The Quenta Silmarillion Eucatastrophe-less

[mark12_30]

...But let's double check just to make sure, Kuruharan .....

He is fighting against the odds in some respects, but Gollum does not pop out of a crevice and push the dragon off a cliff and then fall down with it.

And if, each time, a Gollum popped out of a crevice and somehow vanquished Grendel, Grendel's mom, and the dragon-- then it would be repetitive, going against Tolkien's "Never to be counted on to recur." Am I getting close...?

However (if I understand you) it is okay, when we reread LotR, to be amazed again and again that sparing Gollum allowed him to bite Frodo's finger off and thus save the world. If I had to choose *one* eucatastrophe, I would choose that-- (not the havens, not the Morannon--) even though that's not what "gets" me each time. But it would still be eucatastrophe if it did get me every time? Because the "never to be counted on to recur" applies to the character, not to the reader?

So--

the horns of Rohan will never interrupt the Witch-King's speech at the gate again;

Sam will never see another star above the Ephel Duath that affects him quite like that one;

Aragorn will never unexpectedly unfurl his banner from a corsair ship again;

the Morannon will never fall again;

A wounded ringbearer-hobbit sailing west cannot be counted on to happen again;

...but we, in rereading these things, may still catch a glimpse of

evangelium giving a fleeting glimpse of Joy, Joy beyond the walls of the world, poignant as grief

...?