Three Weeks Can Change the World
As I discussed the first half of The Two Towers with my students at Kepler Education, I was struck once again by how quickly the world can change. If you flip to the appendix of The Lord of the Rings, you will find a timeline. On March 5, 3019, Pippin makes the foolish decision to look into the Palantir. This decision appears to cause Sauron to believe that Saruman is keeping a hobbit, potentially possessing the Ring, captive. He does not realize that the Palantir is actually no longer in Orthanc, and he certainly does not realize that Pippin is not the Ring bearer. Nevertheless, this small clue is enough to set many other things in motion.
· By March 9, darkness begins to flow out of Mordor, and March 10 is referred to as “dawnless.”
· By March 11, Eastern Rohan is invaded from the north (the ents stop them on March 12), and Lorien is attacked.
· By March 15, we see the epic climax of the conflict that is Pelennor Fields. We also see an attack on Mirkwood and a second attack on Lorien.
· By March 17, we see the battle of Dale, which forces many men and dwarves to become besieged in Erebor.
· By March 22, Lorien is attacked a final time.
· By March 25, the Ring is destroyed.
Because of a decision on March 5, actions are put in motion to open up a multi-front war across Middle-earth. Sauron unleashes his main army and allies in one giant assault. This was no small army, either. Sauron had shown himself openly and prepared armies beginning in 2951. He had been building this army for 68 years, and he was defeated in a matter of three weeks. Of course, his defeat came about because the Ring was destroyed, but his defeat also came about because of a massive error in judgment. If he had never decided to empty his lands and stage this massive attack, the odds of Frodo and Sam successfully finding their way to Mount Doom without being caught were minuscule. All it took was one misinterpretation of seeing Pippin in the Palantir, and his almost seven decades of work was destroyed in under three weeks.
While this story is fictional, I think most of us can identify with this in our lives as well. Sometimes you plan something for so long, think you have everything in place, see your opportunity, and nothing goes according to plan. What appears to be an advantageous situation suddenly turns into a disaster.
This story can also be spun in a positive direction. The armies of the West faced an almost hopeless situation on March 5 and yet found themselves victorious three weeks later. All they could do for those three weeks was stand firm, fight back, and try to do the best they could against incredible odds. If they had given up or fallen into despair, they would have never seen the amazing things that were about to happen in three weeks.
Every time I teach The Lord of the Rings, I encourage my students to review the timeline. It is easy to forget about it, hidden back in the appendices, but it helps put hundreds of pages of writing into its appropriate frame. It is sometimes easy to think that this story took place over months or years, but as the action picks up near the end of the tale, the world changes in just a few days.
I share this with you now because I hope it is an encouragement. You might not like where you are right now. Things might not be looking up. One of the many things that The Lord of the Rings can teach us is that if you continue fighting, there is always hope. Three weeks can change the world.