The Shades of Green (and Good) in Lothlorien

Virtue and its fruits in The Fellowship of the Ring

With each reading of The Lord of the Rings, something new stands out to me. This is, of course, one of the marks of great literature. In my latest read of The Fellowship, I found myself particularly drawn to the differing portrayals of ‘good’ in Middle Earth. These are seen clearly in the races.

Hobbiton and its inhabitants love the simple life: food and song and mirth and farming. The hobbits live together in the kind of community we as readers dream of—where everyone is known by name, as is their business, their family, and their likes and dislikes. There are seldom two days a week when hobbits cannot be found celebrating something together, and they celebrate each with the utmost enthusiasm, and the greatest food and drink you can imagine.

The elves of Rivendell, Mirkwood, and Lothlorien love the forests, history, song, language, hospitality, and council. Theirs is the Last Homely House, their guests wonder at their care and the intention with which the elves host them. Their halls are filled with song that retells the great stories of the past, that praises the great elves who went before them. They are also wise and experienced, and their homes are filled with gatherings for advice and to decide what is wisest and most prudent to do.

Dwarves, both from the Lonely Mountain and Moria, love the mountains, craftsmanship, the earth, camaraderie, and kinship. This is to say that the dwarves above all the other races value their lineage and the brotherhood of their race, and this comes forth in a different love of history and family than the elves. The dwarves also sing, but they are songs of boast and of triumph, and they are meant for encouragement and entertainment, not reflection. Of all the races, none are more skilled at stonework or mining, or the creation of beautiful things using mithril and precious metals and stones.

And, finally, the races of men love the plains, resiliency, hope, and strength. It is perhaps hardest to explain the unique values of the Middle Earth men, but in the Fellowship there are certain things that stand out in the characters of Boromir and Aragorn. Boromir and Aragon, moreso than the rest of the company, are strong, often bearing the hobbits in their arms or on their backs through rough terrain, while the rest of the company struggles alone. It is to the men that the future of Middle Earth belongs, and this shines forth in both Aragorn and Boromir’s hope and focus on the future of Middle Earth and their lands. They do not give up, nor do they often dismay, for they are always looking to the future that may come.

For all of these goods, many of which echo both each other and echo the classical virtues, the races are not united. This is what makes the Fellowship so striking as it travels: it is unheard of to see elf, dwarf, man, and hobbit travel together. In fact, most of these races are at odds with each other. Elves and dwarves are openly hostile to one another, but men too distrust the elves (for this we must look ahead to Rohan and Eomer, who have heard only evil of those who walk the woods of Lorien). Hobbits as a rule dislike all other races, preferring to keep company with fellow hobbits alone. These differences all stem from each race’s greatest virtues, however.

The elves are focused on the past, where most of their people and history reside, and many of the disputes and arguments of Middle Earth do not draw their attention. They are often inactive, and do not offer advice to outsiders, due to how significantly they regard counsel and history. This makes them creatures of legend rather than reality to most hobbits, and angers both men and dwarves, who regard their unwillingness to help in the disputes and arguments of Middle Earth as insult and negligence. Rather, this unwillingness stems from a lack of trust in the good of each of these races, and a fear that the elves’ help will be used for great evil, rather than good.

The dwarves are hated by the elves for the destruction they awoke by digging too deep and gathering too much in the great mountains. Their greed and pride over their craftsmanship angers the elves who have had to suffer many losses due to the evils in Moria and the Lonely Mountain. The hobbits consider dwarves strange and unpleasant to speak with, and the men of Middle Earth find them prideful and untrusting, too haughty to offer help to others, while yet demanding it for themselves.

The men are a less powerful race, with shorter lifespans and whose people lose many in battle each year. To both of the ancient races of dwarves and elves, they seem young and divisive: even amongst each race of men there is derision and their leaders are ever-changing. The men of Middle Earth have also seen the greatest corruption, losing nine of their lords to create the Nazgul, and lacking the strength of will required to destroy the Ring of Power while they had it. The men are slow to trust strangers and other races, and choose to stick together as much as they can, rather than seek out the elves or the dwarves.

