"Cliff Notes - the hobbit & the lord of rings" - читать интересную книгу автора (Tolkien J.R.R)

^^^^^^^^^^THE LORD OF THE RINGS: BOOK VI, CHAPTERS 1-5

The story returns to Sam and Frodo, who at last succeed in destroying the Ring. Sauron is defeated, and amidst great rejoicing, Aragorn is crowned king of Gondor.

*

As Sam stands outside the tower of Cirith Ungol, wondering how he will rescue Frodo, he is tempted by power of the Ring. But his love for Frodo and his simple hobbit-sense save him. He has no desire to rule the world, but wants only to tend his own patch of land. Sam passes the test, and like Galadriel, he diminishes from the powerful figure that the Ring makes him seem, and becomes only himself, a small frightened hobbit.

Sam hears the sounds of fighting in the tower. This fighting reveals the weakness of evil; the orcs cannot cooperate and are killing each other in petty arguments. Finally, only two orcs are left alive. Driving them off, Sam rescues Frodo, and the two have a tender reunion. But a terrible change comes over Frodo when Sam hands him back the Ring. Grabbing the Ring, Frodo calls Sam a thief. Before his eyes, Sam seems to have suddenly turned into a greedy orc. But the negative effect on Frodo of the Ring's evil power quickly passes.

Dressed in orc uniforms, Sam and Frodo leave the fortress to begin the last stage of their journey. The land of Mordor is a dark, desolate place, with no living things but some twisted brambles. Even here, however, a star is visible in the sky. The symbolism of star and shadow is carried to its logical conclusion. A shadow may obscure the stars for a while, but the stars will always be shining far above, out of the reach of darkness. Is Tolkien saying that good can never be overcome by evil, but will always triumph in the end?

Caught between the pull of the Ring and the pressure of Sauron's will, Frodo is so weary he can hardly walk. He and Sam discard everything they don't need. Symbolically, they seem to be stripping themselves to the core of their humanity: the indomitable will to carry on to the end. Sam is the leader at this point. He cares for Frodo, leading him onward and even carrying him when Frodo's strength fails. It is Sam's memory of the Shire that gives him the will to go on in the face of the horror of Mordor.

As they creep up the slopes of Mount Doom, they are attacked by Gollum. Sam deals with Gollum while Frodo struggles on alone. Sam is tempted to kill the miserable creature, but spares him, as Bilbo and Frodo did before him. Having borne the Ring even a little while, he understands and pities Gollum's agony.

Sam follows after Frodo and finds him standing before the Crack of Doom. There, Frodo's will fails, and he claims the Ring for himself. But Gollum struggles with him, biting off the finger with the Ring and, still gloating, accidentally falls into the fiery abyss. With the destruction of the Ring, Sauron is vanquished forever: his armies are scattered or destroyed, and his towers crumble. Sam and Frodo are rescued from the destruction by the eagles, and the two hobbits are welcomed with great praise by the victorious army. This is the climax of the book, where the two halves of the story, the war and the quest, meet in victory. The rest of the book serves as a gradual winding down from this climax, as Tolkien ties up loose ends.

The destruction of Sauron coincides with the beginning of spring, which has long symbolized spiritual renewal. Tolkien makes many references to renewal and to the end of barrenness. Frodo himself, now free of the Ring, seems to have recovered his old sense of gaiety. An eagle announces Sauron's fall to the people of Minas Tirith with a song that sounds almost like a Christian psalm referring to the resurrection of Christ. Eowyn experiences a rebirth of sorts, when she falls in love with Faramir. She no longer desires death or glory in battle. Instead she wants to be a healer "and love all things that grow and are not barren." As a final symbol of the end of barrenness, Aragorn finds a sapling to replace the white tree of Gondor that had stood withered in the courtyard for so long.

This is a time of triumph for Aragorn. He is crowned king of Gondor and marries Arwen, Elrond's daughter. But there is an element of tragedy mixed in with his joy. To marry him, Arwen has had to give up immortality. She is now doomed to die and so is forever separated from her father and her brothers, who will pass over to the Blessed Realm and live there. Besides this personal loss, Aragorn also feels the loss of many beautiful things, such as Lorien, which will pass with the destruction of the Ring. This mixture of tragedy with joy is characteristic of Tolkien.

