The Fiat of Ilúvatar’s Children During the War of the Ring by Anne Marie Gazzolo

This paper was originally written (in somewhat modified format) for the 2008 Seminar of the Tolkien Society, “Freedom, Fate and Choice in Middle-earth.” It is an extract from the introduction of my book.


"[...] I offer You, Lord, my sufferings:
to be endured for Your greater glory.
I want to do what You ask of me:
in the way You ask,
for as long as You ask,
because You ask it.
I pray, Lord, that You enlighten my mind,
inflame my will,
purify my heart,
and sanctify my soul." (Pope Clement XI)

"Teach us, Good Lord,
to serve You as You deserve,
to give and not to count the cost,
to fight and not to heed the wounds,
to toil and not to seek for rest,
to labor and not to ask for any reward,
except that of knowing that we do Your Will.
Through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen." (St. Ignatius Loyola)

    Even though these words are from millennia after the War of the Ring was fought, they could have also been spoken by those in it, and actually were, through their actions. The most important battles during that time and the years before were fought in souls, not on fields, especially in those of Bilbo and Frodo and all others who fought against the temptation of the Ring and its power. There is much we can learn from them as to how to conduct our own lives.
    Instead of claiming that power for themselves, the myriad heroes of Middle-earth all show the virtue of docility, of being pliable in the Hands of God, “that one ever-present Person who is never absent and never named [...]” (Carpenter, Letters 253). Nothing is random, nothing happens without a reason, without somehow advancing the ability to defeat Sauron and destroy the Ring. In fact, many of the events during the War of the Ring that seem like disasters to those involved are actually examples of the Hand of Ilúvatar guiding things as they should be, using the free will of His children, whether that will is being used for good or for evil. As Tolkien wrote, “[...] evil labours with vast power and perpetual success - in vain: preparing always only the soil for unexpected good to sprout in” (Letters 76). To name just three ways: the fall of Gandalf in Moria that allowed him to return with greater power as Gandalf the White; the capture of Merry and Pippin by Orcs that got them to Fangorn Forest which roused the Ents who then destroyed Isengard; and the capture of Frodo and Sam by Orcs and the forced march that got them much closer to Mount Doom than they would have on their own, making it in time to save the Army of the West from being destroyed at the Black Gate. When one looks at the whole story, one sees how deeply involved God is in all of this, even though He had not yet revealed Himself as fully as He would later through the Incarnation and Resurrection. Still there are those who are aware – among them, Aragorn, Elrond, Gandalf and Galadriel – who embrace their identities as His children and servants. Frodo becomes aware, though he belonged to a people who, as St. Paul says, do not have the law, but keep it as if by instinct, having it written in their hearts (Rom 2:14-15).
    Frodo at first struggled with his vocation and his fear of it, but he accepted he had been chosen and submitted himself to that. Even after Gandalf told him of the dangers of the Ring, of how it possessed and devoured its bearers, Frodo agreed to guard it “whatever it may do to me” (LotR I:2, 60) until someone better, wiser and stronger than he could take it. He was terrified by his friend’s words, but as he did not want anyone else to be harmed by the malevolence of the Ring, he was willing to try to contain it within himself if he could. The dying words of G. K. Chesterton resound here: “The issue is now clear. It is between light and darkness, and everyone must choose his side.” Frodo did so, without knowing what the terrible cost of his vow would be. Throughout his terrible journey to Mount Doom, he showed, as Dorothy Day said, “By our suffering and...our acceptance of the cross, we unleash forces that help us to overcome evil in the world.”
    “Greatness is not about bending others to your will,” says Sarah Arthur, “[...] but bending your will toward others. Servanthood is the true test of character, the mark of royalty on those who belong to the King. [...] Servanthood begins with those closest to you” (145-46). Gandalf, Aragorn, Sam spent decades in service to others, and they were content, they were free. As long as Frodo served Ilúvatar, he was free, though he was bound tighter and tighter by the cords of the Enemy. Sam freely surrendered his will, heart, and strength to Frodo out of love, and in such heroic service also served Ilúvatar. He was free and bound at the same time, but he chose to be bound, and therein lay his freedom. Trying to part Frodo from Sam would be like trying to part him from his own shadow or his own soul.
