Loyalty and betrayal in The Lord of the Rings.

Sandra Bayona

The Lord of the Rings is part of the works of J.R.R. Tolkien; as in all his writings, his
ideas can be clearly perceived –yet, despite this clarity, every reading will offer new
horizons. Thinking of values in Tolkien is easy: there are so many! But choosing one
may be harder: the story is so complex, so full of meanings, that selecting only one
element seems impossible. However, and in connection with the reality of our country,
one aspect has recently called my attention.
That aspect is loyalty: to commitment, to an appointed task, to friendship. Loyalty
even when it will hurt and involve sacrificing our interest for the well-being of others.
I selected six characters: two wizards, two men and two hobbits; I compared their
choices when the time came to be true to their commitment, what their choice
demanded from them and to what end it led them. This is only a glimpse into the values
in LOTR, but it may encourage others to search deeper into Tolkien’s creation, to find
new treasures every time.

Saruman the White was a wizard. Both he and Gandalf the Grey had been sent with
the mission of defying Sauron’s power and moving “Elves and Men and all living
things of good will to valiant deeds”1. But while Gandalf “would have no ties and no
allegiance, save to those who sent him” 2, Saruman changes his loyalty and prefers his
own design: become master, using the power of the Ring. His betrayal becomes clear
when he declares himself “Saruman, the Wise, Saruman Ring-Maker, Saruman of Many
Colours!”3. He abandons what defines him, and this is reflected in his garments: they
are no longer white, but change hue as he moves. Even his voice, his greatest gift
destined to speak words of wisdom, he puts to a different use. The quality of its sound
and the very words he chooses mirror the fact that he has abandoned his commitment. “I
did not expect you to show wisdom even in your own behalf;” he says to Gandalf, “but I
gave you the choice of aiding me willingly, and so saving yourself much trouble and
pain”4. He betrays and tempts others to betray. But Gandalf refuses. To Denethor he will
declare “the rule of no realm is mine, neither of Gondor nor any other, great or small.
But all worthy things that are in peril as the world now stands, those are my care… for I
also am a steward5 … I do not wish for mastery” 6. Gandalf’s loyalty was sorely tested,
but he chose to do what he had been entrusted to. Even when he had to undergo much
trouble and pain, he remained loyal.
The fate of the two wizards is, in a way, determined by this choice.
Saruman abandoned his duty as steward to pursuit his plans. Tolkien, in the closing
chapters of LOTR, describes him dispossessed of all that had been his features: dressed
in dirty rags, he rejects forgiveness and uses vicious words even when treated with
mercy. He abandons his duty; he ends up in bitterness, his throat cut by his only servant
and accomplice.
Gandalf the Grey –who chose to remain faithful to his commitment as steward,
counselor and friend – goes through fire and deep water 7 and is sent back to finish his
mission. He bears suffering and fear, but never betrays his appointed duty. In the end,
he gets to see his mission accomplished, his friends safe, Middle Earth at the beginning
of a golden age. Tolkien writes to Fr. Murray, “In the end before (Gandalf) departs for
ever he sums himself up: 'I was the enemy of Sauron'. He might have added: 'for that
purpose I was sent to Middle-earth'”8.

Denethor and Faramir, Stewards of Gondor, are two characters with opposite
attitudes towards their commitment. As Steward, Denethor bears the responsibility of
ruling Gondor until the King returns. He cannot be king himself: “In Gondor,” he has
said, “ten thousand years would not suffice” to make a steward a king 9. However, when
the time comes to receive the true King, Denethor is so attached to power that he refuses
to surrender it. His knowledge tells him that Aragorn is a descendant of Isildur, and
therefore the rightful king. But Denethor does not accept this. It is not only that he has
not had the chance to see in Aragorn gold that does not glitter; the old steward considers
himself and his house more worthy: “I will not bow to such a one, last of a ragged house
long bereft of lordship and dignity” he claims 10. When he chooses rebellion and
abandons his place as steward, he loses both sanity and hope. He is deceived by Sauron
into believing all is lost. In his despair Denethor commits suicide (not as in Jackson’s
films, in which, in a semi-comic scene, Denethor falls to the flames after being struck
by a short-tempered Gandalf). His betrayal prevents him from becoming the last ruling
Steward, the one to receive the king.
Faramir embodies the ideal prince and warrior, one who does not “love the bright
sword for its sharpness, nor the arrow for its swiftness, nor the warrior for his glory”; he
only loves “that which they defend”11; and in doing so, Faramir will not surrender to the
temptation of believing that the end justifies the means. As Denethor’s son, Faramir
could have chosen to be loyal to his father’s design. In fact, Jackson does present
Faramir accepting Denethor’s ideas with no judgment: when movie-Faramir meets
Frodo and Sam, he decides to send them as a gift to his father. But book-Faramir never
takes such a decision. His heart tells him to let the hobbits continue their mission; his
wisdom warns him against the Ring: “I would not take this thing, if it lay by the
highway. Not were Minas Tirith falling in ruin and I alone could save her, so, using the
weapon of the Dark Lord for her good and my glory”12. Once he discovers Frodo is
carrying the Ring, and having the chance to take it, he considers himself bound by his
words: “Not if I found it on the highway would I take it I said. Even if I were such a man
as to desire this thing, and even though I knew not clearly what this thing was when I
spoke, still I should take those words as a vow, and be held by them” 13. At a crossroads,
Faramir remains loyal to a higher good.
Faithfulness to their pledge also marks these two Stewards. Denethor commits
suicide, rejecting him whom he owed loyalty and love, deceived by Sauron and in
complete despair, convinced that the war was lost. Faramir suffers his father’s spite, is
wounded in battle, is almost killed by Denethor. But, remaining true to his duty, he sees
Sauron defeated, his city receiving the rightful king, his love rewarded with love. When
Denethor betrayed his pledge, he lost what he valued most: his position in the realm;
Faramir, who was loyal against all odds, remained the Steward of Gondor, second after
the King himself.

