts about the way the power of God works not through the great forces of history but through the cross” (“Far-Off Gleam” 133). Barry Gordon observed that Frodo is “the Lamb whose only real strength is his capacity to make an offering of himself” (qtd. in Kilby, Tolkien 56).

It is on Frodo and Sam’s dark Road that they feel “the dreadful menace of the Power that waited” (LotR VI:3, 914). Sam sees that his master’s hand “would often be raised as if to ward off a blow, or to screen his shrinking eyes from a dreadful Eye that sought to look in them” (VI:3, 914). Other times the faithful gardener watches Frodo’s hand creep toward the Ring and then move away. The Ring slowly devours its Bearer, but immortal grace pours in as the hobbit’s mortal strength pours out. This sustains him in his fight not to be wholly overcome. Clyde S. Kilby observes, “One of the clear evidences of Frodo’s increasing greatness of character is his steady will to resist incredible temptation in the face of growing physical weakness” (“Mythic” 139).

After Sam offers to carry the Ring again, Frodo nearly attacks him in a demonstration of the terrible power the demonic object has over its Bearer. The elder hobbit tells his beloved guardian that he is nearly under the Ring’s control and movingly describes the depth of his agony in the most mystical speech in the tale. “No taste of food, no feel of water, no sound of wind, no memory of tree or grass or flower, no image of moon or star are left to me. I am naked in the dark, Sam, and there is no veil between me and the wheel of fire” (LotR VI:3, 916). Frodo is facing the ultimate vulnerability. His ordeal strips every bit of his self away and leaves him exposed to his Enemy. He has no way of knowing when the next attack will come, only that it will and he cannot hide or protect himself from it. Yet even in his darkness, with the wheel of fire as the only illumination he can sense, there is still deep union between him and Ilúvatar, to whom he is even more visible. Frodo has become a burning candle set alight by both Light and Dark, a figure “clothed in flame” (LotR VI:1, 890), as Sam saw by the red light in the Tower chamber. Both Ilúvatar’s love for Frodo and Frodo’s own love for Middle-earth are consuming him, as well as the flaming wheel upon which he lies burning. Evil has forced its way into the hobbit’s soul, but Ilúvatar is already there to sustain His child. It is in great part through the willingly endured agony of both Frodo and Sam that Ilúvatar frees Middle-earth from the scourge of Sauron. Pope Benedict XVI’s meditation on the meaning of “Lead us not into temptation” has relevance for the Ring-bearer at this time.

"But should it not put us in mind of the fact that God has placed a particularly heavy burden of temptation on the shoulders of those individuals who were especially close to him, the great saints, from Anthony in his desert to Thérèse of Lisieux in the pious world of her Carmelite monastery? They follow in the footsteps of Job. . . . Even more, they enjoy a very special communion with Jesus Christ, who suffered our temptations to the bitter end. They are called to withstand the temptations of a particular time in their own skin, as it were, in their own souls. They are called to bear them through to the end for us ordinary souls and to help us persist on our way to the One who took upon himself the burden of us all" (Jesus 164).

The Ring overcomes Frodo at the end, but grace gives him enough strength to withstand its assaults until he can complete his task. It is easy to imagine that he does this not just for the “ordinary souls” of Middle-earth but unknowingly also for all those in this age, who have benefitted from his tremendous example of perseverance and endurance through horrific conflict.

Words of Fr. Jacques Phillipe also fit this time in the hobbit’s life.

"Every Christian must be throughly convinced that his spiritual life. . . must be viewed as the scene of a constant and sometimes painful battle, which will not end until death – a struggle against evil, temptation and the sin that is in him. This combat is inevitable, but is to be understood as an extremely positive reality, because, as Saint Catherine of Siena says, ‘without war there is no peace’; without combat there is no victory. And this combat is, correctly viewed, the place of our purification, of our spiritual growth, where we learn to know ourselves in our weakness and to know God in His infinite mercy. This combat is the definitive place of our transfiguration and glorification" (Searching 9).

This is point Frodo has reached. The Ring-bearer’s death to himself gives us a challenging and inspiring example of what sacrifice in service of Ilúvatar means. Sean McGrath makes note of this.

