Discovering Infinity
Volume ii:

Roots in Universal History
a research book by Rolf A. F. Witzsche

Page 74
Chapter 2a History through the eyes of a saga.


By all accounts, that is Aragorn's chosen destiny likewise. As the saga ends, he is being crowned king. Paradoxically, the last book of the saga is called, "The Return of the King." Why would this be? Aragorn didn't return to something that he had been before. He had never been king. But that's not the issue, isn't it?

What we see unfolding as the saga ends, reflected in him, is a return of the royalty of a man, the royalty of mankind as human beings, the royalty that was torn to shreds by Aristotle and those before him whom he represents. With the return of 'that king', 'that royalty', Tolkien gives us back what had become lost in the shadows of the Peloponnesian war that had destroyed the Greek classical civilization in which modern civilization is rooted. Socrates and Plato had labored to resurrect from the ashes what had been lost in the Peloponnesian war. He had been highly successful in that. However, Aristotle had also resurrected what had caused that war, which had been a war over slavery and looting rights, and colonialism. Aristotle rekindled that process of destruction, which became a curse against the face of mankind that has never been overcome until that future time in the saga of the return of the king, the return of the royalty of humanity.

Aragorn facilitates that. He takes the image of man back to the brightest concepts of man that has ever been developed. We have not come to that point yet. At best, we see it as but a faint hope for the future. Arwen, however, saw this unfolding as a definite possibility and evidently longed to be a part of it. Evidently she saw what her mother Galadriel has always seen.

In the unfolding of this universal goal that Arwen and Aragorn both seek, the two hearts meet and become One, and develop this One love till the end of their days, while the effect of it lives on through all time and eternity.

With this 'closure', Tolkien opens a door for us all, to claim our own immortality in the boundless development potential of our own life, in the unfolding royalty of man, bright with the potential of what we can do with the life that is ours, to let it shine.

However, there is one other love unfolding in the saga that falls short of this kind of fulfillment. This is the love of Eowyn, the sister daughter of Theoden, who likewise embraces Aragorn but sees her love blocked.
In the saga the unfolding of her love is barred by ancient axioms. True to the tradition that still runs strong in the family of Theoden, her love remains boxed in, in a box created by time-honored traditions that allow her no exit from this 'fortress' that she clings to.

Had Eowyn been able to lift herself out of that box, high above the entire platform of bondage to ancient codes, all the way up to that higher level in the development of love that Aragorn and Arwen had reached for, she might have shared a union with them in that higher sphere of love. There, as this higher level where all lower aspects have no weight, Love truly makes all One. Eowyn could have found her dreams fulfilled in that.

By all accounts, that's not an easy subject to pursue. Tolkien left it unresolved. Perhaps he did so in recognition of the difficulty involved. My own exploration of the subject, reflecting that difficulty, became a five part novel, "The Lodging for the Rose."

In the saga Eowyn continued to live in that box that had encumbered her life. In time she was 'chosen' by another for his own. By all accounts, she found herself to be happy with that outcome as we have all been taught. Still, the question remains: Was the outcome a compromise, or would she have reached out for more, for something brighter, if that missing bridge out of her box could have been built?

It is interesting that Tolkien portrays Eowyn not as a coward who doesn't dare to stand up. To the contrary, he portrays her as a great hero in battle, someone who looks the most murderous beast into the eye and fights it as she does in the battle to save Minas Tirith, fighting the fierce Nazgul of the Lord of the Ringwraiths. That's a foe she could see, but when it comes to being boxed in by ancient axioms, a totally different fight is required based on universal principles. This kind of 'sword' she could not wield. Indeed, the kind of foe that she faced there lay outside of her range of vision.

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