Finally, the hobbits are perhaps the easiest to dismiss by the other races. They are entirely insignificant to Middle Earth up until this point, and are uneducated and ignorant about their history, and about the races surrounding their lands who have kept them safe. None of the races ever visit Hobbiton (unless brought there by Gandalf), and were they to, they would not be welcomed but shunned by the Hobbits, who do not trust anyone outside their borders. In fact, the Hobbits of Hobbiton do not even trust many of the Tooks and the Brandybucks who live beyond the town, much less strangers from outside the Southfarthing.

This is what stood out to me most in this reread of The Fellowship of the Ring. Tolkien continually reminds us of what an unusual party this fellowship is, and every time they come to a new place, they are greeted with shock and surprise that such a company should travel together. As the hobbits travel from Hobbiton to Rivendell, we see just how little they trust each person they meet, until that person is vouched for by Gandalf. When the Fellowship is formed, it is formed as a group of companions who will all travel together for a time, with different goals in mind. The men are to go to Gondor to protect the city. The hobbits go to destroy the Ring of Power. The group is not truly unified until they reach Lothlorien. In Lothlorien, we first see the company defend Gimli against the elves’ hatred, and in turn we see Gimli turn his eyes in awe for the first time upon the elvenfolk. It is from this time forth that Legolas and Gimli become fast friends, and that all of the company come to fully trust one another.

This seems most signified to me in one moment: in the giving of Galadriel’s gifts to Gimli. When Gimli asks her for a hair from her head, and vows to set it in a jewel as the crest of his house, she and the elves are shocked. He shows humility, rather than pride, and values that which the elves most value: their history and people in Galadriel (this request, although Gimli knows it not, is richly seeped in elven history, as Feanor of old had asked for the same gift from her three times and been refused). And this is the moment that most struck me, and seems often overlooked: Galadriel not only gifts him in excess, with three of her hairs (to signify the three times Feanor was refused), but also blesses him. “I say to you, Gimli son of Glóin, that your hands shall flow with gold, and yet over you gold shall have no dominion.” In becoming elf-friend, Gimli is freed from the great downfall of his race: the dominion which treasure has always held over them.

May we all think of this when we are frustrated with our family, our neighbors, our friends, and our siblings in Christ. Tolkien clearly hints that this unification in the Fellowship allows each race to become capable of greater feats than they have ever been capable of previously, and it is through the unification of their own versions of good.

It is no happenstance that the character Tolkien hopes his readers most relate to and emulate is the character who most naturally exhibits this unification and love for all the good races: Bilbo. Bilbo is great dwarf-friend, one of the thirteen who takes back the Lonely Mountain, and furthermore he is the one who brings about peace between the Five Armies after the Mountain is reclaimed. Bilbo is also great elf-friend, retiring to their halls of song, singing and walking with the elves in Rivendell in his old age. Yet, again, we see Bilbo as a great man-friend again: it is Bilbo who writes of Aragorn, “All that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost; The old that is strong does not wither, Deep roots are not reached by the frost. From the ashes a fire shall be woken, A light from the shadows shall spring; Renewed shall be blade that was broken, The crownless again shall be king”, and he demonstrates his great love for his “Dunedain” constantly while the company is yet in Rivendell. Finally, he is of course most of all fond of Bag End and of the Hobbits. Even as they view him as eccentric for his love of the other races, he is a well-respected member of Hobbiton and one of the most generous. Bilbo, in his own simple way, despite being intimately aware of each race’s shortcomings, loves each race unendingly. He rejoices each time he is reunited with them, and speaks with them of their own cultures and histories, and in their own tongues, and laughs and sings with them in their own styles.

We must look to Bilbo in our own lives as well, for it is deceptively easy to allow our own differences in good things to divide us. It is easy to scorn each other for the choices we have made, simply because they do not align with our own choices. It is even easier to see those other choices only for their temptations and footfalls. Let it not be so—be like Bilbo, and walk with the faithful, wherever their calling and passion stands. Do not resent them, be they a parent, a teacher, a worker, an artist, an engineer, and do not disallow them their own joy and pride in their vocation, but instead celebrate with them and learn the language of their song, so that you may sing with them whenever you are with them, just as Bilbo did. In doing so, you will find that, just as with Galadriel and Gimli, this unification between differing people is what often conquers the temptations of each individual.

I encourage you, upon your next reread of The Fellowship, to watch for the ways in which the races better each other and help each other conquer temptation, and I encourage you to look at your own life and decipher those who have different priorities than you, and how they can and have helped you overcome temptations of your own.