Hope Piercing Through Bleakness

Desolate moments befall some of our lives. Existentialists may conclude life itself as absurd & meaningless given the fact of impending death. Evil & suffering is pervasive in everyone's life in myriad forms.

The alternate world of the hobbits is self-sufficient and fantastical. And significantly, Tolkien also makes the epic middle earth reflective of life's realities. As victory seemed inevitable for the forces of darkness, Samwise Gamgee the hobbit experiences a sublime moment. Listen to this beautiful passage by Tolkien in the final sections of the Lord of the Rings.

There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach.

J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King

Later, the eucatastrophe is beautifully described by Tolkien towards the chapter's closure. Is there hope during dark times? Is grave the brute end? Where's hope? Not a mere shallow psychological comfort but truly a warranted, evidence-based saving of a radical kind. Tolkien & I share the marvel of a historical event. As I read the new testament and the account of Christ's Crucifixion & the resurrection on the third day, like the Hobbit I see the white star twinkle.