Quote:
Originally Posted by Rimbaud
One of the fundaments of Tolkien's belief was displayed to be that 'the first shall be last and the last shall be first.' Which isn't a bad way of stating a rather complicated sociological point of view.
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I'd been thinking of starting a thread in a similar vein, before I ran across this oldie.
I would expand the discussion a bit though.
I note that, as some above touched on, the lower one's relative state, the more resistant one seems to pride overall.
Gandalf, part of an undoubtedly 'elite' group, was in some ways the
least of them. It was told that he was the last one off the ship, and was physically the weakest-looking. He also had no permanent home, usually a mark of what societies perceive as less stability and sense of purpose. Yet, he was ultimately the only one of the Istari who
kept his purpose. His reward was a return home, and who knows what else after he arrived there.
Tuor and Túrin and also interesting in this context.
Túrin was the heir of the House of Hador, reared by no less a personage that Elu Thingol in the Hidden Kingdom, growing up with the status of a prince. He had great pride in himself, and it seems to me that it was that pride that provided Morgoth an easy means to bring about misfortune to Túrin and his kin.
Tuor spent his childhood as a slave, and then, escaping, eked out a vagrant life as a outlaw until he was called by Ulmo to go on an errand, which he unhesitatingly accepted. His lack of pride led him to a reward of reaching Gondolin and marrying Turgon's daughter, and with that act becoming part of a watershed moment in Arda's history by fathering a son with her.
And then there's Aragorn.
He grew up in a similar situation as Túrin: raised by one of the greatest of the Eldar in Middle-earth, the Heir not of a House, but of a Kingdom. One sees a seed of pride in him in
ROTK Appendix A, where his meeting with Arwen is told. He goes into that having just learned from Elrond of his heritage, and his "heart was high". Meeting her though, he is abased when she identifies herself, and he sees how much older she is, and greater. I wonder: had he not met Arwen, would Aragorn's worldview and subsequent actions have changed?
So, how much does spending time in a lowly state affect one's sense of pride? Morwen's seems to have
increased when she became poor. Is there a pattern, or is it individual randomness?