Lord of The Rings (the philosophical post)

Faith, hope, and love. That's what I saw in LOTR the movie. It's known that Tolkien is a catholic and he considered LOTR as a christian piece of work. You can find lots of discussion on Christian values of LOTR on the internet. I want to focus on faith, hope and love to keep it short. (cause I'm sleepy now)

Throughout the movie and the book, I saw many who spoke of faith, hope, and love. Especially in the movie, the last journey of Sam and Frodo to Mount Doom in Mordor, Sam kept faith and hope alive for Frodo. When faith and hope died out, love kept them going. Love of good, love of the Shire, love of middle-earth, love of friendships.

I saw a post that said Tolkien had a grim look at humanity. That's why eventually, he wrote that Sam and Frodo lost all faith and hope. They're kept on going just because it's a good thing to do.
You know what, when someone is doing stuff just because it's a good thing to do, that's called love. So I don't think Tolkien had a grim look at humanity. I say he considered humanity will be saved by love when faith and hope had failed.

1 Corinthians 13:13
"So faith, hope, love remain, these three; but the greatest of these is love."


On another note, I'm really hooked on Gandalf's answer when Frodo wish that bad times wouldn't have happened:

"and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us"

And to keep me from getting too cheesy... I'm closing this post with a beer. Cheers!