The Road and The Ring

[Fordim Hedgethistle]

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the ‘meaning’ of The Lord of the Rings…and finding the task to be more than a little overwhelming! The only way I’ve been able to address this weighty topic in a more manageable way is to sidestep the relatively subjective issue of “what does it all mean?” with “what is it all about?” – and not even in the sense of thematic concerns (it’s about war, love, honour, friendship, humility, etc etc etc), but far more simply what sorts of things is the story about? The answer I’ve come up with is that The Lord of the Rings is about the relationship between the images of Road and Ring (or lines and circles).

The whole narrative structure is built around these images. There’s the linear journey along the Road from Bag End to Mount Doom, but then that journey becomes a completed circle with the return to the Shire and its scouring. Even during this journey there is a cyclical movement of departure, danger and refuge as the company, then the Fellowship, and then the separate parties move through each stage of their journey. Frodo’s journey throughout the story demonstrates what I’m talking about:

Depart Bag End
Chased by Nazgûl
Gildor

Depart Gildor
Chased by Nazgûl
Farmer Maggot’s Farm

Depart Farmer Maggot’s Farm
Old Forest
Tom Bombadil

Depart Tom Bombadil
Barrow Downs (very scary place)
Bree/Strider

Depart Bree
Weathertop
Rivendell

Depart Rivendell
Moria
Lothlorien

Depart Lothlorien
Mordor
Minas Tirith

Depart Minas Tirith
The Scouring, and the years of suffering and disillusionment
The Undying Lands

I think this list shows pretty well what I’m talking about – there’s a pretty straight-forward movement from beginning to end (along a linear Road) but at the same time there is the constant cycle of departure, danger and refuge. What’s more, the whole journey is itself a circular journey with Frodo going “there and back again” and then at the very end going to the first and primordial Home.

But this is where things get really tricky. How are we to understand this relation of line and circle, or Road and Ring? The temptation would be to see them as either opposed to one another (Frodo has to travel the Road in order to destroy the Ring) or as happily co-operative (the straight Road, when followed well, becomes a Ring), but there are all kinds of very complicated connections between Roads and Rings that makes untangling this relation fascinatingly tough. Some examples of combinations that I find intriguing:

Bag End is both linear and circular: a round tunnel that runs straight back into a hill; Isengard is both linear and circular: a straight tower that rises into the air and is surrounded by the “ring of Isengard”. Does this mean that Bag End and Isengard are somehow connected to one another? ooooo – Saruman does take over each and make each a seat of his power…

The One Ring of Sauron is circular; Narsil (the sword that cut the Ring from Sauron’s finger) is straight. Are circles associated with “evil” and lines with the “good”? This would seem to work with the next ‘pairing’ of Roads and Rings…

The “straight road” leads to the West and the Undying Lands; The “fallen” shape of Middle-Earth is a circle. But, is it possible to work with a “good/evil” version of the Ring/Road relation given the first example of Bag End/Isengard above? Or, even more disturbing to this notion…

Minas Tirith is built in the form of a circle (it also has a round tower).

In Lothlorien, the forward, linear progression of time (change) is halted and replaced with an eternal circle/cycle in which seasons come and go but time does not. The only way for the evil Ring to be destroyed is for Frodo to resist the temptation to give way to the eternal cycle of rest and ease at Lorien and continue on his straight Road toward Mount Doom.

But these are perhaps relatively simple instances of what I’m working through. More compelling is the very nature of the narrative: is it a linear story that moves from beginning, through the middle, and toward the end? If this is so, then presumably we are working toward some kind of resolution and conclusion. But then, if this is the case, then is it not at the very least ironic that this “straight road” leads back to the very place where it began?

Or is the story circular? But if this is so, then is it in some manner like the Ring in that it closes in on itself and “goes nowhere”?

Help!