Virtue in Middle-earth

I recently heard a man talking about his experience with some young people of various ages--home schoolers to be more precise--and remarking how they are very intelligent and well-educated and usually are extremely well-versed in the Christian symbolism of JRR Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. That man is right! Deo gratias. Now please allow me to remark on Peter Jackson's recent and third Hobbit movie: The Battle of the Five Armies. As in all six of his movies about Middle-earth, Peter Jackson has done a good thing in bringing Tolkien's tale to the attention of the public. However, he did--in my opinion--make a few mistakes. The most glaring of all: He portrays Faramir as a sinner, when--in Tolkien's mind and legendarium--Faramir is a saint and represents the saints, while his brother, Boromir is the sinner, that is, an every man figure who--in the words of Samwise Gamgee, "tried to take the Ring from Frodo after swearing an oath to protect him," and then repents of his crime. Boromir represents most of us: repentant sinners who are "working out our salvation" only because of the graces made available to us through the holy Church and drawn from the Treasury of Graces won for us by the Suffering King, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, whose return we eagerly await with grateful hearts. Faramir, on the other hand, is the saint or holy man who refuses to do evil and who knows that one may never to an evil act even to attain a good end. The end never justifies the means. But don't accept this on my word alone, nor on the "intellectual evidence" alone, listen with your heart to the message in Faramir's own words:

I would not take this thing [the One Ring], if it lay by the highway. Not were Minas Tirith falling in ruin and I alone could save her, so, using the weapon of the Dark Lord for her good and my glory. (From: The Two Towers)

Allow me, if you will, now to cite two mistakes--or rather mistakes by omission--in Peter Jackson's third and final Hobbit movie. This movie--according to EWTN film critic Steven Greydanus--fails to include 1) the visit of Bilbo Baggins to the dying dwarf king, Thorin Oakenshield, and 2) the final scene in the book where Balin visits Bilbo and Gandalf, safely back in Bag End, and a most telling statement is make by Gandalf. Indeed, this statement is a most fitting conclusion to The Hobbit: There and Back Again, so we quote it first:

And why should they not prove true? Surely you don't disbelieve the prophecies because you had a hand in bringing them about yourself? Really don't suppose, do you, that all your adventures and escapes were managed by mere luck, just for your sole benefit? You are a very fine person, Mr Baggins, and I am very fond of you; but you are only quite a little fellow in a wide world after all!

And now, the visit of Bilbo to Thorin: Thorin fought valiantly in The Battle of the Five Armies and played a pivotal role in it, but he was mortally wounded in it. So, before they head back home to the Shire, Galdalf brings Bilbo into the tent were Thorin is resting as he waits for the angel of death:

"Hail! Thorin, he [Gandalf] said as he entered, "I have brought him." There indeed lay Thorin Oakenshield, wounded with many wounds, and his rent armour and notched axe were cast upon the floor. He looked up as Bilbo came beside him. "Farewell, good thief, I go now to the halls of waiting to sit beside my fathers until the world is renewed. Since I leave now all gold and silver, and go where it is of little worth, I wish to part in friendship from you, and I would take back my words and deeds at the Gate."Bilbo knelt on one kneel filled with sorrow. "Farewell, King under the Mountain!" he said. "This is a bitter adventure, if it must end so; and not a mountain of gold can amend it. Yet I am glad that I have shared in your perils--that has been more than any Baggins deserves." "No!" said Thorin. "There is more in you of good than you know, child of the kindly West. Some courage and some wisdom, blended in measure. If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world. But sad or merry, I must leave it now. Farewell!" (From: The Hobbit)

Indeed, so great in Bilbo was that noble Roman natural virtue of pietas (respect and love for the father of the family) that, as Tolkien narrates, "it was long before he [Bilbo] had the heart to make a joke again." Such respect and tenderness are born in the heart of the humble man--or hobbit!