It's true, I haven't read the Book of Lost Tales, but I'll get on that eventually. I have, however, read Silmarillion multiple times, the trilogy twice, and Hobbit twice. So I know... most of the Middle-Earth characters? At least a good portion of them.
As for why you should care about my opinion, you don't have to, of course, but as I've said before, I write about what I want to write about, whether other people care or not. So, without further ado...
10.
Actually, I have no idea.9.
Umm...8.
As it turns out, it's really hard to limit Tolkien's characters to just ten.7.
Maybe... wait, no...6.
I'll just do favorite five, I guess!5. Luthien
I can already hear one of my best friends cringing that I didn't put Luthien as my favorite, but that isn't a complaint about her. That's the thing--with these characters, I don't have much to complain about. The question is just which one charmed me more.Anyway, with Luthien--this character could have been so easy to be a boring, perfect type. She's the most beautiful woman who ever lived, plus she makes music so lovely it changes the seasons, and then she's the daughter of a Maia spirit with a lot of her own magic. She could be too perfect to be interesting or even likable. However, I think Tolkien did an excellent job of not making her that way, by two simple feats: first, he never showed her fighting except against creatures more powerful than her, and second, he always made sure her victories were qualified victories. Take, for example, her fight against Sauron: when Sauron himself appeared, and she stood face-to-face against the great monster of the trilogy, she actually fainted, but her magic cloak caught Sauron by surprise, and she was able to recover herself just enough to chase Sauron away. It makes sense that she would be overwhelmed--Sauron was, after all, a Maia who was even more powerful than her mother--but through her own determination, quick wits, and a bit of luck, she was able to score a... qualified victory. She didn't vanquish Sauron completely (which would have been unbelievable), but she was able to get just enough of a victory to win the day.
Add to that, in the little bit we see of her, she's loyal, kind, and empathetic. She never thinks it's beneath her dignity to befriend anyone, including Beren and the dog Huan. She is also merciful--she asks Beren to spare the lives of elves who tried to kill her. Add to that she is resilient; it takes a lot for her to lose hope. And finally, she is clearly courageous--not just for facing Sauron, but also for countermanding her father's orders about Beren and bringing him in front of Thingol as a guest and not as a prisoner. I like Luthien dearly.
4. Sam
What? Sam isn't #1?I don't think I need to elaborate on why Sam is on this list. There is no truer line in the entire movie trilogy than, "Frodo wouldn't have gotten far without Sam." Also, Sam has the spirit of the trilogy's story: "There's some good in this world, Mr. Frodo. And it's worth fighting for."
Everything that everyone else loves about Sam, I love too. Loyalty, courage, hope--enough said.
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| My absolute favorite thing about this shot is that it shows both Sting (the sword) and Sam's pack with the cooking supplies and the "comforts of home". It shows the two sides of Sam's personality--both of which required courage. Source. |
3. Boromir
Remember that these are my favorite characters--not who I necessarily think are, objectively, the best characters. I have a peculiar quirk about my nature: if I a) expect to hate something and then like it (a la Frozen), or b) used to hate something and now like it, then I like it all the more.I used to hate Boromir. Truly, hate Boromir. I was furious with him for trying to take the Ring from Frodo, and then for everything in between. I found him repulsive, irritating, abrasive, and just insufferable. The fact that Aragorn was my favorite member of the Fellowship, and he kept fighting with Aragron, added fuel to that loathing.
Then I grew up, started studying history a bit, and I realized that Boromir was far more complicated than I had first understood.
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2. King Thingol
This is the king of Menegroth in Silmarillion, and although he barely has any speaking lines, he's a truly awesome character full to the brim of contradictions.And--dare I say it--he's hilarious.
Thingol is described as "ruling like a Maia", because of the power lent to him by his wife Melian (who is a Maia). That is never said about any of the other elves--not even the ones who live with the other Maia. Furthermore, the description of Menegroth is thoroughly impressive--beautiful, powerful, filled with riches, most beautiful home outside of Valinor, etc. All of these are things that, for normal Tolkien characters, would lead to corruption (see Boromir and Thorin). Even one of the Noldor kings... whose name escapes me just now... he was the king of Gondolin... Turgon! King Turgon is described as ignoring the advice of one of the Valar because he had grown proud and now trusted in his city. Thingol, on the other hand, doesn't display any of that. He is still a tragic character (it is the Silmarillion, after all), but when he is corrupted, it isn't because of his own riches or power, but because of the curse that Morgarath put on the Silmarils. In other words, he is surrounded by power and temptations, but he isn't corrupted by it. How very... hobbitish of him.
That's the thing--although he is a very powerful person, the vibes I get from him aren't pompous. It is true that he mocks Beren's lineage, but I think that has more to do with his outrage that Beren thinks he's good enough for Luthien than anything else. And it must be remembered that, in Tolkien's world, the divisions between Elves and Men aren't exactly arbitrary. (It's not a Marxist class distinction--it's a division that doesn't really have a parallel in the real world. The distinction is based off of the fact that Elves were literally created first, and created to have a place in the Undying Lands, while Men were not created to have that place. It's a separation that is all too literal, which the movies did a decent job portraying.) Anyway, although Thingol clearly has rank and pomp and power, and although he definitely bars certain Elves from approaching him, he never feels as haughty as someone like Denethor. He seems willing to listen, to explore, to learn, and to be real.
