The Tale
They all leave Denethor and
go to rest. It is a starless, dark night, and Pippin bears a small torch as he
and Gandalf go to their rooms. Behind closed doors Pippin finally speaks, taking
Gandalf’s hand, and asks if there is any hope for Frodo. Gandalf puts his hand
on Pippin’s head.
‘There never was much hope,’
he answered. ‘Just a fool’s hope, as I have been told.’
When the wizard heard Frodo and Sam were headed to Cirith Ungol, the Spider’s Pass, he almost
despaired. But there seems to be some hope in Faramir’s news. Sauron has made
his move while Frodo was still free, and the Enemy’s attention will be abroad,
far from his own borders, watching the deployment of his troops and the West’s
responses. Gandalf senses his haste and fear. Something has spurred Sauron to
move before he is completely ready.
Gandalf ponders things a
moment. Perhaps Pippin’s foolishness with the Palantir has helped, making
Sauron fear they have the Ring along with a Hobbit. Maybe Aragorn himself has
dared to look into the Stone and revealed himself to the Dark Lord, drawing his
attention away from Frodo and his quest. If Sauron thinks Aragorn has the Ring,
he could be making a hasty move.
At any rate, they won’t know
anything until the Riders of Rohan get to the City. Right now, they need to
rest. But Pippin has one more question. Gandalf will only allow one more but
before they sleep.
Pippin wonders how Frodo and
Sam could be traveling with Gollum, even being guided by the foul creature? And
the hobbit could see how fearful Faramir, and even Gandalf, was about the place
he was leading them. What about that?
‘I cannot answer that now,’
said Gandalf. ‘Yet my heart guessed that Frodo and Gollum would meet before the
end. For good, or for evil. But of Cirith Ungol I will not speak tonight.
Treachery, treachery I fear, treachery of that miserable creature. But so it
must be. Let us remember that a traitor may betray himself and do good that he
does not intend. It can be so, sometimes. Good night!’
Notes
Well, I’m back to Tolkien
Tuesday and LOTR, for the first time since March 18, if only for a page or so.
But I’ve got to start up somehow, and every little bit nudges me closer to
completion.
Gandalf is making a pretty
good guess at what has happened, though he sees nothing clearly. He works by
insight and understanding of the characters of those he’s thinking about, both
Sauron and Aragorn, and even Gollum.
His saying ‘A traitor may
betray himself and do good that he does not intend’ is a theme that runs strong
in LOTR and is put many different ways. ‘Oft evil will shall evil mar’; ‘oft
does hatred hurt itself’. And it plays itself out: Saruman sending his orcs to
capture hobbits takes them to Fangorn and leads to the downfall of his fortress
Isengard. Even Eru, the creator, tells Morgoth at the beginning of the world: “And
thou, Melkor, shalt see that no theme may be played that hath not its uttermost
source in me, nor can any alter the music in my despite. For he that attempteth
this shall prove but mine instrument in the devising of things more wonderful,
which he himself hath not imagined.”
As the Bible might put it, “We
know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him”, and
by all things it means even ill things, which God can turn to greater good. Evil
does not have the last word.
I remember a poem I read in
high school; I can’t quite track it down right now. In the poem, the narrator
is visiting the Courts of Heaven. He sees a strange, deformed jester capering
around the Throne, trying to hit God with his bauble, but every blow just
rebounds on the creature, hurting himself terribly. The narrator asks a nearby
angel what it is. “That is Hate, God’s fool. Beware him!”
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