Friday, February 5, 2010

Frodo the Nine-Fingered and Samwise the Brave

Listen to this song while you read:



I love watching epic movies, and my favorite movie series is the Lord of the Rings. The Lord of the Rings speaks to me as a person. It portrays courage in the face of adversity, friendship in the pit of the Enemy, love in the jaws of death.

I love JRR Tolkien's Lord of the Rings so much because it follows that same tradition of literature: the epic journey. We're all on a journey, aren't we? We all have that same one destination toward happiness, don't we? We are Odysseus in the Odyssey, Aeneas in the Aeneid, and Dante in his Comedy. And the best one of them all: Jesus on the way to His Cross. For me, it's the Lord of the Rings: Frodo to Mount Doom.

I see my in Frodo Baggins: small, weak, afraid, perhaps destined for great things, but still unsure. And yet, in the stillness, the center of the storm, the silence comes. Where art thou, o Friend of old?

One of my good friends from high school actually saw me as Samwise Gamgee. That is very comforting. "It's me. It's your Sam. Don't you know me?" There are countless scenes in the movie where I could say, "Man, if I had a friend like that..." But you know what? I do have a friend like that. A friend who sticks closer than a brother. I talk to him, I see her, I share stories with them. This Friend lives in all my friends. My future series on my friends will be precisely on that. And I hope you see the good things that have helped changed my life because of what you have done.

Oh yea, following below is one of my favorite scenes. I would be lying if I denied that I didn't shed tears at this scene sometimes. Unfortunately, the embedding is disallowed. So here's the link:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IOmtjCfuRvc

Oh yea, in other unrelated news: the word "unfriend" is now in the Oxford English Dictionary. What a shame..

3 comments:

  1. hahah "it's your sam" cracks me up every time..

    ReplyDelete
  2. i was just watching a similar video
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxEkKxSO8Zo

    http://cantuar.blogspot.com/2010/02/lord-of-rings-my-eldest-son-crosses.html

    ReplyDelete
  3. oh, good old Sam, what an awesome friend to have...Frodo had no hope without him. He gave his life for Frodo (fortunately he did not have to lose it, but he was not hesitant to lay it on the line)

    ...this makes me want to read the books again...sometime

    ReplyDelete