“’You are kind,’ answered Frodo. ‘But I do not think that any speech will help me. For I know what I should do, but I am afraid of doing it, Boromir: afraid…
I think I know already what counsel you would give, Boromir,’ said Frodo. ‘And it would seem like wisdom but for the warning of my heart.’
‘Warning? Warning against what?’ said Boromir sharply.
‘Against delay. Against the way that seems easier. Against refusal of the burden that is laid on me. Against—well, if it must be said, against trust in the strength and truth of Men.’
‘Yet that strength has long protected you far away in your little country, though you knew it not.’
‘I do not doubt the valour of your people. But the world is changing. The walls of Minas Tirith may be strong, but they are not strong enough. If they fail, what then?’
‘We shall fall in battle valiantly. Yet there is still hope that they will not fail.’
‘No hope while the Ring lasts,’ said Frodo.
‘Ah! The Ring!’ said Boromir, his eyes lighting. ‘The Ring! Is it not a strange fate that we should suffer so much fear and doubt for so small a thing? So small a thing!’”—J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring
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“‘Ah! The Ring!’ said Boromir, his eyes lighting. ‘The Ring! Is it not a strange fate that we should suffer so much fear and doubt for so small a thing? So small a thing!’” she read the last again, musing meaning and symbolism.
If there was something to be taken from the story, a purpose in the fantasy, what was the Ring in living, and not Middle, Earth?
She contemplated but found no satisfying answer, no subtle and subversive force that might undo and destroy the most powerful forces in this world. ‘What is it?’ she wondered, and finding no answer, she asked to him beside.
“What is the Ring to you?” she asked. “What does it represent, and what does it mean?”
Through morning window of the room, sun rose and took its place upon cloud throne, lighting in glory-fire from present place and continuing rise.
He smiled on the light, and the idea of inspiration answering within.
“I believe it is free will,” he answered.
“Free will?”
“Yes,” he affirmed.
“But what great power is in that?”
He smiled. “Maybe we only learn when it is gone, but why shouldn’t it be. It is the only force that allows us to defy any force that commands us to obey. It is our choice to follow, or dissent. How loudly do the forces of the world decry us to surrender this gift we have received, to obey and submit to the words of experts, even when we see the changing, falsities, and ignorance of their professed omniscience with our own living and discerning eyes. What becomes of man when there is no longer expression, and acts, taken by free will? What becomes of the spirit, and is that not the final battle for the souls of men? Transcendence or eternal bondage by surrendering, or conquering, of will?”
She listened. “But what evil created it?”
“Might it not be the serpent, and the lie of the Ring told and believed by all who seek it…that they might be as God…the greatest force in all the world; yet by desire for such power, it corrupts all in time and turns them evil?
Maybe free will was not fully a gift of God, but a crafting by the serpent, spinning and selling the lie until eating of the forbidden fruit; and with opened eyes, we no longer worshipped God in blind obedience, but—in seeing and given knowledge—we after were given choice, free will, to worship or turn away from God?
It is a crafting of the Dark Lord—Mordor, if in bounds of the story—but maybe this is the truth told in fantasy; slight changing of the tale so as to be received in hearts that would deny its telling in Biblical way.”
“And why, must free will be destroyed? To whom is it given for salvation from dark end?” she asked.
“As long as free will, the Ring, exists in this world, it must never be surrendered to those who seek, and to subject, others beneath its force when stolen from those who, by not seeking or desiring its powers for self, become its protectors. Those desiring to employ it for achievement of their own glory and aims, rather than to serve the will of Good, always become dark and despots in the end.
Is this not man’s lived history The nature of man will not change; neither will be his fate repeating same story, with same lie, retold to new generations never knowing how every time before did end?”
“Can’t the story change?”
“Certainly.”
“How?”
“By destruction of the Ring, surrendering of its power, and removal from the world.”
“And how does man do that?”
“Submission of all back to God.”
She laughed, seeking lightness of the notion, but his eyes held focus, looking on the burning throne ascending in eastern sky.
“Some have done it…few…but some have done it,” he spoke.
“Do you think it is something mankind will ever achieve?”
“I don’t know, he answered, but until then, Good and Evil will vie for the Ring, free will, and deciding of men’s souls until final fated battle.”
“And what is that?” she asked.
“The Rapture,” he answered, “…should such fantasy bear true.”