[Finwe]

I have always viewed war as a necessary evil. Killing fellow human beings is never an enjoyable activity (unless you're a sociopath, in which case you should go far far away!) and it shouldn't be considered an acceptable activity. However, there are always exceptions to the rules. If someone came into your house, started stealing all your things, raped your wife and daughter, killed your son, and proceeded to humiliate you, what would you do? (I apologize for the graphic description.) Would you meekly stand there and let all of your self-respect get stripped away? Would you let your good name and your honor get dragged in the muck? Absolutely not. In situations like that, violence, whether it be physical or verbal, is necessary to defend one's rights. That in itself is a noble cause. It becomes even more noble when you fight to defend someone else's cause. I will use the example of the movie Glory because I just finished watching it in US History AP class. At the end of the movie, Colonel Robert Gould Shaw and his men charge up the hill in a doomed charge, knowing full well that they will die. Why do they do it? Is it for glory, for fame? No. They do it out of the realization that they are fighting for the rights of their fellow human beings, a cause worth fighting for, a cause worth dying for.

The same can be applied to Tolkien's world. War was not a pretty or dandified thing. People were slaughtered, lives were destroyed, homes obliterated, and whole races exterminated. But it was necessary. Would you have preferred that Morgoth or Sauron have conquered all of Middle-earth, and covered the lands in darkness? No. That is the last thing that any of us want and what any of the characters wanted. They were defending their homes, their way of life, and their families. For a cause like that, anything is justified.

Due to our technological advances in this day and age, we have a much more detached idea of war than our ancestors did. Unless we experience it firsthand on the battlefield, or near a civilian target, we don't know what it actually is like to experience war. We don't know the sight of bodies being blasted to pieces. We don't know the smell of rotting flesh and burning homes. We don't know the sound of bereaved families and children screaming, as bombs are being dropped on their homes. We don't know the feeling of bullets or shrapnel thudding into our bodies. All we can do is simply read about or watch those experiences. Some of us may have the opportunity to actually experience that, but for the rest of us, we must read about or watch them, and find what honor there is in them. There is honor. There is honor, pride, glory, and fame in each and every thing that we do. Is that not what we fight for? Do we not strive to uphold the honor of our family, our country, and ourself? There is honor in all and we must discover that if we are to truly appreciate the world around us.