The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This time through I noticed the theme of Providence throughout the story. So many seemingly random events are orchestrated for a higher purpose: Gandalf's choosing of Bilbo as the "burglar"; the fact that Bilbo and the dwarves happen to be at Rivendell on Midsummer's Day Eve, which happens to be the only night they can read the runes on Thorin's map; Bilbo's discovery of the Ring in the darkness of a cave; the fish that jumps out of the water and thus gives Bilbo the answer to one of Gollum's riddles that had him completely stumped; the fact that the dwarves and Bilbo are standing by the grey stone on Durin's Day as the thrush knocks and the setting sun shines light upon the keyhole.

The narrator refers to Bilbo's "good luck" throughout the book, but at the very, very end of the book, he brings out the role of Providence. Several years after the adventure, Bilbo is sitting in his living room with Balin and Gandalf, and he learns that all is well at the Lonely Mountain. Dale is rebuilt; the dwarves and the men and the elves are all getting along. Lake-town's new Master is wise and kind. Balin even tells Bilbo, "They are making sons which say that in his day the rivers run with gold."

"Then the prophecies of the old songs have turned out to be true, after a fashion!" said Bilbo.

"Of course!" said Gandalf. "And why should not they prove true? Surely you don't disbelieve the prophecies, because you had a hand in bringing them about yourself? You don't really 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!"

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I'm making an attempt this Christmas break at reading Paradise Lost through. I've read Daniel Danielson's prose translation of the poem (which made for a wonderful reading experience), but I've never read the poem start to finish. We'll see how it goes.

I'm currently in Book 2, when Satan begins his journey out of Hell. As the other fallen angels wait to see how Satan's journey goes, they amuse themselves in all sorts of ways--military practice, athletic competitions, exploration, music, . . . and even philosophical discussion. One group of particularly bookish fallen angels sits apart from everyone and debates philosophy. I thought this passage was notable for its satire coming from Milton, a strong believer in free will:

     Others apart sat on a hill retired,
     In thoughts more elevate, and reasoned high
     Of Providence, Foreknowledge, Will, and Fate—
     Fixed fate, free will, foreknowledge absolute—
     And found no end, in wandering mazes lost.
     Of good and evil much they argued then,
     Of happiness and final misery,
     Passion and apathy, and glory and shame:
     Vain wisdom all, and false philosophy!—
     Yet, with a pleasing sorcery, could charm
     Pain for a while or anguish, and excite
     Fallacious hope, or arm the obdured breast
     With stubborn patience as with triple steel.

Book 2, lines 557-69.

There is real adventure to be had in God’s fantastic world, real evil to fight, real moral complexities to navigate, real sorrows to bear, real redemption to celebrate. Tolkien created Middle-earth not as an escape from the real world, but as a retreat to see our reality all the clearer and come back more wide awake to our world. . . .

Tolkien’s stories summon us . . .  not to settle for our little comforts and play spaces and semblances of control, but to dream for more, to lose ourselves in some great global pursuit, to vanquish the foe, to win the peoples.

Evil in the world is real and powerful, as Tolkien so starkly portrays. And so throughout The Hobbit, says Devin Brown, Tolkien is teaching us a lesson about . . . an invisible Hand at work in the entirety of the story.

But even more poignant than some Great Providence at every harrowing turn is the climactic moment of rescue and resolution. Which now, at long last, we come to in this third and final installment of The Hobbit. It is what Tolkien called “the Consolation of the Happy Ending” in his powerful essay “On Fairy Stories.”

Here we finally taste “the joy of the happy ending.” But don’t think that means it comes with simplicity, and that you can see it coming. Tolkien coined a term for this happy ending that “all complete fairy-stories must have.” He called it “Eucatastrophe,” which means “the good catastrophe.” It is

the sudden joyous “turn” . . . a sudden and miraculous grace: never to be counted on to recur. It does not deny the existence of . . . sorrow and failure: the possibility of these is necessary to the joy of deliverance: it denies (in the face of much evidence, if you will) universal final defeat and in so far is evangelium [the gospel], giving a fleeting glimpse of Joy, Joy beyond the walls of the world.

. . . The great insight of Tolkien’s “On Fairy Stories” is that the Christian story “is the greatest and most complete conceivable eucatastrophe.” The “Joy” we experience at the sudden climactic turn from evil to good, from death to life, from utter darkness to brilliant light, is a “gleam or echo of evangelium [the gospel] in the real world.” Says Tolkien,

The Birth of Christ is the eucatastrophe of Man’s history. The Resurrection is the eucatastrophe of the story of the Incarnation. This story begins and ends in joy. It has pre-eminently the “inner consistency of reality.” There is no tale ever told that men would rather find was true, and none which so many skeptical men have accepted as true on its own merits. . . .

 It is preeminently (infinitely, if our capacity were not finite) high and joyous. But this story is supreme; and it is true. Art has been verified. God is the Lord, of angels, and of men — and of elves. Legend and History have met and fused.

. . . For Christians, here [in The Hobbit] we find just a gleam, just a faint echo of the Joy that is, and is coming, and will shine and sound for all eternity, and satisfy our souls in that True Story for which we were made.

David Mathis, "Bilbo's Last Goodbye"

"God Moves in a Mysterious Way"

God moves in a mysterious way,
His wonders to perform;
He plants his footsteps in the sea,
And rides upon the storm.

Deep in unfathomable mines
Of never failing skill,
He treasures up his bright designs,
And works his sovereign will.

Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take,
The clouds ye so much dread
Are big with mercy, and shall break
In blessings on your head.

Judge not the Lord by feeble sense,
But trust him for his grace;
Behind a frowning providence,
He hides a smiling face.

His purposes will ripen fast,
Unfolding every hour;
The bud may have a bitter taste,
But sweet will be the flower.

 Blind unbelief is sure to err,
And scan his work in vain;
God is his own interpreter,
And he will make it plain.

--William Cowper