Are There Sentient Objects in Middle-earth?

[Music] hey Squad welcome back and if you're new welcome to the channel a nearly Universal feature of f fantastic or magical settings is the presence of Enchanted objects from Haunted Fells and Sinister Woods to talking swords and malicious jewelry at times these artifacts are the product of an outside Magical Force some spell or curse or necromantic Tom Foolery in other instances though the setting itself seems in some way alive there are many purely literary reasons an author even one not writing a work of fantasy might describe in anim objects by ascribing personal attributes or emotions to them techniques like personification can evoke powerful imagery set a mood or a tone or reveal a character's State of Mind in tolkien's particular case these descriptions have an additional purpose helping convey the perspective of his characters who are generally much more open to the possibility that the world they live in has a mind of its own however there are several cases in Middle Earth in which the apparent agency of landmarks and objects seems to Warrant a more literal interpretation woods and forests are frequently described as either welcoming or hostile in themselves but beyond this we know that individual trees in Middle Earth frequently pursue their own agendas with far greater Direction and Mobility than you might expect the willow man of the Old Forest in Buckland physically attacks the hobbits and the Trish denisons of fangorn play an important part in defeating the armies of Saron at the hornberg it's not just trees though while Boromir suspects that sauron's influence may be responsible for the sudden blizzard on the slopes of karros other characters are inclined to blame the mountain itself karros was called the cruel and had an ill name said gimy long years ago when rumor of Sauron had not been heard in these lands the apparent willfulness of the Rings of power especially the ruling ring is a critical part of the story in the first stage tan Lord girang not only seems to grieve the death of bellig it also apparently speaks to Turin declaring its willingness to take his life even the S morals seem to show certain preferences and opinions including who they will suffer to handle them while each of these examples includes a greater or lesser degree of ambiguity it's not easy to write any of them off as a simple case of poetic exaggeration or misinterpretation by the characters hns and other animated trees are probably the most explicit and unambiguous examples of the natural world displaying unusual agency tree beard describes it thusly most of the trees are just trees of course but many are half awake some are quite wide awake and a few are well uh well getting entish some of my trees are Lim live and many can talk to me this is also perhaps the least jarring case while sometimes overlooked as mere scenery plants and trees are undeniably living things engaged in the same struggle for survival as other organisms they affect and respond to their surroundings so it's not much of a stretch to conceive of them as having a sort of diffuse slow acting will of their own even in primary reality on the slopes of cruel kros the fellowship encounters such appalling conditions that they cannot reach the red horn gate as planned and must instead pass Under the Mountain through the orc and balro infested mine of Moria while it's true that weather conditions on high mountain passes are often extreme and volatile it's not just the naive Hobbits who suspect something uncanny is going on Aragorn is surprised to see such conditions early in the winter season and at such relatively low elevation gimy is disgruntled by snow drifts that seem intentionally positioned to cut off the fellowship's escape and once the party has descended the storm breaks up as abruptly as it appeared as if kros was satisfied that the Invaders had been beaten off and would not dare to return Gandalf characterizes the storm as an attack there are several possible explanations for this Boromir wonders if this is a contrivance of the enemy they say in my land that he can govern the storms in the mountains of shadow that stand upon the borders of Mordor he has strange powers and many allies Aragorn admits the storm does seem unnatural but is less sure of its Origins there are many evil and unfriendly things in the world that have little love for those that go on two legs and yet are not in League with s on but have purposes of their own some have been in this world longer than he the ruling ring itself is a particularly Sinister and pronounced case of an apparently lifeless object possessing desires and wills of its own in the account of aer's death published in unfinished Tales tolken describes the ring as still heavy with sauron's evil will and seeking all means to return to its Lord as it did again when he recovered and was rehoused Gandalf explains to froto that a ring of power looks after it self it was not Gollum froto but the ring itself that decided things the ring left him this is a central issue in The Lord of the Rings whose whole