^^^^^^^^^^THE LORD OF THE RINGS: BOOK VI, CHAPTERS 6-9

The hobbits return to the Shire, where they find that evil has been at work in their absence. The Shire is saved, but Frodo never recovers from his many wounds.

*

The four hobbits, accompanied by Gandalf, now depart for home. After stopping in Rivendell to visit Bilbo, they arrive in Bree, where there has been trouble with ruffians from the south. The travelers learn that things are not well in the Shire either. Gandalf seems to know more about the trouble than he lets on. The hobbits assume he will set things right, but Gandalf tells them he isn't going to the Shire. His time of helping out is over, and they're quite capable of doing it themselves. In fact, he tells them, this is what they were trained for. What do you think he means by that remark?

The hobbits continue on to the Shire and find that Saruman and his men have taken over and are tearing down buildings and cutting trees. Now you can see most clearly how their journeys have changed the four friends. They are not intimidated, but set out with determination to rouse the inhabitants of the Shire to throw out Saruman's ruffians. Frodo, however, refuses to fight. He has learned that no one has the right to take the life of another, no matter how just that death may seem. He extends his sympathy to all--the good, the evil, and the misguided--because he knows that no one started out evil and that those who do fall into evil suffer the most of all. Saruman himself appears as a pitiable figure, and even his attempt to kill Frodo doesn't change Frodo's resolve to let him go free.

Grima the Wormtongue is still with Saruman. Like Gollum, he has been deformed by evil and now crawls after Saruman like a dog. Frodo offers him a chance to turn away from Saruman. Grima seems to feel a touch of hope, but Saruman destroys it by telling the others about Grima's evil deeds. Grima turns on his master and kills him, only to be killed himself by the overzealous hobbits.

Sam uses Galadriel's gift, a box of soil from Lorien, to restore the beauty of the Shire. He finds that he's become a hero like Merry and Pippin. Ironically enough, Frodo's deeds are overlooked. The folks of the Shire are more concerned with the events in their own small country than with far-off happenings in places they've never seen. They don't seem to understand the danger that would have faced them if Frodo's quest had failed.

Frodo has not emerged from his trials unscathed, either physically or spiritually. The memory and the effect of the Ring stay with him. "It is gone forever," he says, "and now all is dark and empty." Like Gollum, he feels lost and empty without the Ring. Although Frodo has won peace for the land, he himself cannot enjoy it. He travels with Bilbo, Gandalf, Elrond, and Galadriel over the sea to the serenely beautiful Blessed Realm, leaving Sam to return home to his wife and child in the Shire.

Some readers see this as a happy ending. Others feel sad that Frodo's selfless quest has ended unhappily for him. Which view do you agree with? Is this a pessimistic or an optimistic ending? Why do you feel that way?


^^^^^^^^^^THE HOBBIT & THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THOUGHTS ON FRODO

Today's reader of modern narrative, however medieval its spirit, may be reluctant to accept a truly medieval monster--a dragon or fiend--but he is accustomed to accepting internal conflict. Frodo the monster-queller might not be credible. But Frodo tortured by growing evil in his own nature... is believable and compelling.... In the final moment, standing at the Cracks of Doom, Frodo succumbs to the darkness within him. He puts the Ring on his finger, claimed by it even as he claims it.... For man always loses to the monster at last. Frodo is defeated as surely as Beowulf is....

Although Frodo recovers from the battle, he can no longer be what he was.... The fairy-tale hero, inconspicuous and unassuming, has been made to suffer the bitterness and loss of the medieval epic hero. Like Beowulf, like Arthur, he loses the last battle and pays a heavy price for his struggle. Such an ending is dreadfully inappropriate....

And that, of course, is just Tolkien's point. It is not meant to be fair. We are beyond epic now, beyond romance and beyond the fairy-tale ending. In the real world things seldom turn out as we would like them to, and the little man is as subject to tragedy as the great one.

-Verlyn Flieger, "Frodo and Aragorn: The Concept of Hero in 'The Lord of the Rings,'" in Isaacs and Zimbardo, eds., Tolkien: New Critical Perspectives, 1981