Loyalty to friendship certainly determines the fate of many characters. The Ring,
after betraying Isildur, passed out of memory until it found a new bearer. Two friends
had gone to the river; Déagol, one of them, was fishing when suddenly he was pulled by
a fish into the river, fell and was carried to the bottom, where he saw something shiny.
He grabbed it and swam back to the river bank. There he discovered what he had found:
a gold ring. He immediately fell for its smooth surface –and, at a deeper level, for the
nature of the Ring itself. But while he was admiring his treasure, Sméagol, the other
friend, happened to see that Déagol had something in his hands… and his heart was
captured by the Ring the moment he laid eyes on it: “Give us that, Déagol, my love” 14
he said. But Déagol refused: the Ring had already interposed itself between these two
friends. Sméagol then decides that he must have the Ring, at all costs. He kills Déagol –
his closest friend- and takes the Ring for himself. But Smégol has so much surrendered
to the Ring that he does not feel for Déagol or repent his actions. He becomes Gollum,
estranged from his own clan; he stops living a normal life to have the Ring – his
precious- as the centre of his degraded existence. His possession of the Ring thus starts:
betraying and murdering his best friend.
Sam, in a way, is in a position similar to Sméagol’s. It is Frodo, his master and
friend, who receives the Ring as an inheritance first, and then volunteers to carry it to its
destruction in Mount Doom, thus becoming the Ring Bearer. Sam, his closest
companion, is with him every step of the way, and even carries the Ring for a while.
Sam’s attitude towards taking the Ring cannot be more different from Gollum’s: while
Sméagol never hesitated to murder his best friend to possess the Ring, Sam had to
search into his own heart, to find the certainty and the courage to replace his master as
Ring Bearer – and only because he was convinced Frodo had died. Sam takes charge of
the Ring; but as soon as he finds Frodo alive, he returns it to his master. Not after deep
pain: Frodo, almost completely under the power of the Ring, accuses Sam of trying to
steal the Ring from him. This hurts the hobbit beyond words, but his faithful heart
understands this reaction; and Frodo’s heart, exhausted, but still guided by love,
understand what he has done, and apologises: “O Sam! What have I said? What have I
done? Forgive me! After all you have done. It is the horrible power of the Ring. I wish
it had never, never, been found. But don’t mind me, Sam. I must carry the burden to the
end. It can’t be altered. You can’t come between me and the doom” 15. And Sam, the
loyal friend, answers “That’s all right, Mr. Frodo. I understand”16. The Ring, with all its
evil power, cannot make one of these friends betray the other. The loyalty to their
friendship triumphs over the lure of the Ring.
Gollum ends up a wretched being, living beyond his years and his mental sanity. His
desire for the Ring, which started with his betrayal to his friend, leads him to his falling
in the cracks of Mount Doom, possessing the Ring once more only to be the means to
destroy it, and him being destroyed in the process.
Sam and Frodo survive trials, pain, even Frodo’s failure to complete his mission.
They are together; they have remained faithful to their friendship, and through this, to
their part in the War of the Ring. They live to see the Shire at peace again.
Gollum chose the Ring over his friend, and finally destroyed it; Sam, the hobbit who
preferred to remain loyal rather than hold on to a promise of power, leads a full life, his
heart only slightly touched by the evil nature of the Ring.
 LOTR entertains, but it also teaches; and it does so in such a way that the reader’s
heart feels happiness and certainly a desire for more: more of the light of the land
beyond the West, where there is no illness and no evil; more of the simple joys of
hobbits; more of the bright-eyed Elves and the heroic people of Gondor. But probably
what the heart really yearns is the values that are upheld in Middle-Earth; the assurance
that, even when our society seems to hinge on individual satisfaction, remaining true –to
an appointed duty, to commitment, to love, to friendship- though hard, is the way to
real, enduring happiness.
1
Silmarillion, p. 372.
2
Silmarillion, p. 373.
3
LOTR II p. 310.
4
LOTR II p. 312.
5
LOTR V p. 32.
6
LOTR III p. 224.
7
LOTR III p. 117.
8
Letter 156.
9
LOTR IV pp. 328-329.
10
LOTR V p. 142.
11
LOTR IV p. 331.
12
LOTR IV p. 330.
13
LOTR IV p. 342.
14
LOTR I p. 78.
15
LOTR V p. 208.
16
LOTR V p. 208.

Tolkien, J.R.R. The Lord of the Rings. The Fellowship of the Ring. USA: Ballantine.
Tolkien, J.R.R. The Lord of the Rings. The Two Towers. USA: Ballantine.
Tolkien, J.R.R. The Lord of the Rings. The Return of the King. USA: Ballantine.
Tolkien, J.R.R. (1982) The Silmarillion. USA: Ballantine.