In my Lenten Lord of the Rings journey, I’ll be starting on book 5, the Return of the King, tomorrow (which is also Tolkien Reading Day), after finishing The Two Towers (The Choices of Master Samwise) today. I’ve noted several interesting things during this read of Lord of the Rings, for upcoming blog posts. For this time, some observations regarding Frodo – some modernist tendencies, and his understanding of men.
Frodo, in contrast to Sam, acts as a bridge to us modern readers and our modern way of thinking – of the rational, material, logical approach to life, looking (mainly) at secondary causes. For example, after the hobbits (in The Taming of Smeagol), use the elven rope that Sam brought along to get down a steep cliff, Sam is dismayed at having to leave the rope behind. When Sam says “farewell” to the rope with one last tug, it suddenly falls down, returning to him. Frodo insists that either the rope tore from its knot at the top of the cliff, or that the knot came undone – the only two options, seemingly. The other end is not frayed, so Frodo concludes that the knot itself wasn’t tight to begin with. Sam objects, noting his own skill with ropes and knots (as in the family tradition), and reveals to us the third option: the rope had “elven magic” in it and came to him at his bidding.
Later, in Frodo’s conversation with Faramir, Frodo questions the story Faramir tells of seeing the elven boat with Boromir laid in it in funeral state. Frodo’s skepticism connects us to modern times and the modern tendency to focus on the secondary causes, neglecting the reality of the power of God, the God who is still present and who still performs miracles.
‘Yet how could such a thing have happened in truth?’ asked Frodo. ‘For no boat could have been carried over the stony hills from Tol Brandir; and Boromir purposed to go home across the Entwash and the fields of Rohan. And yet how could any vessel ride the foam of the great falls and not founder in the boiling pools, though laden with water?’
Faramir reminds him of this power, manifested in Middle Earth through the elves:
‘You passed through the Hidden Land,’ said Faramir, ‘but it seems that you little understood its power. If Men have dealings with the Mistress of Magic who dwells in the Golden Wood, then they may look for strange things to follow.
Somewhat related to this, we also see that the hobbits have less discernment (at least in their head knowledge) regarding men, than men of the halflings. It was at Rivendell, after the adventures with Strider in the wilderness, and thinking about Strider, that Frodo admitted to Gandalf:
I didn’t know that any of the Big People were like that. I thought, well, that they were just big, and rather stupid: kind and stupid like Butterbur; or stupid and wicked like Bill Ferny.
‘You don’t know much even about them, if you think old Barliman is stupid,’ said Gandalf. … But there are few left in Middle-earth like Aragorn son of Arathorn. The race of the Kings from over the Sea is nearly at an end. It may be that this War of the Ring will be their last adventure.’
In later conversation with Faramir, as Sam began to trust Faramir he spoke more freely, and slipped out the news about Boromir and the Enemy’s ring. Again it is Frodo’s head knowledge thinking that objects, “Sam!” As Faramir points out to them, you are less judges of Men than I of Halflings, and to Sam, your heart is shrewd as well as faithful, and saw clearer than your eyes. For strange though it may seem, it was safe to declare this to me.
Throughout both The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings, the hobbits generally are considered a “bridge” from the mythic past to the modern world and modern-thinking readers. Even within that framework, Tolkien developed specific traits, such as Frodo the rationalist, materialist-influenced thinker as contrasted with Sam the heart and intuition type of person.
And tomorrow is March 25: Tolkien Reading Day (see this page at The Tolkien Society), and a significant date in Middle Earth,
the day that the One Ring was destroyed. That date is also significant within classical, liturgical Christianity, as the Annunciation, the day of the announcement to Mary that she would be the mother of Jesus Christ. It is also the date, in classical Christianity, of Christ’s death on the cross. (March 25 is 9 months before December 25, thus the importance of March 25.) An online search shows many people observing March 25, Tolkien Reading Day. As one special activity, I attended an online event yesterday, a scholarly lecture series with speakers from Europe and America, on “Values Tolkien Teaches.” The recording of that event will be available at this Youtube link soon.
For all of you my readers, what Tolkien work do you have plans to read, for March 25 Tolkien Reading Day?
Our Blessed Hope: Thoughts on Imaginative Christian Writing 
Yes, and agree that he would not like the Jackson films. I just read through the section where he critiques…