Welcome to a forgotten corner of the ancient forest.
Mrs Green Man is away on a conference at the moment so it was an excellent time to indulge in a little rescreening of The Lord of The Rings. "The Return of the King" got the guernsey on Saturday. Hard as it is to believe, rumours have it that some people may not have seen the movie and, even more unbelievably, not read the book. For the culturally deprived amongst you, the four main characters are male hobbits, meant to symbolise simple farming folk from Devon in England.
It is clear in the book and even more so in the film that relationships exist between these hobbits, Merry and Pippin seem bound to one another and Sam and Frodo share a deep long lasting bond. There is no suggestion that these relationships are sexual so to portray them as homosexual relationships is inappropriate however they go far beyond our notion of friendship. A one point in the novel/film Merry and Pippin are separated, Pippin being taken to Gondor and Merry remaining in Rohan. They are clearly grief stricken at this turn of events. Grief stricken in a way that most married couples would not even be.
Considering Frodo and Sam, when they return from their adventure Sam takes a wife. This fundamentally alters the relationship between Sam and Frodo. That fragile intimate bond has been broken. This perhaps more than the damage Frodo has suffered from possessing the ring of power is why he must leave. At the time of their parting the tenderness between the two is heart renching.
You can find these types of relationships between men represented in literature from the early classics through to relatively recent times but they are rarely portrayed these days. One of the few instances that springs to mind is in "Love Actually" where the ageing popstar leaves a party with Elton John to be with his manager on Christmas. The two men have shared their lives and he does not want them to be apart at this special time.
Our society today is very sexualised and relationships are assumed to have a sexual component. One can presume that these deep nonsexual relationships still exist between some men in our community but perhaps we have lost the ability to accept them. We certainly seem to be reluctant to represent them in modern literature.
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or read the most recent entries here.I can't imagine American men ever admitting to such a relationship. Stong bonds do occur, I think, but are never articulated. Were Frodo and Sam from the U.S. instead of Middle-Earth, they would've parted with, "Hey, take care, dude. See ya."
I'm not picking on Americans, it's just that I'm not familiar with most cultures outside the U.S. What little I know of Brits, they'd be even more wooden -- but my sample size is too small to generalize. By contrast, men from many other European countries might not have such a hard time acknowledging a deep bond -- but again, my sample size is too small to generalize. As to other cultures, I'm completely clueless.
Posted by: Karen at September 7, 2004 12:52 PMI disagree with your reading. It isn't that Sam's wife pushes Frodo away, it is the incredible divide that Sam CAN take a wife, because he did not sustain that wound from the Wraith Lords, and because he did not carry the Ring. Not even Sam's true friendship can win Frodo entirely back to this world (in which there is now no Ring.
BTW, I thought the movies (although excellent overall) didn't really point up the marvel of Legolas and Gimli's friendship--a DWARF and and ELF being true heart-friends? Impossible. It is a sign of the end of times that such can exist--it is a good thing, but an impossible thing.
When many of us set out on the grand march that was the Sexual Revolution, we were too young to know that
--there is a cost to everything, and
--there are always unintended consequences (side effects)
One of the unintended consequences of starting from a Victorian or repressed place and freeing sexuality is that sexuality invades everywhere. It is the ultimate good, and so is worshipped, so to speak
One of the costs are these deep, heartfelt, nonsexual but same-sex friendships.
Is a more free sexual expression worth it? I do not know.
Posted by: Liz Ditz at September 8, 2004 03:19 PM
Stumble It!