My favorite line in all of the Lord of the Rings

     This is usually the place you come for some easy skate shoe repair, but I have a lot of fun outside of skateboarding exploring topics on philosophy, psychology, business...all sorts of things including good literature.

     So changing it up a bit to review my absolute favorite book, the Lord of the Rings.

     Here's a video essay and the transcript below:

The Choices of Master Samwise

Introduction 

     This is my favorite story of all time – Lord of the Rings. There are countless reasons why, the nostalgia of my dad first reading it to me when I was a kid or phenomenal characters like Gandalf, Gollum, Aragon, or Frodo…

     And there's no shortage of people talking about Lord of the Rings – probably thousands of reviews and breakdowns of both the books and the movies (which how cool is that?) and for good reason because they’re both fantastic.

     But there’s one part, one line – that I’ve never heard anyone talk about. And we’re going to talk about it today because it is my favorite in the entire trilogy and reminds me why I read great fiction.

Gravity of Choice

     It comes in the last chapter of The Two Towers called “The Choices of Master Samwise.”

     It’s one of the bonuses of reading the book vs watching the movie – and don’t get me wrong I’m not one of those snobs like “you’re not a real fan unless you read the book” the movie are so friggin good.

     But there’s a buildup, this gravity that’s not possible to recreate in the film – for just how monumental of a choice it was for Sam to take the Ring from Frodo and become a ring bearer. This is a really really big deal.

Night Came

     He’s just fought off Gollum. Just fought off Sheila – who’s this thousands of years old demon spider, no being had ever hurt her like that before (even Sauron was like, I’m just gonna let her do her thing up in the caves and eat orcs I’m not messing with that), and returns to Master Frodo believing him to be dead.

     “And then black despair came down on him, and Sam bowed to the ground, and drew his grey hood over his head, and night came into his heart, and he knew no more.”

     Sam is the furthest he’s ever been from home. He and Frodo had been walking this tight rope of sorts over a deep chasm, and even though it was perilous – there was a sliver of security and direction.

     They had a guide, a mission, and each other.

     Now all of that was gone – Sam’s fallen into the abyss.

Trapped

     What can he do?

     Turn and go home? Back through the caves, down the stairs of Cirith Ungol, through the Dead Marshes, across the plains, Lorien, over the Misty Mountains, Rivendale, to Bree, and finally back home to the Shire?

     He’d never make it…there’s no undoing where he’s been.

     Nor blaming the decision he’s made, even though he’d probably never to join the Fellowship if he knew it would lead him here.

     I think Aragon and Gandalf were the only ones who truly understood what they were signing up for.

     And yet…the decision to move forward is even worse.

Double Overhead

     This is the beauty of fiction, because this story articulates a deep truth, a right of passage to the human experience…

     That feeling of being in way over your head.

     Where the world collapses beneath your feet. There’s no going forward, and no going back. You’re trapped.

I Wish I Wasn’t the Last

     What do you do?

     Let’s turn to Sam’s dialogue, see if you can pick out my favorite line – that still, strikes my heart just as hard as the first time I read it.

     He thought of places behind where there was a black brink and an empty fall into nothingness. There was no escape that way. That was to do nothing, not even to grieve. That was not what he had set out to do. ‘What am I to do then?’ he cried again, and now he seemed plainly to know the hard answer: see it through. Another lonely journey, and the worst.

     ‘What? Me, alone, go to the Crack of Doom and all?’ He quailed still, but the resolve grew. ‘What? Me take the Ring from him? The Council gave it to him.’

     But the answer came at once: ‘And the Council gave him companions, so that the errand should not fail. And you are the last of all the Company. The errand must not fail.

     ‘I wish I wasn’t the last,’ he groaned. ‘I wish old Gandalf was here, or somebody. Why am I left all alone to make up my mind? I’m sure to go wrong. And it’s not for me to go taking the Ring, putting myself forward.’

     ‘But you haven’t put yourself forward; you’ve been put forward. And as for not being the right and proper person, why, Mr. Frodo wasn’t, as you might say, nor Mr. Bilbo. They didn’t choose themselves.’

     Why am I left all alone, to make up my mind?

You’re the Only One

     There’s a point in your life where you realize that you are the only one who can live it.

     It might be preceded by tragedy, or build slowly overtime, but hopefully you come to understand that you are the captain of your own ship. And that vessel you inherited – your body, your mind – is entirely your responsibility. Regardless of the conditions around you.

     No one else can, or should, decide for you – your have free will.

     Now you might not like that reality – which is exactly what Sam does at first – bemoaning his position, pleading for it to be some other way and I sure can’t blame him (he even longs for a fatherly figure like Gandalf to show him the way).

     It’s an intimidating realization about who you are and what your life should be when all support is stripped away.

     Some people always have that support system, guiding their choices through religion, philosophy, or rejection of it altogether which is its own system.

     Maybe life is better with a system…but even so, you still made a decision to follow it.

     Why are we left all alone…why do we have to make the decision.

     And it rolls right into the second part of the line, to make UP my mind.

     For starters, it’s not make down my mind it’s make UP!

     I love this idea of making your mind, being a creator…how even as fate driven and destined these characters are, Sam can still create his own outcome.

See It Through

     So what’s the best path forward? To see it through.

     Understanding he’s not the right or proper person, yet he’s the only one in all of Middle Earth that should carry the Ring. He didn’t choose himself, yet he still makes up his mind.

     I love this so much – these massive contradictory forces of Destiny and Free Will just smashing together right at Sam’s lowest moment…see it through.

     See it through.

     See it through.

     There’s always a path forward.