plot hinges on the ring being treacherous to wield and hazardous even to possess in evaluating this property of the Ring I've previously argued that what appears to be willfulness may just be a simple way of describing the Ring's Tendencies themselves the product of its creation the ring is an expression of sauron's power which at this point would have been 99.99% dedicated to domination control force and other unsavory undertakings even more importantly the ring was designed by Sauron to function in service of these goals however there is an additional wrinkle to this idea which lies in token's repeated assertions that by externalizing their individual power people inherently sacrific control over it if I were to philosophize this myth I should say it was a mythical way of representing the truth that potency or perhaps rather potentiality if it is to be exercised and produce results has to be externalized and so as it were passes to a greater or less degree out of one's Direct Control thus the ring seems to wield a certain influence over even its maker so great was the Ring's power of lust that anyone who used it became Mastered by it it was beyond the strength of any will even sauron's own to injure It cast it away or neglect it so while the may not be a fully individuated character describing it as merely an extension of sauron's will doesn't do justice to the importance of this concept one of the few consistently applied magical principles that tolken elaborated on accepting this possibility in the case of the Ring helps illuminate other cases of created items that seem to have preferences goals and wills of their own the black sword gorang originally named Angel is similar to the ring in many respects forged by notoriously cranky Vin Smith a who offered it to thingle with the same enthusiasm that most of us feel when paying property taxes the sword is powerful but treacherous even Mel and the Maya who is renowned for her wisdom cautions bellig against it there is malice in this sword the dark heart of the Smith still dwells in it it will not love the hand it serves neither will it abide with you long sure enough even if the sword wasn't literally cursed it might as well have been leading to Bell's death when it wakes the unconscious tour t with an ill-timed slice the blade then passes to Trin himself a man whose name is synonymous with bad luck bad timing and bad judgment with all the Doom already going on in his life for a few years it's hard to tell whether the ill-favored sword even continues to affect its Bearer gor thing's final speech to Trin is also somewhat historically suspect leaving aside for the moment the degree of trin's trauma as he contemplates taking his own life which was surely more than sufficient to result in a psychotic break he addresses his sword after having far outrun the elves of Dorth pursuing him and falls upon it before they can reach him it's not impossible that mablung and Company indeed heard the blad speak as they tried to catch up to Trin and maybe one of them brought news of it to the BS who later compiled the legend of Turin in its fullest form but it also smacks of poetic embellishment the kind of thing invented to add more drama to a climactic death scene that in reality may have had no surviving Witnesses harder to explain is the Blade's apparent mourning for bellig after its first Master's Death Angel loses its luster and goes dull and blunt to such a degree that the Smiths of Narron are obliged to reforge and reame it it's hard to imagine an Elven blade forged of meteoric iron undergoing such a sudden and pronounced transformation without some kind of Supernatural power at play even gwindor observes that this is not expected Behavior from a weapon this is a strange blade and unlike any that I have seen in Middle Earth it Mourns for bellig even as you do a less ominous but still perilous example is the sil morals the sil morals have enough curses Dooms prophecies and benedictions acting on them already to make them highly significant but on top of that they also seem alive in some way even in the darkness of the deepest treasury the sil morals of their own Radiance Shone like the stars of vaa and yet as were they indeed living things they rejoiced in light and received it and gave it back in Hues more marvelous than before when Baron plucks one from the iron Crown it does not burn his mortal flesh instead the Saran says the jewel suffered his touch and hurt him not it is decidedly less forgiving when it comes to the Demonic wolf kroth its two companions later reject the Flesh of their maker surviving Sons as unclean in cases like the ring gorang and the sual we appear to be seeing objects imbued with particular Tendencies by their creators these objects exemplify something like independent Consciousness or will as a result of their Creator's necessary surrender of control over them this also gives us some idea of how and why the natural world functions as an active participant in the unfolding of middle Earth's history the shape and substance of Arta was conceived before the dawn of time by the inor