Thus, the
“small people” who fought and suffered in the Great War helped inspire the
creation of the unlikely heroes in Tolkien’s greatest imaginative work. Like
soldiers in the war, the homely hobbits could not have perceived how the fate
of nations depended upon their stubborn devotion to duty. – Joseph
Loconte*
Anyone
familiar with Tolkien’s Hobbits knows that they avoid adventures of all kinds
and at all costs. Hobbits prefer puffing on a pipe in comfortable chairs
discussing the meal they had just eaten, or were about to eat, to paths leading
to unknown destinations. They certainly want nothing to do with Dark Lords, powerful
rings, and dragons. A Hobbit will choose security and comfort over adventures,
every time; until, that is, the adventure catches up with him.
Tolkien
said “The Hobbits are just rustic English people, made small in size because it
reflects the generally small reach of their imagination—not the small reach of
their courage or latent power.” (Loconte) In other words, hobbits are a
wonderful representation of the “average Joe.” Before he wakes up in the
adventure, he is all about comfort. After he wakes, he discovers that there is
far more to him then meets the eye. What he chooses to do with his latent power
is the question.
“I have always been
impressed that we were here (trenches in WWI), surviving, because of the
indomitable courage of quite small people against impossible odds.” The hobbits
were made small, he explained, “to show up, in creatures of very small physical
power, the amazing and unexpected heroism of ordinary men ‘in a pinch.’”
(Loconte, citing a letter written by Tolkien.)
In
the first volume of CS Lewis’ “The Chronicles of Narnia,” The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe, four average children –
Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy Pevensie – walk through the back of a wardrobe
into the magical land of Narnia, where they join the lion Aslan and his army,
experience harrowing adventures, and then become Kings and Queens of Narnia.
Children
are weak. Children are often foolish. Children lack wisdom. A perfect metaphor
for many of us: for how we see ourselves. “There’s a war? Everyone knows that
it’s extraordinary men and women with great power who change the tides of war;
not ‘children’ like me!”
Landing in
the Adventure
Stumbling
into Narnia or landing on the path to Mordor presents the protagonist with a
Calling where the answer is “Yes” or “No.” “(I)ndifference to the Call to
struggle against evil is not an option: one must take sides. This, set before
our imagination in the words of Tolkien and Lewis, is one of the great
paradoxes of our mortal lives: the mysterious intersection of providence and
free will.” (Loconte)
Loconte
cites this exchange between Sam and Frodo regarding saying, “Yes” or “No,” from
The Lord of the Rings:
“I don’t like anything here
at all,” said Frodo, “step or stone, breath or bone. Earth, air, and water all
seem accursed. But so our path is laid.”
“Yes, that’s so,” said Sam.
“And we shouldn’t be here at all, if we’d known more about it, before we
started. But I suppose it’s often that way. The brave things in the old tales
and songs, Mr. Frodo: adventures, as I used to call them. I used to think that
they were things the wonderful folk of the stories went out and looked for,
because they wanted them, because they were exciting and life was a bit dull, a
kind of sport, as you might say. But that’s not the way of it with the tales
that really mattered, or the ones that stay in the mind. Folk seem to have been
just landed in them, usually — their paths were laid that way, as you put it.
But I expect they had lots of chances, like us, of turning back, only they
didn’t.”
You have landed in a war.
You weren’t looking for it; you didn’t want anything more than to remain before
a roaring fire and binge watching a new series on Netflix. But with not so much
as a how-do-you-do, the war exploded on your doorstep or at your child’s school
or at work. The Call has been issued: fight for Truth, Justice, Goodness, and
Liberty, or fall in with Sauron or the White Witch.
Being
an insignificant Hobbit grants no deferment, no immunity, from this Calling. Deeming yourself useless and unfit for battle does
nothing to keep the Calling at bay. In fact, it appears that God prefers using Hobbits
and Children, or so says St Paul:
Brothers
and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were
wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble
birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God
chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.
* “A Hobbit, A Wardrobe,
and a Great War: How J.R.R Tolkien and C.S. Lewis Rediscovered Faith,
Friendship, and Heroism in the Cataclysm of 1914-1918,” Nelson Books, 2015
Copyright, Monte E Wilson,
2015
