2. The Council of Elrond
When Frodo wakes up and acquaints himself with Rivendell, he notices the water, the pale sun, the silver mist, the glistening dew, and spiderwebs shimmering on every bush. We recognize these maternal images from the Old Forest, but Rivendell, of course, reflects the good side of the Great Mother. If the reader finds all these maternal images somewhat tiresome, we cannot blame him or her, but they are the saga’s most central symbols and recur constantly in the text we are examining.
Frodo does not cease to be elevated as if he were a wholly central figure in the War of the Ring, as far as one can judge, because he carried the Ring from the Shire to Rivendell. Not only was a feast held in his honor upon his recovery, but now the lord of Rivendell, Elrond, also brings Frodo to a seat of honor at his side before the great council, attended by elven princes, dwarven chieftains, wizards, and the last Dúnedain leader, who will become "the mightiest man in the world." Elrond presents the unassuming hobbit to them all. It is evident that Frodo is ascribed this immense significance not for rational but for symbolic reasons. He is, after all, the vessel upon which the others depend; he is the one who carries it all, which is why his name, according to Tolkien, is meant to evoke thoughts of "sack" or "bag."[1]
Many influential men, elves, and dwarves are thus seated in the hall. Most who speak during the council are either peripheral to our reading or already known. But one newly introduced figure is worth noting – Boromir from Gondor. He is a great leader in the war against Mordor’s hordes raging in the south, but a mysterious dream about the broken sword and the halfling who will "step forth" has led him to Elrond’s council for answers. While he bears certain feminine attributes (a silver necklace with a white stone, for example), he hails from the distinctly masculine Minas Tirith, the stone city with the dead tree bordering Mordor. Boromir suggests that they not destroy the Ring but use it against the enemy. We will, of course, have reason to return to him.
During the council, Elrond reveals that it was the elves’ fault that the Rings of Power were forged, and indeed that the One Ring exists. This admission implies a close connection between the Good Mother, represented by the elves, and the Terrible Mother, represented by the Ring/Sauron. As opposites, they are, of course, two sides of the same essence.
While we are on the subject of maternal bonds – which, of course, are not about "mothers" but archetypal images – we can briefly dwell on Elrond’s and Aragorn’s respective accounts. Elrond recounts the Ring’s origin (which involved both elves and Sauron), the first war it led to, and how Isildur cut the finger from Sauron’s hand with "what remained of his father’s [broken] sword." We see how the castration imagery recurs throughout the saga and how closely tied it is to the Ring. Aragorn takes the opportunity to somewhat bombastically display his broken blade to the council. He seems rather proud of it; it is not the first time he makes a spectacle of his broken sword. One might speculate that there is a pride in the ultimate sacrifice for the Mother.
”The chosen ministers and priests of the Mother Goddess are eunuchs. They have sacrificed the thing that is for her the most important – the phallus. … The castration threat makes its appearance with the Great Mother and is deadly. For her, loving, dying, and being emasculated are the same thing.”[2]
We learn that Aragorn, at Gandalf’s behest, tracked Gollum, as he possesses information about the Ring. But Sauron gets there first, and the wretched, pitiable creature is captured and tortured in Mordor. For unclear reasons, he is then released, while Aragorn continues his search. He eventually finds traces of soft feet by a pool and follows them along the edge of the Dead Marshes, discovering "the slimy creature" while it "peered into the water of a foul pond in the gathering dusk." With these images, Gollum is clearly linked to the Terrible Mother. The Ring was, after all, found by Gollum/Sméagol’s friend Déagol in the Great River. Gollum was seized by desire for it and strangled his friend. Then he took refuge in caves beneath the earth. All these are now familiar images.
In this context, we can remind ourselves of what is inscribed on the Ring, as Gandalf recounts during the council: "One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all and in the Darkness bind them." – Rule, find, capture, and bind.
During the council, Gandalf explains why he did not return to the Shire, nor to Bree, but met Frodo only in Rivendell. Tolkien has by now figured it out, as he himself was surprised that Gandalf did not meet them along the way, and provides the reader with a coherent account – everything falls into place during the council (while several references are made to "chance").
The most remarkable part of Gandalf’s account is his visit to Saruman the White. This wise leader of the wizards had summoned him. But something has happened to the white wizard. Gandalf tells the council: "I then noticed that his robe, which had seemed white, was not so, but was woven of all colors; and when he moved, it shimmered and changed hue so that the eye was confounded."
