Re-reading the Lord of the Rings, Chapter 39
A chapter on the statute of limitations. Faramir claims jurisdiction over Sméagol, finds a murderer and a likely trapper, but he lets Frodo have his way and jurisdiction over him.
Gollum did of course never repent and neither penance and he wasn't doing penance just before, when serving Frodo. And Frodo didn't offer him a chance to redeem himself, but unconditional salvation through dissociation. Time enough had passed to just forget and let go.
Faramir seems to suggest that the lack of remorse over, the justification of the murder of Déagol eats Sméagol from the inside, but that doesn't grasp his situation. Frodo would let him rather think of pleasant things until he ended his overly long life, but putting him before Faramir endangers that.
The truth is of course that the one thing that is written and not for any man to re-write is that Frodo will take the path of Cirith Ungol, that's why he's carrying the light of Venus (in the evening sky, mind you, i.e. Hesperos, not Phosphoros) with him. So Gollum wasn't to be sedated anyway and perhaps it's better that Frodo is warned, although he shows already signs of being overly enamoured of his mastership over him.
Now, Tolkien did go to some lengths to have the heavens in the west, ex occidente lux, so to say, and the Evening star shows itself to the left of the setting sun, whereas the Morning Star does so to the right of the rising sun, but confusing as it is, Jesus promisses the Morning Star and not the Evening Star and it is to the east that churches are oriented... orientation, the word already says it.
There's no doubt that Tolkien did this on purpose, only on which?
For certain we can only say that the morning is the new beginning and the evening is the lingering on in fading strength. Would he rather give us a tale of former glory to guide us in dark times than hope for a new day?
It's a bit unnatural, like the idea that you could give a people a myth in its old age - but that is of course what Tolkien spent his years on. So... in all likeliness the whole affair is a comment on himself, being an Evening Star, knowing that no re-newed glory will rise out of him, but that he is rather the last light of the setting sun that people will be able to see in the sky, and the more time passes, the less they will see of it.
Gollum did of course never repent and neither penance and he wasn't doing penance just before, when serving Frodo. And Frodo didn't offer him a chance to redeem himself, but unconditional salvation through dissociation. Time enough had passed to just forget and let go.
Faramir seems to suggest that the lack of remorse over, the justification of the murder of Déagol eats Sméagol from the inside, but that doesn't grasp his situation. Frodo would let him rather think of pleasant things until he ended his overly long life, but putting him before Faramir endangers that.
The truth is of course that the one thing that is written and not for any man to re-write is that Frodo will take the path of Cirith Ungol, that's why he's carrying the light of Venus (in the evening sky, mind you, i.e. Hesperos, not Phosphoros) with him. So Gollum wasn't to be sedated anyway and perhaps it's better that Frodo is warned, although he shows already signs of being overly enamoured of his mastership over him.
Now, Tolkien did go to some lengths to have the heavens in the west, ex occidente lux, so to say, and the Evening star shows itself to the left of the setting sun, whereas the Morning Star does so to the right of the rising sun, but confusing as it is, Jesus promisses the Morning Star and not the Evening Star and it is to the east that churches are oriented... orientation, the word already says it.
There's no doubt that Tolkien did this on purpose, only on which?
For certain we can only say that the morning is the new beginning and the evening is the lingering on in fading strength. Would he rather give us a tale of former glory to guide us in dark times than hope for a new day?
It's a bit unnatural, like the idea that you could give a people a myth in its old age - but that is of course what Tolkien spent his years on. So... in all likeliness the whole affair is a comment on himself, being an Evening Star, knowing that no re-newed glory will rise out of him, but that he is rather the last light of the setting sun that people will be able to see in the sky, and the more time passes, the less they will see of it.
Eingetragen Am/um
11:04