in their great music if the same principles of creation that govern works of craft also apply to the creation of the world we can think of the elements of ARA as the embodiment of the inu's minds and wills made separate and independent from them as they attained true being on top of this the creation of ARA was a collaborative act while each of the inor who participated in this Act of Creation had their own special areas of concern they also affected and were affected by the songs of others often in unexpected ways and while the inure imagined the different elements and patterns of Arda it was eru alatar who not only inspired their song but then spoke it into existence and he remains able to intervene from outside of Arda at any point finally both during the Inu Lind delay and afterward within Arda mkor and his servants wo a corrupting tendency into the world itself giving everything in the world some capacity and sometimes even a proclivity for malice and evil so even the Apparently passive substances and predetermined conditions of Middle Earth itself self are not always entirely predictable not only do they have a degree of Independence as a consequence of their very existence but they are each an expression of multiple wills and the ongoing interaction between them creates infinite new combinations and reactions this gives us some idea for why some objects and elements in Middle Earth truly display a certain quality call it will preference tendency or intent that approaches an outright personality however it still doesn't seem quite right to treat things like the ring or Kos as characters certainly not characters in the traditional sense while they do seem capable of independent reactions that can shape the course of history they do not appear subject to the same kind of morality that men elves dwarves and inure do again in most Fantastical settings inanimate objects possessing human levels of will or intelligence can be accepted without comment but tolken ideas about the interaction of fate and Free Will ideas that lie at the very heart of The Lord of the Rings generally describe true agency and the ability to make truly moral decisions as relatively rare Commodities in an examination of the Elvish words for fate and destiny tolken describes truly free will as a uniquely personal attribute although many complex motions and physical interactions create everchanging conditions in Arda until the appearance of will all is mere preparation interesting only on a quite different and lower plane like mathematics or observing the physical events of the world or in a similar way the workings of a machine will first appeared with the inor or Valor thus the interacting Tendencies of inanimate objects partly determined by the wills of their creators but no longer subject to their control can act independently to affect the plot of artist history however they lack the freedom and so-called true will to make truly moral choices while they can and do act in ways both hostile and helpful their actions can't be characterized as good or evil once more animated trees provide the closest example to something like a human experience of Consciousness Trish and Manish aims to live long avoid injury and blight enjoy a territory with plentiful resources and produce successful offspring are not so different and it's not hard to see why the awakened trees of fangorn would seize the opportunity to eliminate the common threat of saran's destructive armies while remaining neutral for now to the more circumspect men of Rohan Tre beard who does seem to be more a person than a tree nevertheless gives a good explanation of the tree is position I have not troubled about the great Wars they mostly concern elves and Men I am not altogether on anybody's side because nobody is altogether on my side if you understand me nobody cares for the woods as I care for them not even elves nowadays in the selan we learned the Misty Mountains the range that includes the peak of karthos were reared by milor to hinder the riding of or so not only are they particularly infused with the lingering will of morgoth they were also designed to slow or prevent passage over them as an ancestral home of the dwarves kyos has been the site of excavations for Millennia a process one of my patrons compared to having one's guts slowly carved out as the demand for mithil increased this mining intensified in the third age which also roused the balrog dwelling in its depths something likely akin to a bad case of evil heartburn on top of the possible effects of sauron's will proximity to his ring and the lingering drgs of morgoth's power it's not hard to imagine the mountain itself like the Trees of the Old Forest and fangorn reacting defensively to the approach of any strangers regardless of their alignment while malicious Sinister and dangerous the blade gorang doesn't appear to be wholly evil it's said to Rejoice at being un sheathed against morgoth's Orcs it both leads to the death of bellig and Mourns for him it's eager to slay Turin but this is partly because it resents being used to kill bellig and Brer