4. [Lord of the Rings] Was Frodo's Failure A Moral Failure?

In this episode, Rabbi Yoni Ganger joins us in working through a question Tolkien was asked repeatedly, a dilemma Tolkien himself wrestled with: did Frodo fail his quest on a moral level? Putting aside the fact that Frodo did not throw the Ring in, which may objectively be considered a failure - but was it subjectively? In other words, how far does free will extend, are there limits to how far free will can extend, and did Frodo reach those limits?  

The Lord of the Rings is a story about a hobbit, or a halfling, named Frodo, who comes into possession of a powerful magic ring. One of its powers is that when a person puts it on, they become invisible. This ring turns out to be the One Ring, which was forged by the Dark Lord Sauron ages ago to take control of Middle Earth and everyone in it. In order to destroy Sauron, and save Middle Earth, the Ring must be destroyed.

The thing is, the Ring cannot be destroyed just anywhere or in any which way. It has to specifically be brought into Sauron’s home territory, Mordor, and thrown into the fires where the Ring was originally forged.

Frodo volunteers to undertake this task and is joined by a small fellowship who together embark on the quest to destroy the Ring.

Down the road, the fellowship breaks up. Frodo splits off from the group and is joined by his friend, Samwise Gamgee. Further down the road, Frodo and Sam are attacked by Gollum, a formerly hobbit-like creature. Gollum attacks them because, for centuries, he was in possession of the Ring, and he has become addicted to it and wants it back. The Ring has a corrupting influence on any individual who beholds it, and certainly anyone who possesses it. The longer a person holds it for, the more powerful the Ring’s corrupting effect.

That said, the Ring does not corrupt everyone equally, and it is noted that hobbits in particular appear to resist many of its corrupting effects.

Frodo is able to tame Gollum, and Gollum now serves as their guide to Mordor. Off they go and, long story short, Frodo eventually reaches Mount Doom. He stands exactly where he needs to, takes out the Ring, holds it above the fire. The moment of truth is here! If Frodo casts the Ring into the fire, Sauron will be destroyed, his powers will vanish and victory can be declared by the good guys.

But Frodo hesitates. The Ring has worked its corruptive magic on Frodo, and in the end, Frodo does not throw the Ring into the fire, while Sam watches. In the movies, Frodo says, “The Ring is mine.”

Frodo then puts the Ring on his finger and turns invisible and tries to escape. Gollum quickly spots Frodo, jumps on him, bites Frodo’s ring-finger off, and claims the Ring. Gollum falls off the cliff with the Ring and both are consumed by the fire. The Ring is destroyed!

This leads us into the following questions.

1. Was Frodo’s failure to destroy the Ring a moral failure? At the end of the day, he did not cast the Ring into the fire and, by his own admission, he chose not to do so!

2. In Tolkien’s quotes, we’ll see that Tolkien stated that it was impossible for Frodo to resist. But how do we understand Frodo? In the books, as we’ll see in this episode, Frodo said he chose not to destroy the Ring. Now Tolkien is saying, “actually, he had no free will.” Do we agree? As in, can a person be mistaken about whether he’s making a free will decision? How do we deal with this? We feel like we are choosing. But we’re not. What’s the Jewish perspective on this?

We repeatedly discuss in this episode the question of Frodo’s failure. We do not mean whether he, Frodo, succeeded in destroying the Ring or failed to do so; we are asking if he failed morally. Therefore, when we ask different iterations of “did Frodo fail”, what we are really asking is “was Frodo’s failure to destroy the Ring a moral failure; in other words, did Frodo fail morally?”

Let’s see how the Torah approaches this dilemma.

Note: Tolkien himself addressed this topic, seeing as he apparently received a number of inquiries about Frodo’s failure. We will be quoting a number of Tolkien’s personal views on the matter and, as an important caveat for the listener: I am obviously quoting specific selections of Tolkien’s writings and letters. It is not my intent to offend by being selective about my quotes, or try to cast Tolkien’s views in a different way than Tolkien intended. I am simply using these quotes to summarize the fairly long contents of Tolkien's letters as I understand them.

 

I am excited to welcome Rabbi Yoni Ganger to this episode to answer our questions. Rabbi Ganger has lived in Boston with his family for the last ten years working on the Harvard campus as the program director of MEOR, a Jewish outreach organization. He also runs a Jewish Young Professional program. In addition to Jewish education, Rabbi Ganger works as a therapist at the Center for Anxiety, a private practice therapy group with several offices in the Northeast that specializes in treating a wide variety of mental health issues using evidence-based treatments. Rabbi Ganger aims to weave psychology with Jewish wisdom both on campus and in his practice in order to best serve both his students and his clients. Please reach out at yganger@meor.org for any questions about Judaism, Psychology, or Lord of the Rings.