In connection with his studies of the Rings of Power and his growing desire for the One Ring (which is the real reason he summoned Gandalf, as the latter seems to know where it is), the white has been replaced by the multicolored. Symbols generally have two sides, as we have already seen. The multicolored can be a positive symbol; for example, Jung refers to eros (the relational function, which tends to be fruitful).[3] For alchemists, the multicolored was often represented by the peacock’s feathers or the rainbow, an "integration of all qualities" – the Self, according to Jung – representing the completion of the work.[4] On the negative side, "all colors" signifies a lack of distinction, discernment; everything has merged into chaos, massa confusa, as the alchemists called it. For them, it was a risk of the work, to be afflicted by the "multicolored Mercurius" madness. This is what has happened to Saruman. He used to be "the White," that is, the enlightened, but in his studies of the Rings of Power, his soul has been clouded, and what was once distinct has merged together. Distinguishing (in the saga often represented by the sword) is a masculine quality, while dissolving is feminine. The study of the Ring has thus had a dissolving effect on Saruman.
"I preferred white," Gandalf says to Saruman, who scoffs and says, "It is only a beginning." (This aligns with the alchemists’ work – enlightenment’s whiteness needs color, usually red; but in Saruman’s case, it went awry.) "White cloth can be dyed … and white light can be refracted."
"In that case, it is no longer white," says Gandalf. "And he who breaks something apart to find out what it is has left the path of wisdom."
This, too, is consistent with philosophical alchemy. One of the most central concepts in alchemy – which Jung meant was a projection of unconscious processes – was the vas bene clausum, the "well-sealed vessel," where the transformative processes took place. It is thus critical that the vessel, symbolizing the process itself, not be opened. If the alchemist, as Saruman did according to Gandalf’s interpretation, broke open the vessel out of curiosity or unbridled thirst for knowledge, he would indeed have "left the path of wisdom" and released the multicolored Mercurius’ toxic fumes, whereupon the adept goes mad. Gandalf realizes that this is what Saruman has done, thereby allowing chaos, including evil, to overtake his soul.
It is worth noting that Saruman emphasizes that the time of the elves is over and that it is now the time of men. In brief, while the elves represent one-sidedness and unconsciousness – a consequence of not having separated from the Great Mother – men represent potential balance. (This is Aragorn’s fate, but Boromir and Faramir also represent this possibility.) That man is "weak" is no obstacle; rather, weakness, or perhaps better, pliancy, is a foundation for the inevitable conflict that potentially leads to the union of opposites. Elves as a people are far too inflated due to their identification with an archetype to accept "the other." The exception is Arwen, mentioned in the previous chapter, as she allows herself to become mortal to unite with Aragorn. Her acceptance of death as part of life symbolizes the ability to separate from the Mother and her timelessness to instead become conscious, physical, and time-bound. Only conscious beings know they will one day die. The inflated elves, as is well known, are immortal. Elrond is several thousand years old and has no intention of dying himself but plans to sail across the sea to the Undying Lands now that the world is changing in a displeasing way.
That the time of the elves is over and the time of men begins is repeated in the saga; it is not merely a speculation from Saruman. We mention this now because it is interesting that Saruman says that since men are to take over, "we" must rule – that is, Saruman and possibly Gandalf. He thus means that he is a man. Not literally or from a rational perspective, but symbolically, this is what he expresses. This is an essential detail when we later return to Saruman and see similarities between him and, for example, Denethor, who also resides in a masculine tower with a darkening soul.
This identification with men (and hobbits, who are like small men) is the backdrop to Saruman’s own weakness, namely that, as a man, he could not endure the opposites – a central concept in Jungian psychology – but greedily broke the vessel and released its contents too early, with the chaos illustrated by his multicolored robe as a result.
We will return to this idea later, but it is worth noting already now that Saruman thus believes he must rule; he says they must have power to ensure order. They should, he argues, ally with "the new power" (represented by Sauron) to steer it onto the right path. "Perhaps we lament the evil deeds committed along the way, but we can hold fast to our high purpose," he says – characteristic thought patterns for someone gripped by an archetypal idea or ideology. The goal is all that matters; the archetypal idea trumps everything else, so one must allow those who stand in the way to be swept aside while paving the path of gold toward utopia.
