the lack of compassion that a good portion of lotr fans show for frodo (“why can’t he fight or do simple tasks” “why is he so weak” “why does he always need help / to be rescued”) mirrors the lack of compassion of people for those who bear the burden of invisible disabilities. he’s struggling against an immense weight at every step! something that actively tries to destroy him, worsening at every moment! his heroism is in just continuing to walk his path, step by step. his bravery is in just existing as himself under the debilitating weight of the ring. but because the influence of the ring is invisible, it is forgotten, and frodo is written off as a weak, cowardly, and/or useless character, much like disabled people irl. in this household we do not stand for frodo slander!!!
actually i am still thinking about this. in the movies especially the frodo & sam scenes are hard to watch, especially when contrasted to the quippy, active, external heroism of the three hunters. the road to mordor feels like a heavy, depressing slog; even the colours reflect this. frodo’s feebleness setting in the longer we spend with the ring hurts to watch; it makes us cringe away from it. we don’t want to look because frodo’s sort of internal heroism is not glamorous. we don’t like to fantasize ourselves as the protagonists of it. and it can hit quite close to home. but that’s precisely why they are such good scenes! and why we must not look away, or shrink from the discomfort, or misunderstand frodo as a character. that would be a disservice to the narrative.
Yes. YES. YES!!!!!!!!! I will scream this from the housetops. Frodo is not glamorous! He is not meant to be glamorous!!
Every day I take the Ring (Invisible Disabilities, Chronic Pain, Mental Illness) to Mordor (School, Work, Daily Life)
frodo baggins
Happy Tolkien Reading Day
Today is Tolkien Reading Day, and also the day (Middle Earth-wise) that the One Ring was destroyed. I’ve seen people sharing Tolkien quotes today so here, have one of my favourites. Obviously it’s pretty damn applicable these days.
FRODO: I wish the Ring had never come to me. I wish none of this had happened.
GANDALF: So do all who live to see such times… but that is not for them to decide. All you have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to you.
ophelie-letanneur:Finally ! This is my version of the fellowship… — The Heroines of Middle-Earth
ophelie-letanneur:
Finally ! This is my version of the fellowship of the ring ( and Arwen :B ), I’ve tried to not be influenced by the movie but as per the Tolkien’s story. Hope you like it :D
ophelie-letanneur:Finally ! This is my version of the fellowship… — The Heroines of Middle-Earth
This is great and I love it.
Sam’s shirt says “I love my old gaffer.” Just in case you were wondering.
For the rest of the Broship of the Ring series, click here!
Frodo undertook his quest out of love – to save the world he knew from disaster at his own expense, if he could; and also in complete humility, acknowledging that he was wholly inadequate to the task. His real contract was only to do what he could, to try to find a way, and to go as far on the road as his strength of mind and body allowed. He did that. I do not myself see that the breaking of his mind and will under demonic pressure under torment was any more a moral failure than the breaking of his body would have been – say, by being strangled by Gollum, or crushed by a falling rock.
That appears to have been the judgement of Gandalf and Aragorn and of all who learned the full story of his journey. Certainly nothing would have been concealed by Frodo! But what Frodo himself felt about the events is quite another matter.
“The Letters of JRR Tolkien”, letter #246 (September 1963)
so, more or less, no power in the world can convince me he wasn’t a bloody hero. said it ten years ago, sayin’ again now.
(via numenna)
September 22 – “At last the day of the Big Party arrived. Everywhere there was too
much to eat, and by midafternoon there were broken presents lying all
over the Shire attesting to the low quality of their manufacture.
Gandalf
set off a series of fireworks later on in the day, including great
skywriting missiles and little flaming butterflies who took to wing,
sailed off into the Eastfarthing and burned all its trees to the ground.
The last firework sent up a great black smoke which took the shape
of a giant mountain of fire. A flicker could be seen of a giant dragon
sailing about its peak; after a moment the great dragon went sailing over
the heads of the crowd, causing great panic and consternation and six
outright heart attacks before imploding somewhere over the
Sackville-Baggins’ neighborhood, causing considerable property damage
which was never properly repaired for generations afterward.
‘That is the signal for supper!’, Bilbo cried out to the survivors,
who were only partly mollified.”
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