    It is said that the more important the task, the more the angels assigned to guard the one charged with fulfilling that task. “You are not alone,” Aragorn told Frodo on the way to Weathertop (LotR I:11, 185); and indeed Frodo had many visible and invisible guardians assigned to protect him. The Valar, and Elbereth in particular, watched over him. Gildor, Tom Bombadil, Aragorn, and Faramir all had “chance” meetings with him and the other hobbits when they were in peril and would have been devoured if their rescuers had not come. Sam was prompted by some deep inner voice to take off the Ring when he was searching for his master in the Tower of Cirith Ungol, and when they were close to the Fire, he and Frodo both responded to a voice that called them to hurry. They were both inspired to call upon the aid of Elbereth, and she readily answered their prayers. It did not matter that the hobbits did not know how to pray. They still did so very powerfully, and in languages they did not even know. “The Spirit too comes to help us in our weakness,” St. Paul says. “For when we cannot choose words in order to pray properly, the Spirit Himself expresses our pleas in a way that could never be put into words, and God Who knows everything in our hearts knows perfectly well what He means, and that the pleas of the saints expressed by the Spirit are according to the mind of God” (Rom 8:26). Such was the intimate relationship Ilúvatar had woven between Himself and His beloved children that they responded to Him in the depths of their souls, even without conscious knowledge of him.
    Frodo could have said no when the Secret Fire, the Holy Spirit, presented him his vocation at the Council. The Voice was heard within his own heart and soul. He could have remained still, but he did not. His fiat, his “Let it be done” was full of dread, fear, and longing to refuse, but still it was there. In speaking of this and the choices that confront us all, Cheryl Forbes wrote in Christianity Today, “[...] we choose to be chosen.” Ilúvatar had prepared His child well. “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; before you came to birth I consecrated you [...]” (Jer 1:5). He knew Frodo would say “yes,” even though he had the freedom to say “no.” That beloved soul had been molded in such a way for this one moment. “[...] [W]hat you are to say will be given to you when the time comes; because it is not you who will be speaking; the Spirit of your Father will be speaking in you” (Mt 10:19-20). Frodo did indeed feel very much like “some other will was using his small voice” (LotR II:2, 263); but it was still his choice to let that Will speak. The choice he made then, he made again and again with nearly every breath and step he took toward Mordor, even as they became harder and harder to take. But as his mortal strength was poured out, immortal grace was poured in. As he drowned in the darkness and hate of the Ring, Sam saw in his master increasing light.
    Ilúvatar called all Nine Walkers for the purposes He had set aside for them. “You did not choose me, no, I chose you; and I commissioned you to go out and to bear fruit, fruit that will last [...]” (Jn 15:16). He filled Frodo with His grace, that “elvish beauty” (LotR IV:10, 716) Sam saw and nurtured Sam’s love for Frodo over decades so that it would ever be faithful on their dark road. The One placed Merry and Pippin in the Company to allow for the salvation of Boromir, who thought he was only at Rivendell to seek an answer to a troubling dream; and also to save Faramir’s life; and the defeat of the Witch-king, who believed his own publicity too much. Gimli thought he had only come with his father to receive advice on how to answer the dark messenger who had come to them seeking information about the thief who had stolen “the trifle that Sauron fancies” (LotR II:2, 236). Legolas thought he was there to report the escape of Gollum. Elrond said, however, that it was “so ordered” (ibid) that the entire Council and those then chosen to be the guardians of the Ring-bearer, and no others, had been “called hither” (ibid) to decide the fate of the Ring and of their entire world.
