Live Like Enoch

 Sorry about the longer wait between part 2 and 3. I have no real excuse for why it took me so long to write this other than that I simply forgot. In the last two posts, we looked at the theme that runs throughout The Lord of the Rings wherein Frodo frequently separates from the group for, according to him, the greater good. In every scenario, Frodo's attempt at distance is either thwarted by Sam, or in the 2 cases where it isn't, there are very nearly dire consequences (you can find those posts here and here if you haven't read them yet). This time we're going to look at what we can draw from this theme for our own lives. Before we dive in, let's set the stage a little bit. I recognize that Tolkien did not write The Lord of the Rings  as some sort of allegory, in fact he despised allegory. However, in "On Faerie-Stories," Tolkien reveals an incredibly telling drive for his writing. All the true "Faerie-Stories" (which I'm sure he counted T...

I'm back, with more thoughts on Lord of the Rings  and the theme of Frodo leaving the group. Last time we looked exclusively at The Fellowship of the Ring. This week, due to a surprising lack of instances, we'll be looking at The Two Towers and The Return of the King . The connections to sin and social distancing will have to wait until the next post though (so stay tuned!). Distance in The Two Towers The Two Towers contains almost no instances of Frodo leaving behind his companions. Which is interesting. We saw last time how ubiquitous the theme was in The Fellowship of the Ring  and so for it to suddenly drop off like that is shocking to say the least. What we can say, however, is that The Two Towers could be categorized as one long leaving behind of Frodo's companions. The first book in the volume focuses on Aragorn and Co. while the second book focuses on Frodo, Sam, and Gollum. Throughout the two, Frodo slowly gets farther and farther away from the Fellowship. With th...