(avg. read time: 51–101 mins.)
Indications of Providence
At the start of Book II, the setting is Rivendell. Frodo has arrived safely and has been on the mend since being treated by Elrond. He awakens to find Gandalf in his room, and while he is obviously relieved to see him, he is naturally curious about where he has been and why he did not meet him. Gandalf will provide explanation later, but he only says for now, “I was delayed … and that nearly proved our ruin. And yet I am not sure: it may have been better so” (II/1). This appears to be a subtle indicator that Gandalf sees the work of Providence even incorporating negative action like Gandalf’s delay (due to imprisonment). He does not have a full view of all events to yet say definitively that it was better for him to be delayed, and so he speaks with qualification. But it does seem that his intuition is right. The Hobbits were made to become more reliant on each other because of Gandalf’s delay, and that, in turn, drives their development as heroes, especially Frodo’s. They also met Tom Bombadil, who they otherwise might not have met, whose cleansing of the Barrow-downs could prove beneficial for others in the future who find its treasures, and from whom they receive the Arnorian daggers, one of which will prove to be crucial in a battle that is to come. The journey from Bree has also encouraged the bond between Strider/Aragorn and the Hobbits, which will have lasting effects even to the extent of shaping what Aragorn will call his house after a translation of “Strider” (Telcontar; V/8), the name the Hobbits first knew him by.
Another indicator of Providence is the element of common grace given to the Hobbits. Gandalf has already noted this, and he reaffirms it here now that he has not only seen the Hobbits’ durability in relation to the Ring, but he has now known of it in reaction to a Morgul blade: “And it seems that Hobbits fade very reluctantly, I have known strong warriors of the Big People who would quickly have been overcome by that splinter, which you bore for seventeen days” (II/1). Yet again, the Hobbits thus challenge and thus trouble the counsels of the Wise and the Great. For the One has chosen these Little People for his purposes.
In further recognition of this, Gandalf tells Frodo, “Yes, fortune or fate have helped you … not to mention courage. For your heart was not touched, and only your shoulder was pierced; and that was because you resisted to the last. But it was a terribly narrow shave, so to speak” (II/1). The terms “fate” and “fortune,” being related but different in nuance, are, in this context, still indicative of the work of Providence, of the will of the One to appoint ends and bring them about by what can appear to be something like luck. And as we have seen already, courage is itself a gift, a grace from the All-Father planted within his creatures, which circumstances like Frodo has seen on his Quest help to cultivate into fruition. The understanding of providence on display here is that the process does not simply work by carrying its recipients along while they are entirely passive, but they are often incorporated as active participants in achieving the purpose. In the process, the recipients are gifted and empowered, whether more immediately or by what has been built up long before the event in question. While courage is useful for being able to deal with circumstances within one’s immediate purview to one’s best capability, “fate” and “fortune” refer to what is beyond the control or capability of oneself, including the involvement of others beyond oneself.
Seeing the Unseen
There is also an element of transcendence here as Gandalf explains to Frodo what he saw on Weathertop when he put on the Ring and when he saw Glorfindel appear more glorious. He initially says that when Frodo put on the Ring he was “half in the wraith-world” so that he could see them and they could see him (II/1). As for his vision of Glorfindel prior to fainting, that was once again an indication that Frodo was fading and starting to cross over into other world, as he saw Glorfindel’s hidden glory as one who has dwelt in the Blessed Realm of Aman where the Valar and Maiar live. As Gandalf says of the High Elves like Glorfindel, “They do not fear the Ringwraiths, for those who have dwelt in the Blessed Realm live at once in both worlds, and against both the Seen and the Unseen they have great power” (II/1).
This clarifies what we have seen already. It is not so much that the Ring grants a cloak of invisibility (though it does essentially have that effect), but that it enables the wearer to enter the Unseen world (the spiritual realm that supervenes on the Seen world) and to make that which is invisible (because it is in the Unseen world) visible. This is why Frodo sees the true forms of the Ringwraiths, who have long since slipped into the Unseen world after possessing their own Rings of Power under the corruption of Sauron with his Ring. It would not necessarily have this effect on the great Elf leaders who bore the Great Rings because these individuals already exist in both the Seen and Unseen worlds and can see in both. Indeed, in the case of Maiar like Gandalf and Sauron, the physical form is like raiment that they put on (even though they have gone further in becoming properly incarnate), as their natural form is to be invisible to the Seen world. Thus, Sauron was not invisible when he wore the Ring, and Gandalf would not be either. On the other hand, because a bearer of the Ring would cross over into the Unseen world, the use of the Ring would make the bearer more conspicuous to Sauron and to his servants who also exist in the Unseen world, the Nazgûl (who otherwise cannot see as clearly by themselves in the Seen world in the daytime, as they operate by other senses).
This is akin to the vision provided by apocalyptic texts, most notably Revelation, as well as portions of Daniel, Ezekiel, Zechariah, and others. Such revelations showed what was happening beyond the curtain of empirical reality, thereby helping the audience to remember that more was going on in heaven and on earth than what they could see. This is also shown forth in the exorcisms done by Jesus and his disciples, as well as the apostles and evangelists in Acts. And we see the awareness of the operations of angels and demons throughout the NT, most extensively in Eph 6:10–20. Thus, we are also to have this transcendent vision of the unseen, neither reducing what is important only to the material, nor imagining that the drama of our world involves only us or only us and God.
Glorfindel
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