Mythic Unities in The Lord of the Rings

[Shelob]

I may not be able to add more than has already been said, but I shall at least try...

Firstly, Sophia the Thunder Mistress proposed a three way unity of Good--Beauty--Truth, and later suggested that it might instead be a unity of Joy--Beauty--Truth. When I wrote these down (I can't remember anything without writing it down) I wrote them down as Good--Beauty--Truth--Joy and bracketed it off to show the two three way unities, thusly it became {Good--[Beauty--Truth}--Joy]. What I cannot convey properly with the computer is that when I bracketed it of by hand the unity of Beauty--Truth became boxed out and separate.

This pairing of Beauty being Truth I know to be famous from the lines "Truth is Beauty; Beauty Truth" (or something like that at least. I don't actually know the origin of those lines, I can only recall hearing them from various sources...including The Simpsons..) To address this I would like to call to mind Lalwendë's response of,

"Even in terms of language, those who speak beautifully can be speaking words which have evil intent, Saruman being the prime example. The Silmarils are beautiful, but they also provoke turmoil. The One Ring is an eye catching item, literally, and it tempts Smeagol into murder. Perhaps things of evil necessarily have to adopt the appearance of beauty in order to worm their way into the hearts and minds of the good."

Truth may be either 'good' or 'bad' but in either case it remains a 'Truth'. The Ring is the Truth of Evil, but it is also Beautiful beyond reason. Saruman is the Truth of Treachery, and his words ring (sorry...) with the Beauty of Treason. Both of these are preceived as 'bad' but even the 'good' can be simplified to nothing more than Beauty and Truth. The Elves are unquestionably Beautiful and are, as suggested in littlemanpoet's original post, the Truth of Harmony.

Even the Hobbits, in their innocent Beauty, are the Truth of peace and contentedness. It is only when something takes from them their Beauty (Saruman's actions in the Shire) that their Truth is taken from them, They are no longer as they Are. (I know full well that it could easily be the other way around...Saruman could have taken from the shire it's Truth, it's very nature, and in doing so initiated the loss of Beauty. I chose to phrase it as taking away the Beauty and therefore losing the Truth because it seemed to flow slightly better that Saruman could not touch the nature of the shire itself, and could only affect the more physical/corporeal elements of the Shire)

Along the Same lines things in the books which are not Beautiful are somewhat of a mystery. Simplest of all examples is that of Aragorn/Strider who, at Bree, looked foul and felt fair. He then had no 'Beauty' and the Truth of him was hid from those around him, he was not 'Aragorn son of Arathorn, Isildur's heir' but 'Strider, one of the Rangers and a "strange-looking weather-beaten man" (The Fellowship of the Ring, Chapter9)'. Only when he is given the associated Beauty of Kingship (Power-->Good-->Beauty; such that one assumes, as many cultures do, that it is good to possess power and a 'higher position on the social ladder') that The Hobbits learn the Truth of who he is.


Secondly, I would address the unity of Language--Power.
I cannot recall the exact place this thought came to me, but it had been building through much of this thread and finally came into coherent being while I was reading the last two Paragraphs of Lalwendë's February 22nd (2005) post. What those paragraphs reminded me of were a few passages from The Analects of Confucius about the power of Language and the importance of using ones words wisely. Best amongst these is the passage "The Master said, 'In antiquity men were loath to speak. This was because they counted it shameful if their person failed to keep up with their words'"(IV.22)

This may not be exactly applicable to what Lalwendë was saying about the unity of Language and Power, but it does seem to fit. It even tosses the idea of 'Honour' into the mix; if ones Word is ones Honour, and ones Word holds ones Power does not ones Honour hold ones power as well...and could it not be that only those who are Honourable hold Power. Saruman broke his Word in that he joined those who were 'evil' when he was 'good', in doing so he lost his Honour and had his Power symbolically taken from him in the breaking of his staff...

Ah well...such are my thoughts, may they be worthy of consideration and let you see something which you had not before...

Many Thanks
Shelob

[mark12_30]

Many good thoughts, Shelob. Integrity=power? I think there is something to that, yes... especially from the catholic scriptural point of view, which anchored Tolkien.

[drigel]

if ones Word is ones Honour, and ones Word holds ones Power does not ones Honour hold ones power as well...and could it not be that only those who are Honourable hold Power.

Nice one shelob! Reminds me of the saying: "The eyes are the windows to the soul." Perhaps one's mouth is the doorway..?..?

I think that beauty/truth as a unifying myth is interesting. I would be careful walking down that path. In Tolkiens works we see the fair folk, but are they embodiments of Truth? There is some connection though. But so much of the work involves the idea of an age that can never be regained.

The use of time (for me) is the mechanism. Truth is more apparent when the ages old veneer of "civilization" is stripped away. Aesthetics has its place in this, but I see it more of an effect (or an expression), than a cause.

Yes, the world was much younger, but it was also more perilous. Even though Truth and Untruth (or Good and Evil) were definately more striking in their differences.

As for eucatastrophe in the Silm, all I can think of is Beren and Luthien in Tol Galen as the only example.