The Fall of Barad-Dur by artist Benedykt Szneider.
Tag: frodo baggins
“But against Minas Tirith was set another fortress, greater and more strong. Thither, eastward, unwilling his eye was drawn. It passed the ruined bridges of Osgiliath, the grinning gates of Minas Morgul and the haunted Mountains, and it looked upon Gorgoroth, the valley of terror in the Land of Mordor. Darkness lay there under the Sun. Fire glowed amid the smoke. Mount Doom was burning, and a great reek rising. Then at last his gaze was held: wall upon wall, battlement upon battlement, black, immeasurably strong, mountain of iron, gate of steel, tower of adamant, he saw it: Barad-dûr, Fortress of Sauron. All hope left him.
And suddenly he felt the Eye. There was an eye in the Dark Tower that did not sleep. He knew that it had become aware of his gaze. A fierce eager will was there. It leaped towards him; almost like a finger he felt it, searching for him. Very soon it would nail him down, know just exactly where he was. Amon Lhaw it touched. It glanced upon Tol Brandir he threw himself from the seat, crouching, covering his head with his grey hood.
He heard himself crying out: Never, never! Or was it: Verily I come, I come to you? He could not tell. Then as a flash from some other point of power there came to his mind another thought: Take it off! Take it off! Fool, take it off! Take off the Ring!
The two powers strove in him. For a moment, perfectly balanced between their piercing points, he writhed, tormented. Suddenly he was aware of himself again. Frodo, neither the Voice nor the Eye: free to choose, and with one remaining instant in which to do so. He took the Ring off his finger. He was kneeling in clear sunlight before the high seat. A black shadow seemed to pass like an arm above him; it missed Amon Hen and groped out west, and faded. Then all the sky was clean and blue and birds sang in every tree.”
–J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, “The Breaking of the Fellowship” (Frodo on the Seat of Seeing upon Amon Hen)
frodo + memory
anyway sorry uh, one of the best descriptions of trauma I know of is that it is a disruption of linear time, or linear narrative by way of the arrangement of and connections between the memories that make up one’s life. It fragments the linear train and also causes loops and curlicues, or eddies, where trying to walk away from the memory leads you right back into it, and trying to plunge into it causes you to circle it unpredictably. It refuses to reintgrate and align with the linear arrow of time, all paths are warped by it like light passing through space invisibly warped by a black hole’s gravitational forces pulling it off course from angles one cannot even fully see or predict, all roads are bent.
The most ubiquitous and common thing that triggers traumatic memory’s capture of the mind (flashbacks, but also a range of other memory effects) is sensory reminder, and that’s the thing Saruman did to Frodo specifically. Not just hurting the Shire because he knew Frodo loved it, but polluting everything about the Shire with miniaturized echoes and mirrors of the horrors Frodo experienced during the quest, basically turning everything in the Shire into a trigger, opening up a untold number of wormhole paths back to Mordor on the memory plane. No edge of the world! No edge to the sea full of nightmares and unknown depths! All roads lead back. That’s not a remotely complete painting of the situation, but I think it’s a facet I don’t see pulled into focus very often.
also I really really do love the sea-bell.
sklaslnjafnk something with frodo and sam and gollum
we’ve had frodo pov and sam pov in the book so let’s go gollum pov!!
They got up and withdrew quietly into the shadows, and made for the doors. Sam they left behind, fast asleep still with a smile on his face. In spite of his delight in Bilbo’s company Frodo felt a tug of regret as they passed out of the Hall of Fire. Even as they stepped over the threshold a single clear voice rose in song.
A Elbereth Gilthoniel,
silivren penna míriel
o menel aglar elenath!
Na-chaered palan-díriel
o galadhremmin ennorath,
Fanuilos, le linnathon
nef aear, sí nef aearon!
Frodo halted for a moment, looking back. Elrond was in his chair and the fire was on his face like summer-light upon the trees. Near him sat the Lady Arwen. To his surprise Frodo saw that Aragorn stood beside her; his dark cloak was thrown back, and he seemed to be clad in elven-mail, and a star shone on his breast. They spoke together, and then suddenly it seemed to Frodo that Arwen turned towards him, and the light of her eyes fell on him from afar and pierced his heart.
He stood still enchanted, while the sweet syllables of the elvish song fell like clear jewels of blended word and melody. ‘It is a song to Elbereth,’ said Bilbo. ‘They will sing that, and other songs of the Blessed Realm, many times tonight. Come on!’
J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, “Many Meetings” (via excerpts-from-tolkien)
A lot of people dislike The Fellowship of the Ring because it spends so much time faffing around in the Shire, but that’s precisely why it’s my favorite. The whole series is a lot more enjoyable when you remember that Frodo spent years sighing melodramatically and thinking he was some poor tortured soul who must leave home in secrecy and solitude for a mysterious fate…. but literally all of his friends knew he had a secret evil ring and made all his travel plans for him behind his back.
Like. He paced around going “woe is me! such a burden I must carry!” so obviously that his whole squad accepted the fact that they’d all go on a dangerous international adventure with him because Frodo the Drama Queen could not be expected to take care of himself.
I love Hobbits.
Also they accomplished it via the Power of Gossip and the only reason Frodo himself didn’t pick up on it is because he vastly underestimates the intelligence of every single other hobbit he knows bc he thinks he is Special he’s such a condescending ass and I Love him
Frodo: “I must confess… I have some bad news for you. I have not been totally honest. I can’t tell you everything, but–”
His entire social group: “Is this about how you’re the new bearer of the One Ring and need to take it out of the Shire to be destroyed? Yeah, dude, we know. We’re all packed and ready to go whenever.”
Frodo: “But but but but but! How did you know? How could you EVER figure out my SECRETS?!”
His entire social group: “Gee, Frodo, I don’t know… maybe you’re a pretentious dumbass and we aren’t the bumbling fools you think we are?”
Everyone: [immediately parties in the bathtub]
I haven’t done anything Tolkien in a while. But this fandom is like the love of my life I always end up with, no matter where I fool around. Anyway, Galadriel and Frodo and their little light of hope all in two bookmarks. You can see I haven’t fixed my hand enough, so the shapes are rough. I hope I’m kind of back to creating and drawing and living.
ephal ephalak idon hi-akallabeth 