This month, it will be a year since the war on Ukraine began. I mark this by going back to an essay written by a Russian and published in The Guardian on 27 February 2022.
In A War on Western Civilisation, Vladimir Sorokin described how Putin began as an apparently ʻenlightened autocratʼ and went through a step-by-step process (in plain sight of politicians at home and abroad) to become, ʻa monster – crazed in its desires and ruthless in its decisions.ʼ He drew a parallel between such transformation to monstrosity and the culminating passage of The Lord of the Rings.
As we all know, in that great Saga for our Times, the task of destroying the ring that is key to the evil power falls to Frodo. The wizard Gandalf refused it. He knew the temptation to augment his own power would be more than he could bear. Only a true-hearted and humble hobbit stood a chance of being proof against the ring’s corrupting influence. So it falls to Frodo to undertake the long and perilous journey to the Cracks of Doom to throw the ring into the consuming fires which alone can unmake it.
Then comes the most extraordinary moment in the book. Instead of doing what he intended, Frodo is overcome at the last. As he stands on the edge of the fearful place he has suffered so long to reach, he slides the ring onto his own finger, and we realise that the malevolent power will henceforth work through him. Sorokin describes how, in Peter Jackson’s film, ʻhis face suddenly begins to change, becoming evil and sinister.ʼ
Yet, to the readerʼs/viewerʼs intense relief, the quest is carried out in spite of Frodoʼs moral collapse. Gollum, a former possessor of the ring and long since corrupted by it, sidles up and bites it off Frodoʼs hand, only to overbalance and topple, ring, finger and all, into the flames. The fateful task is accomplished through the agency of a being who has crept despicably through the narrative all the way from Tolkeinʼs prequel, The Hobbit. And Frodo is left with a missing finger to remind him ever after of his final lapse.
While writing this post, I stumbled on an article in the magazine of the Dominican order* , which drew attention to the fact that Tolkein, a devout Catholic, specifically dated the moment of the destruction of the Ring to March 25th. This is the Feast of the Annunciation, but also, I read, the date adopted in the Catholic tradition for the crucifixion of Christ. So Tolkein was well aware of the parallel with the Easter story, and Gollum, like Judas Iscariot, has an essential part to play.
The Seaborne, now in a second edition with my Pantolwen Press imprint, also culminates with a parallel to the Easter story. John/Dhion follows the rhythm of Joseph Campbell’s hero’s journey, setting out from the ordinary world to enter Otherworld. Through sacrificial surrender, (his own and the wise woman, Coghlane’s) he comes to a place where he has what it takes to meet the need of the times.
These stories seem to be saying that, at key moments, all kinds of things, the flawed as well as the fine, can combine in a strange Grace to bring about the healing of the ills humanity conspires to inflict. We can only hope for such a key moment to take place in the present conflict.
* The Annunciation and the One Ring by Father Isaac Augustine Morales O.P. published on March 25th 2014 in Dominicana. www.dominicanajournal.org
Gillian PB
