Under A Swift Sunrise

JRR Tolkien was a devout Christian; I thought this scene from the battle at Minas Tirith, which was added for the movie, did a good job of illustrating his religiosity:

[We see how inside the city the people are running from Sauron's forces as the Nazgûl fly around the city again. Everything looks hopeless as the enemy tries to break the gate the men are defending. Farther away, Gandalf and Pippin are sitting together, watching the destruction. The hobbit turns to look at Gandalf.]

Pippin: "I didn't think it would end this way..."

Gandalf: "End?  No, the journey doesn't end here.  Death is just another path...One that we all must take."

[Pippin listenes and watches Gandalf, as he continues. All sounds of the surrounding battle quiet down.]

Gandalf: "The grey rain-curtain of this world rolls back, and all change to silver glass..."

[There is a little smile on Pippin's face.]

Gandalf: "...And then you see it."

Pippin: "What? Gandalf? ...See what?"

[As Gandalf continues, we can hear the melody of 'Into the West' on the background.]

Gandalf: "White shores...and beyond... the far green country under a swift sunrise."

[They both smile as they look at each other.]

Pippin: "Well, that isn't so bad."

Gandalf: "No...No it isn't."

Have a great weekend, all.

Comments

[Ralph]

I really like that scene.

I have the 3-box set of extended dvd LotR and watched the 2nd disk of "The Return of the King" last week. After watching "The Incredibles" about eight times in the past five days along with all the bonus features, I might go watch disk 2 of tRotK again.

I also read "The Hobbit" again this week. I've must finish Isaiah (I'm at ch 56) before I start tFotR tonight. I will try to read the New Testament again by the end of April.

BTW, I got here by way of your link at A Likely Story.

[Tom]

To be specific, Jackson lifted that description from the end of the book and it described what Frodo sees when the Elven ship he is on approaches the undying lands (the uttermost west).

For the true geek, it is also interesting to compare the ultimate fate of men vs elves. Elves are immortal, unless slain. when an elf tires of the world, he can sail to the undying west where he is reunited with all the elves who have ever lived (either still alive, having sailed there, or reincarnated there after dying in Middle Earth). Which is what makes Arwen's choice so painful for Elrond; she is one of only 2 elves who will not be reunited with her people. But, the fate of elves is bound to the fate of the world. They have nothing to do but hang out in Valinor, remembering old times, and when the world ends, so do the elves.

Mankind's fate is different. Mankind lives a short span of years but men's spirits are not bound to the world. Men (humans) go somewhere else; their ultimate fate is known only to God (Iluvatar) but as Aragorn says, beyond this world there is more than just memory.

[Tau]

So good to hear LOtR allusion. Thanks.

[Dave]

The language appears in two places in the book. In Tom Bombadil's house in Fellowship of the Ring we have: "That night they heard no noises. But either in his dreams or out of them, he could not tell which, Frodo heard a sweet singing running in his mind: a song that seemed to come like a pale light behind a grey rain-curtain, and growing stronger to turn the veil all to glass and silver, until at last it was rolled back, and a far green country opened before him under a swift sunrise."

Then in Return of the King, as Frodo sails from the Grey Havens to the Undying Lands: "And the ship went out into the High Sea and passed on into the West, until at last on a night of rain Frodo smelled a sweet fragrance on the air and heard the sound of singing that came over the water. and then it seemed to him that as in his dream in the house of Bombadil, the grey rain-curtain turned all to silver glass and was rolled back, and he beheld white shores and beyond them a far green country under a swift sunrise."

One of the wonderful things about the movie was how the writers found ways to incorporate so many of Tolkien's beautiful passages, even if they had to move them around or give them to different characters.

[TM]

Thanks very much. And that does re-open the many questions about Tom Bombadil. I was sure he would not make it into the movie (some things had to go), but obviously that bit was important.

[Paul Zrimsek]

Just the sort of thing you'd expect a fundie wingnut like Tolkien to believe. Medical ethicists have determined that you only get the silver glass and the white shores and all that if you die of starvation and dehydration.

[TM]

That must be why death by starvation/dehydration promotes euphoria.

[Evan]

If he was Christian he certainly was a liberal one with so much talk of the gods (plural). His Norse mythology references always kind of troubled me.

[TM]

Ah, well, Iluvatar was *the* god - the rest were his creations. Something like archangels and angels, I think.

[TexasToast]

Since you like Tolkien ...

“Lady Undomiel, said Aragorn, the hour is indeed hard ... and on the hill of Cirin Amroth when we forsook both the Shadow and the Twilight this doom we accepted.
...
“I speak no comfort to you, for there is no comfort for such pain within the circles of the world. The uttermost choice is before you: to repent and go to the Havens and bear away into the West the memory of our days together that shall there be evergreen but never more than a memory; or else abide the Doom of Men.”

“Nay, dear lord,’ she said, “that choice is long over. There is now no ship that would bear me hence, and I must indeed abide the Doom of Men whether I will or I nill; the loss and the silence. But I say to you, King of the Numenoreans, not till now have I understood the tale of your people and their fall. As wicked fools I scorned them, but I pity them at last. For if this is indeed the gift of the One to Men, it is bitter to receive.”

As to you other favorite - Nearly-Headless Nick also had some advice to Harry after Sirius died.

[sophy]

Welcome to our game world, my friend asks me to buy some 12sky gold .