After the last chapter where we see Gandalf fall into the darkness of Moria, the company escapes into the bright world east of the Misty Mountains. The last few chapters of Fellowship, I find particularly difficult to dive into which contributed to my delay. It's not that they are unexciting or inaccessible, but after the thrilling climax and then deep defeat in Moria, the book itself manages to impart that malaise and sorrow into the reader without coming across overtly on the pages.
The characters themselves struggle and darkness seems to be pervasive. It's a tough read and if you are reading closely and have become emotionally attached to the characters, a wrenching one as well.
I think Lothlorien is a chapter defined by a single quote. When the Fellowship meets the border elves led by Haldir, Frodo and Legolas are brought for a further conversation away from everyone else. Frodo is morose and claims:
“I have never been out of my own land before. And if I had known what the world outside was like, I don't think I should have had the heart to leave it.'
'Not even to see fair Lothlorien?' said Haldir. 'The world is indeed full of peril, and in it there are many dark places; but still there is much that is fair, and though in all lands love is now mingled with grief, it grows perhaps the greater.”
I know I may say this frequently, but this is one of my favorite quotes in the book. It's timeless wisdom that is relatable not only to those of Tolkien's generation who struggled through two World Wars, a Depression, and probably many personal battles, but to all generations.
Doesn't our time now seem dark? Shadows set in from all sides and the virtues of the world are diminished and muddled with pain?
I find strength in these words. Tolkien acknowledges that the bad must come with the good and when that happens, individuals are the better for it. Sam is being thrown into a world he dislikes and hardly understands while his best qualities are coming out and shining. Aragorn is the chief of a people on the brink of destruction and leads them to victory over a seemingly insurmountable foe. Frodo bears a darkness that few in Middle-Earth can fathom and stays steadfast and true, finding a strength that he doubted he had himself.
It is the struggle that defines us and allows the good to shine all the clearer.
Damn that's good. One day maybe I'll write some half as good as Tolkein, and it will be a good day.
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