    It was among the most humble of those gathered that Ilúvatar chose His Ring-bearer: a small, mortal vessel with a quaking heart, but with a strong will and determination who allowed himself to be offered up “out of love - to save the world he knew from disaster at his own expense, if he could; and also in complete humility, acknowledging that he was wholly inadequate to the task” (Letters 327). “[I]t was to shame the wise that God chose what is foolish by human reckoning, and to shame what is strong that He chose what is weak by human reckoning; that whom the world thinks common and contemptible are the ones that God has chosen - those who are nothing at all to show up those who are everything” (I Cor 1:27-29).
    Once Frodo gave his fiat and said “I will take the Ring,” (LotR II:2, 264) – “[t]he sacramental, operative words that set in motion the only power that can conquer Sauron [...]” as Peter Kreeft says (39) – he did not falter in his charge, even as his heart was filled with fear and despair and his body and soul endured the torment of the terrible physical and spiritual weight of the Ring. Sam was also completely surrendered and open to how Ilúvatar wished to use him.
    Frodo did not know how to get to where he was going, but he trusted that he would be led and shown the way. He did not know Who he trusted, but he trusted anyway, and in those Ilúvatar had placed by his side. Sam had no idea Who put his master forward as he struggled to decide what to do after Frodo’s apparent death, but he recognized that Someone had, and not Frodo himself. When he saw his star in Mordor, he saw a tangible, visible sign of goodness beyond the reach of evil, and he trusted in it enough to know that he was not the only one watching over Frodo. On the strength of that grace-filled sign, he was able to sleep deeply and without concern, even though deep in enemy territory. “Happy are those who have not seen and yet believe” (Jn 20:29). That is what makes their trust and faith so beautiful and inspiring. Ilúvatar looks after His own, even those who do not know Him, but reach out to hold onto Him anyway.
    Aragorn did know his steps were being guided by Ilúvatar. He did not always see the Path right away, but when he did, he followed it without hesitation. He spent his entire adult life in service: as a Ranger, helping Gandalf track down Gollum, guiding four frightened hobbits to Rivendell, placing himself in the service of Frodo, then of Théoden and Gondor. One is certain that he would continue to be a servant even as king, because he was aware of Whose servant he was. It was because of this knowledge of the invisible world and his service to his Creator that he said his fiat and did not allow Éowyn to dissuade him from walking the Paths of the Dead, for he knew he went “on a path appointed,” (LotR V:2, 766) just as Frodo and all the others did. Neither he nor Frodo would have willingly walked such physically and spiritually desolate Roads, but both did in obedience and trust as they embraced the Will of Another. None of them walked alone.
    As Verlyn Flieger says, the hobbits and men in the story “illustrate, with the consequent pain and loss of all that seems most precious, the absolute necessity of letting go, of trusting in the unknown future, of having faith in God” (114). When the hobbits were lost in the Emyn Muil and Sam wondered if they would ever find a way out, Frodo was confident that they would. In the depths of his soul, he trusted the One Who was leading him to Mordor. The barely concealed mirth Pippin saw in Gandalf in Minas Tirith is also evidence of deep faith and trust. Gandalf knew his Creator was stronger than any foe out in the field.
    But this still did not make walking the right Path an easy task for any of them. It is more painful for a soul to commit evil, but it is not painless to choose the good. Redemptive suffering has great value, and no one suffered more in mind, body, and soul than did Frodo. Clyde Kilby quoted an Australian professor, Barry Gordon who wrote a paper called “Kingship, Priesthood and Prophecy in The Lord of the Rings” in which Frodo was noted to be “the Lamb whose only real strength is his capacity to make an offering of himself” (56). As he, Aragorn and Gandalf responded to their callings, each grew “in power and grace” (ibid).
    Gandalf’s fiat came at great cost. “A man can have no greater love than to lay down his life for his friends” (Jn 15:13). As Richard Purtill says, “Gandalf [...] is a free creature who freely answers the call to imitate Christ. He and Frodo, who walks his own Way of the Cross, are thus closest to Tolkien’s deepest moral ideals” (118). Michael Martinez observes:

[...] it’s not that Gandalf was weighed in the balance and found wanting, so much, as that he was being asked to make a hard choice. And Gandalf made the correct choice, but in doing so he had to abandon the Valar’s plan. [...] Ilúvatar needed to make some changes. Gandalf therefore went willingly to the sacrifice, as he had been forewarned (439).

    The idea that “he was being asked to make a hard choice” again illustrates free will and surrender. Gandalf could have chosen not to accept death by refusing to enter Moria, as Frodo could have chosen not to accept the Ring, but the will of the Maia was so conformed to that of his Creator that he even trustfully surrendered his life.
    The reason for the entire Quest can be summed up by Aragorn based on this sacrifice: “The counsel of Gandalf was not founded on foreknowledge of safety, for himself or for others. [...] There are some things that it is better to begin than to refuse, even though the end may be dark” (LotR III:2, 430). Treebeard said much the same thing to Merry and Pippin after the Entmoot had concluded and the Ents had decided to march upon Isengard. “Of course, it is likely enough [...] that we are going to our doom: the last march of the Ents. But if we stayed at home and did nothing, doom would find us anyway, sooner or later” (LotR III:4, 475). Théoden would have rather died in battle than to hide in illusive safety and not even attempt to save his land, for he knew defeat and death might come in any case, and it would be better if it found him defending his people. The hope behind the Quest lay in trusting to Ilúvatar that all would work out as it was meant to be as long as everyone did his part, that “what should be shall be” as Galadriel said to Frodo (LotR II:7, 356).
    When Galadriel tested the hearts of the Company, they were all confronted with the choice of giving into their deepest desires or to continue on the hard road they were treading. Sam was asked what he would do if he could go home and have a garden of his own, but his heart was firmly in his master’s keeping. He would “go home by the long road with Mr. Frodo, or not at all [...]” (LotR II:7, 354). None of them turned back. They knew they had much more than their own wills and desires to be concerned about.
    At the time of own her terrible test, Galadriel was sorely tempted to claim the Ring which Frodo freely offered her, for she had long dreamed of possessing it. But instead of surrendering to that desire, she had the strength of will and the grace given to the Firstborn to withstand her trial and shrink back to “a slender elf-woman” (LotR II:7, 356) instead of the dark queen Frodo beheld in his vision. She recognized that the heights of power the Ring would give her would actually plunge her and all Middle-earth into the depths. She surrendered her own will to that of her Creator and would remain His child, not a terrible queen. She chose humility, to “diminish [...] and remain Galadriel” (LotR II:7, 357). Her fiat had been spoken and she would not turn back.
    Galadriel’s words to Frodo after she passed the test – “for now we have chosen” (ibid) – underscore the fact that personal choice and free will were involved here, that temptation on both their parts to turn back, or to become something they were not meant to be, was resisted. Frodo and Galadriel both realized that, whether he succeeded or failed in the Quest, the power that kept the Elven lands safe would fail. Lothlórien, Rivendell, and Mirkwood would be swept away either by Sauron or by Time. That realization hurt both of them, but Galadriel realized that she’d rather submit to Ilúvatar’s plan than her own wishes. She surrendered her own will to that of His and was no longer tempted to follow anything else. She would remain His child, not a terrible queen. Her fiat had been spoken and she would not turn back, any more than Frodo would.
    The reality of the spiritual warfare waged inside every soul is clearly shown during Galadriel’s test and even more clearly inside Frodo on Amon Hen as he wears the Ring and feels the Eye and the “fierce eager will... [that] leaped towards him...” (LotR II:10, 392). In that very focused and painfully amplified attack, it is shown that our greatest enemies are not those we meet on the physical battlefield, but the spiritual one: “For it is not against human enemies that we have to struggle, but against the Sovereignties and the Powers who originate the darkness in this world, the spiritual army of evil in the heavens” (Eph 6:12). But our greatest allies are found there also.
    Frodo’s own mortal will would not have been enough to contest with Sauron, but Ilúvatar protected His child on the Hill of Sight with angelic aid as He had all along, when Frodo hears a voice commanding him to take off the Ring. The crushing power of his Enemy wished to compel him to keep the Ring on and so reveal his location. But neither force coerced a decision from him. It was his own will, shored up by Gandalf, who “[...] sat in a high place, and [...] strove with the Dark Tower [...],” (LotR III:5, 484) that decided to remove the Ring at the last possible instant.
    Ilúvatar allowed Frodo to be tested in this way to bolster his will for the challenges that lay ahead, just as it had been in the barrow. The Ring intended this for evil, but Ilúvatar used it for good. Frodo’s eyes were opened. He saw visions of warfare all around and at last the terrible fortress of Barad-dûr itself and even though at that sight “[a]ll hope left him,” (LotR II:10, 392)