whom it characterizes as slain unjustly and lest we forget it serves Turin well for many years against the Servants of morgoth including in the slaying of glang a mighty deed that's justly renowned the sil morals are a more beautiful but still ambivalent example they were created during the high point of the Bliss of Aman by the compulsively creative feanor the greatest Craftsman of the elves while feanor's character devolves into madness after he creates his Masterwork he's not described as being evil from the beginning and The Valor themselves acclaimed the creation of the S Morales as a tremendous feat all who dwelt in Amon were filled with wonder and delight at the work of feanor despite the violence and bloodshed they Inspire they do seem to have some positive Powers it's the Holy Light of ail moral that arendo bears a loft in his Celestial voyages as a sign of Hope to the Dwellers of Middle Earth this same light gathered into a file by gadriel protects froto and Sam from sheilo but at the same time their beauty repeatedly leads characters into jealousy recklessness and paranoia from fanor and his sons to thingle to morgoth himself while the silal of Baron scorches the Flesh of kroth it also gives him unprecedented power allowing him to cross even the impenetrable girdle of melan even the ruling ring a product of near total evil whose functions seem restricted to Temptation corruption and domination sometimes works against its Master those who fall under the sway of the Ring go to Great Lengths to protect and hide it with meticulous care which makes it all the more challenging for Sauron and his agents to find the darn thing gollum's obsession with the ring gives him the fortitude to defy Sauron and resist his efforts to regain it something he would otherwise likely be incapable of it also drives Gollum to attack froto at the cracks of Doom contributing to the circumstances necessary for his providential fall into the fire bringing about the Ring's destruction the apparent personalities of entities like Kyros and gorang are much more than mere ornamentation giving tolken stories a little exotic flare their unusual powers hinted a world that like our own is too vast and complex to be fully explained by any one perspective tolken himself as well as his characters affirm that the moral struggle between good and evil was Central to Middle Earth however tolken also expressed impatience with others reductive interpretations of this struggle reacting to a radio program that had described old man Willow as an ally of Mordor he wrote cannot people imagine things hostile to men and Hobbits who prey on them without being in League with the devil in another letter regarding of all things Tom Bombadil he said you must concentrate on some part probably relatively small of the world Universe whether to tell a tale however long or to learn anything however fundamental and therefore much will from that point of view be left out distorted on the circumference or seen a discordant odity these ideas reveal something about the role of some of the inhuman forces that affect the narrative though their concerns are largely outside the realm of good and evil as experienced by rational creatures they nonetheless contribute to the great tale of Arda the choices faced by middle Earth's people can be difficult to discern but they are also undeniably moral decisions yet even in cases where the right course of action is clear there remains doubt about its outcome the wisest and best intended plans sometimes end in utter tragedy while the failings and flaws of struggling individuals can be turned to U catastrophe one of the factors that makes this possible is the existence of objects forces and beings that w while impersonal are still actively pursuing agendas that cannot be neatly explained by the all-encompassing moral conflicts at the heart of the character's experiences the slow Wrath of a forest could prove as hostile to Orcs as it is to Hobbits an evil ring might end up working toward the dissolution of its own power and sometimes even the shiniest of jewels forbode death and darkness to those who look upon their light if you enjoyed this video hit the like button to see if its innate Tendencies exert any independent influence on the great algorithm subscribe to see more videos like this and if you're interested in bonus content behind the scenes Peaks or just hanging out in Discord you can check out my patreon page linked in the description thanks to everyone for watching and special thanks to my patrons including John H tin Jr Gandalf the gry Marcel Ribero Nick riao Jeremy Buckingham bitso Bongo Kevin gilstad dorwin gray Brendan Mooney e Rose B Allison kitsberg Frankie twring Luke Joe Bion Rogue hot pocket and Jared Carver until next time stay safe and be well

Channel: GirlNextGondor

Views: 15,019

Keywords: middle-earth, tolkien, mirkwood, caradhras, moria, turin, children of hurin, silmarillion, history of middle-earth, mordor, sauron, morgoth's ring, valar

Id: PmFPC2HTjSY

Length: 21min 4sec (1264 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 29 2023