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BlogHere are the thoughts and news of the people in our community. Leave a comment as you wish. If you want to join the blogging ask Mark.
Wednesday, December 24, 2003From www.licc.org.uk The Return of the King The Lord of the Rings continues to sweep all before it. Already the biggest selling novel of all time and recently voted Britain’s best loved book, Peter Jackson’s final episode of the film trilogy is a work of such breathtaking genius that it will surely only serve to deepen the story’s hold on our hearts. Jackson’s achievement is not only to bring alive a mythic world, not only to make us feel the depth of courage needed to fight a war against a genocidal foe but most pertinently to make Frodo’s invisible mental battle against the power of the ring seem as heroic as any visible feat of arms. Indeed, part of the story’s appeal is that Tolkien knows that there are many ways to be a hero: by military prowess like the Princess Éowyn, by doughty service like Sam, or by some instinctive reflex of love that overrides fear – like Pippin. We can all play our part. Similarly, the joy of victory is not just expressed in the coronation of a high King but in the preservation for ‘ordinary’ people of life’s ordinary but splendid pleasures – flowers outside a home, a little girl running into her father’s arms. Nevertheless, The Lord of the Rings resists a one-dimensional triumphalism. Many die, and not all those who survive to tell the tale live at peace in the world they have saved. As Frodo leaves Middle Earth he says: “I tried to save the Shire, and it has been saved, but not for me. It must often be so, Sam, when things are in danger; some one has to give them up, lose them, so that others may keep them.” There is a terrible cost to saving a world from evil, as Tolkien, a veteran of World War 1 and a Catholic, knew. A terrible cost. Do we not have cause to weep, as well as rejoice, for those prepared to pay it? And do we not also yearn for the return of the King, for a world made fair again? It will be. It will be. Christmas reminds us of that. Rejoice. Mark Greene Posted by: Mark | 4:35 pm |
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