his will was able to throw off the shackles of the terror that had previously paralyzed it.    
    While Frodo was off wrestling with the idea of how to proceed, the Company held their own debate. Sam said Frodo already knew what to do, he was just trying to gather up enough courage to overcome his terror and actually do it. Probably more than anyone, Sam would have wanted his beloved master to be spared, but he did not advocate that at all. He just knew that he needed to be there, to help Frodo carry his cross by whatever means he could. Even more than Galadriel’s phial, Sam was Frodo’s “light [...] in dark places” (LotR II:8, 367), a shining, visible beacon of the invisible Love that surrounded them both. Merry and Pippin were all for stopping him, saying it would be “mad and cruel” (LotR, II:10, 394) to send Frodo to Mordor, but as Aragorn pointed out, it was not the place for any one of them to do that, and they should not even try; for they would not succeed. “There are other powers at work far stronger,” he says (ibid), another hint that he is fully aware of the Powers watching over Frodo and protecting him.
    Ilúvatar had not acted foolishly when He presented to Frodo his part in the Great Music. How lovely that melody must have sounded to Him as it was played out, as more and more Frodo gave himself to his task in obedience, love, and sacrifice. Of course, Ilúvatar knew the burden would overcome Frodo in the end, that a terribly discordant note would threaten to overwhelm the entire symphony that had, up to then, absorbed all the other miscues that had tried to impose themselves. When the Ring-bearer was claimed fully at last and could no longer say “Yes” to the Divine Will, it was Ilúvatar Himself Who said “Yes” for him through the one He had chosen to be Ring-destroyer.
    It was while Frodo walked his via dolorosa, his way of sorrows, poured out like a living sacrifice, all but crushed by the terrible menace toward which he walked, staggered and crawled, that “[t]he parallels with Christ’s carrying of the Cross are obvious,” says Joseph Pearce. “Furthermore, such is the potency of the prose and the nature of Tolkien’s mysticism that the parable of Frodo’s burden may even lead the reader to a greater understanding of Christ’s burden. All of a sudden one sees that it was not so much the weight of the Cross that caused Christ to stumble, but the weight of evil [...]” (Tolkien: Man and Myth 112).
    In the crucible of suffering that was the Quest, everything was burned away. Frodo was increasingly buried under the despair of seemingly certain doom, but he refused to surrender to it. He actively fought his spiritual battle, though he was torn apart by it, unlike Denethor, who destroyed himself. Sam wrestled with despair as well, and came out victorious. The Ring-bearer was stripped down to naked will and endurance and clothed in grace. The Enemy chipped away bit by bit at that will and at Frodo’s very identity until he was robbed even of his memories. He became a shell, a sacred vessel emptied in service, but increasingly filled with light. At the Mountain, Sam beheld a vision of Frodo’s shining soul, shorn of the veils of flesh that surrounded it, and after that transfiguration, saw his beloved master as a spent figure, gasping for breath, consumed by both Light and Dark. Both sights were true. Frodo had given everything he possibly could, filled with all the grace he needed to accomplish his task. When that was done, there was no strength left in him to withstand the greatest assault of Sauron upon his heart, will and soul.
    But, thankfully, “[t]he plan of salvation does not depend on the vulnerable will of the players,” as Fleming Rutledge says. “The Writer of the Story has the greater will” (The Battle for Middle-earth: Tolkien’s Divine Design in The Lord of the Rings 340). Frodo had nothing left to give, but he could still receive. Ilúvatar returned to him the same mercy and compassion Frodo had originally extended to Gollum.
    Frodo traveled very far in his journeys, not only physically, but spiritually. He had indeed “grown very much” (LotR VI:8, 996) as Saruman noted. Hopefully after the Ring-bearer passed West and was able to reflect upon the events in his life and their true meaning, he would realize:

"The will of God will never take you,
Where the grace of God cannot keep you,
Where the arms of God cannot support you,
Where the riches of God cannot supply your needs,
Where the power of God cannot endow you.

"The will of God will never take you,
Where the spirit of God cannot work through you,
Where the wisdom of God cannot teach you,
Where the army of God cannot protect you,
Where the hands of God cannot mold you.

"The will of God will never take you,
Where the love of God cannot enfold you,
Where the mercies of God cannot sustain you,
Where the peace of God cannot calm your fears,
Where the authority of God cannot overrule for you.

"The will of God will never take you,
Where the comfort of God cannot dry your tears,
Where the Word of God cannot feed you,
Where the miracles of God cannot be done for you,
Where the omnipresence of God cannot find you." (Author Unknown)