Monday
A literary quotation from Lord of the Rings has been making the rounds recently on social media. You can see why:
“I wish it need not have happened in my time,” said Frodo.
“So do I,” said Gandalf, “and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”
I find it significant that Tolkien may have written the passage either immediately before or during World War II, with Hitler on the rise and England threatened. Although Tolkien always insisted that he was not writing allegory, it’s also true that history influences the shape that fictions take. It’s reasonable to think that Hitler is behind the creation of Sauron, Stalin as influencing Saruman, and their uneasy alliance as the German-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact of 1939. Sauron’s storm troopers, after all, are the Nazgul.
For our own part, as we note resemblances between America today and 1930’s Germany, it makes sense that we would revisit Frodo and Gandalf’s conversation. The passage seems even more relevant when one reads what comes immediately before and after. Frodo’s remark occurs in response to Gandalf’s news update:
“But last night I told you of Sauron the Great, the Dark Lord. The rumors that you have heard are true: he has indeed arisen again and left his hold in Mirkwood and returned to his ancient fastness in the Dark Tower of Mordor. That name even you hobbits have heard of, like a shadow on the borders of old stories. Always after a defeat and a respite, the Shadow takes another shape and grows again.”
While Trump hasn’t taken another shape, he has indeed returned following a defeat and a respite.
Gandalf then points out the stakes. Although Sauron’s plans are “far from ripe,” they are ripening by the day. He will be able to consolidate his power if he regains the ring of power, at which point he will be able to “beat down all resistance, break the last defenses, and cover all the lands in a second darkness.”
We can think of Trump in these terms as well. At the moment, he is experimenting to see how much he can get away with, whether it involves unleashing masked thugs on American cities, seizing voting records in Fulton County, defying court orders, or the like. When Gandalf recounts how Sauron has gained control of lesser rings, ensnaring the once “proud and great” men who possessed them, we can think of the institutions that Trump has coopted that were supposed to function as guardrails of democracy. These include the GOP, the Supreme Court, the corporate media (especially CBS and The Washington Post), the Department of Justice, an independent FBI, and others. “Long ago,” Gandalf says, “they became Ringwraiths, shadows under his great Shadow, his most terrible servants.”
And a little later, “These nine he has gathered to himself.”
It is fitting that it comes down to unassuming hobbits—or in our case, everyday citizens in Los Angeles, Chicago, Portland, and now Minneapolis—to defeat Sauron. Although the outcome of our battle is far from over, some political pundits have already started talking like Sam Gamgee as they imagine history recording the people of Minnesota standing up to Trump’s Nazgul. Here’s Sam as he and Frodo sit at the foot of an erupting Mount Doom after the ring has been destroyed:
“What a tale we have been in, Mr. Frodo, haven’t we?” he said. “I wish I could hear it told! Do you think they’ll say: Now comes the story of Nine-fingered Frodo and the Ring of Doom? And then everyone will hush, like we did, when in Rivendell they told us the tale of Beren One-hand and the Great Jewel. I wish I could hear it! And I wonder how it will go on after our part.”
Trump has not yet consolidated all the power available to him. The next No Kings demonstrations are on March 28.