Possibly the funniest example of this, at least to me, is the way he reacts to two different humans: Beren and then Turin.
With Beren, he is furious, makes all kinds of comments about how low Beren is compared to him, and then eventually arranges for Beren to die (because Beren wanted to marry Thingol's daughter).
But then, less than a decade later (which is not that long if you're about 2,000 years old), when Turin comes stumbling into Menegroth, Thingol actually gets up off his throne, picks Turin up, puts him on his lap, and announces he'll foster Turin until Turin becomes an adult. To quote the book,
I especially love how nobody comments on this. No one says something to the effect of, "Um, excuse me, just a few years ago you were singing a very different tune." (This isn't a random change, either--it is the effect of accepting Beren's love for Luthien.)
I have also read Children of Hurin (which I do not recommend until you've read Silmarillion--it is unquestionably Tolkien's darkest story, and one of the single darkest things I have ever read), and there is a fascinating exchange between the king and a very shy Elven lady that goes something like this:
This is all to say that Thingol just feels a bit like a classic hobbit. He cares dearly for his family and his home, and disdains the things that the rest of the characters are all after (at least at first). He's very powerful, but he never comes across as untouchable, unreachable, or arrogant (again, except at the very end, and as a result of a curse). I find him endearing and entertaining.
I have also read Children of Hurin (which I do not recommend until you've read Silmarillion--it is unquestionably Tolkien's darkest story, and one of the single darkest things I have ever read), and there is a fascinating exchange between the king and a very shy Elven lady that goes something like this:
Shy Lady: I was sitting in a tree...
Thingol: [with a smile] Many of my subjects sit in trees, but they do not feel the need to tell me about it.That line was said by the Elven king who "ruled as a great Maia!"
This is all to say that Thingol just feels a bit like a classic hobbit. He cares dearly for his family and his home, and disdains the things that the rest of the characters are all after (at least at first). He's very powerful, but he never comes across as untouchable, unreachable, or arrogant (again, except at the very end, and as a result of a curse). I find him endearing and entertaining.
| Source. Also, if I never see another anime drawing of Thingol and Melian, it will be too soon. |
1. Bilbo
Oh, dear Bilbo. Funny, relatable, admirable, spunky, sarcastic, endearing, adventurous, wonderful Bilbo!
I'm not sure what I love best about Bilbo. His wit? His spunk? The fact that he never stops being out of place on his adventure? The fact that he is a writer? The fact that he is constantly surrounded by powerful objects (the Ring and the Arkenstone) and is rarely controlled by any of them? (He was using the Arkenstone like a pillow!) The fact that his last line in the movie was, "I think I'm quite ready for another adventure!"?
The fact that, although he clearly has an adventurous streak, he is also able to settle down in the Shire for years and years? He's able to be both the adventurer and the person who took in and provided a good home for his relative?
I think this is probably the biggest thing about Bilbo that fascinates me: even though his story was so similar to Frodo's, it was also the polar opposite.
Think about it: both of them go on a quest centered around a powerful object, both of them lose dear friends (Boromir and Thorin, who are sort of the same character in a way...), and both of them return to the Shire to live there for a number of years, completely changed. For Frodo, that was part of the tragedy: he loved the Shire and wanted nothing more than to protect it and go home to it, but he never really could. Bilbo also went back, completely changed, but for his story, that was his success. He came back different, an oddball, not quite as respectable, but happy and loved. For me, that's a sense of optimism and hope that just touches my heart.
Nor was this story written by some ivory-tower coffee-shop artist, either. J.R.R. Tolkien, it must be remembered, had a story with horrors similar to Frodo's: Tolkien fought at the Battle of the Somme, a battle in which the first day had 57,000 deaths on the British side alone (that's more than the US lost in the entire Korean War), and where he lost all but one of his close friends. (The entire campaign of the Somme had 420,000 casualties on the British side, which is still more than the VA records American soldiers dying in the entirety of WWII.) Tolkien walked away from that battle with trench fever, which recurred enough to force him to stay home. That's the person who wrote Bilbo's hopeful story.
One thing that is clear about Tolkien's stories is that there are different ways to be heroes. They all have to have some things in common, obviously, but there is still variety among them. Bilbo and Frodo weren't the same person, and obviously their story wasn't exactly the same (the Ring was far more powerful closer to Mordor, etc., etc.,), but the fact that this kind of hope shows up in this quirky, ordinary character just makes me smile. Bilbo is no Aragorn, he's no Thingol, and he's no Boromir, but he's a hero nonetheless.
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Upon review, I deleted about six paragraphs from this post because they all could be their own post. I loved Tolkien when I was a kid, and I respect Tolkien more and more as I grow up. So you'll probably be hearing a lot more about Tolkien from me.
Oh, to my students who I now know are reading this... you know what to do, right?
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