Gandalf is "grey," which partly alludes to his humility – he is not proud like Saruman, for example – but also that he is still undifferentiated; he is white in potentia, as we know. Saruman the White/multicolored is more powerful than Gandalf the Grey and manages to capture and isolate him at the top of his very high tower when it becomes clear that Gandalf will neither follow Saruman’s advice nor reveal where the Ring is. While standing on the tower, Gandalf sees Saruman mobilizing forces; he sees mines and forges from which dark smoke rises. An industrialization is underway in Isengard, while the inflated and thus tyrannical man sits in his tower plotting how to gain more power. We have long grappled with the Terrible Mother but now see, for the first time, the emergence of the Tyrannical Father.
Gandalf is rescued from the spider’s web, as he puts it, by the leader of the great eagles, Gwaihir, who carries him away. The image underscores Gandalf’s celestial quality.
He then makes his way to Weathertop, as Aragorn and the hobbits will do three days later, and encounters five black riders at night. A confrontation follows where Gandalf, by his own account, "was truly in great peril." He seems to have had to muster all his power with "light and fire." Only at sunrise does he manage to break free and "flee northward." This is remarkable in relation to Frodo’s and Aragorn’s encounter with the five at the same place. If the mighty wizard Gandalf was so close to succumbing in the encounter with the five, it becomes irrational, as mentioned, that Aragorn and the hobbits escaped so lightly. Just to emphasize what we discussed earlier, it is hard to understand why the black riders did not simply kill the Dúnadan, the little folk, take the Ring, and ride back to Mordor. But that does not seem to have been their ambition, according to the saga’s symbolic progression. (In fact, the Ringwraiths never kill anyone, except Théoden, and then only indirectly; as agents of the Terrible Mother, they rather terrify and paralyze.)
Gandalf concludes: “What shall we do with the Ring?” After a discussion of various possibilities, Elrond finally says that they must face the danger, go to Mordor, and “give the Ring to the fire.” We can compare this to the psychological truth reflected in various ways in folktales, alchemical notions, and so forth, that one must pass through the dragon to reach the treasure hard to attain. It will not do, as Gandalf clarifies, to hide the Ring – for then it will only return, and things will only get worse. Only by confronting, for example, the complex or the shadow can one overcome it. In short, one cannot ignore it, avoid it, or repress it.
A noteworthy detail at the end of the council is Elrond’s response to the question of what happens to the three elven rings (which Elrond, Galadriel, and Gandalf bear, though it is a secret) if the One Ring is destroyed: “They may become powerless when the great one is gone, and much that is beautiful will fade and be forgotten. That is my belief.” That is, when the bond to the mother archetype is broken, the (infantile) bond to both the Good Mother and the Terrible Mother is broken. As we noted above, these are, of course, interconnected.
Frodo agonizes over the question of who will carry the Ring to Mordor. But in the end, he says, “amazed at his own words, as if it were another will that had taken his frail voice into use: "‘I will take the Ring,’ he said, ‘though I do not know the way.’”
It is thus something within Frodo that compels him to take on the task, presumably this calling that Gandalf awakened; but it is also an expression of the moral courage that Jung often emphasizes is required to further the individuation process. While Jung could help his patient gain insight into the conflict, it was up to the patient’s own mental capacity to integrate that insight into his or her life and live in accordance with it.[5] Frodo now realizes, to his horror, that it is up to him; this is his calling. Someone with less courage would repress it and say he is incapable of facing the darkness. He might express a wish to return to the Shire, back to the Good Mother. But then Frodo, like Bilbo, would have returned home with his task unfulfilled. No one would have blamed him for it, but someone else would have been forced to inherit the burden he himself inherited, in that case.
Frodo also says that he does not know the way there; he honestly admits that he needs help. He has never walked this path before, and besides, it is not a well-trodden path – no one has walked his path before. One can imagine a corresponding dialogue between Jung and a patient, when the latter has decided to venture further but only with the analyst’s support. Gandalf, too, will follow Frodo as far as he is able this time.
Elrond says that this is “the hour of the Shire-folk, when they arise from their quiet fields to shake the towers and counsels of the Great.”
Footnotes
[1] Tolkien, “Guide to the Names in The Lord of the Rings.” We will return to this question in greater detail in a later comment.
[2] Erich Neumann, The Origins and History of Consciousness, trans. R. F. C. Hull (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1995), p. 53.
[3] Jung, Mysterium Coniunctionis, par. 140.
[4] Ibid., par. 391.
[5] See, for example, Carl Gustav Jung, Two Essays on Analytical Psychology, trans. R. F. C. Hull, 2nd ed., The Collected Works of C. G. Jung, vol. 7 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1966), par. 497f.