friendship and tolkien
Posted: February 26, 2013 Filed under: figures of speech, words | Tags: friendship, meaning, words 18 Comments »I was thinking about the word friendship.
Maybe just as the word love, friendship is best a verb, something to be done. Instead friendship remains mysterious. How can one measure it? Does it change when friends fall apart or devolve to bitter rivals? If only we could squint our eyes and gaze through a crystal ball and see it as purest blue or bitter red.
Instead we assume and trust. Can friends exist who have never shared a meal, or visited each others homes, or labored on some task?
I thought back to Tolkien’s Frodo on the plains of Ithilien answering about Boromir who had betrayed him. “Yes, I was his friend, for my part.”
A very good question.We live a material existence and prefer the tangible nature of proximity and location. “for my part…” Tolkien had very deep thoughts on friendship. My favorite:
“Faithless is he that says farewell when the road darkens.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring
yes, there is another I always liked, but I can’t recall if it was Elrond when the fellowship left Rivendale or Faramir when they were in Ithilien… something along the lines of there are many enemies, but also friends where we least expect them.
I will have to dig through to find it.
I will try to look for it too! There are many lines in LOTR that are amazing. I try to find one and then get lost in all of the rest….
yes, but it’s such a nice problem
How right you are – it is so easy to get lost in the words.
maybe you discern from far away the air of Numenor
Oh that it would be so….
“I do not love the bright sword for its sharpness, nor the arrow for its swiftness, nor the warrior for his glory. I love only that which they defend: the city of the Men of Númenor, and I would have her loved for her memory, her ancientry, her beauty, and her present wisdom. Not feared, save as men may fear the dignity of a man, old and wise.”
Strangers are potential friends
Best friends are potential worst enemies
Worst enemies are potential best friends
I believe, it is skewed in favour of friendship
I like that: I believe it is skewed in favour of friendship…
I try not to, and don’t often, worry about definitions of nouns. Most of life seems transitory anyways.
I have learned, and I now feel and believe, that what we experience and what we share today, whether through activity or through words, is all we really have.
To the best of my ability, and it’s always a temptation, I limit judgments about past and current qualifications of my activities and relationships, as well as my future definitions, expectations, and qualifications of those activities and relationships.
As we’ve all heard:
yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery.
All we really have is today
Randy
yes Randy – wise as always, but not a “wise guy”
At a given moment, friends don’t talk much anymore, they appreciate each other’s presence. Whether that is by a very short phonecall, siting together around a warm stove, or by climbing a mountain together, it does not matter.
yes, I agree.
There are many people online that I’ve never met, shared a meal with or visited their home but consider them friends…the world has changed…big time! Also, when we think we know someone and can trust them and think of them as close friends…they prove otherwise. People can be fickle.
yes Rose — friendship is such a fluid thing. Just a few great friends in a lifetime is a great boon.
It’s perception eventually. What I consider my part, they assume it’s only a part of their expectation. Strangers though have an ability to offer us an experience of God’s presence.
yes, they do. Thanks for that profound statement. So often we fail in our duty.