THE LORD OF THE RINGS

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THE LORD OF THE RINGS

• One Ring to Rule Them All

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• A good person always enjoys one advantage over
  an evil person, namely, that, while a good person
  can imagine what it would be like to be evil, an
  evil person cannot imagine what it would be like
  to be good. Elrond, Gandalf, Galadriel, and
  Aragorn are able to imagine themselves as Sauron
  and can therefore resist the temptation to use
  the Ring themselves,

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• but Sauron cannot imagine that anyone who knows
  what the Ring can accomplish, his own destruction
  among other things, will refrain from using it,
  let alone try to destroy it.
• - W. H. Auden

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Objective To show how Tolkien uses motive and
circumstance in relation to free-will and
individuality to demonstrate the corrupting power
of the ring over different people(s) in his
Middle Earth. More specifically, how does
free-will and individuality allow the ring to
interact with characters in order to try to
dominate Middle Earth?
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Students will research and chart the the history
of the ring and the progression of ownership
from Sauron to Mt. Doom.

• Sauron
• Isildur
• Water (2500 years)
• Deagol
• Smeagol/Gollum
• Bilbo
• Frodo
• Sam
• Frodo
• Gollum
• Mt. Doom

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Students will determine circumstance and
motivation of the ring-bearer and evaluate the
level of influence and power of corruption over
each ring-bearer.

• Sauron (he creates the ring to Rule Them All)
• Isildur (battle in which he can easily grab the
  ring to have all power over men of Middle Earth)
• Deagol (found the ring while fishing wants to
  keep it)
• Smeagol/Gollum (fishing with Deagol selfishness)
• Bilbo (finds it in a cave thinks it is precious
  and wants to keep it)
• Frodo (given to him by Bilbo to get it out of
  the Shire)
• Sam (thinks Frodo is dead to finish the
  quest/task)

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Students will study the Fellowship (9 entities)
to evaluate and prove the theory that the length
of time and motive for desiring the ring
increases the rings corruptive power.

• Fellowship
• Four (4) Hobbits (Frodo, Sam., Merry, and Pippin)
  
• Two (2) Mortals ( Aragorn and Boromir)
• One (1) Drawf (Gimli)
• One (1) Elf (Legolas)
• One (1) Wizard (Gandalf)

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Student will study other non-Fellowship entities
who were (1) unaffected by the ring, (2)
somewhat interested in the ring, (3) possessed
the ring, or (4) became obsessed with the idea
of ownership.

• Non-Fellowship entities reactions to the ring
• (1) Tom Bombadil
• (2) Faramir, and Galadriel
• (3) Sauron, Isildur, Smeagol/Gollum
• (4) Saruman

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Ring has Some Effect
Ring Corrupts
Ring has no Effect
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• The Ring As Its Own Entity

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The Shadow of the Past (The Fellowship of the
Ring, Ch. 2)Students will use the following
passages from the text to discuss and then create
an essay onThe Ring As Its Own Entity

• Clearly the ring had an unwholesome power that
  set to work on its keeper at once. Gandalf
  (pg 47)
• A Ring of Power looks after itself, Frodo. It
  may slip off treacherously, but its keeper never
  abandons it. Gandalf (pg54)
• It was not Gollum, Frodo, but the Ring itself
  that decided things. The Ring left him.
  Gandalf (pg 54)
• The Ring was trying to get back to its master.
  It had slipped from Isildurs hand and betrayed
  him then when a chance came it caught poor
  Deagol, and he was murdered and after that
  Gollum, and it had devoured him. It could make
  no further use of him he was too small and mean
  and as long as it stayed with him he would never
  leave his deep pool again. Gandalf (pg54)

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• Addictive Power of the Ring

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On Gollum

• During the many years he possessed it, its
  possession brought him no pleasure.
• And after losing the Ring, his life becomes one
  long torment, mental and physical. In part his
  very wretchedness is due to the fact that he has
  not become wholly evil.
• W. H. Auden

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Cite mental and physical changes in
Smeagol/Gollum as he continues to remain obsessed
with getting the ring back.