"And here, in Frodo’s agonizing pilgrimage to Mordor and the cracks of Doom the depth of our sacrifice is at last adequately portrayed. For when God asks us to transcend our present state of being he is asking us to break and spend ourselves as relentlessly as Frodo gives his entire being to the quest. . . . Kazantzakis in St. Francis [speaks of] the explosive emotions involved in surrendering to transformation: . . .

. . . He who never once said to poor unfortunate mankind 'Enough!'

'Not enough,' that is what he screamed at me.

'I can’t go further,' whines miserable man.

'You can!' the Lord replies.

'I shall break in two,' man whines again.

'Break!'" (“Passion” 177-178).

After Frodo begins to crawl, Sam carries him, expecting him and the Ring to be a terrible weight, but the gardener finds his burden light. Gwaihir the Eagle had remarked about how light the resurrected Gandalf was after the Istari’s fight against the demonic Balrog. In Frodo’s struggle against the power of another fallen Maia, he is just as burned away as the Grey wizard was.       

At the Mountain, Sam beholds a vision of Frodo’s shining soul, shorn of the veils of flesh that surround it. He also sees the Ring as the wheel of fire that has slowly burned itself into his master’s being. His sight of Frodo clothed in white but also “untouchable now by pity” (LotR VI:3, 922) shows how close the Ring-bearer is to falling off the edge that other white-robed figures had or could have. Saruman was conquered by his lust for power. Gandalf the White remains angelically good and able to withstand the temptation of the Ring, though completely aware that he would be overcome by it if his will did not remain strong. Galadriel was mightily tempted to fulfill her long-held fantasies but successfully resisted. Standing close to them, but still far enough apart to be alone, is Frodo, his soul on the knife’s edge. Sam’s vision shows an exterior image of the terrible inner battle that Frodo has waged for months, and which he is just about to lose, though not willingly. After this transfiguration, Sam sees his master as a spent figure gasping for breath. Both sights are true. Frodo has given everything he possibly can. As Gunnar Urang notes, “the world is saved, ultimately, not just by grace as overwhelming presence and power but by grace as humble redemptive suffering” (Shadows 117). The Ring-bearer has lived and breathed the lesson of perseverance without sight of light or hope of survival, showing how aptly named he is by Gandalf as Bronwe athan Harthad, Endurance beyond Hope (Sauron Defeated 62). Eglerio!

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Works Cited

Benedict XVI. Jesus of Nazareth: From the Baptism in the Jordan to the Transfiguration. Trans.

            Adrian J. Walker. New York: Doubleday, 2007.                              

Gutton, Colin. “A Far-Off Gleam of the Gospel: Salvation in Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings.”

            Tolkien: A Celebration. Ed. Joseph Pearce. San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2001.

Hammond, Wayne G. and Christina Scull. The Lord of the Rings: A Reader’s Companion.

            Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2005.

Kreeft, Peter. “Wartime Wisdom: Ten Uncommon Insights About Evil in The Lord of the

            Rings.” Ed. John G. West, Jr. Celebrating Middle-earth: The Lord of the Rings as a

            Defense of Western Civilization.Seattle: Inkling Books, 2002.

The Jerusalem Bible Reader’s Edition. Gen. ed. Alexander Jones. Garden City, NY: Doubleday,

            1966.

Kilby, Clyde S. “Mythic and Christian Elements in Tolkien.” 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.

---. Tolkien and The Silmarillion. Wheaton, IL: Harold Shaw, 1976. (Kilby does not identify Gordon, but  Bradley J. Birzer does in J. R. R. Tolkien’s Sanctifying Myth, p. 69.)

McGrath, Sean. “The Passion According to Tolkien.” Tolkien: A Celebration.

Philippe, Jacques. Searching for and Maintaining Peace: A Small Treatise on Peace of Heart.

            Trans. George and Jannic Driscoll. Staten Island, NY: St. Pauls/Alba House, 2002.

Tolkien, J. R. R. The Return of the King. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1966.

---. Sauron Defeated: The History of The Lord of the Rings, Part 4. Ed. Christopher Tolkien.

            Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1992.

Urang, Gunnar. Shadows of Heaven: Religion and Fantasy in the Writing of C. S. Lewis, Charles

            Williams and J. R. R. Tolkien. Philadelphia: Pilgrim Press, 1971.

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This was originally published in Amon Hen, Bulletin of The Tolkien Society and is adapted from my forthcoming book Moments of Grace and Spiritual Warfare in The Lord of the Rings. For more details, please visit http://ow.ly/ez2dt.