Easter Special: Reflecting on the themes of self-sacrifice in The Lord of the Rings trilogy

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It’s Easter Sunday tomorrow (or it is already in the Southern Hemisphere). When I attended a Good Friday service, the church orchestra played an instrumental piece during the reading of Mark 15:21-41 about Lord Jesus Christ’s crucifixion. It’s a fitting song to reflect on Christ’s ultimate sacrifice. The sacrifice was not just when he died on the cross in our place, bearing the sins of all of us… Jesus’ entire life was a sacrifice for humanity,

Sang by Annie Lenox, Into The West is a beautiful song about someone who has reached the end of an arduous journey, and as I reflect on the lyrics, it’s quite apparent that it represents a hero’s death, but in a reassuring way that death is not the end. As Gandalf says… ‘End? No, the journey doesn’t end here. Death is just another path… One that we all must take.’ That is in keeping with the Christian belief, as author J. R. R. Tolkien was a professing Catholic, that though death is inevitable for us humans, it is not the end of life for all those who are in Christ.

Hearing that song made me think of the atonement and sacrificial themes in the Lord of the Rings trilogy: The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and The Return of the King. Even though the word God is not mentioned in Tolkien’s work, the Christian symbolism and themes are ever-present: selflessness, loyalty, humility, devotion, love, and ultimately, self-sacrifice.

Being this is a film blog, I wanted to highlight some of the wondrous scenes of self-sacrifice in Peter Jackson’s astounding LOTR trilogy that still look amazing on a technical level despite being released over 2 decades ago.

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These aren’t meant to be a comprehensive post of ALL the sacrificial scenes in the entire trilogy, I chose these as they illustrate the themes of sacrifice/atonement beautifully.

John 15:13 – Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.

Frodo – Selflessly volunteers to take the ring to Mordor despite knowing the perilous journey would cost him his life, but he does it anyway for the good of others.

Samwise – exemplifies the sacrifice of a loyal friend who puts the needs of Frodo above his own, always at the ready to protect and save him to fulfill his mission.

Boromir – though the right corrupted him for a time, he’s still a man of honor as he lays down his life to protect Merry and Pippin against the Uruk-hai

Gandalf – the Christ-like figure who sacrifices himself in the fight against the balrog in Moria so his friends could escape…

… but is later resurrected as Gandalf the White, more powerful than ever.

Aragorn – Valiantly protects and defends the fellowship throughout the journey, he leads this charge at the Black Gate in order to distract Sauron from chasing after Frodo.

Eowyn – She sacrifices herself when her uncle Théoden is injured and with Merry’s help takes on the Witch-king of Angmar in the iconic ‘I am no man’ scene. In addition to her willingness to forfeit her life, Eowyn later has to sacrifice her love for the man she loves, Aragorn.

Faramir – at the command of his father Denethor, willingly sacrifices his life for his city of Númenor… “I will gladly give my life to defend her beauty, her memory, her wisdom”

The message of good vs evil and light overcoming darkness shall remain timeless. So I’ll end this post with this scene of Galadriel bestowing gifts to the Fellowship, giving the last gift to Frodo… the light of Eärendil’s star.

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