A Fantastic Rule

Stories are the best vehicles for transferring ideas about what it means to be human. How we live, how we fall in love, how we wage wars, how we deal with death and innumerable questions about moral behavior are answered in the stories we tell each other.

_{Image by Tim Hahlganß - source: Pexels}

Each culture has it's own stories, but all of them contain certain deeply rooted human truths, like the Golden Rule (do onto others as you would have them do unto you), or what is "honorable" and what's not.

"Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you:
do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets"
_{source: Matthew 7:12 - Wikipedia (King James Version of the Bible)}

The one book to rule them all is still The Bible; it's the most read book in the history of human existence. But today I'd like to share with you a small part of another popular book, the one that tells about the one ring to rule them all: J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. Just because I love the book (must have read it at least three times), and because it tells us something about what it means to be human, even though there's an elf, a dwarf and four Hobbits involved with the scene I'm going to discuss here ;-)

Elves and dwarfs don't get along in the world of Middle-Earth because of historical reasons not covered in this book, and I never read The Silmarillion. Whatever has happened between them in the past, they now have a troubled relationship characterized by mutual distrust and loathing. At some point our traveling fellowship has to traverse Lothlorien, which is elves territory. The group is led by Aragorn, one of the two humans present, but Legolas the elf speaks when they're greeted by three elves from Lothlorien.

_{Image by Natalia Wilson - source:}

When asked who they are and what their business in Lothlorien is, Legolas answers that there's eight of them, but introduces only seven; he's understandably very hesitant to admit there's a dwarf among them. Eventually Legolas has to also introduce Gimli, the proud dwarf; this leads to protest from the native elves and after a short debate Gimli is granted access, but only under the condition that he's guarded and blindfolded while traveling through Lothlorien. When Haldir, the elf that guides our friends to and through Lothlorien, is about to blindfold Gimli, the dwarf responds.

Gimli: "The agreement was made without my consent. I will not walk blindfolded like a beggar or a prisoner. And I am not a spy! I am no more likely to betray you than Legolas or any other of my companions."

Haldir: "I don't doubt you, yet this is our law and I can not set it aside. I've done much in letting you set foot over the river Celebrant."

Gimli: "I will go forward free or by this ax I will go back and seek my own land, where I'm known to be true of word, though I perish alone in the wilderness."

Haldir: "You can't go back. Now you have come this far, you must be brought before the Lord and the Lady; they shall judge you. And behind you there are now secret sentinels you can not pass; you'd be slain before you saw them."

Gimli: "Then by this ax I...!"

Haldir: "And by our bows...!"

Legolas: "A plague on dwarfs and their stiff necks!"

Aragorn: "Come! If I am still to lead this company you must do as I bid! It's hard upon the dwarf to be thus singled out. We'll ALL be blindfold, even Legolas; that'll be best, even though it'll make the journey slow and dull."

Both Gimli and Legolas start laughing, and Aragorn asks what's so funny.

Gimli: "A merry troop of fools we shall look! Ha ha. Will the elves here lead us all on a string? But I will be content if only Legolas shares my blindness..."

Legolas: "But I am an elf and a kinsman here!!"

Aragorn: "Now let's cry a plague on the stiff necks of elves! But the company shall all fare alike. Come, bind our eyes."

See what happened there? Eventually neither Gimli nor Legolas is willing to swallow their pride for the greater good, and it takes a natural leader to make all surrender to the level playing-field accomplished by correct implementation of the Golden Rule. This is also the start of a great friendship between Legolas and Gimli, who will come to respect and admire each other greatly during the rest of this magnificent saga.

If you haven't read the book, or even seen the films, and are interested in experiencing Lord of the Rings as an audio-play, I've found it on YouTube; this is where I looked up the dialogue for the discussed segment, as taking the text from the book directly would be too much. But if you want, that's online right here. Lots more food for thought to be found in there.

_{Lord of the Rings COMPLETE Audio drama- Audiobook- Tolkien}

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