Tolkien Prediction #9
…And that Frodo would be referred to as a hinge in Lord of the Rings…well…nope sorry, I’m still figuring this one out!..however I did find the following statement by Prof. Tom Shippey in Tolkien Author of the Century.
What has Ingeld to do with Christ, asked Alcuin, and the answer is, obviously, ‘nothing’. But Froda has to do with both, father of one, analogue of the other. He is a hinge, a mediation: and so is Tolkien’s Frodo, the middle-most character in all of Middle-earth.
Hmmmmmmmm on that last one. The prediction is derived from my theory of True Stone.
Edit: The Chamber of Mazarbul is also a riddle. The Chamber is in fact a mirror and my offered solution demonstrates 8 points of symmetry. That impacts on, and supports the symbolic language of The Lord of the Rings map as a whole, which is only intelligible if you read the map upside down. Again, another riddle left by Tolkien. There is in the text of the Chamber of Mazarbul a clue to Frodo’s function as a hinge.
Aragorn picked up Frodo where he lay by the wall and made for the stair, pushing Merry and Pippin in front of him. The others followed; but Gimli had to be dragged away by Legolas: in spite of the peril he lingered by Balin’s tomb with his head bowed. Boromir hauled the eastern door to, grinding upon its hinges: it had great iron rings on either side, but could not be fastened.
‘I am all right,’ gasped Frodo. `I can walk. Put me down! ‘
Aragorn nearly dropped him in his amazement. ‘I thought you were dead! ‘ he cried.
More of that another time!
//Edit 30:08:20
I am correct about this. However, the arguments rely on a thorough discussion of Tolkien’s riddle methods. One of Tolkien’s riddle methods is to place two things in close proximity on the page, without stating any link between them.
//Edit 06:07:21
After researching many areas since writing these entries, I can offer some more supporing corroboration of my ‘prediction’. One of the areas I’ve learned a lot more about is Tolkien’s more broad appplication of his planar dialectic to other things- including his own critiques of other works (Sir Gawain and Beowulf for e.g). Tolkien assigns the Pagan and the Christian to thesis and antithesis- these manifesting primarily as Fortune and Faith in his works, -see the Fairy on top of the cake and how Alf and Noakes percieve the Fairy Queen. These two are assigned to the planes of the opposite and adjacent in the planar dialectic. The two converge (are synthesized) at ‘Truth’ at the right angle in the triangle, that is, the Door. The Door is where the hinge lies in the True Stone analysis, the point where the two blocks A and B in Tolkien’s description of Beowulf converge. In the True Stone instrument, Frodo is the hinge, the Door. In this way we can see how, in Shippey’s words, Frodo mediates between the Pagan and Christian worlds.
In addition, Tolkien appears to have incorporated details from the life of the Frankish Drogo of Metz into the storyline of Drogo, Frodo and the Hobbits peoples generally. In his appendix to The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien tells us “There are many inevitable but accidental resemblances to names that we now have or know”. This is just yet another statement of Tolkien (as Hermes) riddling his readership and deflecting inquiry into his sources and very guarded private symbolism. At least it is demonstrably so regarding the name Drogo.