• Students should find examples (mental and
  physical ) in all three novels which support
  Gollums increased degeneration up to the point
  on Mt. Doom where he takes the Ring into the
  fire.

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Find examples of physical descriptions and
actions Tolkien gives Smeagol/Gollum to support
the idea of degeneration.

• Smeagol inquisitive and curious-minded,
  interested in roots and beginnings, dived into
  pools, burrowed under trees and growing plants,
  tunneled into green mounds starts to lie, keeps
  secrets, put knowledge to crooked and malicious
  uses, sharp eyed and keened eared, became
  unpopular and was shunned, kicked and bit people,
  took to theiving and muttering to himself,
  wandered in lonliness, weeping, found a cave,
  wormed his way like a maggot into hills

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ContinuedSmeagol/Gollum transformation

• Gollum loathsome little creature, pale luminous
  eyes, heart was black, covered with slime,
  cunning, lurking in Moria, hiding in the woods,
  creepy down on sticky pads, like some large
  prowling thing of insect-kind, like a nasty
  crawling spider on a wall, pawing at him, seeming
  in great distress, wringing his hands and
  squeaking, groveled on the ground in a pitiable
  state, hissed, crouched down, huddled himself
  together like a cornered spider, whiffling and
  twitching

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On the Ringwraiths

• They are thus the undead, specters who should
  be dead, but who are held in existence by the
  cruel will of their master, Sauron, and an
  undying lust for the Ring. They pursue Frodo
  because he possesses the Ring and their
  existence is consumed completely by the desire to
  get it. At the Ford of Bruinen a watery torrent
  washes away the horses they are riding, but the
  Nine are not drowned. The horses are lost, but
  the undead cannot die, and that is part of their
  punishment for their greed.
• Bill Davis

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Find examples of the physical description Tolkien
gives the Ringwraiths and discuss their
shadow-like appearance.

• In addition, students should notice the verb
  choices Tolkien uses when he describes their
  entrances into an area. What connotations are
  associated with the verbs?
• Students might discuss some of the following
  descriptions as leads into an elaborated essay on
  the Ringwraiths

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Possible descriptions and actions for discussion

• crossed secretly, a cry faint, but
  heart-quelling, cruel and cold, shadowed and
  invisible, sniffing to catch a scent, long-drawn
  wail, evil, lonley creature, high piercing note,
  black specs moving slowly, shadows black like
  black holes in the deep shade, threatening
  statues, stood up menacing, a black cloud, grown
  to a vast menace of despair, shadow of despair,
  presence could be felt as a deepening shadow and
  dimming of the sun, rending the clouds with a
  ghastly shriek, cry of woe and dismay

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Application

• What was J.R.R. Tolkien trying to show his
  readers about virtue and integrity?
• How does our character either help or hinder us
  when we are faced with a difficult task?
• How do you think J.R.R.Tolkien viewed loyalty and
  responsibility?
• How do you actively use your free-will to make
  the world a better place ?

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In The End

• On the edge of the crack of Doom, Gollum
  wrestles with the Hobbit. Finally, he overcomes
  the weakened Frodo. He viciously bites off the
  Hobbits ring finger. Then, seizing the One
  Ring, Gollum topples backward into the fiery
  abyss. The One Ring is destroyed. In the end,
  it is not the power of the mind nor the strength
  of the body but the instincts of the heart that
  save the world. It is the simple human capacity
  for mercy that finally allows evil to be
  overthrown. -David Day

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Never the End
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Works Cited

• Auden, W.H. Good and Evil in The Lord of the
  Rings. Critical Quarterly 10 (1968) 138-142
• Bassham, Gregory and Eric Bronson. The Lord of
  the Rings and Philosophy One Book to Rule Them
  All (2003)
• Davis, Bill. Choosing to Die The gift of
  Mortality in Middle- earth. The Lord of the
  Rings and PhilosophyOne Ring to Rule Them All
  (2003)
• Day, David. Tolkiens Ring. New York. Barnes and
  Noble. 1999
• Shippey Tom. J. R. R. Tolkien Author of the
  Century. London Harper Collins, 2000
• Tolkien, J.R.R. The Lord of the
  Rings.Boston.Houghton Mifflin Co. 1994